Elective Course
Credits: 3-0-3 (3 semester hours)
Type of Course: Lecture
Instructors: Sabir Khan
Prerequisites: None
Course Overview
One of two architecture courses offered in Barcelona as part of the Barcelona Study Abroad Summer Program.
This course takes direct advantage of its location in Barcelona to study the diverse components of the city's design and material culture. Through a mix of Lectures, discussions, and site visits, students engage first-hand Barcelona's urban fabric and material culture: not only its art and architecture but also product and graphic design, street fashion, popular art and food. The goal is to provide students both a framework and a vocabulary with which they can make sense of Barcelona’s particular sensibility.
The Lectures and readings during the first half of the course place Barcelona's architecture, design, and material culture within historical, regional, and cultural contexts. The second half of the course focuses on modern Barcelona: from the "Expansion" of the 1850s, the Expositions of 1870 and 1928 to the 1992 Olympics, the 2004 Universal Forum.
The 90-minute sessions are divided into Lectures, discussion of assigned readings, and project presentations. Site visits to particular districts and buildings occur every other week. Students undertake on-site documentation and analysis.
Learning Objectives
(See above)
Course Requirements
- Midterm and Final Exams. Short Answer and Essay Questions
- Project One: Documentation of Neighborhoods and Buildings
- Project Two: Site Visits. Analysis
Readings:
Course Reader. Articles drawn from architectural history, architectural criticism, furniture design, cultural studies, material culture studies, industrial design, Spanish and Catalunyan history, and the popular press. All articles are available on the library’s electronic reserves.
Outline:
- Spanish Culture: Elements, Pattterns
- Catalan Culture: Elements, Patterns
- Spanish Architecture: Overview
- Architecture in Barcelona: Overview
- Modern Architecture in Spain: pre and post Franco
- Modern Architecture in Barcelona: pre and post Franco
- Cerda and the Eixample: 150 years
- The Design of Public Spaces and Infrastructure
- Product and Industrial Design in Catalunya and Barcelona
- Design Culture: Publishing, Crafts, Popular Arts, Fashion
- The Making of Catalan Cuisine
- Not Barcelona: Madrid, Valencia, Seville, Bilbao
- Brand Barcelona: The Role of Design