2023 Faculty Courses School of Environment and Society Department of Architecture and Building Engineering Graduate major in Urban Design and Built Environment
The Practice of Sociospace
- Academic unit or major
- Graduate major in Urban Design and Built Environment
- Instructor(s)
- Masato Dohi
- Class Format
- Lecture (Face-to-face)
- Media-enhanced courses
- -
- Day of week/Period
(Classrooms) - 5-6 Thu (西9号館W536)
- Class
- -
- Course Code
- UDE.D506
- Number of credits
- 100
- Course offered
- 2023
- Offered quarter
- 4Q
- Syllabus updated
- Jul 8, 2025
- Language
- Japanese
Syllabus
Course overview and goals
Human being is a social creature and at the same time spatial existence. We are able to describe our history as an interaction of these two aspects. To understand the contemporary society and city, the lectures give the thinking method to grasp both society and urban space.
Course description and aims
By the end of this course, students will be able to:
1) Understand and explain the changes that occur in the urban space in practice from socio-spatial theory.
2) Understand and explain the significance of socio-spatial theory through practical examples.
3) Understand and explain how to manage complex relationships among various stakeholders.
Keywords
social space, Community design, citizen participation, urban design
Competencies
- Specialist skills
- Intercultural skills
- Communication skills
- Critical thinking skills
- Practical and/or problem-solving skills
Class flow
How each class will be conducted: A lecture on a topic is provided for the first 45 minutes; and for the second half, students present their research results on the topic followed by an open discussion.
How the subject matter will be covered over the course of teaching: The course teaches principles of community design that have been found through practices, and considers the future direction of community design.
The method of teaching: This course encourages the proactive thinking of students by combining presentations and discussions with lectures.
Course schedule/Objectives
| Course schedule | Objectives | |
|---|---|---|
| Class 1 | Orientation | Overview practical examples of socio-spatial theory. |
| Class 2 | A practice of sociospace design : Los Angeles | Learn the case of river and community revitalisation in Los Angeles, California, United States. |
| Class 3 | Social design and urban design | Understand and explain a basic skill of community design for problem solving; that is, how to actively design social and spatial elements at the same time so that the two sets of elements complementary influence each other. |
| Class 4 | Scaling up | Understand and explain the principles and techniques of dealing with the changes of socio-spatial scales in practice. |
| Class 5 | A practice of sociospace: Japan | Learn the outcomes and challenges of community design using practical examples in Japan. |
| Class 6 | The working together of government bodies, corporations and non-profits | Understand and explain techniques to enable different social sectors who are significant actors in community design to work together by learning through practical examples. |
| Class 7 | From participatory design to ecological democracy | Learn the theory of ecological democracy that has a possibility to overcome the challenges of socio-spatial scales in community design. |
| Class 8 | Summary | Understand and explain the changes that occur in the urban space in practice from socio-spatial theory. |
Study advice (preparation and review)
To enhance effective learning, students are encouraged to spend approximately 100 minutes preparing for class and another 100 minutes reviewing class content afterwards (including assignments) for each class.
They should do so by referring to textbooks and other course material.
Textbook(s)
Hester, R. T. and Dohi, M. (1997) “Machizukuri no hoho to gijutsu [The methods and techniques of community design]”, Gendai Kikakushitsu
Hester, R. T. (2006) “Design for ecological democracy”, The MIT Press
Reference books, course materials, etc.
Course materials are distributed as necessary.
Evaluation methods and criteria
Evaluate by accumulating small reports in each lecture time.
Related courses
- ARC.P302 ： Landscape Architecture
- UDE.D412 ： The Practice of Community Design
- UDE.D443 ： Practices of Urban and Community Design
- UDE.D449 ： Landscape Design Studio II
- ARC.P204 ： Introduction to Urban Study
Prerequisites
None required.