本課程透過學生個人的環境經驗，經由觀察、田野調查、測量或訪談等方式學習，學生們將提升對環境的感知力，並有能力對環境變遷予以演繹、歸納、提問和驗證。本課程亦將引導學生將城市視為社會與心理的環境。以不同的都市環境與所衍生之人為價值觀與使用之關連行為進行測量與試驗。

本課程將協助學生瞭解並使用不同的圖面技法，用以記錄與傳達實質環境、環境的印象與概念。課程是以＜工作室或田野調查＞的方式進行，並配合一系列的討論分析與設計專案來執行。每個學生將面對一個環境，在其中進行觀察、記錄、分析與評估。案例研討將增強學生感知環境的能力，並提升學生對環境演繹、歸 納、提問、驗證的能力。選課的學生必須以素描簿或筆記本進行紀錄，並將在學期中定期呈交。

將以案例研討下列的主題：

• 基地與自然系統
• 公共空間與地方的塑造
• 基礎設施的運輸與循環
• 類型建立--單一與混合使用--填充

探討的主題是：

1. 觀察與詮釋都市環境。利用步行與觀察來研究場所的方法。如何從實質環境當中進行最佳的觀察、辯證、理解與蒐集線索。如何將彙整線索進而理解某個場所的故事與其背後的動能、建造時間和為誰而建。我們同時也將藉由實質與感覺指標探討社會經濟演變、趨勢、問題、弱點、政策與準則等議題。
   
   
2. 以系統化方法操進行都市田野調查，並由探究及確認環境事件的發生以建立新的模式。我們將專注在人們如何感知環境、如何使用環境、在環境中人們期望會發生的事件。這方法不會強調縝密的資料蒐集，而著重在連結不同的資料來源、假設、驗證、清楚串連發現的線索進而導出可能的結果。理解城市的實質系統：尺度、紋理、街 廓、街道、區域、公共空間、基礎建設與大自然。
   
   
3. 評估複合結構的方法，複合結構包含實質環境、感知、價值觀、規劃行為、設計專業、政府官員、顧客、媒體與不同的使用者。
   
   
4. 環境觀察的記錄、表達與交流的各種技巧。學習基礎的圖面語言，這些語言經由表達工具的使用，如：繪圖、拍照、電腦模擬及電腦排版，可以進行環境的分析與設計。

The course is about learning through one's own personal experience of the environment, be it through observations, field surveys, measurements or interviews, the students will learn to draw on their own senses as much as on their ability to deduct, conclude, question, and verify. The course will guide the students to view the city as primarily a social and psychological environment. It will be concerned with measuring and testing various urban environments in relation to people' values and use.

The course will help students understand and use various graphic techniques to record and convey the built environment as well as their impressions and ideas about it. The course is set as a workshop/field survey environment through which a series of discussions analysis and design projects are carried out. Each student will engage in an environment that they will observe, record, analyze and evaluate. The case study will emphasize one's own ability to draw on her or his senses, as much as on the ability to record, deduct, conclude, question, and verify. Participants will be required to keep a sketch/note book which will be handed in periodically during the semester.

The following topics will be studied through the cases:

• Site and natural systems
• Public spaces and place making
• Infrastructure transportation and circulation
• Built-up typologies -- single and mixed use -- infill

Themes to be explored:

1. Observing and interpreting the urban environment. Methods of studying a place by walking and observing. How to best observe, diagnose, understand and gather clues from the built physical environment. How to piece together clues that tell the history and dynamics of a place, when it was built and for whom. We will also study what are the physical and sensory indicators of economic and social change, trends, problems, the notion of vulnerability, and policy and guideline issues.
   
   
2. Methods of systematically carrying out urban field surveys and the development of new modes of inquiry which explore and verify what is happening in an environment. We will focus on how persons perceive and feel about an environment, how they use it, and what they expect to happen there. The emphasis will not be on elaborate data gathering, but rather on relating different sources of information, hypothesizing, testing and articulating the findings to possible recommendations. Understanding the physical structure of the city - the scale, pattern and form of blocks, streets, districts, public spaces, infrastructure, and nature.
   
   
3. Ways to evaluate the plural structure of the built environment, the perception, values, and behavior of planning and design professionals, public officials, clients, media, and the different users.
   
   
4. Techniques of recording, representing, and communicating what is observed. Learning the basic graphic language of analysis and design through the use of representation of tools such as: drawing, photographing, computer modeling, and desktop publishing.