Syllabus academic year 2009/2010
(Created 2009-08-11.)
SHELTERABAN01

Higher education credits: 6. Grading scale: UG. Level: A (Second level). Language of instruction: The course will be given in English on demand. Optional for: A4. Course coordinator: Karin Grundström, karin.grundstrom@hdm.lth.se, Boende och bostadsutveckling. The course might be cancelled if the numer of applicants is less than 10. Assessment: For approval of the course a minimum of 80% attendance is demanded at lectures, seminars and workshops. The student must hand in the assignments for approval and write a paper for approval. Home page: http://www.hdm.lth.se.

Aim
The aim of the course is to give an orientation on urban shelter design from a global perspective, with a focus on the urban poor in cities of the south. The aim is to generalize and develop knowledge from previous courses by relating concepts and theories of architecture and urban design to the current discourse on development and urban shelter.

Knowledge and understanding
For a passing grade the student must

in writing and with references to the course literature be able to:

Skills and abilities
For a passing grade the student must

in writing and with references to the course literature be able to:

in drawings and with references to the course literature be able to:

Judgement and approach
For a passing grade the student must

Contents
The course gives an overview of urban shelter design from a global perspective, with a focus on the conditions of the urban poor.

The course provides an introduction to the global goals and strategies for a sustainable development of the built environment, such as the UN-habitat Agenda, the World Urban Forum and the Millennium Development Goals. Concepts of urbanization, urban growth, and the distribution of the urban population in different regions of the world will be analyzed. The course focuses on themes of urban shelter design related to social, environmental and economic sustainability. Slums as well as legal housing areas form part of the analysis of shelter for urban, poor groups in the so called third world.

From the perspective of urban shelter design, the course develops and combines previous theoretical knowledge and concepts related to design of housing and human settlements. The following themes are included in the course: use of public space, issues of safety and security, gender and physical planning, energy consumption and passive climatisation of buildings and urban space, slum-upgrading, finance for low-income housing and organized self-help housing.

Examples include projects, case-studies and research from Algeria, Costa Rica, , Honduras, Morocco, Nicaragua, the Philippines Sri Lanka, Sweden, South Africa and Tunisia.

The course contains both literature studies and a design proposal of a building and part of a housing area.

Literature
Davies, M. 2006. Planet of Slums, London, New York, Verso. ISBN: 1-84467-022-9.
Mc Carney P. L. 2006. Our future: Sustainable cities—turning ideas into action, Background paper WUF3. Available from website: http://www.wuf3-fum3.ca
Sinclair, C. (et. al) 2006. Design Like you Give a Damn, Architectural Response to Humanitarian Crises, Thames & Hudson Ltd. ISBN: 9780500342190.
Tannerfeldt, G. & Ljung, P. 2006. More Urban Less Poor, an introduction to urban development and management. Earthscan. ISBN: 13:978-1-84407-381-8.
Sida Policy, Fighting Poverty in an Urban World, Support to Urban Development http://www.sida.se/sida/jsp/sida.jsp?d=1575&a=24313&language=en_US
United Nations Human Settlements Programme: http://www.unhabitat.org/
United Nations Millenium Development Goals: http://www.un.org/millenniumgoals/
United Nations World Urban Forum: http://www.wuf3-fum3.ca/
Building issues: http://www.hdm.lth.se/bi/INDEX.HTM