AR-347 / 2 credits

Teacher: Nichols Sarah

Language: English


Summary

This theory course considers the building as a material thing, focusing on the process and matter of architecture to examine how buildings come into being and stay (or don't) in place: through discourse, through their site, through industries, and through the labor of workers.

Content

Module I: Construction Becomes Modern, 1850-1939

 

Week 1

Enclosure: A World Interior

 

Week 2

Performance: Changing Materials and Empiricisms

 

Week 3

Proprietary: Immaterial Frames

 

Module II: Abundance and Scarcity, 1950-1989

 

Week 4

En Masse: Building the Territory

 

Week 5

Tolerance: The Agency of Political Structures

 

Week 6

Dumb Boxes: Proliferation and Subversion

 

Module III: New Fundamentals, 1990-2020+

 

Week 7

Envelope: Reflection and Lightness

 

Week 8

Disassembly: Refusing Glue

 

Week 9

Renovation: Cheapness as Politics

 

Week 10

Individual Meetings

 

Week 11

Final Presentations

 

Schedule provisional and subject to minor changes

 

Learning Outcomes

  • Describe architecture's relation to a larger culture of construction
  • Assess / Evaluate assess the implications and politics of a building's material assembly
  • Contextualise assumptions about construction and materiality in contemporary practice today within the discourse history of the discipline
  • Explain the historiography of the role of the architect in relation to construction

Transversal skills

  • Demonstrate the capacity for critical thinking
  • Access and evaluate appropriate sources of information.
  • Take account of the social and human dimensions of the engineering profession.
  • Summarize an article or a technical report.

Assessment methods

Performance in the course is continually assessed on a basis of exercises completed at home before class and a semester project. There is no final exam.

Reading responses, written (10 weeks, 4% each)   40%

Glossary Project, glossary entries + justification statement 60%

Supervision

Office hours Yes
Assistants Yes

In the programs

  • Semester: Spring
  • Exam form: During the semester (summer session)
  • Subject examined: Under construction
  • Lecture: 2 Hour(s) per week x 12 weeks
  • Type: mandatory
  • Semester: Spring
  • Exam form: During the semester (summer session)
  • Subject examined: Under construction
  • Lecture: 2 Hour(s) per week x 12 weeks
  • Type: mandatory
  • Semester: Spring
  • Exam form: During the semester (summer session)
  • Subject examined: Under construction
  • Lecture: 2 Hour(s) per week x 12 weeks
  • Type: mandatory

Reference week

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