4.665
Contemporary Architecture and Critical Debate
Instructor: Stanford Anderson
Telephone: 617-253-1351
Office:
3-307
Send e-mail: soa@mit.edu
Units: 3-0-6
Level: G
Prerequisites: Permission of instructor
Introduction: Buildings and Thought
This subject is directed to students who are in the professional degree program. It is about building (architecture broadly conceived). Whether they write or not, architects advance propositions through building; cognitive positions are formed through continuing practices. We will recognize thinking within architectural practice. But architects themselves and the discipline of architecture (again broadly conceived) also develop criticism and theory. Relations between buildings and words are reciprocal — and form our subject.
I will also introduce myself. I do so not to make great claims, but because I cannot fully escape my skin and it is best that you know and can examine what you are receiving. My first writings — thoughts that, for better or worse, still mark me — date from the early to mid-1960s. This was a moment of enormous change in architecture, from the dwindling strength of the modern movement to, well, that was the debate. In the United States, Louis I. Kahn was the dominant architect, a provocateur with words, but best to be known through his work. In critical debate, major figures were Colin Rowe, Robert Venturi, and Aldo Rossi. We will form a base with the thought of that period — and related work as with Peter Eisenman and Venturi and Rossi themselves.
We will move on both to the effects of the positions of the '60s and new positions and debates. In this, our estimable TA will play an increasing role, with the insights of another generation (or two).
Course Requirements:
One presentation (leading the class in debate and discussion - 30%), Regular attendance and participation (20%), Final Paper (50%)
Detailed information below.
Note: No incompletes. In case of incompletes with official sanction owing to illness or other personal issues, students will be given one additional semester to complete their work. If work is still incomplete at that point, a ‘fail’ grade will be given.
Project requirements
A. Initial group project
B. Term paper
A. Initial group project
Attention to architects/buildings: recognizing/presenting a position
Research/development for an oral presentation (3-person teams)
B. Term paper
Development and critique of a position in architecture as represented in the built and/or theoretical work of an architect, a collective or movement; or a writer on architecture. The topic may grow out of the oral presentation or be a new topic.
