L’atelier pédagogique en urbanisme : apport des commanditaires à l’apprentissage par problèmes appliqués

Abstract

Professional studios in urban planning curricula are a moment of problem-based learning. This article is based on the tutoring experience of two first year studios in an urban planning Master’s programme. Our analysis of problem-based learning in both studios focuses on the importance of real-life commissions and students’ interactions with clients for the creation and acquaintance with a community of practice. The municipality of Paris commissioned two analyses of Bastille and Italie squares from an environmental health perspective, prior to their refurbishment. The two groups’ contrasting answers to the municipality’s commission are the basis for our discussion of the main characteristics of learning in a planning studio. Moreover, the studio’s subject (environmental health) is somewhat new in Parisian operational planning. The commission stems from a specific political and organizational context, namely a deputy Mayor’s efforts of infusing environmental health in the city’s planning practice. The reception of students’ reports, too, was contrasted among local political and technical stakeholders. These differences portray planners’ role in assisting clients’ during design processes: the production of expert knowledge, as well as intervening in an established network of stakeholders. Studios give students the opportunity of experimenting planning as a technical and social activity with a specific relationship with the political sphere. There are fundamental practical skills to be learned at the intersection of these dimensions.

Keywords

• master degree
• professional planning studio
• problem-based learning
• clients
• environmental health
• Municipality of Paris