4.607
Thinking about Architecture: In History and At Present
Instructor: Kazys Varnelis
Office:
Phone:
Units: 3-0-6
Level: H
This class will be constructed as a lecture-discussion, the purpose being to engage important theoretical issues while simultaneously studying their continuing historical significance. To enhance discussion, there will be three debates to be held in class. Each student will be required to participate in three. Each student will also be required to write three short papers. Class participation is essential and will be factored into the final grade.
The sequence of topics that will be introduced cannot be absolutely predetermined, but some of the primary issues that will be addressed are, as they relate to architecture, the role of pedagogy as the discipline of teaching, the of the profession as the discipline of practice, and the role of history as the discipline of knowledge. The discussions and debates are intended to demonstrate differences of opinion and enhance awareness of the consequences that these differences had in specific historical contexts. Other issues that will be most probably be discussed are theories of beauty, social criticism, light, memory, and landscape.
The course will portray the history of theory neither as the history of architectural theory exclusively, nor as a series of prepackaged static pronouncements, but as part of a broader set of issues that with an active history must be continually probed and queried.
