Elective Course
Credits: 3-0-3 (3 semester hours)
Type of Course: Lecture
Instructors: Douglas C. Allen
Prerequisites: None
Course Overview: This course centers on the interrelated subjects of architecture, gardens, landscape, and nature. It is organized both thematically and chronologically. Emphasis is placed on the history of the garden as a work of art and on the relationships between conceptions of order in western thought and the man-made landscape.
Its purpose is to place the subjects of garden and landscape within the larger discipline of architecture and to examine the emergence of landscape architecture as a distinct profession within the discipline. Upon completion of this course, a student should be able to understand the relationships between and among specific ecological and site contexts and the design of cultural artifacts over time. A working knowledge of architectural history assumed.
Learning Objectives The course is organized around four thematic periods:
1. Order and Purpose in the Cosmos: The Garden in the Ancient World
2. A New World from the Old: The Garden in the European Renaissance
3. Authority, Nature, and the Birth of Landscape: The Development of Landscape as a Theory of Architecture in the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries.
4. Between Figure and Ground: The Development of Landscape Architecture in the Modern Period
There are thirty-two periods of one hour and twenty minutes each. At the end of each of the four thematic periods, there will be a one hour and twenty minute seminar with class discussion. You are expected to attend class regularly, read the material assigned, prepare the discussion papers as assigned, and participate actively in the seminar and discussion periods. Your grade will be determined by your participation in class discussion and the completion of four essays drawn from a list of questions given at the beginning of each thematic topic.
Course Requirements: You are expected to attend class regularly, read the material assigned, and participate in discussions when called upon. Your grade will be determined by the completion of a series of discussion papers assigned over the course of the semester. The purpose of these papers is to prepare for a discussion in seminar format of the topics covered in the lectures. The papers will be turned in and will be graded. Grades will be based on an assessment of the extent to which you have been able to 1) familiarize yourself with the subject in the lectures and the assigned readings in the texts; 2) extract the fundamental principles examined in class from these; 3) reflect upon the relationship of the readings and lectures to one another; and 4) apply this knowledge to a larger framework of inquiry and application. It is fundamental that in preparing these discussion papers, your words are your own. While you are strongly encouraged to use resources external to the lectures and texts, including the library and the internet, the substitution of material that is wholly or substantially identical to that created or published by another individual or individuals is plagiarism, and as such, a violation of the student honor code.