ARC 327R
Tues 2:00 – 5:00pm, GOL 2.110
Open to ARC undergrads, ARI undergrads, Arch Studies minors, and Non-SOA students
David Heymann: heymann@austin.utexas.edu
Through case studies of key buildings, Contemporary Architecture Theory by Case Study explores the directions architecture has taken as a critical cultural activity over the past half-century, starting with the collapse of the Modern. This period has not been ruled by the dogmatic theories and movements that to a great degree defined 20th century architecture. As a consequence, it has certain key disagreements you need to understand! But the architecture of the recent past still has surprising consistencies. In active and free-flowing discussions, we will discover how current arguments about architectural meaningfulness relate, compete, and overlap. We’ll study one primary building per week, and indirectly some twenty to thirty more, over three generations of architects (one Post-Modern, two After-Modern).
What sets this class apart? Aside from the buildings being the primary readings, in it, a building is not an expression of an architect’s autobiography or of a movement. Instead, we are interested in understanding the world of experience a single building specifically organizes for its inhabitants. That, after all, is what an architect has to justify for a client to pay the remarkable expense of a new building – and clients aren’t fools! But explaining the reasons a radical form makes sense for someone’s specific need or circumstance takes a nuanced understanding of what people need and why, and – especially – why now. So, beyond understanding current buildings’ singular inhabitations, the goal of this course is to have you perceive how the individual needs that drive current design are connected to collective cultural desires.
