ARCH 399: GREAT ARCHITECTURE

MWF: 12:00-12:50 115 Lawrence Hall

TLN 35450 4 credits

COURSE DESCRIPTION:

At the root of great architecture are the ideas, principles and craft that shape ordinary materials into rooms that pierce the heart. Each class will focus on one or two examples of great architecture, using many slides, writings, and supplementary videos to bring each place to life. This approach will allow the exploration of the processes critical to making the life that we feel in each place. As such, the class offers a holistic view of how great places are made, and why they continue to evoke deep feeling, even hundreds of years later. With more time devoted to each example, the class will discuss in depth the sensual physical reality of each place, and how it transforms and intensifies ordinary experience.

The class will start with two lectures that discuss the archetypal qualities that make a room great. From there it will focus on smaller scale examples, gradually building in size and complexity as follows:

Great rooms
Great gardens
Great houses
Great places of worship
Great public buildings (museums, schools, libraries, etc)
Great public rooms (piazzas, town squares, public gardens)
Great enclaves (universities, multi-family housing, etc.)
Great Cities

During the course of the term, I will introduce a way of experiencing and deepening our understanding of the built environment, and a way of recording what we understand. Through various presentation techniques, I will attempt to illustrate the subtle qualities (not frequently discussed these days) that make each place memorable.

As such, I will require each student to keep a class notebook that will incorporate class notes, reading summaries, and observations. There will be an essay-format midterm and final examination that will emphasize the student's ability to experience, analyze, and interpret the built environment. The class will also require the student visit and analyze a local (i.e., northwest) example of great architecture in the form of a written and visual analysis due at the end of the term.

TEXTS:

Alexander, Christopher, The Nature of Order Volume 1

Benedikt, Michael, For An Architecture of Reality

Kleinsasser, William, Synthesis 9