Foroughmand Araabi, H; (2017) The formation of urban design theory in relation to practice. Doctoral thesis , UCL (University College London).

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Abstract

This dissertation investigates the complex and dynamic interaction between theory and practice in urban design. In doing so it hypothesises that there is a gap between the two. First, a literature review pins down what the writers define as urban design theory and how it relates to urban design practice. An innovative methodology is then employed in order to address the complex, dynamic, messy and ever-changing nature of this relationship, as well as the ways in which theory and practice are generated. At the core of the methodology is a reading of Gilles Deleuze’s philosophy. The empirical analysis that follows is in two parts. First, the manner in which the literature is adopted in universities, urban design readers and journals is examined before, second, twenty-two indepth interviews with influential practitioners and theorists of urban design are interrogated. The research reveals the influential interactions between theory and practice as a network of connections, and following the philosophical approach of Deleuze, characterises this as a rhizome. This implies that the network is an open system which enables continual innovative change and presents a better understanding of influential factors in the relationship between the theory and practice of urban design. The dissertation contributes both to the theory of urban design and to its philosophical underpinnings (its epistemology, ontology and normative). It also contributes a better understanding of how urban designers conceptualise the connections between theory and practice.

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