Abstract
<jats:p>The Second Pedagogical Notebook is a continuation of the first ‘notebook’, dedicated to the Urban Planning Research course. The course and the notebook were created by Prof. Ivana Šverko, with the aim of offering students of architecture in Split the basics of urban planning research in a Mediterranean context. The idea behind the pedagogical notebook is to contribute to the recognition of the research phase as an essential starting point in the entire, complicated process of urban planning and design, as well as an understanding of research methodologies in specific spatial and social conditions. One of the ideal real-world templates for realising this goal is Zrinsko- Frankopanska Street, which developed along one of the Split peninsula’s Roman centuriation lines. This street connects the historical southern city harbour with the newer, northern one. Zrinsko-Frankopanska is an exceptionally important city street, and along its length there are a range of buildings dating from the ancient period to the 21st century, with almost every historical period represented. It is here that the most diverse range of public facilities can be found. The students mapped, studied, and analysed this city street, using historical and morphological analysis of spatial connections, greenery, the relationship between the public and the private, the accessible and inaccessible spaces, purpose, urban equipment, and so on. In doing so, they also noted relevant everyday human activities such as disposing of rubbish, as well as things such as the position and content of graffiti. They also included morphography – the description of forms without reference to their sources and development process – in their analytical approach. After the research phase, the students were instructed to target the problems they detected by proposing improvements to the existing elements, or by redesigning them. They were also required to open up the possibility of alternate uses for the space, up to the point in the design process when an architect or designer would usually take over. By presenting the study of a specific segment in this book, we wish to help students consider the complexity of the urban tissue, define the basic urban elements, research development processes, the typological and morphological characteristics of constriction and, ultimately, to identify everything that constitutes the “urban space as a whole”. We wish to guide them so that with their unique knowledge and tools, and their inclusion of all the other relevant professions in the processes of urban planning, they can become architects with sound professional and ethical principles, and develop into a new generation of responsible city-builders.</jats:p>