ARC 386M
Society, Nature, and Technology

Instructor: Dr. Steven A. Moore, AIA

Course Description

Architects have tended to tell the history of their discipline as either the succession of styles or as the succession of theories. In both these views of architectural history, technological choices are understood to be the instrumental means by which aesthetic projects are realized. This course will examine architecture differently. Rather than examine architecture in visual or textual terms, we will examine the evolving relation between society and nature that is enabled by the technologies embodied in the built environment. To better understand what technology is, the seminar will read from the Philosophy of Technology. To better understand how technology is socially constructed, the seminar will read from Science and Technology Studies. This background will enable seminar participants to finally consider the various proposals for sustainable, regenerative, or green technology as a historical critique of modern architectural production.

Course enrollment is limited to 15. Graduate students in the Design With Climate program and the Historic Preservation program have automatic standing. Advanced students in other disciplines are welcomed. Requirements include two 10-15-page papers that must be submitted in abstract, draft, and final form. Paper number one will examine the problem of architectural technology from a philosophical and social perspective. In paper number two; seminar participants will critically interpret selected cases of contemporary sustainable architecture.