Last Updated on July 21, 2021 by Admin
What is Site Planning?
Site planning is the design and process of planning for a new development project. Within Community Development, this stage of site planning is the organizing phase where urban planners create a tactical/detailed plan of new developments.
Site Planning Online Course
One of the best online courses to learn how to plan a site, its infrastructure, and public spaces so that it is sustainable, supports human needs, compatible with its natural and man-made surroundings, adaptable, and economically efficient. The course includes many examples of well-planned sites.
Cities are built the site by site. Site planning has been taught in urban planning, landscape architecture, and architecture programs for over a century and continues to be a foundation course for those who aspire to plan the built environment. It is a required subject on licensing and certification programs for each of these disciplines.
- Course Offered By Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)
- Course Duration: 10 Weeks
- Price: Free Online Course
- Course Type: Self-paced on your time
Mastering the art of site planning requires substantive knowledge, well-honed design skills, and familiarity with examples and prototypes of site organization.
- How to analyze a site and imagine the possibilities for its use.
- How to create a program and a plan for a site.
- How to make choices about site infrastructure.
- Examples of well-planned sites.
The course is organized into 10 one-week units, each containing 3-6 video learning modules. Each module is presented by an expert in the areas.
The topics covered during each week are:
1. Introduction: site values; exemplary greenfield and urban sites.
2. Site analysis: natural site analysis; the man-made context of sites; infrastructure capacity; development regulations and policies; sites as property; integrating site knowledge.
3. Site planning methods: planning processes; users, stakeholders, and the public; economic value of sites; design methods; digital media for design; creating a site proposal.
4. Site infrastructure: storm-water management; complete streets; pedestrian realms; water supply and disposal; energy for sites; intelligent infrastructure.
5. Site concepts and performance: place-making; subdivision and site assembly; scoring site performance; impact assessment.
6. Residential sites: a history of residential sites; typology of housing forms; housing and community design; dense residential sites.
7. Places for commerce and work: prototypes for shopping; future workplaces; innovation zones; planning for e-commerce.
8. Places for recreation and culture: Landscape structure; urban public spaces; human development and play; cultural districts.
9. College and university planning: types of universities; campus form and communication; new campuses; networked campuses; planning for adaptability.
10. Planning communities: mixed-use development; new communities; the future of communities; concluding remarks.
Students will be examined in 4 quizzes about their comprehension of the materials covered.
In addition to viewing the modules, students will have the opportunity to prepare a site plan in three stages: a site analysis (3 weeks); a program and concept plan (4 weeks), and a detailed plan for part of the public domain of a site (3 weeks.)
The course will provide basic data on two sites that may be used for this exercise. Alternatively, students may select a site in their own community and use it for their project. Or if the course is being taken in parallel with a university-level studio or workshop, the results may be submitted for grading and feedback.
