University of Southampton Teaching

As another University of Southampton semester draws to a close, I want to share some of the positive feedback I have received from my students. Since 2018, I have designed, run, and delivered the CENV 3057 Urban Design module to third year Civil Engineering students at the University of Southampton. This is an option topic in the second semester which runs from late January through until June. I enjoy supporting the students with a lecture series and tutorials, when I offer advice about how to draw, how to think and how to analyse a city, a neighbourhood, a street, and a building.

I feel privileged teaching this module as I get to find out what young people think and feel about their urban environments. Their optimism about what cities have to offer is always a joy to see. The common themes I encounter in their work include a wish to see the positive elements of sociability, community, and outdoor life protected and enhanced. They often seek to remove cars from the public realm, want to make the city greener and want to make a more playful city. There are rarely any egotistical skyscrapers or towers emerging from their work, with more subtle interventions proposed in amongst the existing neighbourhoods.

Here’s what my students are saying:

“I am writing to express my gratitude for your invaluable feedback, and the quality of teaching you provided throughout the course. I thoroughly enjoyed the urban design module, and it played a role in shaping my academic interests”

“The delivery of the urban design module has been so engaging, and I have not just enjoyed learning about the content, but I have looked forward to the scheduled sessions each Friday”

“I have found all the principles and design concepts to be extremely interesting and have really enjoyed being challenged in a different way to the more typical civil engineering problems”

“Glimpsing into the world of urban design by learning about your route into it and also sneak peaks of your live projects has opened my eyes to other potential paths after university and so I just wanted to say thanks for the professional yet fun attitude you have taken to this term”

“I was a student in your urban design module the semester just gone, and I wanted to let you know that I really enjoyed the module and learnt a lot from it. It has been my favourite module by far that I have completed at Southampton”

“What I particularly enjoyed from your module was the broad variety of theories covered in a short space of time and I really appreciated your individualised input, guidance and feedback on the assignment tasks throughout the module, during tutorials and after presentations”

“I wanted to reach out to say, genuinely, urban design was the best module I took during my time at university. I love the work that you do”

“I loved your urban design module. It has definitely been the most interesting and creative module we did at university so thanks for always being so supportive with us and encouraging us to think outside the boxes which wasn’t easy for our square engineering brains!”

“What a great module! The most creative for sure. You are definitely a great urban design lecturer”