Edmund N. Bacon as a teacher

Review of a didactic exercise carried out in the course «History and Theory of Urban Design» at the University of Pennsylvania

Abstract

The article examines the teaching practice of Edmund Bacon under the theoretical postulates exposed in his fundamental work «Design of Cities». The postulates expressed in the work are reviewed, linked to internal forces, the system of simultaneous movements and the awareness of space as an experience. An unpublished record (documentary, graphic and oral) of a didactic experience developed in the course "History and Theory of Urban Design" taught by Bacon at the University of Pennsylvania is then reviewed. Subsequently, the theoretical precepts of Design of cities are contrasted with the didactic-teaching practice of the course, verifiable in the records offered. From the findings, it is shown how Baconian theory and didactics distance themselves from the modern conception of urbanism of the 20th century, realizing, rather, a proximity to empirical, perceptual and experiential currents, perhaps closer to the avant-gardes and phenomenology.