ARC 386L
Theory of Architecture II

Instructor: Dr. Richard Cleary
Time and Place: T Th 2:00-3:20, SUT 2.102
Unique Number: 00860

Prerequisites

Completion of ARC 386K. Students from other units of the university may enroll with the consent of the instructor.

Instructor's office hours

Sutton Hall 4.122: T 1:30-2:30, W 11-12, and by appointment. Telephone 471-6165; email cleary@mail.utexas.edu

Course Format

Theories of architecture attempt to provide a framework for architectural practice and to relate practice to society. This lecture/discussion course will introduce students to some of the texts which have had critical roles in defining architectural thought in the West since the Renaissance. It also will examine how theories of architecture have been expressed in other cultures and consider the issue of how theory is encoded and read in buildings. The course will be structured by the following thematic units: doctrines of Western classicism; classical doctrine in the age of Enlightenment rationalism; theories set in the frameworks of positivism and historical determinism; architecture and society; architecture and the Machine Age; reactions to the doctrines of Modernism.

Educational Objectives

To consider what a theory of architecture is and to understand how it is as much a social doctrine as a prescription for building; gain familiarity with some of the texts that have had an enduring role in architectural thought and practice; develop skills in the critical analysis of texts and buildings.

Evaluation

Four essays of 7-10 pages on topics relating to the themes addressed in the course.

Texts

Ulrich Conrads, ed., Programs and Manifestores on 20th-Century Architecture (Cambridge: MIT, 1970).
Le Corbusier, Towards a New Architecture (1925; reprint, New York: Dover, 1986).
Kate Nesbit, ed., Theorizing a New Agenda for Architecture: An Anthology of Architectural Theory, 1965-1995 (Princeton: Princeton Architectural Press, 1996).
Joan Ockman, ed., Architecture Culture 1943-1968 (New York: Rizzoli, 1993).
Robert Venturi, Complexity and Contradiction in Architecture (New York: Museum of Modern Art, 1966).