The course is designed for undergraduate seniors throughout the university that must meet the 'contemporary world requirement' of their college (GEC/LAR). In addition, the course qualifies for the requirements of CRP's Undergraduate Minor Program. All other students with an interest in the contemporary urban planning experience are welcome.

The course introduces to the problems faced by urban populations with a focus on housing and urban services. It is based on the premise that all cities must deliver a common set of services to satisfy their citizens' basic needs; many of them encounter similar problems and issues in attempting to deliver these services; and despite all their differences, there by and large is a common set of instruments by which cities can address their planning problems. In particular, the course will

(1)  introduce students to the urban system delivering basic shelter and services (water, transport, waste disposal, health care, education) including market failures that justify planning.
(2) describe, compare and classify the main problems encountered in the delivery of shelter and services including a lack of institutional capacity in local government; inappropriate policies creating problems they hoped to overcome; and lack of financial resources to develop, maintain and operate urban services.
(3) acquaint students with the main instruments by which governments and their planners can hope to improve basic need delivery, including institutional reforms; creation of more efficient markets (land, finance, housing, infrastructure, construction); privatization and decentralization; direct shelter and service provision; improved fiscal instruments and higher cost recovery; and policies, incentives and regulatory instruments for the efficient operation of urban markets.

Students are graded based on class attendance (10 percent), two midterms (22.5 percent each) and two papers (22.5 percent each).

The course is offered through the Architecture section of the Knowlton School, but is designed for all students with an interest in project analysis, including students of Landscape Architecture and City and Regional Planning. In the past students from fields other than architecture have often made up half the class. Homeworks are adjustable to student interests and background.  The course uses standard textbooks from engineering and building economics. Students learn to:

(1) develop building space programs;
(2) derive project schedules and to analyze their impact on building cost;
(3) prepare a cash flow analysis;
(4) use discounting, present and future worth to determine project life-cycle cost;
(5) derive the project annual cost and internal rate of return to compare design alternatives;
(6) undertake least cost and feasibility analysis;
(7) prepare maintenance and replacement policies;
(8) analyze the trade-off between construction and operating cost in building design;
(9) understand a developer’s financial analysis of a project, including the calculation of depreciation schedules and their impact on tax liabilities and developer’s income; and
(10) derive breakeven prices calculated to determine project feasibility for given income groups or products.

The course makes use of spreadsheets. While prior knowledge of spreadsheets is desirable it is not required. The course introduces spreadsheet features in class and students can pick up the remainder through hands-on exercises and the preparation of homeworks. Grades are based on a single midterm and the homeworks.

The course provides students with a working knowledge of the issues and methods involved in urban sector planning in developing countries, and acquaints them with methods of project financial and implementation planning. Specifically, the course deals with the following subjects:

(1) urban economic development as it relates to employment, income, inequality, migration, and population growth; formulation of urban strategies to support national development objectives;
(2) urban sector analysis related to housing delivery including land use and location, municipal administration and finance, construction and housing materials, infrastructure and social services, and financial intermediation;
(3) project design and finance, including definition of target groups, design standards, technical development, affordability analysis, and determination of financial, economic, technical and administrative feasibility;
(4) project management and implementation, including scheduling, monitoring and follow-up.

Throughout the course draws heavily on the experience of individual countries both to illustrate common threads in the analysis and a range of technological, institutional and policy solutions. Course grading is based on class attendance (10 percent), a midterm (30 percent), a paper (20 percent) and 3-4 homeworks (40 percent). All homeworks require spreadsheet programming and acquaint students with models prepared for different countries or projects to deal with issues of affordability, alternative mortgage instruments, service privatization, and project implementation planning. The course does not have any prerequisites.

The course satisfies the studio requirement for the CRP Master's degree.  The purpose of the requirement is to expose students to the full analytical and design demands of an actual, 'real world' planning problem.  The course choses a set of issues from a country in which the instructor has recent planning experience. Course participants are divided into groups, and each group takes on one issue. Each group will work on a spreadsheet model to analyze different scenarios and prepare a policy analysis and report. Sample countries have included:

(1) Yemen: As a UNESCO World Heritage Site, Old Shibam is famous for its medieval mud buildings rising up to six stories but vulnerable to modernization, flood and new infrastructure. The project explores policies to preserve Shibam including the implementation of a tourism taxes, rehabilitation incentive schemes, infrastructure projects, and economic development assistance.

(2) South Africa: The country is trying to reverse the impact on the poor of many years of apartheid policies, particularly in the area of housing and infrastructure delivery. The new policy consists of direct housing subsidies provided by the central government and the establishment of an enabling environment (legal, institutional and regulatory) for the efficient operation of housing markets including construction firms, developers, financial intermediaries, infrastructure companies, and land owners. The Project asks for policy assistance to (i) municipal governments that in the future will integrate high income white core areas with poor black townships; (ii) municipal service companies delivering water, sewerage and solid waste; (iii) non-traditional retail lenders to the poor; (iv) housing wholesale lenders; and (v) housing associations aiming to restructure rental housing.

(3) Ecuador: The Government has redesigned its housing assistance policies to better mobilize private sector resources and to reduce Government direct housing provision. In the future, lending and technical assistance to the poor will be by private institutions while government limits its role to providing cash subsidies and enabling the institutional and regulatory environment. The project explores opportunities for municipal strengthening, privatization of municipal services, retail lending, and technical assistance to the poor.

The class meets for up to four hours per week for lectures, laboratories, discussions, and presentations, with a focus during the initial 2‑3 weeks on lectures to familiarize the class with the project at hand; class and group discussion during the following 3-4 weeks to analyze the problem and determine a planning approach; and presentations and critique during the final two weeks of class.

The course provides a basic understanding of the main concepts, issues, problems and techniques involved in regional planning. It does so by discussing the underlying theories and concepts, and by using a broad range of case study material from around the world to illustrate their use in actual applications. Topics covered include the definition and measurement of regions, regional growth and development, regional income disparities, industrial location, location of public facilities, urban systems, settlement planning, migration, regional policy and operational regional planning methods. The emphasis is upon providing a general overview as a basis and background for further courses in regional planning. In addition to case studies from Europe and the U.S. the course draws heavily on examples from developing countries familiar to the instructor including countries in East Asia, Africa, and the Middle East.