This course aims at exploring the historical and theoretical evolution of cities worldwide. The course focuses primarily on urban design and regional planning theories, which are employed as interpretative prisms of both historical and current dynamics of urban morphogenesis and growth. The following topics will be explored: cities in classical time; the pre-modern city; the modern city – Radiant City (Le Corbusier); American urbanism – Chicago, New York (Burnham, Moses, Jacobs); city form from image to pattern – urban design (Lynch, Alexander); post-modern city (Venturi, Rossi, Rowe); globalism – Generic City, the global city of late capitalism (Castells, Sassen, Koolhaas); the contemporary city – TOD, Smart, Sustainable; China/Asian modernism (modern contemporary) – Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen, HK, Singapore, Tokyo. Moreover, the course offers insight into the practice of urban design & planning in Asia and China.