Required Course
Credits: 3-0-3 (3 semester hours)
Type of Course: Lecture
Instructors: Robert M. Craig
Prerequisites: Graduate Standing - ARCH 4105
Course Overview
This is the second course of a two-part, knowledge-based, core survey of architectural history, from ancient to modern, and covers the history of architecture, primarily in western Europe and the United States, since 1750.
Selected Study Topics:
Themes of Modernity: the city; functionalism; history, style, & associationism; biological, mechanistic, and linguistic analogies & architecture; the dissolution of matter in modern thought.
Diversity issues: views of the world: Renaissance, modern, Chinese; women in architecture.
Pioneer Modernists: Art Nouveau, Wright, Viennese Secessionists, structural rationalists Avant Garde & Early Modernism: Futurism, Expressionism, Constructivism, Werkbund, Bauhaus, De Stijl, Le Corbusier, Mies,
Spreading Modernism: Art Deco, Streamlined Moderne, International Style, Miesian Aesthetic
Reactions and Extensions: New Formalism, New Brutalism, New Ornamentalism
Case Studies of Later Modernists: Kenzo Tange, Eero Saarinen, Louis Kahn
Learning Objectives
The course seeks to familiarize students with a) major themes of romanticism/neoclassicism, 19th c. historicism and 20th c. modernism; b) noteworthy master architects and their followers or detractors, c) landmark buildings representative of the significant style and aesthetic schools, and d) cross currents of artistic, technological, and scientific influence affecting the 20th century practitioners of the building art. Investigations in both readings and lectures include cross-disciplinary discussions of interactions between technology and art, influences on architecture from painting, sculpture, and decorative arts and crafts, and links to urban design history. Lectures include theme discussions, monographic studies of individual architects or art movements, and "period" studies which mix images from industrial arts, decorative arts, architecture, painting, photography, etc., to provide a cultural overview of themes of modern design or to highlight a movement of 20th century history. Individual slide lectures on selected topics are paired with assigned readings. Students are expected to attend all lectures, to read complimentary assigned readings, and to participate in preceptorial classes with discussions on topics related to survey topics.
Course Requirements
Grades are based on student performance on exams and class participation as follows: Two examinations [15% & 25%] and a comprehensive final exam [35%] provide major basis for evaluation. The remaining 25%is credited as follows on the basis of a) attendance (lecture and preceptorial), b) class participation in preceptorial discussions, and c) projects as may be assigned for preceptorials: a) & b) 15% total and c) 10%. After a 3rd absence (any combination of lecture or preceptorial), 3% is deducted, for a 4th absence, another 3%, for a 5th absence, another 3%, and for a 6th absence, another 3%.