Drawing Analogies between an Organic City vs Planned City

Objective

To make the students understand the characteristics of an organically developed city and new planned and developed cities.

Outcome

 Students will be able to derive analogies between organic/planned city and development paradigms and identify the advantages and loopholes of both.

Requirements

Site visit, observation, camera, pen and paper

Prerequisites

Selection of the areas of the cities to visit and their background. Knowledge of urban planning elements, approaches and guidelines. 

Procedure

This activity would be ideal if the students visit the selected parts of the city and get the sensory, experiential ethos in order to make more processed and subjective observations. 

Step 1: Organize the class into 2 groups.

Step 2: One group will visit the organic old part of the city and other the new planned and developed part of the city.

Step 3: Make observations based on what is working and what is not working. The observations can be made in context with its scale, issues the residents and users face, livability, pollution, space crunches, belonging and ownership, quality of infrastructure, quality of living, public/open spaces, greens, heat and shading experiences, etc. Certain format and aspects to look at, for this experiential observation making can be made prior along with the facilitator.

Step 4: Each group will share the critical observations and findings with the other group. The class collectively will be able to draw analogies in terms of the similarities and differences, the goods and bads.

Step 5: Collective reflection and discussion

References

None