In the Design Unit 2, the students will continue to enhance their skills in managing a complex architectural project autonomously, already trained during the design experience of Design Unit 1, especially for the constructive aspects. The topics of Design Unit 2 will be the elaboration of a complex urban design, in the urban and architectural components, and in any case integrating the architectural design of a building to demonstrate the possession of the techniques, the methodologies and the specific abilities of the European architect.
Through the knowledge and in-depth analysis of the specific design theme, the students will acquire an understanding and interpretation of the complex phenomena that characterise the contemporary processes of urbanisation and urban regeneration, at both levels local and global.
The overall educational goal of the “Architecture and Urban Space” Design Unit is elaborate a complex urban project from the knowledge and skills provided by two specific subjects, complementary between them: Architectural Design, and Urban Planning, the latter providing specialist knowledge about the urban dimension of architecture. To these two subjects are associated in the Design Unit the specific knowledge and skills provided by one or more related and integrative disciplines, selected in relation with the specific design topics of every Design Unit.
Through the experience of the Design Unit, the student will acquire not only the general design skills, but also the specific knowledge and skills in Urban Planning, mandatory in the Master’s degree, as an alternative to the 2nd Year Course in “Town Planning”.

The Design Unit 2 deepens and develops the advanced knowledge and the design skills learned during the Design Unit 1: such a knowledge is acquired within the Design Unit and through a series of mono-disciplinary or multi-disciplinary lectures, and through studies and in-depth modules on theories, relevant to the design themes and issues. The advanced progresses in knowledge and understanding will be assessed through mid-term and final evaluations during the Design Unit, especially aimed at assessing the students’ capability to synthesise and to integrate the different disciplines contributing to the Unit.
In the experience of the Design Unit “Architecture and Urban Space”, the understanding of the complex phenomena that govern urban and territorial transformations, both in its architectural and urban components, occurs through the knowledge and the in-depth analysis of the specific design theme. The instructors provide multi-disciplinary knowledge of all the aspects of the complex context within which the design has to be developed. The ability to understand and interpret the complex phenomena that characterize the practices of urbanisation and urban regeneration, at both local and global levels, also occurs in the ability to work in un international context, understanding cultures and traditions not only national, also through the choice of topics and design sites in international context, in the capacity of a design and narrative synthesis, and in the ability to carry out individual research, aimed to connect architectural design, history, urban culture and decision processes.
In the design experience during the Design Unit, the capability to apply knowledge and skills is primarily defined by the ability to independently manage a complex urban project in a given time, through the mastery of techniques, methods and skills specific to the job of the Architect. The capability to independently manage a project of urban and territorial transformation is expressed in the ability to analyse complex and non-univocal information, to interpret them into a shared decision-making process, but also in the ability to exert leadership in a necessarily multi-disciplinary design team, even toward languages and social and public practices. The experience of the Design Unit, characterized by an intense experimentation, is configured as a partial simulation of effective design practices in the real-world. As such, it ensures the acquisition of the ability of applying knowledge and understanding. This ability is assessed through intermediate and final evaluations within the Design Unit, with the contributions of guest experts from practice, with especial attention to the capability to integrate and synthesise the various disciplines involved in the Unit, as well as to meet the timetable of the activities, which requires the students to complete the project at the end of the semester. The ability to process a complex architectural project in a given time represents a specific ability of the work of the architect: this will be verified at the exam that will take place during the first week of exams, in the first examination session consecutive to the Design Unit.

The basic critical and design skills, along with the concepts and introductory tools in Urban Planning are assumed to have been acquired during the Disciplinary Courses and the Design Ateliers of the Bachelor Degree in “Sciences of Architecture”. It is necessary to possess the knowledge and skills trained during the Design Unit 1, especially the ability to process autonomously a complex architectural project in a given time. A last prerequisite is represented by the knowledge and skills learned in the Courses of First Semester “Building Information Modelling” and “Building physics and energy system in architecture”.

The course addresses the issue of quality in urban areas of large-scale urbanization that are changing the Chinese city . The construction of hundreds of new cities is progressing rapidly, without stratification or admixture . The grain that "makes the city" is no longer the house, as it was in traditional China, but large mono-functional batches, avoiding any chance of keeping the human dimension at the center of the project.
The project area is a new city, that a group of Chinese students in Beijing will design at the large scale (about 20 sq km) in the same period. The UP will study, on the one hand , the design aspects , through the contributions of the modules of Architecture and Urban Planning; on the other hand , the dynamics of settlement and social integration, as well as the mechanisms of appropriation of urban space through the contributions of economic and political Geography and Sociology. The aim of the project is to realize a complex urban space that, in line with the dynamics of growth, focuses on the community life and the quality of places " on a human scale . "
In particular , lessons are articulated in the following way :
- Architectural Design presents a series of public spaces and buildings for social activities that emerge in the Chinese urbanization in certain privileged contexts, but they tend to fail in the "ordinary" urbanization.
- Urban Planning : A- Looking to the West city : the new city in the modern tradition ( from the Cité radieuse to Brasilia ); the new post-modern city (from L. Krier to the New - Urbanism); the contemporary city in the perspective of sustainability (from Curitiba to eco-city) . B - Looking to the Chinese city: overview of traditional Chinese city; main characters of Chinese city after the reforms of 1978; the excesses of the global city; reflections and proposals for a more sustainable city .
- Economic and Political Geography provides an overview of the recent urbanization process in China and , in particular, its links with ( i) the economic and political dynamics at different scales ( the dynamics of economic globalization, devolution processes , neoliberal urban policies, redefinition of the relationship between the State and the market) and (ii ) the processes of migration from the countryside to the city and the socio-spatial inequalities emerging in the process of settlement .
- With regard to the Urban Sociology , directions will be provided before the start of the course.
To operate in a context so far, a large part of the UP is dedicated to the knowledge of the problems and prospects of the irrepressible urbanization that is affecting China. To this end, specific moments of reading and study are planned.

The first part of the course is conducted on two levels: in close contact with the Chinese teachers to get to know the work area; in parallel, with lectures and readings aimed to provide the theoretical and methodological tools useful for the definition of the project. Then, after about 3 weeks, the land covered by the masterplan will be divided by individual areas of urban design to be assigned to small groups of students. These will act as "consultants" of the Chinese side, with regard to public spaces and buildings with a social purpose (civic centers, cultural centers, services to the citizens). Finally, the last month, each student will finalize its own work to the architectural scale.

Basic references:
Xuefei Ren, Urban China, Polity Press, Cambridge 2013.
Peter G. Rowe, Emergent architectural territories in east Asian cities, Basilea, Birkhäuser, 2011.
Harry den Hartog (ed.), Shanghai New Towns: Searching for Community and Identity in a Sprawling Metropolis, Rotterdam, 010 Publishers, 2010.
Thomas J. Campanella, The Concrete Dragon. China’s Urban Revolution and What it Means for the World, New York, Princeton Architectural Press, 2008.

During the lessons will be recommended some articles published in several international journals (Urban Studies, City, International Journal of Urban and Regional Research).
More specific texts will be assigned in the classroom depending on the choice of the actual project area.

Fully attendance and engagement in the lectures, seminars, and further activities of the Design Unit is a required precondition for the positive participation in the planned activities.
The design documents (drawings, models, documents, diagrams, tables, etc.) will be discussed and reviewed by the instructors throughout all the Design Unit. The ability to communicate designs in a clear and effective way is relevant to evaluation.
Though the urban design assignments can be partially carried out in teams of two or three students, the final grading is individual and takes into account the reviews and argumentations, the mid-term evaluations, and the individual’s participation throughout the Design Unit.
The final grade will be awarded based on the presentation and public discussion of the final design documents.
The student’s ability to develop a complex architectural design in a given time will be evaluated in the final exam that will take place in the first week of exams, during the examination session consecutive to the Design Unit. In the case that the final design work is not completed on time or is judged inadequate or incomplete, the student may resubmit the final project work in the second examination session consecutive to the Design Unit. Because of the student’s inability to meet the deadline, it will result in a grade penalty.