Type of Course

Conducted in a lecture format with occasional group discussions, this is a three-credit required history/theory course for all students in the architecture and interior design programs.

Prerequisite

Successful completion of A 531

Description

The fourth and final course in the History of Architecture and Interiors sequence, this class is an overview of the major movements and theoretical concepts of twentieth-century design. Discussion includes the societal and environmental aspects -- politics, economics, science and technology, psychology, etc.-- which shape the greater context for architecture, interiors, and the allied arts. Examples are analyzed, using the objects themselves as well as the writings that the creators have left behind.

Objectives

Through varied method of historical inquiry students will:

1. develop an understanding of twentieth-century Western traditions in architecture, interior design, art, landscape, and urban design as well as the climatic, technological, socio-economic, and other cultural factors that shaped and sustained them;
2. demonstrate proficient written and oral skills in the visual analysis and cultural context of twentieth-century design;
3. demonstrate the ability to make a comprehensive analysis and evaluation of a building, building complex, interior, or urban space;
4. develop an awareness of the theories and methods of inquiry that seek to clarify the relationships between human behavior and the physical environment;
5. develop an awareness of the diverse needs, values, behavioral norms, and social and spatial patterns that characterize different cultures, and the implications of this diversity for the societal roles and responsibilities of architects and designers;
6. demonstrate an understanding of the shifts which have occurred since the nineteenth century in the social, political, technological, ecological, and economic factors that shape the practice of architecture and design;
7. increase their understanding of history as a specific referential resource as well as the basic context for making architecture and interiors.

Sections

Monday/Wednesday, 12:05 - 1:20 pm (sect. 066)

Tuesday/Thursday, 2:35 - 3:50 pm (sect. 067)

Professor

David M. Breiner office tel: 951-2597 e-mail: BreinerD@PhilaU.edu

office hours: Wed., 2:00 - 5:00 pm location: A+D Center, mezzanine

Web page

Course web page: see the Gutman Library home page, under

Breiner/A532, password to be distributed in class

Required Texts

Curtis, William. Modern Architecture Since 1900. 3^rd ed. London: Phaidon, 1996 (abbreviated as C or reading assignments).

Massey, Anne. Interior Design in the 20th Century. London: Thames & Hudson, 1990 (abbreviated as M for reading assignments).

Tansey, Richard G. and Fred S. Kleiner. Gardner's Art Through the Ages. 10th ed. Fort Worth: Harcourt Brace, 1996 (abbreviated as G for reading assignments).

Supplemental readings: treatise excerpts distributed at the beginning of the semester, and listed on the course outline, and several other handouts.

Recommended Texts

Hartt, Frederick. Art, A History of Painting, Sculpture, and Architecture. 4th ed. 2 vols. Englewood Cliffs, N.J./New York: Prentice Hall/H.N. Abrams, 1993 (on reserve at the Gutman Library).

Kostof, Spiro. A History of Architecture: Settings and Rituals. New York: Oxford UP, 1985 (on Library reserve).

Supplemental readings to be placed on the course web page.

Trachtenberg, Marvin and Isabelle Hyman. Architecture from Prehistory to Post-Modernism. Englewood Cliffs, N.J./New York: Prentice Hall/H.N. Abrams, 1986 (used in the previous three history of architecture and interiors courses).

Procedures

During slide lectures, students will be encouraged to discuss the material at hand; other discussions will spring from required supplemental readings, which are primary texts written by the designers themselves to explain the motivations and goals behind their works of art. Students will be required to utilize area resources, in particular art museums and research libraries, to prepare a research project. Students are highly encouraged to attend some of the many lectures by designers which are scheduled for this semester here and at other colleges nearby. Each student is required to attend one field trip. A bus trip to Washington, D.C. to visit the "Art Nouveau 1890-1914" exhibit at the National Gallery, among other sites, is scheduled for Sat., Jan 27; as an alternative, a trip to F.L. Wright’s Beth Sholom Synagogue in Elkins Park will be arranged for later in the semester.

Completion Requirements

Each student's grade for the course will be based on the following:

Exams -- Exams will consist of slide identifications, short answers based on slides, identification of key terms, and essay. You are responsible for works discussed in class and reproduced in required textbooks or handouts. Factual information students should know: Title, artist/architect/designer, period or style, location (if a built work), and approximate date. MAKE-UP EXAMS WILL NOT BE GIVEN. If needed, unannounced quizzes, which will occur occasionally, will be based on the reading due for that class or on the previous lecture.

Project -- The project consists of a written and visual analysis of a painting and a building and its interior (see hand-out); consultations with the professor are highly recommended.

Participation -- Your participation is evaluated by your ongoing contribution to class discussions on the readings and lectures and by your demonstrated knowledge of the material, as well as your attendance at one of two organized field trips.

Journal -- Your notebook will be a place to record your class notes, and notes you take while reading the texts outside classtime (thumbnail sketches are welcome in addition to text!). Your notebook will also be used for treatise summaries (in a separate section from your notes so they can be found easily) and focused freewriting in response to concepts and themes concerning modernism raised by this course. Journals will be collected without prior warning for grading, so keep them up-to-date.

Distribution

3 exams (and several quizzes?) 60%

Project 25%

Participation and journal 15%

Total 100%

Attendance and Comportment

Class attendance and promptness are critical to success in this course. If you miss a class, it is your responsibility to get notes from a classmate; lectures cannot be repeated. More than three absences will reduce your grade for participation. More than six absences will earn you a final grade of "F" for the course. All assignments must be submitted on or before the deadline. Eating and drinking in class are not permitted. Enthusiastic (at least wakeful) participation and notetaking are expected.

Honesty

Plagiarism is prohibited by your Student Code of Conduct. This article will be strictly enforced. Even unintentional plagiarism is wrong and ignorance will not be accepted as an excuse. Plagiarists misrepresent the ideas, words, or work that rightfully belong to another as their own. The proper use of the ideas, words, or word of another requires that you acknowledge your source -- simply that you give your audience or reader all the information needed to read or view the original source.

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