Exercise 2.2—Your Urban Landscape

‘Your Urban Landscape’ is an exercise that explores the capacity of each student to describe a familiar urban landscape using a new language learned in this chapter, based on the main characteristics of the fundamental elements of urban form.

The starting point for the development of this exercise should be the house of the student. Starting from there, the student is asked to describe and explain, in morphological terms: i. the street where he lives, and the streets defining his street block;

ii. the nearest square, iii. the plots of the street block; and, finally, iv. the buildings of the street block where he lives. Based on this homework request, each student should prepare a brief PowerPoint (5–10 min, 10 slides maximum) to be presented in classes. The student should use text and images (drawings and photographs), or any means that he thinks it is adequate. The realization of the exercise should involve one or more visits to the site under analysis.

The exercise highlights the benefits of fieldwork, notably of walking, of direct observation, of immersive experiences, and engagement in real-world urban landscapes

(including the possibility of measurement of some physical characteristics).