An alternative pedagogic model for doctoral research in urban design

Abstract

This essay presents an alternative to the traditional pedagogic model for urban design doctoral education where, as found in the humanities, individual students work solo, advised by a small faculty committee. Derived from the sciences, the alternative model integrates the student into a collaborative, multidisciplinary research laboratory setting, which provides access to the now extensive geospatial data on the built environment and on a range of behaviors. After apprenticing in spatial data analysis, individual students advance selected aspects of on-going lab research projects. The alternative model expands urban design thinking to research on salient issues faced by today’s cities.

Acknowledgements

I thank my colleagues and my former and current students, who helped build the UFL and contributed to developing this alternative model (http://depts.washington.edu/ufl/).

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.