ARCH-252L History and Theory of Architecture 4 Lecture

1 Credits

Arch 252, History and Theory of Architecture 4, is the last lecture course in a required four-semester sequence of history-theory courses for Architecture majors. Lectures examine the global history of architecture from roughly World War II to the present. This course must be taken with ARCH 252 D, a discussion section, which follows each lecture. In lectures, given by a team of leading researchers in architectural history, we continue to examine architectural engagements with processes of social, technical, and cultural transformation through the twentieth and early twenty-first century in a global context. We trace debates in architectural culture and compare and engage positions taken by various architects as they articulate visions for what architecture and building can and cannot accomplish formally, programmatically, and discursively. A particular focus of this course is in the ethics of design: how designers have engaged those that they design for, how architects have dealt with the inequalities of modern culture. We present architects’ and critics’ understanding of and debates about the meanings of architecture in a rapidly changing world.