ARCH 199 (237) Urban-Scale Sustainability, Fall 2023
Course Focus
The course is designed so that students from any major can understand and conceive a
holistic (tripartite) approach to urban-scaled sustainability challenges; where tripartite
considerations include environmental, economic, and social factors. The course places
special emphasis on understanding what individual and collective roles are in producing
healthy and robust communities, especially in view of the current challenges posed by
climate change -and its consequences. Moreover, students are encouraged to see
themselves not as passive bystanders in addressing the urgent need to achieve tripartitesustainability,
but instead as effective agents of change by actions they can take in the short,
mid, and long-term. These actions range from the simplest gestures, i.e., “reduce, reuse,
recycle,” to highly complex neighborhood, city, and regional decision-making and policy
implementation. Significantly, the course illustrates the unintended consequences of most
of these actions and policies, which may at times lead to undesirable outcomes.
Course Description
The course will be imparted over the entirety of the Fall 2023 semester. The class will be worth three (3) units and will be
imparted on Mondays and Wednesdays (MW) at 9:30am to 10:50 am. Students will have weekly short assignments to help them
identify and put into practice recently learned concepts in their local community. The course is divided into four general modules,
each with weekly focuses. At the end of each Module, a series of case studies will be presented so that students can visualize
the acquired knowledge.
In Module 1: Introduction to Concepts, we will define holistic or tripartite sustainability. Thereafter, we will engage in a
discussion of the Role of Energy, and then learn about a Systems Approach to understand how one action has consequences
and unintended consequences.
In Module 2: Environmental, students will discuss how humans transform their environment and for what purpose. We will
learn how Biome and Ecosystem conditions still dominate much of our decision-making. Next, we will discuss Environmental
Degradation, from smog and greenhouse gases to acid rain and resource depletion, and its implicit as well as explicit
implications, including the effects of Climate Change. The module ends with a survey of various existing and future strategies
that have been developed to overcome or reverse environmental degradation.
In the second half of the semester, we will begin with Module 3: Economic
Sustainability. First, to understand wealth and market forces, we will link
economics with biological behaviors. We will then discuss the role of Land Use
Controls and other powers reserved for the State, and their impact on economic
sustainability. We will cover topics like Green Belts, TIF Districts and Transit
Oriented Development (TOD) will be central to this module. Finally, students
will learn about Consumerism and Built Obsolescence, and the enormous
impact these have had on our communities.
The last Module 4: Social Sustainability, will enable students to learn
about the importance of culture, heritage, and sense of place. Topics covered
include Place and Placemaking, Rootedness and Alienation, as well as
Globalization and its effects on local traditions and customs.
For further information, or if you have comments, please write to: bbross@illinois.edu
This is course is made possible by the generous support of the Institute for Sustainability, Energy, and
Environment (iSEE), UIUC.
Comments