Contemporary Architecture and Critical Debate

Calendar

LEC #	TOPICS	Discussion
1	Introduction
2	Megacities
3	Blobs, Curves and the Formless	Buildings to Study: Frank Gehry - Disney Concert Hall, Los Angeles; Greg Lynn - Artists’ Space Installation, New York
4	Theory Outtake 1
5	Bodies
6	CTRL [Space]
7	Environmentalism
8	Architecture and Deconstruction	Buildings to Study: Bernard Tschumi - Parc de la Villette; Projects featured in the MOMA show of 1988
9	The New York Five	Buildings to Study: Peter Eisenman - House II, VI, X; Charles Gwathmey; John Hejduk; Michael Graves - Benacerraf House addition
10	First Interim Exam	Questions will be based on readings. Length of total required responses: 1500 words. Students will have a choice between more standard, explicatory questions relating to the readings already done, or more interpretive essay questions. The former will have higher weight.
11	Architecture and Post-Modernism	Buildings to Study: James Stirling - Neue Staatsgalerie, Stuttgart; Robert Venturi - National Gallery Extension, London
12	Kenneth Frampton and Critical Regionalism	Buildings to Study: Alvar Aalto - Saynatsalo Town Hall; Tadao Ando - Koshino House, Osaka; Jörn Utzon - Bagsvaerd Church
13	Modernisms Elsewhere	Buildings to Study: Jo Noero - Soweto Career Center, House Nxumalo; Charles Correa - Belapur Township
14	Vernacularism	Building to Study: Hassan Fathy - New Gourna Township
15	Critiques of Modernism	Buildings to Study: Atelier Lucien Kroll - Medical Faculty Building, University of Louvain; Ralph Erskine - Byker Wall, Newcastle; Candilis, Josic and Woods - Berlin Freie University
16	Theory Outtake 2
17	Phenomenology and Place
18	Minimalism and Monumentality - Louis Kahn	Buildings to Study: Louis Kahn - Salk Institute, Kimbell Museum, Dhaka National Assembly Building, Philips Exeter Building
19	Second Interim Exam	Questions will be based on readings. Length of total required responses: 1500 words. Students will have a choice between more standard, explicatory questions relating to the readings already done, or more interpretive essay questions. The former will have higher weight.
20	Voyages into the Surface - Robert Venturi and Denise Scott-Brown	Buildings to Study: Venturi and Denise Scott Brown - Vanna Venturi House, Guild Hall
21	Aldo Rossi and the Archetypes of Memory	Building to Study: Aldo Rossi - San Cataldo Cemetery, Modena
22	Manfredo Tafuri and the Venice School	Building to Study: Carlo Aymonino and Aldo Rossi, Gallaratese quarter, Milan, 1967-73.
23	Theory Outtake 3
24	Superstudio - Italy between First and Third Worlds	Buildings to Study: Compare Archigram and Superstudio Projects
25	1968
26	Traces on the City	Buildings to Study: Situationist projects; Projects by Constant
27	Technofantasy / Megastructure	Buildings to Study: Cedric Price - The Fun Palace; Archigram projects
28	Late CIAM and the Architecture of the Welfare State	Buildings to Study: James Stirling - Engineering Building, Leicester University, History Faculty Building, Cambridge University; Alison and Peter Smithson - Sheffield University Extension
29	Final Paper (4500 words) Due	Paper should be a research paper on a topic decided upon by consultation between the student, the instructor and the teaching assistant.