Course Meeting Times
Lectures: 2 sessions / week, 1.5 hours / session
Course Description
The goal of this course is to investigate with students backgrounds on some of the pivotal events that have shaped our understanding and approach to architecture. Emphasis of discussion will be primarily on buildings and works of individual architects. Canonical architects, buildings and movements that have exerted significant influences on the development of architecture will be studied in detail. We will visit some of these buildings for a first-hand look and to evaluate for ourselves their significance or lack thereof. As a final project, each student will analyze a building through drawings, text, bibliography and a physical model in a format ready for documentation and exhibition.
Not only will a larger visual vocabulary enable students to communicate more effectively about design, it can also aid in developing their own design ideas in studio. Gaining an insight into the canonical architectural works and movements in the past beyond just the forms will give the students an opportunity to place their own design ideas within the architectural tradition. “The buildings of the past are studied so that the student will acquire from their significance and greatness a sense for genuine architectural values, and because their dependence upon a specific historical situation must awaken in him an understanding for the necessity of his own architectural achievement.” Mies van der Rohe.
Course Format
This course will include short film documentaries, lectures, in-class discussions, assigned readings for each class and building visits. There will be no final exam in this course. Instead, there will be a final class project that will be scheduled for exhibition. Class attendance is counted toward the final grade and the TA will note any lateness of over 20 minutes.
There will be weekly assigned readings to be done prior to class and these readings will provide students with some backgrounds for in-class discussion. Active student participation is mandatory. Students will come to each class prepared with two thoughtful questions related to that day’s reading material to be emailed to the TA prior to class. I also encourage you to take a look at the recommended readings.
Grading
| ACTIVITIES | PERCENTAGES |
|---|---|
| Completion of reading assignments on time | 40% |
| Class participation and attendance | 30% |
| Final project | 30% |
Calendar
| LEC # | TOPICS |
|---|---|
| 1 | Introduction |
| 2 | Louis Sullivan: Adler and Sullivan |
| 3 | Frank Lloyd Wright |
| 4 | Adolf Loos, Peter Behrens and the German Werkbund |
| 5 | De Stijl and Schrader Schroder house |
| 6 | Walter Gropius: Bauhaus and Harvard |
| 7 | Visit Gropius House, Lincoln, MA |
| 8 |
Le Corbusier buildings and cities Documentary: La Tourette |
| 9 |
Mies van der Rohe: Berlin and America, less is more Documentary: Mies |
| 10 | Philip Johnson and the International Style of 1932 |
| 11 | Alvar Aalto |
| 12 | Louis Kahn |
| 13 | Eero Saarinen, Paul Rudolph |
| 14 | Case-study house program |
| 15 | Field trip to Yale, overnight stay with Sunday trip to Exeter Library |
| 16 | Urbanism CIAM and Team X |
| 17 | Aldo Van Eyck |
| 18 | James Stirling |
| 19 | Aldo Rossi and Carlo Scarpa |
| 20 | Five Architects: Eisenman, Graves, Gwathmey, Hejduk, Meier |
| 21 | Post Modernism: less is a bore |
| 22 | Deconstructivist architecture |
| 23 |
Rem Koolhaas and Frank Gehry Documentary: Sketches of Frank Gehry |
| 24 | Suburbia, sprawl, Congress for New Urbanism, Duany Plater-Zyberk |
| 25 | William McDonough, green building practices |
| 26 | Final review exhibition |
