What drives design innovation? What prompts the advancement of new technologies in cities and how do they change the choreography of urban life? Addressing these questions, this course aims at introducing the students to Innovation Studies and to equip them with analytical and narrative tools that will help them account and make sense of technological developments in cities. It invites critical reflection on issues of design creativity and invention, success and failure, the agency of objects, technologies and urban artefacts, technological networks, and urban change. Upon successful completion of this course, students will: 1. become familiar with the analytical vocabularies of Innovation Studies and will be able to confidently discuss concepts and methods from this field and put them in dialogue with architecture, planning, urban studies, engineering, design studies, heritage and sustainability studies. 2. gain extensive knowledge about technological innovation, failure and success, good and bad design, controversies and urban politics, the role of technology in urban life, and the recent technological developments in cities. 3. acquire advanced research skills of critical thinking, reading, data collection and analysis. The course welcomes students: a) with an interest in technological innovations, and in architectural and urban technologies of different type and scale. b) willing to engage in reflection on their own experiences as designers/engineers/planners and urban dwellers and to engage in different interactive exercises, visual brainstorming sessions, group work and small-scale practical experiments. c) curious about relational perspectives to design and cities.

Upon successful completion of this course, students will: 1. become familiar with the analytical vocabularies of Innovation Studies and Science and Technology Studies (STS) and will be able to confidently discuss concepts and methods from these fields and put them in dialogue with architecture, planning, urban studies, engineering, heritage and sustainability studies. 2. gain extensive knowledge about technological innovation, failure and success, and the role of technology in urban life and recent technological developments in cities. 3. acquire advanced skills of critical thinking, reading, data collection and analysis.

There are no specific prerequisites beyond those common to all Master students with knowledge in Urban Studies, Architecture Studies (History and Theory), Engineering, Design Studies, Heritage and Sustainability.

The course introduces and advances knowledge in Innovation Studies. We will focus on key concepts such as innovation, creativity, success and failure, controversies, object-oriented politics, repair and maintenance, traceability in cities. We will provide insights on a range of methods for urban research that will help students to hone their critical thinking and writing skills.

The course is transdisciplinary. It draws on insight from a range of disciplines, including sociology of innovation, history of technology, urban anthropology, and architecture studies. In addition, the course refers to a range of historical and contemporary examples as well as case studies from both the Global North and the Global South. Erasmus and exchange students are welcome to join.

The course is based on lectures and practical exercises. It is scheduled as 13 sessions which will be 4.5 hours long. Typically each session will be organised as follows: 2 hours-long Lecture by the Professor and 2.5 hours-long Discussion session which can include a discussion around а visual brainstorming, film screening, specific small tasks/assignments for the students, or assigned reading (typically 1 chapter/article of ca 20-30pages from the reading list). Indicative Schedule: 1. Introduction 2. Innovation in Design [Lecture + Visual Brainstorming on Creativity] 3. Technological Innovation as a Social Process [Lecture + Discussion Session] 4. Mundane Artefacts [Lecture + Writing Exercise on Artefacts] 5. Technical Failure. Good and Bad Design [Lecture + Visual Brainstorming] 6. How Buildings Learn [Lecture + Group presentations] 7. Pictograms and Technologies [Lecture + Visual Brainstorming] 8. Maintenance and Repair [Lecture + Invited talk] 9. City, Virus and Technological Change [Lecture + Discussion Session] 10. Urban Controversies [Lecture + Visual Brainstorming] 11. Politics and Design [Lecture + Film Screening and Discussion session] 12. Tracing Urban Innovations [Lecture + Group presentations] 13. Final Presentations A detailed schedule will be provided upon enrolment in the course. It is expected that everyone attends the sessions, contributes to the discussion, and does all class assignments. A bibliography is provided below. For convenience, 1 selected chapter/article will be circulated to the class 1 week prior to each session and uploaded. Please, do the reading prior to the class assignments!

Akrich, M, Callon, M. and B. Latour (2002) 'The Key to Success in Innovation, Part I: The Art of Interestsment', In International Journal of Innovation Management Vol. 6, No. 2 (June), pp. 187–206. Bijker, Wiebe E. (1995) Of Bicycles, Bakelites, and Bulbs: toward a Theory of Sociotechnical Change, Cambridge: MIT Press. Latour, B. (1991) 'The Berlin Key or How to Do things with Words', In P.M. Graves-Brown (ed) Matter, Materiality and Modern Culture, Routledge, London pp. 10-21. Norman, D. (1990) The Design of Everyday Things, New York: Doubleday. Petroski, H. (1994) Design Paradigms: Case Histories of Error and Judgment in Engineering, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Winner, L. (1980) 'Do Artifacts have Politics?', in Daedalus, Vol. 109, No. 1 (Winter), 121-36. (focus on pages 121-128) Yaneva, A. 2017. Five Ways to Make Architecture Political. An Introduction to the Politics of Design Practice. London: Bloomsbury Publishing. Yaneva, A. 2023. Architecture After Covid, London: Bloomsbury Publishing.

Slides;

Modalità di esame: Elaborato progettuale in gruppo;

Exam: Group project;

... Participation in weekly discussions will be essential to the success of this course. Therefore, 50% of the final grade will be based on participation in class and the class mini-assignments. 50% will be based on the final group project which should feature the analysis of one technology, artefact or innovation process in the field of engineering, architecture, city planning, urban design, heritage of sustainability. It should trace the development of the chosen technology (history of invention, genealogy, use), elaborate on a typology with a range of variations, unpack the materiality and modalities of use as well as the different human experiences. The argument should be based on secondary materials (images, texts, archival materials, news reports) and first-hand observations, original photographs, maps, sketches, interviews, and ethnographic site visits.

Gli studenti e le studentesse con disabilità o con Disturbi Specifici di Apprendimento (DSA), oltre alla segnalazione tramite procedura informatizzata, sono invitati a comunicare anche direttamente al/la docente titolare dell'insegnamento, con un preavviso non inferiore ad una settimana dall'avvio della sessione d'esame, gli strumenti compensativi concordati con l'Unità Special Needs, al fine di permettere al/la docente la declinazione più idonea in riferimento alla specifica tipologia di esame.