History/Theory
121 Introduction to Architecture
Introduces architectural education and practice in the United States. A study of aesthetic, technological, behavioral, social, environmental, and legal forces determining architectural forms and urban patterns. A look at architecture as a way of viewing the world in the context of a liberal arts education.
Open to nonmajors.
231 Architectural History 1: Prehistory to Renaissance (4 cr)
Introduces the development of urban and architectural form in a cultural context from the first settlements of Neolithic times to the consolidation of architecture as a discipline in the 1450's.
Open to nonmajors.
234 Architectural History 2: Renaissance to Modern (4 cr)
Introduces the fundamentals of architectural design from the theory and practice of the 1450's to the built and written manifestoes of modern times. The course of the architectural discipline will be situated within the context of social, cognitive and technological transformation.
Prerequisite: ARC 231
Open to nonmajors.
322 Introduction to Building Reuse (3 cr)
Examines case studies of past uses, present conditions, and future functional and structural possibilities of older buildings; it also analyzed opportunities for adaptive reuse. Discusses development of design concepts and space-use programs, including renovation, restoration, and reconditioning, as well as preservation.
Prerequisite: ARC 241
328 Historic Preservation (3 cr)
Historic preservation theory, and relationship to environmental quality, with emphasis on preservation practice, including tools of effective preservation, legislation, community roles, economics, adaptive use, and management.
Prerequisite: ARC 231, ARC 234
419 Contemporary Theory (3 cr)
Examines trends in design, contemporary theory, and criticism in art and architecture.
Prerequisite: ARC 231, ARC 234
435 American Architecture (3 cr)
Examines American residential forms, including the private residence, apartments and tenements, workers' housing and utopian schemes; with European examples for comparison.
Prerequisites: ARC 231, ARC 234
488 Seminar in Design Theory (3 cr)
Past topics addressed issues in architecture and design theory.
490 - 498 Special Topics
Junk Culture
Analyzes the implications of "anti-art" from avant-garde practices like collage, photomontage, the readymade and the "happening" to popular manifestations such as comics and the newspaper. Issues explored include the complicity between image and text, form versus formlessness, high and low art, avant-garde and kitsch, and architecture as communication.
Prerequisite: ARC 234
Bachelor Machines
This course surveys a broad range of cultural production from the visual arts in the Twentieth Century, exploring issues of process, materiality, technology, and the idea of site-specific work in art and architecture.
Prerequisite: ARC 234
Operations in Writing and Making
Presents an operational mode of reading texts and making objects, attempting to construct a productive connection between reading/writing and making. Proposes an operational method for the transformation of thoughts to two-dimensional and three-dimensional constructions, and for the reading of such drawings and constructions.
Prerequisite: ARC 234
Japanese Architecture and Urbanism
Investigates Japanese architecture and cities, especially Japanese spiritual and symbolic dimensions, as they engage in the making of place and space. Both landscape architecture (gardens) and traditional domestic architecture and its construction for everyday life will be surveyed. Works of Western architects who were strongly influenced by traditional Japanese architecture will be studied.
Prerequisite: ARC 234
