Cities are complex and ever-evolving spaces, shaped by historical, economic, social, and political forces. This track explores how urban landscapes can be analyzed through key dichotomies that reveal underlying mechanisms of transformation.

By reasoning through images and contrasting social and architectural categories, we investigate tensions between center and periphery and the evolution of these two urban forms, the need to redefine the relationship between production and ecological generation, and the shifting boundaries between public and private realms. We examine how singularity and collectivity shape urban governance and explore the visible and invisible dimensions of cities, where informal practices and spatial inequalities redefine urban life.

Through interdisciplinary perspectives, the course provides a critical lens to interpret contemporary urban dynamics, highlighting how these dichotomies are not rigid oppositions but fluid interactions that influence the built environment.

By unveiling these complexities, we aim to foster a deeper understanding of cities and their potential for more sustainable, inclusive, and participatory futures.

This track explores the manifold historical and contemporary functions of urban religious edifices and their interrelationship(s) with the surrounding cityscapes.

Following a general introduction to tourism, this class will use the unlikely example of theme parks to introduce key areas and practices of sustainable tourism, from resource and climate efficiency through digitization and innovation to the safety, health, and general wellbeing of employees through safety and diversity initiatives and relationships with (local) communities through special programs e.g. for children.

Moreover, sustainability will be discussed as an economic strategy whose relevance for both theme park-investor relationships (the attraction of financial investments) and theme park-customer relationships (the “public image” of the company) has been steadily on the rise. Finally, students will develop their own research project on sustainability in an area of tourism of their choice.