ARCH 3230-001: ARCHITECTURAL HISTORY II

Department of Architecture

COLLEGE OF ARCHITECTURE AND PLANNING, UNIVERSITY OF COLORADO DENVER Course Syllabus

Instructor: Hans R. Morgenthaler, PhD Term: Spring 2017 Instructor's Office: 320T Class Days: Tuesdays & Thursdays Phone: 720.207.3299 Class Times: 12:30 - 01:45 PM e-mail: hans.morgenthaler@ucdenver.edu Class Location: Science 1067 Office Hours: By appointment I. Welcome!

Step into the 2nd half of this global survey of architectural history and development. You are invited to see how architecture evolved after the Renaissance and developed into the architecture of our own times. You will also learn how to use humanist methods of analyzing and evaluating buildings, landscapes, and cities. At the end of the semester, you should be able to dazzle your listeners with how lively you can describe buildings and explain their cultural importance.

II. University Course Catalog Description

Introduces architecture and urbanism from the mid-17th century to the present, exploring the forces that shaped buildings and other architectural and urban settings in different parts of the world. Prerequisite: ARCH 2230.

III. Course Overview

This class offers a survey of the built environment as it developed from the 17th century to the present. Its main goal is to introduce participants to the content and methods of architectural history. In this course, we will focus on the cultural meaning of architecture, particularly on how it helps shape our cultural beliefs and goals for the good life. Participants will learn how one should view historical designs, and interpret them as cultural artefacts.

The rationale of architectural history classes is to impart to students three sets of knowledge and skills: historical facts and circumstances, critical thinking, and historiography (= the methods of architectural history). Architectural history is the story of the built environment, focusing on the people who created it and what it meant for them, as well as, for us. Critical thinking is a philosophical method that helps us to balance ambiguous and contradictory conclusions about life, science, and feelings. Historiography is the scientific conventions used to making convincing historical interpretations and analyses. To become competent in these skills, students need to learn how one analyses a problem, what a thesis is, how one structures a text so that it is clear and persuasive, and what good scholarly evidence and argumentation is. As a historian, one must know what aspects and parts of a building communicate significant insights about it and its social, cultural, and stylistic context to us. A great thinker once said: “The task of architecture is to guide perception, not to increase knowledge.”

IV. Course Goals and Learning Objectives

Overall Learning Outcomes

1. Learn how buildings are shaped by our own cultural ideas about the good life. 2. Learn how to decipher the vocabulary architects use to communicate cultural norms of

behavior and personal preferences. a. Understand architecture as a vital expression of human values and cultural

behavioral systems. 3. Learn to think critically.

a. Learn to critique a building or design. b. Identify what makes sense and is relevant in an interpretation and what does not. c. Formulate informative theses and convincing arguments. d. Learn how to assess the relativity of scientific and scholarly theses and arguments.

4. Become aware of the various historical, social, cultural, technological, and philosophical influences on architectural design. a. Be able to assess physical facts, as well as, social, cultural, and historical relevance

of a building. 5. Become aware of the difference between creativity as the main method in design and

rational analysis as the main method of historiographical interpretation.

NAAB Compliance (= Professional Program Accreditation Criteria) This class satisfies the following student performance criteria (or learning outcomes) established by the National Architecture Accreditation Board:

A.1. Communication Skills A.5. Investigative Skills A.9. Historical Traditions and Global Culture

Teaching Philosophy

My teaching philosophy attempts to combine two goals. On one hand, I feel obliged

to adhere to the scope, issues, and conventions of the discipline I teach, history of architecture. On the other, I believe that architectural education should prepare students for a successful professional career. Consequently, I have been working toward a teaching method that emphasizes critical thinking to assist students in coping with the ever-changing problems they will encounter in their professional careers.

My own experience has led me to a pedagogical outlook that deals with history as an open-ended discipline. Since we cannot physically reenact historical events, we must try to exploit historical investigations for our own psychological and professional benefits, and not just to memorize historical data. To achieve this, historical investigations should have a creative inclination. Sometimes, a more imaginative perspective on historical data can lead to new insights. Because architectural history is part of the human sciences, the lessons of history can assist us in solving present-day social and ethical problems. I think that these goals can be accomplished by critically evaluating historical events. Each building is presented from many different angles: social, cultural, stylistic, economic, technological, and historical perspectives. Emphasis is placed on the broader social and cultural forces, which shaped particular events. In addition, the scholarly conventions and methodologies of historiography will be touched.

V. Course Prerequisites

Successful completion of this course depends on regular attendance in class. Participants are responsible for all information and material introduced in the individual lectures and assigned readings, as well as announcements made in the classroom. Students must complete all assigned readings, as well as finish all term assignments and exams. Students must have completed ARCH 2230.

VI. Course Credits

3 VII. Required Text Hans Morgenthaler, The Architects’ History of Architecture 4th ed. (Dubuque: Kendall Hunt, 2016) EVALUATION VIII. Exams and Assignments Exams and other written assignments are intended to test students’ abilities in the skills, methodologies, and knowledge required in architectural history. These include memorizing information, thinking critically, formulating analytical statements, organizing arguments convincingly, and writing objectively, persuasively, and coherently.

There will be a midterm and a final exam, each consisting of essays. In addition, there will be a term paper assignment. This will be a 2000-word thesis-governed academic paper that will be completed in three steps.

In addition, there will be five short writing assignments. The teaching assistant will hold periodic review sessions. Consistent participation in these

will earn students an opportunity to receive extra points.

Paper The paper topic will be a cultural interpretation of a built work of environmental design

presented in an accepted scholarly format. The first step of this assignment will consist of the student choosing a suitable environmental object, as well as, the cultural method of analysis that will guide the critique and interpretation of this work. The second step will consist of the student writing a concise outline for this paper. The third step will consist of the final submission of the paper..

The papers will be judged primarily on the merit of their thesis and argumentation. Moreover, what knowledge the paper offers will be evaluated. Are the arguments objective and persuasive, and are they listed in a convincing causal manner? Presentation, narrative flow, spelling, grammar, and syntax will also be graded. A rubric for this assignment will be made available on the class web page.