How did a city appear in the landscape? When and why was it created, how has it changed and what is its importance for humans today? What should a city be like to offer a good quality of life?
Landscape is present in the city, too, but it has gained a different form. Human settlements are an integral part of the landscape; the city plays an irreplaceable role in human culture.
This unit is an introduction to the development and the importance of the urban landscape for both humans and nature. It aims to provide students with an understanding of the role the urban landscape has in the context of basic human needs, social relationships, and infrastructure, as well as the protection of biodiversity and respectful use of natural resources.
The unit invites the students to reflect on the definition of the urban landscape, presents the history of urbanisation and offers insights into contemporary trends in urban planning and design. Emphasis is placed on practical activities: to stimulate their imagination and use learnt principles in real life, students create models of cities, use mapping to analyse city functions, design neighbourhoods, etc.
Pupils will:
Cities are dynamic centres of human activity characterized by a high density of population, intensive economic activity, and large infrastructures. A major environmental challenge the cities face is the phenomenon of urban heat islands. This phenomenon occurs when urbanised areas record higher temperatures than surrounding rural areas. The main cause is the replacement of natural vegetation with nonpermeable surfaces, such as concrete, asphalt, and buildings which absorb and then release heat. Other factors contributing to urban heat islands are intensive human activities, transport and industrial emissions, and limited green surfaces. Urban heat islands may negatively impact the quality of life of city inhabitants, increase energy consumption (e.g. due to increased use of air conditioning), and contribute to reduced air quality.
Measures, such as increasing the share of green surfaces in cities, using light-coloured construction materials, and supporting sustainable transport may help mitigate this problem and contribute to a healthier urban environment. A systematic approach leads to the creation of blue-green-grey urban infrastructure.
In this activity, students reflect on what characterizes a city and what differentiates it from other types of settlement. A creative method is used – each student says what the word “city” associates for him/her –to create a collective picture of a city, which is then analysed and discussed. This activity enhances the understanding of the city as a cultural construct and of the importance the urban environment has in social interactions.
Students learn about the history and development of cities: starting with nomadic societies, through the creation of agricultural settlements and later on cities. This activity includes reading text and creating live tableaus set in different periods of history as a means to learn how the economic and protective functions of cities contributed to their urbanization and formation. The activity strengthens historical awareness and provides the students with a better understanding of the changes human settlements underwent over time.
In this activity, students are divided into small groups and attempt to reconstruct the development of an urban structure using prisms and cubes as buildings. The aim is to experiment with the principles of an organically-grown city and discover the challenges cities face as a consequence of expansion and limited space. The activity encourages students to reflect on the advantages and disadvantages of the organic growth of a city.
Students get acquainted with modern trends in urban planning, especially with the concepts of a zone and a 15-minute city. They work with cards and a grid to try for themselves how a city can be designed, thus learning about the importance of accessible services and infrastructure for a better quality of life in the city.
Students are divided into groups to map functions of various areas/spaces in their surroundings and mark them on the map. This activity strengthens the ability of observation and analytical thinking: students learn to differentiate between housing, transport, services, and leisure and reflect on the polyfunctionality of urban spaces.
Students create pie charts based on the observations they made in the previous activity; they use graphic means to express the distribution of urban functions and spaces they encountered. This activity promotes mathematical and analytical skills and allows pupils to think about the urban environment in quantitative terms.
Students are offered to design their own neighbourhood. During the process, they focus on the integration of different city functions to promote concepts of sustainability and quality of life. This creative and planning activity develops imagination, understanding of urban design principles and teamwork skills.