11248/11185 Urbanism and the City | Autumn 2018 Issued 12/03/2018

11248/11185 Assessment 2 Brief

Assessment task 2: Counterpoint Cities: A Comparative Analysis of Urban Issues

_
Intent
As an architect or landscape architect, it is essential to develop a range of understanding of different urban
issues and different urban contexts. The assessment task requires you to research, critically analyse and
communicate a position about a specific urban issue in Sydney in comparison with another city (your
‘counterpoint city’). The most powerful tools in your arsenal as an architect or landscape architect are
verbal persuasion coupled with visual persuasion; this task is designed to enable you to practise this skill
focussed narrowly on a specific urban issue.

_
Groupwork
Individual work individually assessed, however, you will work in research clusters working on a specific pair of
cities with the same group members as for Assessment task 1.

You are encouraged to share information and ideas within your research cluster, as you will all be working on
the same two cities, even though you will have different topics.

_
Task Description
Glossary of Urban Issues and Visual Index of Urban Conditions
Over the course of the subject, we will collectively be combining a Glossary of Urban Issues (this will be
document on UTSOnline) and a Visual Index of Urban Conditions (this will be maintained on Google Drive –
instructions via UTSOnline). We will be compiling this mainly through the workshop and reading exercises.
We are mainly interested in urban issues and urban conditions that are of interest to architects and
landscape architects, or that fall within the disciplinary expertise of these professions.

The Glossary of Urban Issues is specifically intended to help you develop a topic focus for your Assessment 2
work.

Counterpoint Cities: A Comparative Analysis of Urban Issues

Each research cluster of 4-5 students will choose (through a negotiated process) one ‘counterpoint city’ from
6 possible cities assigned to their tutorial. This city, together with Sydney, becomes their counterpoint city.
Each person within your research cluster is then required to develop research around a different urban
issue for that pairing of cities. So, for example, your research cluster might be working on Sydney and Rio
de Janiero, and you might chose to work on the development of 19 century street grids within those two
th

cities.

Cities Tutorial Cities Tutorial Cities Tutorial

C01 Nairobi 1 C23 Beirut 4 C45 Jakarta 8
C02 Houston 1 C24 Moscow 4 C46 Cape Town 8
C03 Vienna 1 C25 Yangon 5 C47 Buenos Aires 8
C04 Dhaka 1 C26 Hamburg 5 C48 Dubai 8
C05 Aukland 1 C27 Sao Paulo 5 C49 Brussels 9
C06 Honolulu 1 C28 Lagos 5 C50 El Paso/Cuidad Juarez 9
C07 Bangkok 2 C29 Belfast 5 C51 St Petersburg 9
C08 Los Angeles 2 C30 Shanghai 5 C52 Chicago 9
C09 New York 2 C31 Paris 6 C53 Athens 9

[Columns of table continue overleaf.]

11248/11185 Urbanism and the City | Autumn 2018 Assessment 2 Brief

Cities Tutorial Cities Tutorial Cities Tutorial

C10 Istanbul 2 C32 Cairo 6 C54 Medellin 9
C11 Rome 2 C33 Detroit 6 C55 Kolkata 10
C12 Brasilia 2 C34 Barcelona 6 C56 Glasgow 10
C13 Guangzhou 3 C35 Hong Kong 6 C57 Ordos 10
C14 New Orleans 3 C36 Sarajevo 6 C58 Copenhagen 10
C15 Mumbai 3 C37 Seoul 7 C59 Prague 10
C16 Quebec City 3 C38 Candigarh 7 C60 Amsterdam 10
C17 Lille 3 C39 Berlin 7 C61 Rio de Janiero 11
C18 Curitiba 3 C40 Havana 7 C62 London 11
C19 Venice 4 C41 Lisbon 7 C63 Washington, DC 11
C20 Beijing 4 C42 Baku 7 C64 Tokyo 11
C21 Johannesburg 4 C43 San Francisco 8 C65 New Delhi 11
C22 Mexico City 4 C44 Stuttgart 8 C66 Madrid 11

_
Type:
Case study of a specific urban issue examined in the context of your pairing of Sydney and one other city
assigned from the above list.

The last think we are looking for is a regurgitation of Wikipedia! (You will definitely fail if this is what you
produce.)

Deliverables
1. 1,200 word written exploration of the specific urban issue you have decided to focus on. This is the
length of a newspaper opinion piece, but your text should be written in an accessible academic style.
You are required to adhere strictly to the Harvard (UTS) Referencing Style.

2. A summary of your argument (essentially, you have to produce a reading analysis of your own piece
of writing), which will should be pinned up as part of your presentation (a template will be provided via
UTSOnline).

3. 3 carefully selected images for each city (ie 6 images in total) that speak to your research issue from
the Representation Archive you have been putting together for each city.

4. 3 self-created representations for each city (ie 6 representations in total) that illustrate aspects of your
research issue, drawing on representational techniques explored in Assessment Task 1. It is not
strictly necessary to use the same representational technique for each city, although this can be a
powerful comparative tool.

5. A wall tag (template to be provided) with the image credits and data sources for 3 and 4 [strictly
adhering to the Harvard (UTS) Referencing Style and the Harvard (UTS) Referencing Style for images].

_
Objectives
This task addresses the following subject learning objectives:

1 Demonstrate an understanding of the range of forces and processes that have shaped a range of cities, and the
development of different forms of urbanism.

2 Demonstrate an understanding of key architectural, landscape architectural and other thinkers on the city, and of
influential design projects, both built and unbuilt.

2
11248/11185 Urbanism and the City | Autumn 2018 Assessment 2 Brief

3 Think across different examples in developing a comparative understanding of cities and forms of urbanism.

4 Carry out research and analysis that meets the subject’s objectives.

This task also addresses the following course intended learning outcomes that are linked with a code to
indicate one of the five CAPRI graduate attribute categories (e.g. C.1, A.3, P.4, etc.):

(For 11248) A.2, C.2, I.2, R.2 and R.3

(For 11185) A.4, C.2, I.1, R.1 and R.2

_
Weight
65% of final subject grade (see below for breakdown).

_
Due
In-class presentations starting 10am on 5 June 2018 (Week 12). You will be allocated to presentation
slots which will be posted at 9:45am in the presentation spaces.

Electronic version to be uploaded to UTSOnline by midnight the previous night (Monday 4 June 2018).
You will need to upload a high-resolution PDF, plus a PDF version of your text to the Turnitin link on
UTSOnline.

If you do not meet these deadlines then the usual UTS policies for late submission may apply.

_
Marking criteria and linkages
Note that completion of the weekly reading analysis tasks and workshop exercises will be consider in the
assessment of Criteria 2 & 3, respectively.

Criteria Weight (%) SLOs CILOs

1. Construct a sophisticated and engaging argument that 20 1 I.2 (11248)
unpacks the social, technical and/or environmental I.1 (11185)
complexities around the specific urban issue
2. Demonstrate a critical engagement with disciplinary and other 20 2 R.3 (11248)
thinkers on urban issues, from the readings, lectures or R.1 (11185)
independent research, relevantly applied to the urban issue
3. Make effective comparative arguments that relevantly engage 20 3 A.2 (11248)
with the urban issue across in the two different urban settings A.4 (11185)
4. Creatively and self-reflectively make use of oral, written and 30 4 C.2 (11248)
graphic communications and analysis, relevantly applied to C.2 (11185)
the urban issue
5. Demonstrate evidence of sourcing and evaluation of relevant 10 4 R.2 (11248)
research materials and provide accurate documentation of R.2 (11185)
those sources using the prescribed conventions

SLOs: subject learning objectives

CILOs: course intended learning outcomes