Looking for a design-related job in the fast-growing Asian market?

This course aims at helping students improve their competence for the future career by
understanding the issues of contemporary urban design and development in Asia.

Contemporary Urban Design and Development in Asia

Winter 2012 2 Credits
5:30 7:30 pm, Wednesdays

Instructor: Lanbin Ren, PhD Candidate

Email: lren@uoregon.edu

Cheonggyecheon River/Korea

Asian Games Construction/China

Namba Parks in Osaka/Japan

COURSE DESCRIPTION
In the past three decades, Asia has become the largest market of urban design projects where
communities are seeking methods and skills to manage their rapid growth. Today, almost every
major American design firm has been involved in Asian urban design projects. These projects
greatly contribute to Asian urban development but at the same time, they raise problems. How to
conduct and evaluate urban design in contemporary Asia?
The main goal of this course is to prepare students to work on Asian urban development in their
future career by offering a critical review of significant contemporary urban design projects.
Urban design is conceptualized as a design practice that draws multi-disciplines together to make
urban space functional and attractive. The course will focus on three fundamental topics: (1) the
design: including its background, concepts and layouts; (2) the design impact: including the
environmental, social and economic impact analysis; and (3) the roles of designers: including the
creativity, responsibility and the working environment.
CLASS STRUCTURE
Two hours of seminar/discussion per week. Each class will be structured in three parts:

Part I (theory) discussion of weekly readings (30 minutes)

Part II (case study) instructor or guest speakers presentations and Q & A (60 minutes)
Part IV (critique) in class exercise (30 minutes)