Modern Architecture – Projects and Polemics examines the debates that animated modern architecture from the mid-nineteenth century to the recent past. The seminar focuses on close readings of primary sources drawn from key works of architectural theory. The course also explores key historical texts (by such figures as Pevsner, Hitchcock, Giedion, Banham, Rowe and Frampton) which, along with architectural theory and criticism, formed the discourse that shaped modern architecture. We analyze specific projects (designs and built works) relevant to each week’s theoretical and historiographic readings in class, emphasizing the relationship between visual and textual analyses as keys to interpreting works of architecture.

Syllabus

Readings