Urban Design Studio I
| Title | Εργαστήριο Αστικού Σχεδιασμού Ι / Urban Design Studio I |
| Code | 01ΕΕ02 |
| Faculty | Engineering |
| School | Architecture |
| Cycle / Level | 2nd / Postgraduate |
| Teaching Period | Winter |
| Coordinator | Despoina Zavraka |
| Common | No |
| Status | Active |
| Course ID | 600002248 |
Programme of Study: PMS Perivallontikós Architektonikós kai Astikós Schediasmós
Registered students: 20
| Orientation | Attendance Type | Semester | Year | ECTS |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| KORMOS | Compulsory Course | 1 | 1 | 10 |
| Academic Year | 2025 – 2026 |
| Class Period | Winter |
| Faculty Instructors |
|
| Weekly Hours | 4 |
| Total Hours | 52 |
| Class ID | 600289347
|
Course Type 2021
Specialization / Direction
Course Type 2016-2020
- Scientific Area
Course Type 2011-2015
Specific Foundation / Core
Mode of Delivery
- Face to face
Digital Course Content
- e-Study Guide https://qa.auth.gr/en/class/1/600289347
- At the Website of the School: https://websites.auth.gr/envi/lista-mathimaton/
Language of Instruction
- Greek (Instruction, Examination)
Prerequisites
General Prerequisites
There are no prerequisites for this course.
Learning Outcomes
Upon successful completion of the course, the students will:
• master methods and techniques of urban analysis with an emphasis on the characteristics of the natural environment in the urban context,
• document and evaluate the environmental function of urban areas, urban layouts, open and built space,
• develop urban strategies aimed at sustainable and resilient urban development,
• understand the environmental dimensions of urban design,
• integrate environmental dimensions in urban design,
• identify institutional, social and economic dimensions of urban strategies.
General Competences
- Apply knowledge in practice
- Retrieve, analyse and synthesise data and information, with the use of necessary technologies
- Adapt to new situations
- Make decisions
- Work in teams
- Work in an interdisciplinary team
- Design and manage projects
- Appreciate diversity and multiculturality
- Respect natural environment
- Demonstrate social, professional and ethical commitment and sensitivity to gender issues
- Be critical and self-critical
- Advance free, creative and causative thinking
Course Content (Syllabus)
The Urban Design Studio focuses on the environmental dimensions of urban design at multiple scales of urban space, from urban strategies to the design of the built environment and urban open spaces. Delving into contemporary all-encomassing concepts such as urban sustainability and resilience, the environmental approach is not limited to the pursuit of energy savings or the protection of local natural elements and is not perceived as an exclusively technical issue. Environmental urban design is situated between urban and architectural design, with a clear focus on the material form of urban space. It is part of a network of processes integrating social, economic and cultural dimensions, issues of urban metabolism, urban governance and environmental policy. Climate change, the most recent manifestation of the environmental crisis, broadens and redefines the scope of environmental design, adding the imperative to adapt to new unpredictable risks.
The Urban Design Studio evolves in two semesters. Students work on a real site situated within the boundaries of the densely built urban area of Thessaloniki. During the winter semester, the Urban Design Studio I works on the development of urban strategies and plans aiming at urban sustainability and adaptation to the risks of climate change. It delves into urban analysis techniques, the formulation of urban strategies and their environmental documentation.
Keywords
urban design, environmental design, infrastructure, landscape, landscape infrastructure, open space, education, sports/athletics, well-being, urban–rural interface, coastal front/waterfront, institutional stakeholders (e.g., university, etc.)
Educational Material Types
- Notes
- Slide presentations
- Multimedia
- Book
- Software
Use of Information and Communication Technologies
Use of ICT
- Use of ICT in Course Teaching
- Use of ICT in Laboratory Teaching
- Use of ICT in Communication with Students
- Use of ICT in Student Assessment
Description
Use of computer in all of the above.
Use of simulation software in teaching.
Use of eLearning in the communication with the students.
Course Organization
| Activities | Workload | ECTS | Individual | Teamwork | Erasmus |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lectures | 20 | 0.7 | |||
| Reading Assigment | 30 | 1 | |||
| Tutorial | 30 | 1 | |||
| Project | 180 | 6 | |||
| Written assigments | 40 | 1.3 | |||
| Total | 300 | 10 |
Student Assessment
Description
Public presentation, which will include the following:
- analytical, diagnostic, and recording material (sketches, diagrams, drawings, photographs, samples, working models, constructions, etc.),
- drawings, sketches, and two- and/or three-dimensional representations of the main concept and key compositional choices and strategies,
- general layout plan,
- sections and elevations of the overall proposal,
- detailed drawings of specific interventions, at a free scale, depending on the characteristics of each proposal,
- a “manifesto image” of the proposal, with no specific format requirements, provided it is high resolution (300 dpi) and suitable for printing on A1 size paper,
- a short text of up to 200 words outlining the main objectives and parameters of the proposal (layout will be decided collectively),
- models in different scales, at the discretion of each group.
We support a teaching approach that moves diagonally across different scales. We understand scale as a field of questions and “problematics”, which are not simply resolved but actively negotiated. A core belief of the course is the value of the “project” as an intervention.
Accordingly, the individual or group projects developed during the semester are expected to work across multiple scales, from 1:5000 down to details and planting design. Conventionally, we will address issues of connecting the agricultural estate area with the city, the airport, and the surrounding municipalities.
No standardized boards are required; the mode of drawing, designing, and constructing objects and models is completely open.
Each group presentation will last 10 minutes, followed by a discussion with faculty members and invited guests, both from within and outside the postgraduate studies program.
All presentation material must also be submitted digitally in high-resolution files (300 dpi).
Student Assessment methods
- Performance / Staging (Formative, Summative)
- Project
Bibliography
Additional bibliography for study
Διερεύνηση Δυνατοτήτων Περιβαλλοντικού Σχεδιασμού στο Αγρόκτημα του ΑΠΘ και στο Χώρο της ΔΕΘ για την Εξυπηρέτηση του Νέου Εκθεσιακού Κέντρου Εκπαιδευτικών και Κοινωφελών Χρήσεων, Συνοπτικό Τεύχος Ερευνητικού Προγράμματος, Αριστοτέλειο Πανεπιστήμιο Θεσσαλονίκης, Ιούλιος 2009.
AMO. Koolhaas, Rem. Countryside, a Report. London: Taschen, 2020.
Blackwell, Adrian. “What Is Property? Notes on the Topology of Land as the ‘Historical Precondifon’ and ‘Permanent Foundafon’ of Capitalist Architecture,” Journal of Architectural Educa_on 68, 1 (2014): 50–54.
Blomley, Nicholas. “Law, Property, and the Geography of Violence: The Fronfer, the Survey, andthe Grid,” Annals of the Associa_on of Αmerican Geographers 93, 1 (March 2003): 121–41.
Cache, Bernard. Earth Moves: Furnishing of Territories. Cambridge and London: MIT Press, 1995.
Cho, Leena, ‘Planetary Plots’, In Log 60: The Sixth Sphere (New York: Anyone Corporafon, 2024).
Cosgrove, Denis (ed.). Mappings. London: Reakfon Books, 1999.
Daniil, Maria, Vlachonasiou, Eleni, Zavraka, Despoina, Informal Public Space, Vol.11. Special Issue, Thessaloniki: Didigma, 2024-2025.
Deleuze, Gilles; GuaÖari, Félix. Nomadology: The War Machine. New York: Semiotext(e) / ForeignAgents, 1986.
Deleuze, Gilles; GuaÖari, Félix. A Thousand Plateaus. London: Confnuum, 2008.
Edelman, Bernard. “Ownership of the Image: Elements of a Marxist Theory of Law,”
Elden, Stuart. The Birth of Territory. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2013.
Issaias, Platon. Khosravi, Hamed. Territory as a Project. Preface for the catalogue of the Polish Nafonal Pavilion at the 17th Venice Biennale, May 2020.
Issaias, Platon. ‘Designing the Informal – The case of Greece’, in Athens: From Informal to Paradigm (Athens: Futura, 2019).
Lateral Office. States of Disassembly. Seoul Biennale of Architecture and Urbanism, 2017.
Marot, Sebasfen. Taking the Country's Side: Agriculture and Architecture, Barcelona: Poligrafa, 2022.
Smout Allen, Super Mega Ruralis_c: Spectral Agriculture and Inhabited Infrastructures. London: Architectural Research and Design, Bartlett, 2015.
ScoÖ, Felicity D. Outlaw Territories: Environments of Insecurity/ Architecture of Counterinsurgency. New York: Zone Books, 2016.
Toscano, Alberto; Kinkle, Jeff. Cartographies of the Absolute. Winchester: Zero Books, 2015.
Zavraka, Despoina, The Public, the Rural and the Beaufful: A ‘displaced’ home between the urban, the countryside and the post-industrial. Thessaloniki: PSUC, 2021.
Last Update
23-10-2025
