Urban Design Studies Unit

URBAN DESIGN STUDIES UNIT (UDSU)

UDSU (www.udsu-strath.com) was set up in 1989 by Hildebrand Frey to address the problems of urban rehabilitation, renewal and restructuring.  Its research focused on the city (its origin, development, form and structure) then expanded to include the city’s impact on people and community engagement.  It has subsequently developed the areas of ecological, urban and economic sustainability, the history of urban design, minorities and the built environment.

Research by the group has been sponsored by; EU, ESRC, AHRC, RTPI and other grants.  UDSU has great expertise in urban analysis, planning and design, street design and traffic calming, community engagement in urban policies and design (including identity and sociability) of public spaces.

The Unit, led by Professor Sergio Porta and Dr. Ombretta Romice, is currently moving towards an interpretation of urban form and dynamics as layered manifestations of the complex relationships of mutual change and evolution, and this requires new ways of interpreting, representing and managing space.  This shift towards an understanding of how urban space changes between different states and forms of control through time (rather than how those states are configured), may provoke innovations in Urban Design practice through contributions from a range of disciplines. The concepts of adaptive space (such as urban morphology and geography) as well as other sciences (such as the biology of evolution or the physics of complex networks) are part of our multidisciplinary ethos.

UDSU has therefore developed a strong record of international and multidisciplinary research in the study of spatial complex networks, including important studies on urban transportation network morphology and its impact on the economy and peoples’ behaviour in cities.  Its work includes the production of a modelling tool based on the Geographic Information System (GIS) for spatial network analysis.

Significant effort is needed to better understand the main challenges looming for urban structures as a consequence of globalization, economic uncertainty, rapid mobility and migration, in both the developed and developing worlds.  Dealing with major interrelated dynamics, (such as those posed by massive urbanization processes, informal settlements and instant cities, community revitalization and new forms of place identity in the space of flows, social housing estates rehabilitation, street reclaiming and automobile dependency in cities), requires acknowledging cities as inherently self-organizing systems.

The Unit has developed International expertise on urban analysis from both a morphological and an experiential angle. Its work on Multi-Centrality Analysis, urban regeneration, sustainable transport and development, community engagement in design and Post-Occupancy Evaluation (POE) is well known and used both in academia and consultancy, thanks to its strong theoretical premises as well as the widespread and innovative range of the analytical tools devised to tackle all the components of the urban design process.

The Unit also has a strong portfolio in master planning and street/space design and has widely published in the area of sustainable development and area regeneration, focusing on both the design and management of the process.

 

RESEARCH INTERESTS

Please visit www.udsu-strath.com for a full and detailed overview of our profile, research and ambitions and to download our papers. You can also view some of our students’ work in the education section.

Our research interests include:
Sustainable urban form
Urban design theory and adaptable space
Community consultation and citizens' participation in urban design
Neighborhood regeneration and urban renewal
Street design and traffic calming
Masterplanning
Spatial analysis, urban sciences and evolution
Urban morphology.
Environmental experience analysis   

 

RESEARCH GROUP MEMBERS

DIRECTOR
Prof. Sergio Porta

COURSE DIRECTOR AND RESEARCH COORDINATOR
Dr. Ombretta Romice 

PHD STUDENTS
Adel Remali
Walid Omier
Paola Pasino
Bryce Bushman (Fulbright Scholar)
Peter Russell

PARTNERS
Complexity and Networks Sciences: Vito Latora
Biology and Evolution: Andrea Cardini
Environmental Psychology and Landscape design: Edward Edgerton (University of West of England); Kevin Thwaites and Ian Simkins (Sheffield University)
Landscape Architecture in Sheffield: Kevin Thwaites and Ian Simkins.

RESEARCH AND POSTGRADUATE PATHWAYS
MSc/Pg-Dip in Urban Design
PhD Programme
All applications for postgraduate studies should start at: http://www.strath.ac.uk/studying/prospective/

Potential PhD Topics

Urban morphology and change in the built environment
Spatial analysis in Geographic Information Systems
Evolution in biology and the built environment
Identity, space and community engagement in urban design

EDUCATION

All our group members are involved in the MSc in Urban Design, where our main aim is to expose students to our research and refine our research work with them. Please visit MSc in Urban Design for full details of the course.

We also teach Urban Design in 4th year, and in 5th year we deliver classes such as Urban Theory, Urban Landscape Design, Urban Design History (in exchange with Dortmund University) and Urban Design Representation.

We teach in several other International Universities; Italy, Germany, Brazil, Switzerland, Korea, US and Norway. Follow our teaching and research adventures and read about our work at: www.udsu-strath.com.