Course 4: Architecture
IAP/Spring
2025
Architecture Studies
4.210 Positions: Cultivating Critical Practice
 ( )
Prereq: None
Units: 3-0-6
Through formal analysis and discussion of historical and theoretical texts, seminar produces a map of contemporary architectural practice. Examines six pairs of themes in terms of their recent history: city and global economy, urban plan and map of operations, program and performance, drawing and scripting, image and surface, and utopia and projection. Restricted to year-one MArch students.
A. Miljacki
4.211[J] The Once and Future City
 ( )  
Not offered regularly; consult department
(Same subject as 11.016[J])
Prereq: None
Units: 3-0-9
Examines the evolving structure of cities, the dynamic processes that shape them, and the significance of a city's history for its future development. Develops the ability to read urban form as an interplay of natural processes and human purposes over time. Field assignments in Boston provide the opportunity to use, develop, and refine these concepts. Enrollment limited.
A. Spirn
4.213[J] Ecological Urbanism Seminar
 ()
(Same subject as 11.308[J])
Prereq: Permission of instructor
Units: 3-0-9
Weds the theory and practice of city design and planning as a means of adaptation with the insights of ecology and other environmental disciplines. Presents ecological urbanism as critical to the future of the city and its design, as it provides a framework for addressing challenges that threaten humanity — such as climate change, rising sea level, and environmental and social justice — while fulfilling human needs for health, safety, welfare, meaning, and delight. Applies a historical and theoretical perspective to the solution of real-world challenges. Enrollment limited.
A. Spirn
4.215[J] Sensing Place: Photography as Inquiry
()
(Same subject as 11.309[J])
Prereq: None
Units: 3-0-9
Explores photography as a disciplined way of seeing, and as a medium of inquiry and of expressing ideas. Readings, observations, and photographs form the basis of discussions on landscape, light, significant detail, place, poetics, narrative, and how photography can inform research, design and planning, among other issues. Recommended for students who want to employ visual methods in their theses. Enrollment limited.
A. Spirn
4.217[J] Disaster Resilient Design
()
Not offered regularly; consult department
(Same subject as 11.315[J])
(Subject meets with 4.218)
Prereq: None
Units: 3-0-6
Seminar examines the linkages between natural hazards and environmental design. Engages theoretical debates about landscapes of risk, vulnerability, and resilience. Participants generate proposals for disaster resilience through combinations of retrofit, reconstruction, resettlement, commemorative, and anticipatory design. Methods include rapid bibliographic search, risk analysis, landscape synthesis, and comparative international methods. Projects vary and may focus on current crises or involve collaboration with the Aga Khan Development Network and other humanitarian organizations. Additional work required of students taking the graduate version. Limited to 15.
Staff
4.218 Disaster Resilient Design
()
Not offered regularly; consult department
(Subject meets with 4.217[J], 11.315[J])
Prereq: None
Units: 3-0-9
Seminar examines the linkages between natural hazards and environmental design. Engages theoretical debates about landscapes of risk, vulnerability, and resilience. Participants generate proposals for disaster resilience through combinations of retrofit, reconstruction, resettlement, commemorative, and anticipatory design. Methods include rapid bibliographic search, risk analysis, landscape synthesis, and comparative international methods. Projects vary and may focus on current crises or involve collaboration with the Aga Khan Development Network and other humanitarian organizations. Additional work required of students taking the graduate version. Limited to 15; preference to Course 4 majors and minors.
Staff
4.221 Architecture Studies Colloquium
()
Prereq: Permission of instructor
Units: 2-0-1
Aims to create a discourse across the various SMArchS discipline groups that reflects current Institute-wide initiatives; introduce SMarchS students to the distinct perspective of the different SMarchS discipline groups; and provide a forum for debate and discussion in which the SMarchS cohort can explore, develop and share ideas. Engages with interdisciplinary thinking, research, and innovation that is characteristic of MIT's culture and can form a basis for their future work. Limited to first-year SMArchS students.
S. Tibbits
4.222 Professional Practice
()
Prereq: Permission of instructor
Units: 3-0-3
Gives a critical orientation towards a career in architectural practice. Uses historical and current examples to illustrate the legal, ethical and management concepts underlying the practice of architecture. Emphasis on facilitating design excellence and strengthening connections between the profession and academia. Restricted to MArch students.
R. Berry, R. Mohr
4.227 Landscapes of Energy
()
Prereq: Permission of instructor
Units: 3-0-9
 Lecture: W9.30-12.30 (5-216) +final
Spatializes large technological systems of energy, analyzes existing and speculative energy visions, and imagines energy futures in relation to concerns of ecology, politics, and aesthetics. Identifies different scales of thinking about the territory of energy from that of environmental systems, to cities, regions, and global landscapes. Readings and students' research projects draw on critical geography, history of technology, environmental history to synthesize energy attributes within the design disciplines. Limited to 12.
R. Ghosn
No textbook information available
4.228[J] Contemporary Urbanism Proseminar: Theory and Representation
()
(Same subject as 11.348[J])
Prereq: Permission of instructor
Units arranged
Critical introduction to key contemporary positions in urbanism to the ends of researching, representing, and designing territories that respond to the challenges of the 21st century. Provides an overview of contemporary urban issues, situates them in relation to a genealogy of urban precedents, and constructs a theoretical framework that engages the allied fields of architecture, landscape architecture, political ecology, geography, territorial planning, and environmental humanities. Comprised of three sections, first section articulates a framework on the urban as both process and form, shifting the emphasis from city to territory. Second section engages a series of related urban debates, such as density/sprawl, growth/shrinkage, and codes/exception. Third section calls upon urban agency in the age of environment through the object of infrastructures of trash, water, oil, and food. Limited to 25.
Consult R. Ghosn
4.229[J] Collectives: New Forms of Sharing
()
Not offered regularly; consult department
(Same subject as 11.228[J])
Prereq: Permission of instructor
Units: 3-0-9
URL: https://architecture.mit.edu/classes
Considers ways in which collaborative approaches to living can reshape architecture and the city. Students investigate historic and present spatial models and platforms (digital and physical) of collaboration and sharing. Explores how economic, political and social transformations, such as co-ownership, community-based exchange, digital collectives, and self-organization, can lead to new programs, typologies, designs, and new relationships between user, designer, and developer. Limited to 15.
Consult R. Segal
4.230 SIGUS Workshop
() 
Not offered regularly; consult department
Prereq: Permission of instructor
Units arranged
Interdisciplinary projects and interactive practices in urban settlement issues as investigated by MIT's SIGUS (Special Interest Group in Urban Settlements), with a focus on developing countries throughout the world. Participation by guest practitioners. Additional work required of students taking the graduate version.
Staff
4.231 SIGUS Workshop
()
Not offered regularly; consult department
Prereq: Permission of instructor
Units arranged
Interdisciplinary projects and interactive practices in urban settlement issues as investigated by MIT's SIGUS (Special Interest Group in Urban Settlements), with a focus on developing countries throughout the world. Participation by guest practitioners. Additional work required of students taking the graduate version.
Staff
4.240[J] Urban Design Skills: Observing, Interpreting, and Representing the City
(); first half of term
(Same subject as 11.328[J])
Prereq: None
Units: 4-2-2
Introduces methods for observing, interpreting, and representing the urban environment. Students draw on their senses and develop their ability to deduce, question, and test conclusions about how the built environment is designed, used, and valued. The interrelationship of built form, circulation networks, open space, and natural systems are a key focus. Supplements existing classes that cover theory and history of city design and urban planning and prepares students without design backgrounds with the fundamentals of physical planning. Intended as a foundation for 11.329.
E. Ben-Joseph, M. Ocampo
4.241[J] The Making of Cities
()
(Same subject as 11.330[J])
Prereq: 11.001, 11.301, or permission of instructor
Units arranged
URL: https://architecture.mit.edu/classes
Lecture: W EVE (5-8 PM) (5-233) +final
Examines the complex development of cities through history by tracing a diachronic accumulation of forms and spaces in specific cities, and showing how significant ideas were made manifest across distinct geographies and cultures. Emphasizes how economic, spiritual, political, geographic and technological forces have simultaneously shaped and, in turn, been influenced by the city.
R. Salgueiro Barrio
No textbook information available
4.242[J] Walking the City
(New)
()
(Same subject as 11.240[J])
Prereq: None
Units: 2-0-10
Students investigate how landscapes and cities shape them — and vice versa — by examining the literature of walking and the environments in which they move. Through extensive walking, students explore the city to analyze its design and varied histories, drawing on cartography, art, sociology, and memory to create fresh narratives. Students write architecture and city criticism, design "story maps," and are invited to walk as an art practice. Emphasis is on the relationship between the human body and freedom, or a lack thereof, and between pathways and the complex emotions that emerge from traversing them. Limited to 12. Preference to Course 4 and 11 graduate students who have completed at least two semesters.
G. Cadogan
4.244[J] Urban Design Seminar: Perspectives on Contemporary Practice
()
(Same subject as 11.333[J])
Prereq: None
Units: 2-0-7
Lecture: W9-11 (10-401)
Examines innovations in urban design practice occurring through the work of leading practitioners in the fields of architecture, landscape architecture, and urban planning. Features lectures by major national and global practitioners in urban design. Projects and topics vary based on term and speakers but may cover architectural urbanism, landscape and ecology, arts and culture, urban design regulation and planning agencies, and citywide and regional design. Focuses on analysis and synthesis of themes discussed in presentations and discussions.
Staff
No textbook information available
4.245[J] DesignX Entrepreneurship
( )
(Same subject as 11.245[J])
Prereq: Permission of instructor
Units: 4-0-2
 Begins Jan 21. Lecture: MTWRF12-5 (9-451)
Students in teams accepted to the MITdesignX accelerator begin work on their ventures in this intense two-week bootcamp. Participants identify the needs and problems that demonstrate the demand for their innovative technology, policy, products, and/or services. They research and investigate various markets and stakeholders pertinent to their ventures, and begin to test their ideas and thesis in real-world interviews and interactions. Subject presented in workshop format, giving teams the chance to jump-start their ventures together with a cohort of people working on ideas that span the realm of design, planning real estate, and the human environment. Registration limited to students accepted to the MITdesignX accelerator in the fall.
S. Gronfeldt, G. Rosenzweig
No textbook information available
4.246[J] DesignX Accelerator
()
(Same subject as 11.246[J])
Prereq: Permission of instructor
Units: 2-4-6
Lecture: F9-1 (9-451) +final
Students continue to work in their venture teams to advance innovative ideas, products, and services oriented to design, planning, and the human environment. Presented in a workshop format with supplementary lectures. Teams are matched with external mentors for additional support in business and product development. At the end of the term, teams pitch their ventures to an audience from across the school and MIT, investors, industry, and cities. Registration limited to students accepted to the MITdesignX accelerator in the fall.
S. Gronfeldt, G. Rosenzweig
No textbook information available
4.247[J] Urban Design Ideals and Action
()
Not offered regularly; consult department
(Same subject as 11.337[J])
Prereq: None
Units: 2-0-7
Examines the relationship between urban design ideals, urban design action, and the built environment through readings, discussions, presentations, and papers. Analyzes the diverse design ideals that influence cities and settlements, and investigates how urban designers use them to shape urban form. Provides a critical understanding of the diverse formal methods used to intervene creatively in both developed and developing contexts, especially pluralistic and informal built environments.
Staff
4.248[J] Advanced Urban Design Skills: Observing, Interpreting, and Representing the City
(); second half of term
(Same subject as 11.329[J])
Prereq: 11.328 or permission of instructor
Units: 4-2-4
Through a studio-based course in planning and urban design, builds on the foundation acquired in 11.328 to engage in creative exploration of how design contributes to resilient, just, and vibrant urban places. Through the planning and design of two projects, students creatively explore spatial ideas and utilize various digital techniques to communicate their design concepts, giving form to strategic thinking. Develops approaches and techniques to evaluate the plural structure of the built environment and offer propositions that address policies and regulations as well as the values, behaviors, and wishes of the different users.
E. Ben-Joseph
4.250[J] Introduction to Urban Design and Development
(, )
(Same subject as 11.001[J])
Prereq: None
Units: 3-0-9
Lecture: MW11-12.30 (4-370)
Examines the evolving structure of cities and the way that cities, suburbs, and metropolitan areas can be designed and developed. Surveys the ideas of a wide range of people who have addressed urban problems. Stresses the connection between values and design. Demonstrates how physical, social, political and economic forces interact to shape and reshape cities over time. Introduces links between urban design and urban science.
Fall: L. Vale (fall); A. Sevtsuk (spring)
Spring: L. Vale (fall); A. Sevtsuk (spring)
No textbook information available
4.252[J] Introduction to Urban Design and Development
()
(Same subject as 11.301[J])
Prereq: Permission of instructor
Units: 3-0-9
Examines the physical and social structure of cities and ways they can be changed. Includes significant thinkers in urban form, 20th-century American city design, urban design and society, global urban design, and design of neighborhoods and streets. Core lectures are supplemented by student papers examining the relationship of contemporary projects to history and theory, and factors of high quality global urban design and development. Guest speakers present cases involving current projects or research illustrating scope and methods of urban design theory and practice. Intended for those seeking an introduction to fundamental knowledge of theory and praxis in city design and development.
staff
4.253[J] Urban Design Politics
()
(Same subject as 11.302[J])
Prereq: Permission of instructor
Units: 3-0-9
Lecture: M EVE (3-6 PM) (10-401)
Examines ways that urban design contributes to distribution of political power and resources in cities. Investigates the nature of relations between built form and political purposes through close study of public and private sector design commissions and planning processes that have been clearly motivated by political pressures, as well as more tacit examples. Lectures and discussions focus on cases from both developed and developing countries.
L. Vale
No textbook information available
4.254[J] Real Estate Development Studio
()
(Same subject as 11.303[J])
Prereq: Permission of instructor
Units: 6-0-12
Lecture: MW2.30-5.30 (10-485) Recitation: M EVE (6-7.30 PM) (10-485) +final
Focuses on the synthesis of urban, mixed-use real estate projects, including the integration of physical design and programming with finance and marketing. Interdisciplinary student teams analyze how to maximize value across multiple dimensions in the process of preparing professional development proposals for sites in US cities and internationally. Reviews emerging real estate products and innovative developments to provide a foundation for studio work. Two major projects are interspersed with lectures and field trips. Integrates skills and knowledge in the MSRED program; also open to other students interested in real estate development by permission of the instructors.
TBD
No textbook information available
4.255[J] Site and Environmental Systems Planning
()
(Same subject as 11.304[J])
Prereq: Permission of instructor
Units: 6-0-9
Lecture: MW2.30-5.30 (9-451)
Introduces a range of practical approaches involved in evaluating and planning sites within the context of natural and cultural systems. Develops the knowledge and skills to analyze and plan a site for development through exercises and an urban design project. Topics include land inventory, urban form, spatial organization of uses, parcelization, design of roadways, grading, utility systems, off-site impacts, and landscape strategies.
Eran Ben-Joseph, Mary Anne Ocampo
No textbook information available
4.256[J] Revealing the City
 ()
(Same subject as 11.256[J])
Prereq: None
Units: 2-0-10
Through study of the essay as a literary form and mode of writing, students explore the promise and perils of the variegated city. Participants create artful narratives by examining how various literary forms — poetry, fiction, and essay — illuminate our understanding of cities. Special emphasis is on the writer as the reader's advocate, with the goal of writing with greater creativity and sophistication for specialized and general-interest audiences. Limited to 12. Preference to Course 4 and 11 graduate students who have completed at least two semesters.
G. Cadogan
4.264[J] Advanced Seminar in Landscape and Urbanism
()
Not offered regularly; consult department
(Same subject as 11.334[J])
Prereq: Permission of instructor
Units: 3-0-9
Explores theories, practices, and emerging trends in the fields of landscape architecture and urbanism, such as systemic design, landscape urbanism, engineered nature, drosscapes, urban biodiversity, urban mobility, megaregions, and urban agriculture. Lectures, readings, and guest speakers present a wide array of multi-disciplinary topics, including current works from P-REX lab. Students conduct independent and group research that is future-oriented.
Staff
4.275[J] Advanced Urbanism Colloquium
(, )
(Same subject as 11.912[J])
Prereq: Permission of instructor
Units: 1-1-1 [P/D/F]
URL: https://architecture.mit.edu/classes
Lecture: M EVE (5.30 PM) (E14-140L)
Introduces critical theories and contemporary practices in the field of urbanism that challenge its paradigms and advance its future. Includes theoretical linkages between ideas about the cultures of urbanization, social and political processes of development, environmental tradeoffs of city making, and the potential of design disciplines to intervene to change the future of built forms. Events and lecture series co-organized by faculty and doctoral students further engage and inform research. Preference to doctoral students in the Advanced Urbanism concentration.
Fall: S. Williams
Spring: S. Williams
No textbook information available
4.288 Preparation for SMArchS Thesis
(, ,  )
Prereq: Permission of instructor
Units arranged [P/D/F]
URL: https://architecture.mit.edu/classes
TBA.
Students select thesis topic, define method of approach, and prepare thesis proposal for SMArchS degree. Faculty supervision on an individual or group basis. Intended for SMArchS program students prior to registration for 4.ThG.
Fall: R. Shieh
Spring: T. Haynes
No textbook information available
4.291 Independent Study in Architecture Studies
(, , )
Prereq: Permission of instructor
Units arranged
IAP: TBA.
Spring: TBA.
Supplementary work on individual or group basis. Registration subject to prior arrangement for subject matter and supervision by staff.
Fall: T. Haynes
IAP: T. Haynes
Spring: T. Haynes
No textbook information available
4.292 Independent Study in Architecture Studies
(, , )
Prereq: Permission of instructor
Units arranged [P/D/F]
IAP: TBA.
Spring: TBA.
Supplementary work on individual or group basis. Registration subject to prior arrangement for subject matter and supervision by staff.
Fall: T. Haynes
IAP: T. Haynes
Spring: T. Haynes
No textbook information available
4.293 Independent Study in Architecture Studies
(, , )
Prereq: Permission of instructor
Units arranged
IAP: TBA.
Spring: TBA.
Supplementary work on individual or group basis. Registration subject to prior arrangement for subject matter and supervision by staff.
Fall: T. Haynes
IAP: T. Haynes
Spring: T. Haynes
No textbook information available
4.294 Independent Study in Architecture Studies
(, , )
Prereq: Permission of instructor
Units arranged [P/D/F]
IAP: TBA.
Spring: TBA.
Supplementary work on individual or group basis. Registration subject to prior arrangement for subject matter and supervision by staff.
Fall: T. Haynes
IAP: T. Haynes
Spring: T. Haynes
No textbook information available
4.299 Summer Research Topics
()
Prereq: Permission of instructor
Units arranged [P/D/F]
Supplementary summer work on individual basis. Registration subject to prior arrangement for subject matter and supervision by staff.
Staff
4.S20 Special Subject: Architecture Studies
()
Not offered regularly; consult department
Prereq: None
Units arranged
Seminar or lecture on a topic in architecture studies that is not covered in the regular curriculum. Requires original research and presentation of oral and written reports and/or design projects, varying at the discretion of the instructor.
Garnette Cadogan
4.S21 Special Subject: Architecture Studies
()
Not offered regularly; consult department
Prereq: None
Units arranged [P/D/F]
Seminar or lecture on a topic in architecture studies that is not covered in the regular curriculum. Requires original research and presentation of oral and written reports and/or design projects, varying at the discretion of the instructor.
Staff
4.S22 Special Subject: Architecture Studies
()
Prereq: Permission of instructor
Units arranged
Seminar or lecture on a topic in architecture studies that is not covered in the regular curriculum. Requires original research and presentation of oral and written reports and/or design projects, varying at the discretion of the instructor.
Svafa Gronfeldt, Yscaira Jimenez
4.S23 Special Subject: Architecture Studies
()
Prereq: Permission of instructor
Units arranged
Lecture: M1.30-4.30 (1-136)
Seminar or lecture on a topic in architecture studies that is not covered in the regular curriculum. Requires original research and presentation of oral and written reports and/or design projects, varying at the discretion of the instructor.
R. Shieh
No textbook information available
4.S24 Special Subject: Architecture Studies
() ; first half of term
Prereq: Permission of instructor
Units arranged [P/D/F]
Ends Mar 7. Lecture: T9-11 (3-133)
Seminar or lecture on a topic in architecture studies that is not covered in the regular curriculum. Requires original research and presentation of oral and written reports and/or design projects, varying at the discretion of the instructor.
S. Gronfeldt
No textbook information available
4.S25 Special Subject: Urban Housing
()
Not offered regularly; consult department
Prereq: Permission of instructor
Units arranged
Seminar or lecture on a topic in urban housing that is not covered in the regular architecture curriculum. Requires original research and presentation of oral and written reports and/or design projects, varying at the discretion of the instructor.
Rosalyne Shieh
4.S26 Special Subject: City Form
()
Not offered regularly; consult department
Prereq: Permission of instructor
Units arranged
Seminar or lecture on a topic in city form that is not covered in the regular architecture curriculum. Requires original research and presentation of oral and written reports and/or design projects, varying at the discretion of the instructor.
Staff
4.S27 Special Subject: Urban Design
()
Not offered regularly; consult department
Prereq: Permission of instructor
Units arranged
Seminar or lecture on a topic in urban design that is not covered in the regular Architecture curriculum. Requires original research and presentation of oral and written reports and/or design projects, varying at the discretion of the instructor.
Staff
4.S28 Special Subject: Architecture Studies
()
Prereq: None
Units arranged
Seminar or lecture on a topic in architecture studies that is not covered in the regular curriculum. Requires original research and presentation of oral and written reports and/or design projects, varying at the discretion of the instructor.
Norhan Bayomi
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