Arch 6212 - Arch 3600
HISTORY OF MODERN ARCHITECTURE HISTORY OF MODERN ARCHITECTURE HISTORY OF MODERN ARCH
A History of Modern Architecture
SYLLABUS
CONTENT
This course traces the various theoretical and formal developments in European and American Architecture from mid 19th century through the 20th century. Emphasis will be on the idea of Modernity, the cultural, technological, political, and economic context of its development, and the theoretical, spatial, temporal, and experiential ramifications of Modernity. The works of a select group of architects will be examined and discussed in relation to the diverse body of goals and objectives, ideas and ideals that constituted the modern movements in architecture.
OBJECTIVE
Treating the history of architecture as a history, not of buildings per se, but cultural beliefs and ideas, values and aesthetic ideals made tangible through architectonic forms and experiences, this course seeks to further your ability to analyze and understand the unique formal vocabulary of architecture and its expressive potential, as well as the complex and instrumental dialogue between architecture and culture. Emphasis will be placed on developing an analytical approach to the study of architecture.
PREREQUISITE
History of Architecture I & II or equivalent.
FORMAT
This course will meet twice weekly online via Zoom on Mondays and Wednesdays from 9:00 to 10:15 AM for lecture, presentation, and discussion sessions.
READING
The required text for this course is:
William J R Curtis:
Modern Architecture Since 1900
Phaidon Press, London, 1996
The reading assignments for each week are listed in the Lecture Outline.
The lectures and the reading assignments do not necessarily cover the same material, nor do they necessarily follow the same sequence in presentation. Instead, they are intended to complement each other, provide different points of view on each subject, and aid you in developing a critical approach to the study of architecture and its history.
In addition to the required text for this course, you may wish to consult and review any of the following similar texts:
Colin Davies
A New History of Modern Architecture
Laurence King Publishing, 2018
Kenneth Frampton
Modern Architecture: A Critical History
Thames & Hudson, 4th edition, 2007
Alan Colquhoun
Modern Architecture
Oxford University Press, 2002
REQUIREMENTS
Your performance is evaluated based on the individual command of course material and the assigned readings as evidenced by effective synthesis of course material and completion of three online exams. You will complete each exam online at Canvas in class on the following dates:
Exam 1: Wednesday, February 23, 2022
Exam 2: Monday, April 11, 2022
Exam 3: Monday, May 9, 2022
In addition to the three exams, you are required to complete a research project on a contemporary architect of your choice within the limits specified in the research project assignment sheet. The research project will culminate in a 20 minutes class presentation delivered on the last week of classes.
The exams and the research project will each count for 25% of the final grade for the course.
Your success in this class depends on constant and effective engagement with the course material. To this end, you are required to complete the assigned readings prior to each class and write a one to two-page synopsis of the materials covered in lectures and assigned readings each week. These will greatly assist you in preparing for the exams. Please carefully read the detailed explanation of the exam requirements at the end of this syllabus.
EXTRA CREDIT
You may choose, at your discretion, to take an extra credit exam covering the course content from the first and the second exams. This should be helpful to anyone who may not have done as well as hoped in the first two exams. The extra credit exam will be given on:
Wednesday, May 11, 2022
If you choose to take this extra credit exam, your final grade will be based on four exams and a research project (20% each), rather than three exams and a research project (25% each).
ATTENDANCE
You are required to attend every class and actively participate in class discussions. Every unexcused absence will lower your final grade by a third of a numeric grade (for example, from C+ to C). Four or more unexcused absences will result in a failing grade for the course. Absences will be excused by prior or timely notice due to family emergencies, medial reasons, and established religious holidays.
ONLINE
You can access this syllabus on Canvas or at Arch 6212/4612.
Individual dates in the Lecture Outline of the online syllabus will be linked to an mp4 video of the visual materials presented in class on that date.
You can download a list of buildings that may be covered in Lectures here: Building List
CONTACT
Please feel free to contact me by e-mail with any questions or concerns or set up a time to meet online at a mutually convenient time. My e-mail address is amir.ameri@ucdenver.edu. I will also be available to answer any questions you may have after each class.
UNIVERSITY-WIDE POLICIES
Please review the following university wide policies:
Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA)
Discrimination and Harassment Policy and Procedures
LECTURE OUTLINE
____________________________________
Lecture Topic
Tentative Date
Reading Assignment
____________________________________
The Prelude to Modernity
____________________________________
Transformations
Cultural, Experiential, and Ephemeral Landscapes
William J. R. Curtis, Modern Architecture Since 1900, 11-31
Barry Bergdoll, European Architecture 1750-1890, 207-239, 269-279
Jean Baudrillard, Modernity, 63-72
____________________________________
The Dawn of the Great Epoch
____________________________________
The Form of the New
Art Nouveau, Arts and Crafts, and the Viennese experience
The Chicago experiments
January 26
William J. R. Curtis: 33-85
Recommended: Ulrich Conrads, Programs and manifestoes on 20th-century architecture: 19-24
___________________________________
Evolution and Modernity
Modernity and Natural Selection: Sullivan and the California architects
Organic Modernism: Frank Lloyd Wright, and the Prairie School
January 31, February 2
William J. R. Curtis: 87-97, 113-129
Recommended: Louis H. Sullivan, Kindergarten Chats and Other Writings: 177-213
Frank Lloyd Wright, In the Cause of Architecture: 53-63, 121-133
___________________________________
The Economy of the New
Deutscher Werkbund and the German Industrial Complex
Futurism and Warfare
William J. R. Curtis: 99-111, 131-147
Recommended: Ulrich Conrads, Programs and manifestos on 20th-century architecture: 13-18, 26-31
____________________________________
From Liberation to The Depression
____________________________________
Modernity and Machine aesthetics!
Le Corbusier, Spirit Noveau, and Spirit de Corps
February 14
William J. R. Curtis: 163-181, 275-285
Recommended: Le Corbusier, Towards a new architecture: 1-8, 89-148
____________________________________
The pedagogy of Modernity
Bauhaus and the Wiemar Republic
Abstraction and De Stijl
William J. R. Curtis: 149-159, 183-199
Recommended: Walter Gropius, The New Architecture and the Bauhaus: 19-68
____________________________________
February 23 First Exam
____________________________________
The politics of Modernity
Constructivism and the new state
Modernity and the totalitarian state
February 28
William J. R. Curtis: 201-215, 287-303, 351-369
Recommended: El Lissitzky, Russia: An Architecture for World Revolution: 27-71
___________________________________
From Depression to migration
___________________________________
Dissemination and Obsession
Housing Modernity
Corporate Modernism and The International Style
March 2 - 7
William J. R. Curtis: 217-273
Recommended: Henry-Russell Hitchcock and Philip Johnson, The International Style: 35-77
___________________________________
Coming of Age
___________________________________
Mastery and repetition
The age of masters
Perpetual Modernity
William J. R. Curtis: 287-327
____________________________________
Extensions and Transformations
Migration and Reinterpretation
Modernism and the Politics of Economic Depression
William J. R. Curtis: 329-391
____________________________________
Hegemony and Monumentality
____________________________________
New Paths / Different Horizons
Modernism and Corporate Capitalism
Maturity and Monumentality
Beyond the Traditional Bounds
William J. R. Curtis: 395-511
____________________________________
The Voice of the Next Generation
____________________________________
What Modernism Wants To BE
The New Modernism
Dissenting Voices
Critical Consequences
William J. R. Curtis: 513-587
____________________________________
AFTER MODERNITY
____________________________________
The Trajectory of Post-Modernity
The Battle of Greys and Whites
The Age of Memory
Remembering Modernity
William J. R. Curtis: 589-633
____________________________________
April 11 Second Exam
____________________________________
Continuity and Disjunction
____________________________________
Presentations
May 2 - 4
William J. R. Curtis: 635-689
____________________________________
May 9 Third Exam
____________________________________
May 11 Extra Credit Exam
____________________________________
Exams
Chartres is made of stone and glass. But it is not just stone and glass; it is a cathedral, and not only a cathedral, but a particular cathedral built at a particular time by certain members of a particular society. To understand what it means, to perceive it for what it is, you need to know rather more than the generic properties of stone and glass and rather more than what is common to all cathedrals. You need to understand also - and, in my opinion, most critically - the specific concepts of the relations among God, man, and architecture that, since they have governed its creation, it consequently embodies. (Clifford Geertz, The Interpretation of Cultures, Harper, New York, 1973)
To every work of architecture, there is a what, and there is a why. The what pertains to its tangible characteristics. The why pertains to the intangible reasons, ideas, beliefs, and ideals that condition every work of architecture and transform the work into a cultural artifact.
Every work of architecture is essentially a composition, i.e., it is comprised of distinct parts placed in a particular relationship to each other for a particular purpose. Understanding a work of architecture requires, first and foremost, an analysis of the work. It entails separating and identifying its constituent parts and their specific relationship to each other and the whole work, e.g., the specific relationship between solids and voids, horizontals and verticals, of the inside to the outside, of structure to skin, of the building to its site, ornamentation, articulation, etc. This is, however, merely a first step. The more important step in understanding a work of architecture is the why of the work.
From a certain vantage point, architecture is an impossible task. Faced with multiple possibilities, the architect has no ground for the delimitation of her/his options. The functions of an edifice suggest no one form and much less a direction. In deference to biological needs, function is nebulous and multi-directional. However, function assumes a trajectory and becomes highly prescriptive when it is appropriated by culture and transformed into a ritual. Though by no means singular, a ritual is distinct and unidirectional. It has unique spatial requirements. It demands a specific setting. It is this and similar prescriptive cultural appropriations that make architecture possible.
Every work of architecture points to a process of delimitation intended to express a particular cultural proposition, theorem, or thesis. As such, every work of architecture serves to transform a culture’s assumptions about the world into a factual experience of them. The work shapes the world, in other words, after our image of it. In this process, economy, ecology, and technology play an important role. They make the realization of certain dreams possible and others not. The shape any work of architecture takes is invariably conditioned by the interaction of these three forces within the broader cultural context.
Therefore, to understand the why of any work of architecture is to understand the cultural rituals it is meant to provide for, the cultural experiences it is meant to instigate, and the ideas, ideals, and beliefs it is meant to embody express.
Therefore, to understand the why of any work of architecture is to understand the cultural rituals it is meant to provide for, the cultural experiences it is meant to instigate, and the ideas, the ideals, the beliefs it is meant to embody and express.
Throughout the term, we will address both the what and the why of every work of architecture we examine. Lectures will specifically emphasize the why. Your aim throughout the term should be to understand architecture in the sense explained above. In this vein, the point and purpose of the three required exams for this course are not to test your command of the facts, names, dates, and places, per se. Although you are expected to command the facts fully, the exams are intended to test your understanding of architecture. Mere and passive acquisition and repetition of information are not what is at issue. The exams are meant to test your active engagement with and the ability to comprehend and effectively synthesize diverse bodies of information and points of view provided in the lectures and reading assignments. They are meant to foster your ability to effectively analyze and hierarchically organize this information into a coherent and multi-layered picture encompassing both the what and the why of architecture.
For each exam, you will be presented with multiple questions and asked to ascertain the accuracy of each.
For each exam, you’ll be presented with multiple questions and asked to ascertain the accuracy of each.
You will complete each exam online at Canvas during class time on the following dates:
Exam 1: Wednesday, February 23, 2022
Exam 2: Monday, April 11, 2022
Exam 3: Monday, May 9, 2022
All due dates should be strictly observed. In fairness to all, exceptions will only be made due to medical or personal emergencies.
The exams will each count for one-fourth of the final grade.
Your success in this class depends on constant and effective engagement with the course material. To this end, you must complete the assigned readings prior to each class and write a one to two-page synopsis of the material covered in lectures and assigned readings for each week. These will be of great help to you in answering the exam questions. Make sure you do not fall behind in completing your weekly reading assignments at all costs. Given the complexity and scope of the material covered, you will not be able to comprehend and effectively answer the exam questions if you do not complete your weekly assignments on time.
Exam Grade
If your exam score is 93 or higher, you will receive an A for the exam. If your exam score is 89 to 92, you will receive an A- for the exam. If your exam score is 85 to 88, you will receive a B+ for the exam. If your exam score is 81 to 84, you will receive a B for the exam. If your exam score is 78 to 80, you will receive a B- for the exam. If your exam score is 75 to 77, you will receive a C+ for the exam. If your exam score is 71 to 74, you will receive a C for the exam. If your exam score is 68 to 70, you will receive a C- for the exam. If your exam score is 65 to 67, you will receive a D+ for the exam. If your exam score is 61 to 64, you will receive a D for the exam. If your exam score is 58 to 60, you will receive a D- for the exam. If your exam score is less than 58, you will receive an F for the exam.
Research Project
This assignment is meant as an opportunity for you to acquire a greater understanding of the current architectural issues and concerns and the broader social, cultural, and political forces that shape them. This would be through a comprehensive study of the architectural projects and writings of an influential contemporary architect.
You are to choose one architect from the list below whose work is of particular interest to you:
Tadao Ando, Elizabeth Diller, Peter Eisenman, Norman Foster, Frank Gehry, Zaha Hadid, Herzog and de Meuron, Steven Holl, Rem Koolhaas, Daniel Libeskind, Jean Nouvel, Dominique Perrault, Renzo Piano, Alvaro Siza, Bernard Tschumi, Jeanne Gang.
You will present your research to the class during a 20-minute presentation at the culmination of the semester.
Your research and presentation should include:
Your presentation should not exceed 20 minutes in duration. It should, therefore, be carefully thought out and economically worded. It should be prepared, written, and rehearsed in advance. It should include graphic documentation that is thoughtfully organized to demonstrate your points. Your coverage of the material and the presentation should go far beyond the reading assignments and pertinent lecture materials. Your work will be evaluated based on your comprehensive understanding of the subject matter and effective coverage of the above areas, as evidenced by your presentation. Your presentation will also be evaluated based on the amount of discussion and pertinent questions it generates in class.
Please feel free to seek my advice and help throughout the process.
You may wish to consult these general source books as a first step:
K. Michael Hays, Architecture Theory since 1968, Cambridge: The MIT Press, 2000
A. Krista Sykes, Constructing a New Agenda: Architectural Theory 1993-2009, New York: Princeton Architectural Press, 2010
Evaluation Criteria
Your presentation will be evaluated based on the following criteria. Please make sure you effectively address each criterion in your project.
The presentation will be given a numeric grade from 1 to 5 for criteria 1 through 8. An excellent and exemplary response to a criterion will receive a 5. A very good and comprehensive response will receive a 4. A satisfactory response will receive a 3. An incomplete response will receive a 2. An unsatisfactory response will receive a 1.
If the average of all the numeric grades is between 4.6 and 5, the project will receive an A. If the average of all the numeric grades is between 4.3 and 4.6, the project will receive an A-. If the average of all the numeric grades is between 4 and 4.3, the project will receive a B+. If the average of all the numeric grades is between 3.7 and 4, the project will receive a B. If the average of all the numeric grades is between 3.3 and 3.7, the project will receive a B-. If the average of all the numeric grades is between 3 and 3.3, the project will receive a C+. If the average of all the numeric grades is between 2.7 and 3, the project will receive a C. If the average of all the numeric grades is between 2.3 and 2.7, the project will receive a C-. If the average of all the numeric grades is between 2 and 2.3, the project will receive a D+. If the average of all the numeric grades is between 1.7 and 2, the project will receive a D. If the average of all the numeric grades is between 1.3 and 1.7, the project will receive a D-. If the average of all the numeric grades is less than 1.7, the project will receive an F.
Arch 6212 - Arch 3600