Contemporary Architecture and Critical Debate

Readings

LEC #	TOPICS	KEY DATES
1	Introduction
2	Megacities	Koolhaas, Rem. “Singapore Songlines: Portrait of a Potemkin Metropolis… or Thirty Years of Tabula Rasa.” In S, M, L, XL. New York: The Monacelli Press, 1995. ISBN: 1885254865. Lee, Ching Kwan. “Factory Regimes of Chinese Capitalism; Different Cultural Logics in Labour Control.” In Ungrounded Empires: The Cultural Politics of Modern Chinese Transnationalism. Edited by Aihwa Ong and Donald Nonini. New York: Routledge, 1997. ISBN: 0415915430.
3	Blobs, Curves and the Formless	Lynn, Greg. “Animate Form.” In Animate Form. New York: Princeton Architectural Press, 1999. ISBN: 1568980833. Krauss, Rosalind, and Yves-Alain Bois. Introduction - “The Use Value of the Formless,” and Conclusion - “The Destiny of the Informe.” In Formless: A User’s Guide. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1997. ISBN: 9780942299434. Suggested Readings Foster, Hal. “Part 1: Architecture and Design.” In Design and Crime. London: Verso, 2002.
4	Theory Outtake 1	Haraway, Donna. “A Cyborg Manifesto: Science, Technology, and Socialist-Feminism in the Late Twentieth Century.” In Simians, Cyborgs and Women: The Reinvention of Nature. New York: Routledge, 1991. ISBN: 0415903874. Plant, Sadie. “Anna 1,” “Gambling on the Future,” “Binaries,” “Supporting Evidence,” “Genderquake,” “Cultures,” “Nets,” “Digits,” “Holes,” “Cyborg Manifestoes,” “Programming Language,” “Shuttle Systems,” and “Casting on.” In Zeros + Ones. New York: Doubleday, 1997. ISBN: 0385482604.
5	Bodies	Fuss, Diana, and Joel Sanders. “Bergasse 19: Inside Freud’s Office.” In Stud: Architectures of Masculinity. Edited by Joel Sanders. New York: Princeton Architectural Press, 1996. ISBN: 1568980760. Djebar, Assia. “Postface: Forbidden Gaze, Severed Sound.” In Women of Algiers in Their Apartment. Charlottesville, VA: University Press of Virginia, 1992. ISBN: 0813914027.
6	CTRL [Space]	Keenan, Thomas. “Publicity and Indifference: Media, Surveillance, ‘Humanitarian Intervention.” In CTRL [Space]: Rhetorics of Surveillance from Bentham to Big Brother. Edited by Thomas Y. Levin, Ursula Frohne, and Peter Weibel. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2002. ISBN: 9780262621656. Wodiczko, Krzysztof. “Designing for the City of Strangers.” In Critical Vehicles: Writings, Projects, Interviews. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1999. ISBN: 9780262731225. Suggested Readings Manovich, Lev. “Modern Surveillance Machines: Perspective, Radar, 3-D Computer Graphics, and Computer Vision.” In CTRL [Space]: Rhetorics of Surveillance from Bentham to Big Brother. Edited by Thomas Y. Levin, Ursula Frohne, and Peter Weibel. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2002.
7	Environmentalism	“Access to Tools.” In The Original Whole Earth Catalogue, Special 30th Anniversary Issue. Edited by Stewart Brand, and Peter Warshall. Whole Earth, 1998. ISBN: 1892907054. Reinhold, Martin. “Environment, c. 1971.” In Grey Room 14 (Winter 2004). Papanek, Victor. “Environmental Design: Pollution, Crowding, Ecology.” Chapter 10 in Design for the Real World. Chicago: Academy Chicago Publishers, 1984. ISBN: 0897331532.
8	Architecture and Deconstruction	Derrida, Jacques. “Point de folie - Maintenant l’architecture.” La Case Vide: La Villete (1985). Edited by Bernard Tschumi. Reprinted in Architecture Theory since 1968. Edited by by K. Michael Hays. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1998. ISBN: 9780262082617. Speaks, Michael. “Negotiating the Hypertext: Bernard Tschumi’s La Villette.” In Context and Modernity. Papers from the Delft International Working Seminar on Critical Regionalism, 12-15 June 1990. Suggested Readings Evans, Robin. “Persistent Breakage.” In The Projective Cast: Architecture and Its Three Geometries. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1995.
9	The New York Five	Eisenman, Peter. “Aspects of Modernism: Maison Dom-ino and the Self-Referential Sign.” In Oppositions Reader. Edited by K. Michael Hays. New York: Princeton Architectural Press, 1998. ISBN: 1568981538. Rowe, Colin. Introduction to Five Architects. Reprinted in Architecture Theory since 1968. Edited by K. Michael Hays. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1998. ISBN: 9780262082617. Suggested Reading Rowe, Colin. “The Mathematics of the Ideal Villa.” In The Mathematics of the Ideal Villa and Other Essays. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1982.
10	First Interim Exam
11	Architecture and Post-Modernism	Jencks, Charles. “Part Three: Post-Modern Architecture.” In The Language of Post-Modern Architecture. 6th ed. New York: Rizzoli, 1991. ISBN: 0847813592. Jameson, Fredric. “Postmodernism and Consumer Society.” In The Anti-Aesthetic: Essays on Postmodern Culture. Edited by Hal Foster. Seattle, WA: The Bay Press, 1983. ISBN: 094192002X. Huyssen, Andreas. “Mapping the Postmodern.” In A Post-Modern Reader. Edited by Charles Jencks. London: Academy Editions, 1982. ISBN: 1854901079. Suggested Readings Habermas, Jürgen. “Modernism and Postmodernism Architecture.” In Architecture Theory Since 1968. Edited by K. Michael Hays, 1981 reprint. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1998, pp. 412-426. Baudrillard, Jean. “The Ecstasy of Communication.” In The Anti-Aesthetic: Essays on Postmodern Culture. Edited by Hal Foster. Seattle, WA: Bay Press, 1983.
12	Kenneth Frampton and Critical Regionalism	Frampton, Kenneth. “Towards a Critical Regionalism: Six Points for an Architecture of Resistance.” In The Anti-Aesthetic: Essays on Postmodern Culture. Edited by Hal Foster. Seattle, WA: Bay Press, 1983. ISBN: 094192002X. ———. “The Status of Man and his Objects.” Reprinted in Architecture Theory since 1968. Edited by K. Michael Hays. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1998. ISBN: 9780262082617. Suggested Readings Lefaivre, Liane, and Alexander Tzonis. “Why Critical Regionalism Today?” In Architecture + Urbanism, May 1990.
13	Modernisms Elsewhere	Fraser, Valerie. “Brazil.” In Building The New World: Studies in the Modern Architecture of Latin America, 1930-1960. London: Verso, 2000. ISBN: 1859843077. Elleh, Nnamdi. “Architecture and Nationalism in Africa, 1945-1994.” In The Short Century: Independence and Liberation Movements in Africa, 1945-1994. Edited by Okwui Enwezor. New York: Prestel Verlag, 2001. ISBN: 3791325027. Suggested Readings Eleb, Monique: “An Alternative to Functionalist Universalism: Écochard, Candilis and ATBAT-Afrique.” In Anxious Modernisms: Experimentation in Postwar Architectural Culture. Edited by Sarah Williams Goldhagen. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2001. ISBN: 9780262072083. Serageldin, Ismail. “The Architecture of Empowerment: A Survey.” In The Architecture of Empowerment. London: Academy Editions, 1997.
14	Vernacularism	Rudofsky, Bernard. Architecture Without Architects: A Short Introduction to Non-Pedigreed Architecture. Albuquerque, NM: The University of New Mexico Press, 1988. ISBN: 0826310044. Rapoport, Amos. “Alternative Theories of House Form,” and “Socio-cultural Factors and House Form.” Chapter 2, and 3 in House Form and Culture. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1969. ISBN: 0133956733.
15	Critiques of Modernism	Alexander, Christopher. A Pattern Language: Towns, Buildings, Construction. New York: Oxford University Press, 1977. pp. 10-74. ISBN: 0195019199. Rowe, Colin, and Fred Koetter. Selections from Collage City. Reprinted in Architecture Theory since 1968. Edited by K. Michael Hays. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1998. ISBN: 9780262082617. Lynch, Kevin. “City Form,” Chapter IV in The Image of the City. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1960. ISBN: 9780262620017. Suggested Readings Jane Jacobs. Selections from Death and Life of American Cities. New York: Vintage Books, 1963. Chapters 6, 8, 13, 16.
16	Theory Outtake 2	McLuhan, Marshall and Lewis H. Lapham. Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1994. ISBN: 9780262631594. Wiener, Norbert. Chapter I, “Cybernetics in History,” and Chapter II, “Progress and Entropy.” In The Human Use of Human Being: Cybernetics and Society. New York: Doubleday, 1954.
17	Phenomenology and Place	Frampton, Kenneth. “On Heidegger.” Oppositions 4, October 1974. Norberg-Schulz, Christian. “The Phenomenon of Place.” In Architecture Association Quarterly 8, no. 4 (1976). Reprinted in Theorizing a New Agenda for Architecture. Edited by Kate Nesbitt. New York: Princeton Architectural Press, 1996. ISBN: 156898054X. Suggested Readings Norberg-Schulz, Christian. Genius Loci: Towards a Phenomenology of Architecture. New York: Rizzoli, 1980.
18	Minimalism and Monumentality - Louis Kahn	Kahn, Louis. “Monumentality.” In Architecture Culture 1943-1968. Edited by Joan Ockman with Edward Eigen. New York: Columbia Books of Architecture/Rizzoli, 1993. ISBN: 0847815226. Bonnefoi, Christian. “Louis Kahn and Minimalism.” Oppositions 24, Spring 1981. Norberg-Schulz, Christian. “Kahn, Heidegger, and the Language of Architecture.” Oppositions 18, Fall 1979. Suggested Readings Lobell, Mimi. “Kahn, Penn and the Philadelphia School.” Oppositions 4, October 1974.
19	Second Interim Exam
20	Voyages into the Surface - Robert Venturi and Denise Scott-Brown	Venturi, Robert. Selections from Complexity and Contradiction in Architecture. New York: Museum of Modern Art, 1977. ISBN: 0870702815. Venturi, Robert, Denise Scott Brown, and Steven Izenour. “Theory of Ugly and Ordinary and Related and Contrary Theories.” In Learning from Las Vegas: The Forgotten Symbolism of Architectural Form. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1977, 1972. ISBN: 9780262220200. Suggested Readings Scott Brown, Denise. “Learning from Pop.” In Casabella 35, no. 359-360 (December 1971).
21	Aldo Rossi and the Archetypes of Memory	Rossi, Aldo. “The Structure of Urban Artifacts.” Chapter 1 in The Architecture of the City. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1984. ISBN: 9780954836610. Moneo, Rafael. “The Idea of Architecture and the Modena Cemetery.” Oppositions 5. Reprinted in The Oppositions Reader. Edited by K. Michael Hays. New York: Princeton Architectural Press, 1998. ISBN: 1568981538. Tafuri, Manfredo. “The ‘Case’ of Aldo Rossi.” In History of Italian Architecture, 1944-1985. Translated by Jessica Levine. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1989. ISBN: 9780262200677. Suggested Readings Rossi, Aldo. “The Individuality of Urban Artifacts; Architecture.” Chapter 3 in The Architecture of the City. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1984. ISBN: 9780954836610.
22	Manfredo Tafuri and the Venice School	Tafuri, Manfredo. “L’architecture dans le boudoir.” In The Sphere and the Labyrinth. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1990. ISBN: 9780262700399. Cohen, Jean-Louis. “The Italophiles at Work.” Reprinted in Architecture Theory since 1968. Edited by K. Michael Hays. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1998. ISBN: 9780262082617. Suggested Readings Tafuri, Manfredo. “Architecture and its Double: Semiology and Formalism.” In Architecture and Utopia: Design and Capitalist Development. Translated by Barbara Luigia La Penta. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1979.
23	Theory Outtake 3	Foucault, Michel. “The Subject and Power,” and “Space, Knowledge and Power.” In Power Vol. 3 of the Essential Works of Focault, 1954-1984. Series Edited by Paul Rabinow. New York: The New Press, 2000. ISBN: 1565847091. Althusser, Louis. “Ideology and Ideological State Apparatuses.” In Lenin and Philosophy. New York: Monthly Review Press, 1971. ISBN: 0902308122.
24	Superstudio - Italy between First and Third Worlds	Lang, Peter, and William Menking. “Only Architecture Will Be Our Lives.” In Superstudio: Life Without Objects. Edited by Peter Lang, and William Menking. Milan: Skira, 2003. ISBN: 8884915694. ———. “Suicidal Desires.” In Superstudio: Life Without Objects. Edited by Peter Lang, William Menking. Milan: Skira, 2003. ISBN: 8884915694. Ambasz, Emilio, ed. “Counterdesign As Postulation.” In Italy: The New Domestic Landscape: Achievements and Problems of Italian Design. New York: Museum of Modern Art, 1972, pp. 223-265. ISBN: 0870703935.
25	1968	Genevro, Rosalie. “Introduction.” The Inflatable Moment : Pneumatics and Protest in ‘68. Edited by Marc Dessauce. New York: Princeton Architectural Press, 1999. ISBN: 1568981767. Dessauce, Marc. “On Pneumatic Apparitions.” In The Inflatable Moment: Pneumatics and Protest in ‘68. Edited by Marc Dessauce. New York: Princeton Architectural Press, 1999. ISBN: 1568981767. Tschumi, Bernard, and Martin Pawley. “The Beaux-Arts Since ‘68.” Architectural Design, July 1971.
26	Traces on the City	Sadler, Simon. “Formulary for a New Urbanism: Rethinking the City.” Chapter 2 in The Situationist City. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1998. ISBN: 9780262193924. Wigley, Mark. “The Hyper-Architecture of Desire.” In Constant’s New Babylon: The Hyper-Architecture of Desire. Rotterdam: Center for Contemporary Art, 1998. ISBN: 9064503435. Suggested Readings Violeau, Jean-Louis. “A Critique of Architecture: The Bitter Victory of the Situationist International.” In Anxious Modernisms: Experimentation in Postwar Architectural Culture. Edited by Sarah Williams Goldhagen. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2001. ISBN: 9780262072083.
27	Technofantasy / Megastructure	Banham, Reyner. “Fun and Flexibility,” and “Epilogue: The Meaning of Megastructure.” Chapter 5 and Chapter 9 in Megastructures: Urban Futures of the Recent Past. London: Thames and Hudson, 1976. ISBN: 0500340684. Lopsinger, Mary Louise: “Cybernetic Theory and the Architecture of Performance - Cedric Price’s Fun Palace.” In Anxious Modernisms: Experimentation in Postwar Architectural Culture. Edited by Sarah Williams Goldhagen. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2001. ISBN: 9780262072083.
28	Late CIAM and the Architecture of the Welfare State	Smithson, Alison, ed. “CIAM/Team 10.” Architectural Design. May 1960, pp. 175-207. Mumford, Eric. “From the ‘Heart of the City’ to the End of CIAM.” In The CIAM Discourse on Urbanism, 1928-1960. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2000. ISBN: 9780262133647.
29	Final Paper (4500 words) Due