b'Juddtogether with our outside observer, Visitingpopulation that participates in the public realm of an Professor Karl Fischer from Berlin, reflect on thearea or neighbourhood. The oft-stated claim that urban pedagogical principles we have tested and refined sincedevelopment and design is concerned with the public the mid-1990s. Professor Cuthbert highlights the rolerealm and is pursued in the public interest is interrogated of spatial political economy in our critical positioningby Jeremy Dawkins in his essay, which emphasises the of the urban project in relation to the forces of globalscale and significance of the public contribution to the capital. Professor Judd sees the interdisciplinary basisvalue of private land to the extent that all urban projects of the program as the key to its engagement with urbanshould be seen as beholden to the public interest, challenges of the past and the futurethe formidablewith obligations to serve all or most citizens in direct, challenges of demographic change, climate change andmeaningful ways.increasing urbanisation. Professor Fischer continues discussion of the interdisciplinary life of the program,The complexity of urban design, operating at the seeing it as an achievement in human termsacross theintersection of politics, finance and design (Washburn academic staff and successive student cohortsand2013) has been more than demonstrated by the as the intellectual basis for urban design as physicalprotracted redevelopment of Green Square, the former city-making in robust, defensible terms, paralleling inindustrial lands between Central Sydney and the airport. many ways the interdisciplinary strength of physicalIn the first year of the MUDD Program, back in 1995, city-making in Germany. Here he refers to the theory andwe undertook a Studio 1 project which was submitted practice of Der Stdtebau, created in the 1890s, revivedin the ideas competition for the Green Square Urban in the 1980s and influential around the world since theRenewal Area conducted by the former South Sydney Berlin IBA of that decade. Council. Our work was unplaced but we have always honoured the winning entry in that competition by Reflecting more generally on the field of urban design,Sydney architect Chris Elliott, proclaiming that it should we have a powerful essay by a third founder of thehave been implemented (Weirick 2004). This year, we MUDD Program, Professor Jon Lang. Revisiting Colintook Chris Elliotts brilliant, water sensitive scheme as Rowes distinction between program and paradigmthe point of departure for a re-interrogation of the Green (Rowe 1982), Professor Lang discusses the dominanceSquare site, inviting Chris to co-convene our Studio 1 of paradigm-based design over program-based designstudy with Brendan Randles. To set our MUDD25 design in the world of practice, i.e. the power of seductivework in context, we publish the Chris Elliott scheme of models over design generation from first principles.1995 to highlight the potential of re-capturing something Although strongly supporting the latter, he ultimatelyof its vision in the inevitable intensification of the light advocates a fusion of the two, arguing that urbanindustrial sites stretching down to the Alexandra Canal.intensity will best be realised by rich programs based on the compact city model. John Zerby further interrogatesIn further exploration of our MUDD25 Urban Intensity | the concept of urban intensity, critically exploring theUrban Design theme, we present in outline, the individual relationship of intensification to measures of density,research projects undertaken by our students in the vitality, compactness, diversity, connectednessandMUDD Extended Program this year. Set in China, more broadly, to any move which seeks to accentuate,Vietnam, the United States and Australia, the physical amplify, boost, consolidate, deepen, enhance, heighten,dimension of city-making is the common thread in these magnify, step up and enhance the urban condition.passionate, highly charged studies which in themselves In the process, he argues that the costs and benefitsdemonstrate urban diversity and vitality. Engaged with of intensification in social terms must be evaluatedhistorical, cultural, experiential, typo-morphological and by means of the social sciences, relating the scaletechnical research questions, these projects have given of the problem to recent urbanisation in China anddepth to our year of study in the program.concluding that urban design will be affected less by the degree of population density and more by theThe theoretical basis and project work of the MUDD way intensity works through the experiences of theProgram have been documented from the outset in 5P1-20200229-FOLIOINTRO.indd10 2020/3/810:25:32'