MArch Master of Architecture Master of Architecture: Urban Planning & Design 5 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: Which historical urban design movement, led by figures like Daniel Burnham, emphasized grand civic axes, classical architecture, and monumental public buildings in American cities around 1900?
- Garden City Movement
- City Beautiful Movement (Correct answer)
- New Urbanism
- Modernist Planning
Correct answer: City Beautiful Movement
The City Beautiful Movement sought to improve city aesthetics and civic life through Beaux-Arts planning, exemplified by the 1909 Plan of Chicago.
Question 2: What is 'value capture' in the context of transit and infrastructure planning?
- A method for pricing carbon emissions from transportation
- A financing mechanism that recaptures land value increases created by public infrastructure investment for public benefit (Correct answer)
- The process of appraising historic buildings before demolition
- A technique for measuring economic productivity in urban cores
Correct answer: A financing mechanism that recaptures land value increases created by public infrastructure investment for public benefit
Value capture tools such as Tax Increment Financing (TIF) and special assessment districts allow governments to recoup some of the land value uplift that public infrastructure creates.
Question 3: In urban design terminology, what does 'placemaking' refer to?
- The technical process of subdividing land into platted lots
- A collaborative process of designing and activating public spaces to strengthen communities (Correct answer)
- The architectural styling of building facades to match local vernacular
- A GIS method for mapping land ownership boundaries
Correct answer: A collaborative process of designing and activating public spaces to strengthen communities
Placemaking is a multi-faceted approach to planning and designing public spaces that fosters community identity, social interaction, and well-being.
Question 4: Which urban planning theory argues that cities should be understood as complex, self-organizing systems rather than as machines to be rationally engineered top-down?
- Rational Comprehensive Planning
- Complexity and Systems Thinking in urbanism (Correct answer)
- Functionalist Zoning
- Garden City Theory
Correct answer: Complexity and Systems Thinking in urbanism
Complexity theory in urbanism, associated with thinkers like Jane Jacobs and Nikos Salingaros, views cities as emergent, adaptive systems shaped by countless small decisions.
Question 5: What is the defining characteristic of a 'land trust' model of community development in U.S. cities?
- A private real estate investment trust that acquires distressed properties for profit
- A nonprofit organization that holds land in trust permanently to keep housing affordable for future residents (Correct answer)
- A government program that leases public land to developers at below-market rates
- A legal mechanism for protecting farmland from urban development
Correct answer: A nonprofit organization that holds land in trust permanently to keep housing affordable for future residents
Community Land Trusts separate land ownership (held by the nonprofit) from building ownership (held by residents), keeping homes permanently affordable by limiting resale gains.
Question 6: In which way does 'incremental housing' differ from conventional public housing provision in developing-world urban contexts?
- Incremental housing is fully government-funded and built all at once
- Incremental housing provides a basic core structure that households progressively expand over time as resources allow (Correct answer)
- Incremental housing refers to luxury condominium towers built in phases
- Incremental housing eliminates the need for any formal planning approval
Correct answer: Incremental housing provides a basic core structure that households progressively expand over time as resources allow
Incremental or 'sites and services' housing provides minimal infrastructure and a starter core, allowing residents to add rooms gradually according to their own means.
Question 7: Which design principle, central to Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design (CPTED), reduces crime risk by physically controlling access to areas and signaling who belongs?
- Biophilic design
- Territorial reinforcement (Correct answer)
- Wayfinding signage
- Universal design
Correct answer: Territorial reinforcement
Territorial reinforcement uses design features like landscaping, fencing, and signage to define ownership, signal that a space is cared for, and deter unauthorized use.
MArch Master of Architecture Master of Architecture: Urban Planning & Design 5
Which historical urban design movement, led by figures like Daniel Burnham, emphasized grand civic axes, classical architecture, and monumental public buildings in American cities around 1900?