PART 1 – Modernism and its Fracture
Session 1, Monday August 24 – Lecture
- Introduction to ARCH210
- Syllabus, grading, submissions, and exams
- 01_Recapitulation of Modernism (1 of 2)
- Frank Lloyd Wright, Le Corbusier, and Mies van der Rohe
This section provides an overview of three architects that figure heavily throughout many narratives of 20th century architecture: Frank Lloyd Wright, Le Corbusier (Charles-Édouard Jeanneret), and Mies van der Rohe. This session is intended to overlap with material from ARCH002, setting up a historical foundation for the remaining course material.
Session 2, Wednesday August 26 – Lecture
- 02_Recapitulation of Modernism (2 of 2)
- Frank Lloyd Wright, Le Corbusier, and Mies van der Rohe
A continuation of the previous session, covering the basis of ‘Modernism’ as it was understood throughout the 20th century. The second section includes figures and works that supplement and frame those of Wright, Corbusier, and Mies, as well as Modernism’s legacy up until the middle of the century.
Session 3, Monday August 31 – Discussion
- Wright, “A Home in a Prairie Town” (1901)
- Le Corbusier, “A Contemporary City of Three Million Inhabitants”
- Gropius, “Scope of Total Architecture”
- Mies van der Rohe, “The End of the Bauhaus” (1951)
Session 4, Wednesday September 2 – Lecture
- 03_From CIAM to TeamX, Brutalism, and Metabolism
By the end of the first half of the 20th century, there was a salient discontent with the ambitions and claims of Modernism. Consequent to this trend, a number of movements emerged directly from the ‘old guard,’ most notably including Team X (European), and Metabolism (Japanese).
Session 5, Monday September 7 – Discussion
- CIAM, “Athens Charter” (1933)
- Team X, “The beginning of Team 10”
- The Smithsons, “Criteria for Mass Housing” (1957, rev. 1959)
- Maki, “Investigations in Collective Form” (1964) [read up to pg 23]
PART 2 – The City
Session 6, Wednesday September 9 – Lecture
- 04_The City (part 1 of 3)
- Kevin Lynch, Jane Jacobs, and Christopher Alexander
One of the major themes in architectural discourse is the city and its relation to the design of buildings and infrastructure. This three-part section looks at a variety of seminal approaches that have come to define 20th century discourse, namely as it regarded postwar and postmodernist arguments.
The first section looks at the approaches of Kevin Lynch, Jane Jacobs, and Christopher Alexander.
Session 7, Monday September 14 – Discussion
- Jacobs, The Death and Life of the Great American City (1961)
- Citizen Jane (Jane Jacobs) – Clip 1
- Citizen Jane (Jane Jacobs) – Clip 2
- Citizen Jane (Jane Jacobs) – Clip 3
- Citizen Jane (Jane Jacobs) – Clip 4
- Lynch, The Image of the City (1960)
- Alexander, A Pattern Language (1977)
Session 8, Wednesday September 16 – Lecture
- 05_The City (part 2 of 3)
- Colin Rowe and Fred Koetter
One of the major themes in architectural discourse is the city and its relation to the design of buildings and infrastructure. This three-part section looks at a variety of seminal approaches that have come to define 20th century discourse, namely as it regarded postwar and postmodernist arguments.
The second section looks at the overall and individual arguments inherent in the publication, Collage City (1978).
Session 9, Monday September 21 – Discussion
- Rowe/Koetter, “Introduction” and “Utopia: Decline and Fall?” in Collage City (1978)
- Rowe/Koetter, “Collision City…” in Collage City (1978)
Session 10, Wednesday September 23 – Lecture
- 06_The City (part 3 of 3)
- Aldo Rossi – The Architecture of the City
One of the major themes in architectural discourse is the city and its relation to the design of buildings and infrastructure. This three-part section looks at a variety of seminal approaches that have come to define 20th century discourse, namely as it regarded postwar and postmodernist arguments.
The third and final section looks at concepts of history, memory, monuments, and artefacts, specifically as outlined in Rossi’s The Architecture of the City (1966).
Session 11, Monday September 28 – Discussion
- Rossi, excerpt 1 from The Architecture of the City (1966)
- Rossi, excerpt 2 from The Architecture of the City (1966)
- Optional: Halbwachs, excerpt
Session 12, Wednesday September 30 – Lecture
- 07_Typology
- Plato, Locke, Berkeley
- Aldo Rossi, Raphael Moneo, Anthony Vidler
The idea of typology attempts to associate particulars into larger classes (types), and its basis has helped to define architectural approaches since the end of the 18th century. There has been a renewed modern interest in this ‘method’ with the work of Aldo Rossi, who integrated typology as a system of classification, with the idea collective memory as it related to the city and its forms.
Session 13, Monday October 5 – Discussion
- Plato, Republic (Book VII, ‘The allegory of the cave’)
- Rossi, “An Analogical Architecture” (1976)
- Rossi, “The analogous city: panel”
- Anthony Vidler, “The Third Typology” (1977)
- Optional: Rafael Moneo, “On Typology” (1978)
- Optional: Anthony Vidler, “The Idea of Type“
- Laugier, Essai sur l’architecture (up to “Article 1: The Column”)
- Plato, Theaetetus
- Plato, Meno
Session 14, Wednesday October 7 – Midterm Quiz
- In-class quiz covering discussion from The City (parts I – III) and Typology
Session 14b, Monday October 12
- Review of Midterm
- Discussion of Typology
Session 15, Wednesday October 14 – Lecture
- 08_Phenomenology
- Christian Norberg-Schulz, Alberto Pérez-Gomez, Martin Heidegger
In sharp contrast to the analytical and formalist methods that dominated European-American theory during the second half of the 20th century, architectural phenomenology drew heavily from its philosophical forebears in works from Martin Heidegger and Maurice Merleau-Ponty. While never dominant over its counterparts, phenomenology has remained an important, often alternative approach, to the design of buildings and cities through to the current period.
Session 16, Monday October 19 – Discussion
- Heidegger, “Building, Dwelling, Thinking” (1954)
- Norberg-Schulz, “Kahn, Heidegger, and the Language of Architecture”
- Norberg-Schulz, “Genius Loci” (1976)
- Vesely, “On the Relevance of Phenomenology”
PART 3 – Critical Theory
Session 17, Wednesday October 21 – Lecture
- 09_Postmodernism
- Venturi, Scott, and Brown, Robert AM Stern
While never a coherent movement with a single advocate, postmodernism could be defined in the negative – as ‘not modernism.’ In general, postmodernist approaches often embraced complex over reductive conclusions, descriptions over prescriptions, pluralism over singularity, and the outright rejection over calls for architectural ‘best practices.’ This section will center on the work of Robert Venturi and Denise Scott Brown, whose work helped to provide an identity for an architectural counter culture whose tenets are still debated today.
Session 18, Monday October 26 – Discussion
- Venturi, Complexity and Contradiction (1966) [LARGE FILE!] (pgs 13-33, and 45 – 69)
- Stern, “Gray Architecture as Post-Modernism, or, Up and Down from Orthodoxy” (1976)
- Piranesi, “Thoughts on Architecture” (1765)
- Barthes, “The Death of the Author” (1967)
Session 19, Wednesday October 28 – Lecture
- 10_Situationism
- Bernard Tschumi, Guy Debord
A largely French-inspired movement, Situationism undermined the practice of architecture as one that is determined, definite, and top-down. Its application within architecture derived from larger social, cultural, and artistic themes from a wide array of disciplines including politics, literature, and the fine arts. In the realm of architecture, the idea of psychogeography inspired re-readings of cities and spaces that depended on fragmented experience and immersion over the totality of masterplans.
Session 20, Monday November 2 – Discussion
- Jean-Jacques Rousseau, excerpts from Reveries from a Solitary Walker (1776)
- Debord, (various, 1956 and 1957)
- Tschumi, “Spaces and Events” and “Sequences” (1981 – 1983) [LARGE – 23 MB]
- Tschumi, “Spaces and Events” (missing from above link)
- Tschumi, Manhattan Transcripts (1981) [LARGE – 62 MB]
Sesssion 21, Wednesday November 4 – Lecture
- 11_American Corporate Architecture
- SOM, Eero Saarinen, Roche + Dinkeloo, etc.
Dominating our skylines and suburbs, corporate architecture constitutes a significant part of the buildings we encounter on a daily basis, yet they are often underrepresented in academic discourse. This section looks to identify some of the key issues in the evolution of the corporate workplace, and its relation to more commonly discussed architectural problems.
Session 22, Monday November 9 – Discussion
- Koolhaas, excerpts from Delirious New York (1978)
- Koolhaas, Typical Plan (1995)
- Martin, excerpts from The Organizational Complex (2003)
Abalos and Herreros, excerpts from Tower and Office (2003)
Session 23, Wednesday November 11 – Lecture
12_Deconstructivism, The Diagram, & Post-Functionalism
Continuing with the Deconstructivist trend, the diagram became a central focus for its emphasis on non- or post-functional concerns. While there were a variety of interpretations on the theme, the work of Peter Eisenman represented an apotheosis of the diagram’s denial of architecture’s traditional valuation of architecture through its use or ‘performance.’
Session 24, Monday November 16 – Discussion
- Eisenman, “Post-Functionalism” (1976)
- Eisenman, “Cardboard Architecture” (1967)
- Prix, Lecture at the Architectural Association (AA) (1998)
Session 25, Wednesday November 18 – Lecture
- 14_Digital and technological trends 2000-2020
- Current trends – the good, the bad, and the ugly
A catch-all session that looks at current trends in architecture, from practice to theory, along with discussion of extant styles in various architecture design cultures.
Monday – Wednesday November 23 – 25 – No class (Thanksgiving Break)
Session 26, Monday November 30 – Discussion
- Review session covering entire semester content, in preparation for final quiz
Session 27, Wednesday December 2 – Quiz
In class quiz covering discussion from entire semester
Final Submission, Wednesday December 9
Respond to one of the following questions:
- Why is Architecture?
- When is Architecture?
- How is Architecture?
700 words (strict maximum)
Calibri, 11 pt, double spaced, .docx file
Due: Wed 9th Dec, 11:15am EST