3.4
COA 4921: ART AND ARCHITECTURE
IN ITALY, 3-0-3
Associate Professor Athanassios Economou
Professor Douglas Allen
Professor Mario Carpo
College of Architecture
Georgia Institute of Technology
Summer 2010
PURPOSE
The course is organized as an individual independent
study offered to students that participate in the Study
Abroad Program on Art and Architecture in Greece and Italy.
The course is offered in addition to the three courses
of the program, COA 3114, COA 3115 and COA 3116, and students
receive three hours of free elective credit through faculty
directed, independent studies worked out during the course.
These research topics are developed during the spring
semester and must receive departmental approval from a
faculty advisor and the Director of the Architecture Program.
Although these topics may range widely across a number
of subjects, and may be entirely within an art historical
paradigm, every effort is made to generate interdisciplinary
topics suited to the particular major of each student.
Examples include masonry vaulting, or water supply and
urban infrastructure for civil engineers, or an examination
of the effects of atmospheric sulfur dioxide on marble
and limestone for a chemical engineer. While the program
is aimed primarily at undergraduate students from the
other colleges at Tech, students within the College of
Architecture have also participated in the program. A
handful of graduate students, most from architecture,
some from other colleges, have also participated. The
diversity of the student enrollment is viewed as one of
the program's strengths.
FORMAT
These special problem independent studies are organized
around regular scheduled meetings between the student
and the faculty in charge, and it is supplemented by a
weekly series of lectures given by Professors Dowling,
Economou, and Allen during the introductory preparatory
course the spring semester prior to the study abroad program;
furthermore the research is supported by onsite field
trips in Greece and Italy where the students have direct
access to their object of study. Students conduct field
studies on their own during afternoons, after the formal
lectures and presentations for the regular three core
courses are over. The required paper or project is completed
after returning to Tech, prior to the end of the summer
term. Guidelines for requests for approval for an independent
study, and samples of good papers are given in the beginning
of the spring semester prior to the trip abroad.
READINGS
An anthology of readings is required and it varies
according to the subject matter of the proposed research.
Readings may range from general background basic references
to highly specific technical articles and they should
provide a basic foundation for the development of the
proposed research. The list of appropriate readings for
the proposed research is worked out during the initial
discussions between the student and the faculty in charge
and is attached in the formal request for approval for
independent study in the program.
AREAS OF CONCENTRATION
Studies related to painting
Studies related to sculpture
Studies related to urbanism
Measured drawings of individual buildings
or urban spaces
individual study proposal form [.doc]
