3602235: History of Architecture 1

Description

• Paris, Vienna and Chicago as case studies: characteristics of building activity and urban (re)organisation
• significance of the urbanization and modernisation process for an evolving architectural profession
• connections/oppostions between architecture and power

Lecture Goals

History of Architecture 1 addresses the process of modernisation and urbanisation as a force field in which architecture is produced. Based on the dramatic political, economic and cultural changes in three distinct historical settings, we will discuss how architects gave shape to a new urban society. We will also question how their work and their professional identity were shaped by this society. To grasp this relationship the course looks at buildings, designs, spatial concepts, policies and ideologies. As a critical perspective onto the process of modernisation and urbanisation, readings are also essential for the semester.

Learning Outcomes

• understanding how architectural modernity was conditioned by distinct settings
• contextualising architects and their discourses within the transformational "shock" of urban society initiated by the Industrial Revolution
• relating the products of architecture to the metropolitan public and to the logic of commodification and consumption of space

Lectures Method

lectures
group presentations combined with discussions of reading assignments
final exam

Admission Requirements

-

Literature

selected text excerpts
lecture overview pdf provided