Developing a Better City With UCLA's IDEAS Urban Strategy Studio

March 3, 2020

How do we go about shaping a better city? How can land use and urbanism be explored to create solutions for pressing urban problems? Can multidisciplinary approaches to urban planning help create new ways of defining and shaping urban growth? Archinect spoke with UCLA Department of Archiecture and Urban Design Associate Adjunct Professor, Jeffrey Inaba, and lecturers David Jimenez Iniesta and Gillian Shaffer of UCLA AUD's IDEAS Urban Strategy Studio to discuss challenging land development conditions in Los Angeles.

(L-R) David Jimenez Iniesta, Jeffrey Inaba, and Gillian Shaffer. Image courtesy of UCLA Architecture and Urban Design

"How do we go about shaping a better city? How can land use and urbanism be explored to create solutions for pressing urban problems? Can multidisciplinary approaches to urban planning help create new ways of defining and shaping urban growth?

In Los Angeles, ubiquitous and challenging land development conditions have positioned the University of California, Los Angeles Department of Architecture and Urban Design to unpack these topics and explore them like perhaps no other school of design can. An institution that focuses on collaborative research between its students and faculty, UCLA AUD strives to create learning environments fueled by experimentation and discovery. As a means to highlight the initiatives being focused on at the school, Archinect spoke with Associate Adjunct Professor, Jeffrey Inaba, and lecturers David Jimenez Iniesta and Gillian Shaffer of UCLA AUD's IDEAS Urban Strategy Studio. The studio is one of four research topics: Entertainment (studio previously covered on Archinect), Mobility, Technology, and Urban Strategy, offered as part of the one-year post-professional Master of Science in Architecture and Urban Design (M.S.AUD) program available at the institution's IDEAS campus.

Together, we discussed common misconceptions students have when learning about urbanism and land use. Inaba stated, "We try to shift our students' frame of reference to understand the goal of urbanism as an effort to meet these really universal human needs in an inventive and radical way that uses the administrative systems that are in place."

Jeffrey, what is “urban strategy,” and how would you describe the IDEAS Urban Strategy Studio?

Urban strategy involves studying how contemporary cities evolve — the forces that affect their growth and decline. The IDEAS Urban Strategy Studio digests this information, and we come up with urban design proposals that channel resources to respond to the most urgent challenges for cities like Los Angeles, such as climate change. Our particular point of view is that these challenges are opportunities to envision a better city; a city with new kinds of urban spaces and types of buildings. We want to work with planners, the real estate community, architects, and communities to improve the quality of our urban environment. "— Katherine Guimapang, Feb. 27, 2020

This post is an excerpt. Read the full article on the Archinect website.

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