This course examines architecture and urbanism from the age of colonialism to the rise of industrialized society (1400-1875). The course will focus on important buildings and city forms found in the Americas, Europe, Asia, and Africa, but also explore how ideas about architecture and city form are shaped by global economics, politics, technological development, and aesthetic theory. The course investigates how buildings, landscapes, and cities reflect and shape ordinary life, social inequalities, working-class life, colonialism, and slavery. In addition, the course emphasizes how architectural ideas were transmitted around the globe through contact and conflict between different nations and empires. Finally, the course helps develop students' spatial literacy and ability to carry out visual analysis of architecture, landscapes, and material objects, as well as to see how these represent the lives of people of the past.
- Instructor: Catherine Covey