Theories of the Urban

Three-term research seminar (volumes I to III, October 2023 to May 2024) of the Master in City and Technology at IAAC, within the Urban Sciences Lab. Taught with Mariano Gómez-Luque.

Volume I (theory, urbanisation, ecology) builds on the theory of planetary urbanisation as a base for a critical agenda for the design disciplines in the Anthropocene. Volume II (climate, media, technology) extends it through readings on the climate crisis, urban media and urban technologies. Volume III, a week-long workshop, moves from the critical-analytical to the critical-speculative, with the skyscraper as an artefact for imagining alternative urban worlds, paired with science fiction films.

The method combines close-reading techniques with AI writing and visualisation tools (ChatGPT, Midjourney): keyword extraction, synthesis and re-writing, to develop a critical position toward machine-writing. Outputs were presented as a collective conceptual toolbox in the form of an exhibition as final review, pairing each definition with its images.