ARCHT

This course surveys architecture, broadly conceived, around the globe from approximately 1750 to 1970: from the European Enlightenment and dawn of the modern era of European colonialism to the advent of today's world of postmodernism, postindustrial cities, and neoliberal politics. The course embraces the concept of modernisms, plural. The canon will be referenced, and some canonical designers and projects and discourses discussed. But we will also examine architectures typically excluded from history, often because they were not designed by pedigreed architects, but which were products of modernity all the same.

Rather than focus exclusively on the stuff of traditional architectural history, such as authorial intention, creative genius, and aesthetic innovation — and buildings, often monumental, built for and by the elite — the course also explores how architecture is shaped by its social, political, and economic contexts; embraces a multiplicity of types and programs; and tracks the changing role of the architect in society, including the relationship between architecture and other actors. Particular attention is paid to the architect as agent of social betterment, especially through housing reform. In addition to questions of form and style, structure and novelty, the course asks whom buildings served? Who paid for them? How were they used and received? What was it like to visit or work in buildings? How did gender and sexuality impact the experience of using a building? Race and ethnicity? Wealth and education?

Alongside work by trained architects, the course also explores the larger "built environment." This means talking about urban form and urban design, vernacular and everyday buildings, and "cultural landscapes."