Theory of City Form

Content

This series of online lectures explores the physical and social form of cities. 

It 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.

The lecture series consists of three sections:

• The nature of city form theory
• The modern city and its genesis in northern Europe in the late eighteenth–century
• Current theory and practice, in particular on city form process, spatial and social structure, and form models

The graduate-level course was taught in spring 2013 on the MIT campus and includes 26 video lectures as well as further lecture notes (available here).