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4.241J Theory of City Form

4.241J Theory of City Form (Spring 2013, MIT OCW). Instructor: Professor Julian Beinart. This course covers theories about the form that settlements should take and attempts a distinction between descriptive and normative theory by examining examples of various theories of city form over time. Case studies will highlight the origins of the modern city and theories about its emerging form, including the transformation of the nineteenth-century city and its organization. Through examples and historical context, current issues of city form in relation to city-making, social structure, and physical design will also be discussed and analyzed. (from ocw.mit.edu)

Lecture 13 - Utopianism as Social Reform and Built Form

This lecture starts with defining the goals of utopia, and its address of the boundary problems in society. Example communities are discussed to analyze why such communities fail. The works of three architects are discussed with the lens of social reform.


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Lecture 01 - Introduction
Lecture 02 - Normative Theory I: The City as Supernatural
Lecture 03 - Normative Theory II: The City as Machine
Lecture 04 - Normative Theory III: The City as Organism
Lecture 05 - Descriptive and Functional Theory
Lecture 06 - Dimensions, Patterns, Agreements, Structure, and Syntax
Lecture 07 - The Early Cities of Capitalism
Lecture 08 - Transformations I: London
Lecture 09 - Transformations II: Paris
Lecture 10 - Transformations III: Vienna and Barcelona
Lecture 11 - Transformations IV: Chicago
Lecture 12 - Transformations V: Panopticism, St. Petersburg and Berlin
Lecture 13 - Utopianism as Social Reform and Built Form
Lecture 14 - 20th Century Realizations: Russian and Great Britain
Lecture 15 - City Form and Process
Lecture 16 - Spatial & Social Structure I: Theory
Lecture 17 - Spatial & Social Structure II: Bipolarity
Lecture 18 - Spatial & Social Structure III: Colony and Post-colony
Lecture 19 - Form Models I: Modern and Post-modern Urbanism
Lecture 20 - Form Models II: Open-endedness and Prophecy
Lecture 21 - Form Models III and IV: Rationality and Memory
Lecture 22 - Cases I: Public and Private Domains
Lecture 23 - Cases II: Suburbs and Periphery
Lecture 24 - Cases III: Post-urbanism and Resource Conservation
Lecture 25 - Cases IV: Hyper and Mega-urbanism
Lecture 26 - Conclusion: Towards a Theory of City Form