Figures of Thought and the Socius

Abstract

Starting from a faculty wide discussion on teaching architecture and urbanism in the nineties at the TU Delft, Faculty of Architecture, I develop a brief historical overview of more recent planning and mapping techniques. During the many meetings at the faculty, discussions swept from ‘architectural’ approaches, to ‘computational’, to ‘urban’, and ‘scientific’. Although more professional experts were involved, coming from Maastricht University where new teaching models were introduced earlier on, the meetings never ended in a consensus on how to teach urbanism. What seemed to be lacking was a more historically informed approach. I use James Corner’s four approaches to mapping techniques to show not merely a ‘technique’, but the ‘how’ and ‘why’ of a particular approach. Every planning technique creates its own ‘social field’ in which it operates: the socius.

Keywords

• socius
• mapping techniques
• education
• teaching models
• urban design