Explores changes in the built environment expected from transportation investments, and how they can be used to promote sustainable and equitable cities. Reflects on how notable characteristics of cities can be explained by their historical and current transportation features. From a historical perspective, e.g., discusses how central areas of most European cities created during the pre-modern transportation era are more walkable, dense, and diverse; and the auto-oriented North American suburbs sprawling during the massive increase in car ownership. Introduces theoretical basis and empirical evidence to analyze the urban transformation autonomous vehicles will bring and how shared mobility services affect travel behavior, and its implications from an urban planning perspective. Lectures interspersed with guest speakers and an optional field trip. 

Small group study of advanced subjects under staff supervision. For graduate students wishing to pursue further study in advanced areas of real estate not covered in regular subjects of instruction. 

Focuses on key business and legal issues within the principal agreements used to control, entitle, capitalize, and construct a mixed-use real estate development. Through the lens of the real estate developer and its counter-parties, students identify, discuss, and negotiate the most important business issues in right of entry, purchase and sale, development, and joint-venture agreements, as well as a construction contract and construction loan agreement. Students work closely with attorneys who specialize in the construction of such agreements and with students from area law schools and Columbia University and New York University. Enrollment limited to approximately 25; preference to MSRED students. No listeners. 

Seeks to examine the technological change and innovation that is disrupting the foundation of how we create the built environment. Through a series of educational workshops, students scout, catalog, and track technologies by looking at new real estate uses, products, processes, and organizational strategies at MIT labs and around the globe. Participants contribute to an interactive web tool, "The Tech Tracker," which provides technology intelligence to students and real estate professionals to enhance their understanding of technological progress. 

Provides an opportunity for MIT students to become certified in methods of assessing the vulnerability of public agencies (particularly agencies that manage critical urban infrastructure) to the risk of cyberattack. Certification involves completing an 8-hour, self-paced, online set of four modules during the first four weeks of the semester followed by a competency exam. Students who successfully complete the exam become certified. The certified students work in teams with client agencies in various cities around the United States. Through preparatory interactions with the agencies, and short on-site visits, teams prepare vulnerability assessments that client agencies can use to secure the technical assistance and financial support they need to manage the risks of cyberattack they are facing. Students taking graduate version complete additional assignments.

This graduate research seminar will review the seminal as well as latest research on the driving forces of urbanization, real estate markets, urban sustainability in both developed and developing economies. It will cover various research topics under the umbrella of urbanization under three different modules where students will get a chance to learn from initiation of an idea to its publication including but not limited to, analyzing, framing, writing and critiquing as parts of the process.

The seminar is divided into three core modules and along with other key dimensions of sustainable urbanization—e.g., land and housing, transportation, energy and environment, business environment and political economy — we together will engage in the dialogue on the latest research and will reflect on it as a class. We will together understand the tensions as well as synergies between urbanization and sustainability. Together we will dissect and understand how qualitative and quantitative research methods are applied. In all three modules we will examine the connections between these multiple functional domains. The course entails subjects that evolve continually to keep pace with current trends in the cities, real estate sector and urbanization globally. We will together look into processes, engaging students to provide critical insights and produce cutting-edge academic work.  Under the three core modules -

Module I - Sustainable Urbanization. Cities are the engine for economic growth. This massive movement of residents from rural to urban regions, the so called "urbanization" is exerting more and more pressure everyday on the environment (water, air, soil, biodiversity, climate, and more), and public health and is reshaping economies of our cities as they grapple to adapt. This module is designed for students who wish to gain deeper insights into the tension and synergy between urban development and the environment from a global perspective; and at the same time, to enhance their analytical reasoning and quantitative skills to assist evidence-based study and policy design evaluation in this field.

Module II- Sustainable Real Estate. Today, climate change represents one of the biggest existential threat to the US and global real estate markets. Technology, climate science and regulations have developed dramatically in the sustainability sector due to the significant climate induced physical risks presented to the built environment. At the same time, Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) is gaining prominence with respect to investment decisions in global real estate industry. Real estate investors and market players put sustainability at the center of their investment approach. This module will provide a systematic framework to understand the most challenging issues in sustainability in the real estate industry.

Module III- Urbanization of Emerging Economies. Asia, Middle East, Africa, and other parts of the developing world have experienced a dramatic urbanization process over the past few decades. Such a rapid urbanization happening at this global era has different underlying forces as well as patterns from that happened in Europe and North America centuries and decades ago. This module will look into a few developing economies/regions (China, Brazil, Southeast Asia, etc.) to study the urbanization dynamics, and explore how to conduct rigorous research in those contexts when data availability is always a big challenge.

Through extensive reading and writing, students explore the promise and perils of the variegated city, focusing on topics that demand urgent attention: migration, climate change, inequality, racial injustice, and public space. Class strives to create artful narratives by examining how various forms — essay, memoir, longform journalism, poetry, fiction, film, and photography — illuminate our understanding of cities. Special emphasis on the writer as the reader's advocate and on the indispensability of the writer-editor relationship, with the goal of writing with greater creativity and sophistication for specialized and general interest audiences. Limited to 12 students.

Explores photography as a disciplined way of seeing, and as a medium of inquiry and of expressing ideas. Readings, observations, and photographs form the basis of discussions on landscape, light, significant detail, place, poetics, narrative, and how photography can inform research, design and planning, among other issues. Recommended for students who want to employ visual methods in their theses.  Enrollment limited.
 

This course focuses on developing realistic pathways to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from urban passenger transportation. It reviews the strategies most commonly proposed to advance climate change mitigation: changing urban land use patterns, shifting passenger travel behavior to less energy intensive modes, adopting zero emission vehicle technology, and developing ‘new mobility’ such as carshare, bikeshare, and rideshare. Each of these strategies is evaluated quantitatively to understand its potential to support pathways to zero emission mobility. Students then consider the policy tools required to unlock these changes, and the potential for private investment to support this transition. The course closes with modules on climate adaptation in urban transportation and a comparison to decarbonization in ‘harder to decarbonize’ areas like airlines and long distance freight transport. It seeks to enable students to be intelligent evaluators of approaches to transportation decarbonization and equip them with the tools to develop and evaluate policy measures relevant to their local professional challenges. 

This class provides an introduction into essential tools and methods of reflective practices with the objective to support students in their practicum work. In addition, students will have an opportunity to explore theories and frameworks that define the field of reflective practice.

Reflective practice describes the capacity of a practitioner to step back and reflect on one's actions. This process of reflection-in-action is the foundation for successful stakeholder engagement, especially in communities and client systems. Reflective practice builds on a continuous learning process and is based on the assumption that the moment a practitioner joins the system, that system is changed. This implies that the practitioner’s identity, intention, and skills impact the outcome of an engagement with a community and clients. Consequently, the ability to engage methods of self-reflection and to take a critical stance on one’s own practice is essential for the success of a practitioner’s engagement with stakeholders.

This class combines 1) theory of reflective practice, 2) interactive engagement with tools and methods, and 3) dialogues with practitioners.

Students are expected to work on their own theory of practice and identify core principles and practice that will guide their practicum work.

This course meets on the following three Mondays from 5-8pm:
October 3rd
October 17th
October 24th