Schools and skills of critical thinking for urban design

Foroughmand Araabi, Hooman

Abstract

© 2017, © 2017 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group. This paper explores possible ways in which urban design can engage with critical thinking and critical theory. After a brief explanation of the terms, with particular attention to the Frankfurt School of thought, it provides various answers to the question as to whether urban design is critical or not. One categorization applied to planning critical theory is then used to explain the potential for employing critical theories in urban design. Critical thinking skills are then argued to be helpful for enriching the literature of urban design in order to achieve better practice. The conclusion is that urban design can benefit from critical creativity, which is an embodiment of critical thinking within the limits imposed onto creativity. In this paper, the ways in which urban design can engage with both critical theory and with critical thinking are explored in order to achieve better critical creativity in the field.

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Aug 9, 2017
• Online Publication Date: Sep 11, 2017
• Publication Date: Sep 3, 2018
• Deposit Date: Aug 23, 2017
• Publicly Available Date: Mar 11, 2019
• Journal: Journal of Urban Design
• Print ISSN: 1357-4809
• Electronic ISSN: 1469-9664
• Publisher: Taylor & Francis (Routledge)
• Peer Reviewed: Not Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 23
• Issue: 5
• Pages: 763-779
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/13574809.2017.1369874
• Keywords: schools, skills, critical thinking, urban design
• Public URL: https://uwe-repository.worktribe.com/output/901920
• Publisher URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13574809.2017.1369874
• Additional Information: Additional Information : This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis in Journal of Urban Design on 11th September 2017, available online: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13574809.2017.1369874.
• Contract Date: Aug 23, 2017