Modern Architecture + the Modern City

PROGRAM INFORMATION

The Graduate Summer Program in Europe - Modern Architecture and the Modern City:  Barcelona – Berlin – Holland –Paris received a seed grant from the Georgia Tech Foundation, initiating the first program in the summer of 1991. Based on that successful experience, the program continued to develop and has been offered annually except for the Atlanta Olympic summer of 1996.

The Program examines the modern and contemporary city through the lens of the historical urban structure of each place and the ways that buildings, landscapes and urban design have shaped it. We especially focus on the period after  the middle of the 19th Century, when urban politics, urban reform, modern architecture and urban design began to flourish and build the modern city and its contemporary successors. Students in all three disciplines -  architecture, landscape architecture and planning - study these movements in academic coursework and recognize their importance in contemporary theory, research and professional practices. However, classroom instruction, using texts and slides, can never substitute for direct observation.

The program has three main objectives:

• Introduce students to the physical forms and structures of cities and the complex sources of that shape them – landscape, politics, ideals, imagination, identity, conflict – and the roles that architecture, landscape and urban design has played in constituting urban form and reality.
• To deepen the students understanding of the complex relationships of 20th Century architecture and urbanism to specific cultural settings, historical events, and political movements through lectures, seminars and visits to cultural and historical museums and exhibitions.
• To immerse the students in contemporary architecture, landscapes and urbanism in Europe and their relationships to the century of modernism through lectures, seminars and visits to significant contemporary buildings, urban projects, and landscapes, as well as to architecture, landscape and urban design offices.

ORGANIZATION OF THE PROGRAM

The Program is organized as a full summer semester. The formal foreign study-travel portion totals about 8 weeks, proceeded by one week of initial seminars and followed by student’s independent travel and research relating to their independent study proposals. It includes three parts, as follows:

• Initial Seminars and Lectures at Georgia Tech. This first four days of the program is conducted at Georgia Tech in  lecture/seminar formats, devoted to the three required courses. The students also initiate their independent study projects and submit  initial materials and detailed study plans prior to departure to Europe.
•  Study/Travel Program. The primary part of the study/travel program is centered around visits to the four locations. Faculty and students will spend 56 days total, and a minimum of 40 class days.
• Independent Study. Each student’s independent study proposal is prepared in the Spring Semester and approved by the Architecture Program prior to departure. The research topic is related to modern or contemporary architecture, landscape architecture or urban design in Europe, using direct visits, documentation, and interviews where appropriate. Research topics include: building technology and construction, affordable housing, urban design at the urban fringe, urban and landscape design of public spaces, architecture and urbanism of transit and transportation, etc. The requirements for this independent study are the same as independent study credits during the academic year.