CEAT - Contemporary european architecture theory - spring 2013

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DIS Architecture and Design Spring 2013

Contemporary European Architectural Theories

Lecturer: Henning Thomsen (HT), [email protected]

Course Assistant: Samer Khudairi (SK), [email protected]

Mee ng Loca on: Vestergade 23-401

“Theories of architecture always belong to a historical context which is in part causa ve. New systems emerge from debates on older systems; there is no such thing as an en rely new system, and if a system claims to be such, it is either stupid or dangerous. Thus architectural theory and the history thereof are synonymous, to the extent that the present posi on always represents a phase in a historical process.”(Hanno-Walter Kru , A History of Architectural Theory from Vitruvius to the Present, London, 1994)

“Within the discipline of architecture, theory is a discourse that describes the prac ce and produc on of architecture and iden fi es challenges to it (...) Its specula ve, an cipatory, and cataly c nature dis nguishes theore cal ac vity from history and cri cism. Theory operates on diff erent levels of abstrac on, evalua ng the architectural profession, its inten ons, and its cultural relevance at large. Theory deals with architectures aspira ons as much as its accomplishments.”(Kate Nesbi , Theorizing a New Agenda for Architecture, New York, 1996)“It is only in dialogue with each other that architectural theory and architecture itself can fl ourish. The former can be a statement, a codifi ca on of prac ce, or a programme; and the quality of the corresponding architecture serves as a gauge of the usefulness of the theory. It must be possible to check architectural theory by reference to actual buildings.”(Hanno-Walter Kru , A History of Architectural Theory from Vitruvius to the Present, London, 1994)

“Typically architects are more aware of the diff erences that separate them, giving their work an aura of novelty and originality. This leaves behind the common references and goals that contribute to the long term cultural relevance of their work.”(Dalibor Vesely, Architecture in the Age of Divided Representa on,

Cambridge, Massachuse s, 2004)

Course Descrip on: This course is a cri cal overview and introduc on

to contemporary architectural theories in Europe and aims to establish

an understanding of the main theories and posi ons as they have

developed over the course of the past fi ve decades. The course examines

contemporary architectural theory and cri cism through the presenta on

and study of signifi cant texts and buildings of the present and recent

past. The dialec c between the wri en theories and the built world,

between readings and buildings, between thinking and making, will play

an important role throughout the course. Not as a one-to-one schemata,

where one becomes the other, if handled well, but in a cultural contextual

sense, where one informs the other and vice versa in a complex and

ongoing manner, which some mes reaches far both in a historical as well

as a geographical sense.

3 Credits

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The goal of the course is to introduce and inves gate the formal,

technological, social, poli cal, and economic debates at issue within

the discipline of architecture. You learn to evaluate and ar culate the

interac ons between theory and prac ce, between thinking and making,

thereby enabling you to formulate and assess strategies to generate

architecture.

The course is structured in three sec ons. The PRELIMINARY

OBSERVATIONS establish a pla orm from which we can begin to

understand the fi eld of architectural theory. The CHRONOLOGICAL

OVERVIEW aims to sketch out both a theore cal and a cultural overview

of the decades from 1960s un l today. Finally the THEMATIC OVERVIEW

delves deeper into a series of recurring themes that have shaped European

architectural theories in the past fi ve decades.

Learning Objec ves

By the end of this course you should

• be able to orient yourself in the current European landscape of

architectural theory

• be familiar with exemplary architects, buildings and projects of the past

fi ve decades that have shaped and been shaped by theore cal thinking

• understand the importance and fundamentals of cri cal reading and

wri ng

•be able to refl ect on the role and task of architecture and the architect

through the applica on of cri cal thinking

Required Texts

Reading material will be from the course reader (Kate Nesbi ).

Supplementary material will be uploaded as individual texts on DIS

Blackboard.

• Kate Nesbi : Theorizing a New Agenda for Architecture - An Anthology

of Architectural Theory 1965-1995

Approach to Teaching: The class will meet twice a week and consists of

lectures, student presenta ons and class discussions. Theory needs to

be read and therefore this course relies heavy on reading. Assigned texts

must be read in advance of the class.

The type of reading you will be required to do in this class moves beyond

fi nding informa on or loca ng an authorʼs purpose or iden fying main

ideas (as useful as these skills might be). It will ask you to dig deep in

theore cal texts to ferret out meaning, systems of rela onships between

ideas, and examine your own response to these ideas and their impact on

the world around them.

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In short, cri cal reading requires that you ques on intensely. For cri cal

reading, you cannot sit back and wait. These texts are not necessarily

easy nor are you expected to swallow the words without considera on.

True reading demands that you fi rst ac vely listen to the author without

projec ng your own agenda. In this sense, you might imagine that you

are engaged in a conversa on with the author and once he/she has

completed what he/she wants to say to you, you are in a posi on to speak

back, to say something of your own, something meaningful and thought-

out. If you have no response, you are reading lazily and need to instead,

read cri cally: to formulate a response. Such response involves analysis,

synthesis, and crea vity.

Expecta on of the Students: I expect you to be fully engaged in the

lectures, par cipate ac vely in any discussion and be open minded to your

fellow students contribu on to class. I hope to establish an environment

where we can learn from each other as well as from the texts and cases we

engage with and I expect you to ac vely support this approach. Readings

must be done before class and should be done with inquisi veness. The

ability to frame the appropriate ques ons and to apply cri cal thinking will

be valued and the class should form the se ng in which to ac vely exercise

this ability. In our discussions in class please aim to make references to our

readings, to support the points or ques ons you wish to raise.

Evalua on & Grading:

The fi nal grade is determined as follows:

20% Ac ve individual par cipa on and engagement, in-class

presenta ons and provision of ques on points

35% Mid term exam (essay type)

45% Cri cal case study assignment (essay type: 1500-2500 words of

cri cal wri ng + illustra ons)

The mid-term exam is an essay type exam that takes place in class

and is based on ques ons about the readings. The Cri cal Case Study

Assignment is a semester long cri cal reading and wri ng exercise, which

takes its cue from the study of a work of architecture in Copenhagen.

Based on theore cal texts and on studies of the work of architecture the

assignments needs to result in a comprehensive, informed and individual

posi oning of the work of architecture in a theore cal landscape. A

psychogeographic explora on of the work forms an integral part of the

cri cal case study assignment.

Both in-class and fi eld study a endance and ac ve par cipa on is

required. For all types of ac vity students on a regular basis will be asked

to prepare ques on points for classes.

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These should refl ect on the readings carried out and provide the class as a

whole with a pla orm for engaged and informed discussion.

Late papers will not be accepted. To be eligible for a passing grade in this

class you must complete all of the assigned work.

Disability and resource statement: Any student who has a need for

accommoda on based on the impact of a disability should contact Sean

Green ([email protected]) to coordinate this. In order to receive accommoda ons,

students should inform the instructor of approved DIS accommoda ons

within the fi rst two weeks of classes.

Policies:

A endance: You are expected to a end all DIS classes when scheduled. If

you miss mul ple classes the Director of Teaching and Learning, and the

Director of Student Aff airs will be no fi ed and they will follow-up with you

to make sure that all is well. Absences will jeopardize your grade and your

standing at DIS. Allowances will be made in cases of illness, but in the case

of mul ple absences you will need to provide a doctor’s note.

Academic Honesty: Plagiarism and Viola ng the Rules of an Assignment

DIS expects that students abide by the highest standards of intellectual

honesty in all academic work. DIS assumes that all students do their

own work and credit all work or thought taken from others. Academic

dishonesty will result in a fi nal course grade of “F” and can result in

dismissal. The students’ home universi es will be no fi ed. DIS reserves

the right to request that wri en student assignments be turned in

electronic form for submission to plagiarism detec on so ware. See the

Academic Handbook for more informa on, or ask your instructor if you

have ques ons.

Electronic devices in the classroom: Feel free to use your laptop for relevant

note taking. The use of cell phones must take place outside of class hours.

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Day Date Session Time Topic

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Fr Jan 18 1 10:05-11:25 PRELIMINARY OBSERVATIONS This part aims to establish the necessary pla orm from which we can begin to understand the fi eld of contemporary European architectural theory.

What is architectural theory? Required Reading: • Kate Nesbi (Course reader), Introduc on, pp. 16-28 • Hanno-Walter Kru : Introduc on - What is architectural theory? in A History of Architectural Theory from Vitruvius to the Present, pp. 13-19

Tu Jan 22 2 10:05-11:25 What is cri cal reading? What is cri cal wri ng? Introduc on to the Cri cal Case Study Assignment

Required Reading: • Michael Clarke: Verbalizing the Visual - Transla ng Art and Design into Words, Lausanne, 2007, pp. 12-37 • Merlin Coverly: Psychogeography, London, 2006, excerpts.

Fr Jan 25 3 10:05-11:25 What happened before today began? Part One Required Reading: • Tony Judt: The End of Old Europe, in Postwar - A History of Europe since 1945, London, 2005, pp. 226-237 • Tony Judt: The World We have Lost, in Ill Fares the Land, London 2010, pp. 41-80 • Roberto Rossellini: Germany Year Zero (fi lm), 1948, excerpts in class • Vi orio de Sica: The Bicycle Thief (fi lm), 1948, excerpts in class • Carol Reed: The Third Man (fi lm), 1949, excerpts in class • The Proud City - A Plan for London, 1945, excerpts in class

Tu Jan 29 4 10:05-11:25 What happened before today began? Part Two Film viewing in class: Utopia London, by Tom Cordell, 2010

Fr Feb 01 5 10:05-11:25 What happened before today began? Part Three Discussion of the fi lm we saw in Session 4 Required Reading: • Rod Hackney: Chapter 1 - The Making of a Modernist, in The Good, the Bad & the Ugly - Ci es in Crisis, London, 1988, pp. 1-25

Feb 04 - 09 Core Course Week

Tu Feb 12 6 10:05-11:25 CHRONOLOGICAL OVERVIEW This part aims to sketch out both a theore cal and a cultural overview of the fi ve decades from the 1960s un l today. Architectural theories, architecture itself and other exemplary cultural products like fi lm, literature, pain ng, etc. will be included to help us understand recent developments.

The Six es - ‘Under the Cobblestones, the Beach’

Required Reading: • Henri Lefebvre: The Right to the City, 1968, in Architecture Culture 1943-1968, ed. Joan Ockman, New York, 1993, pp. 427-436 • Guy Debord: Society of the Spectacle, in French 1967, in English 1970, pp. 1-34 • Reyner Banham: Func onalism and Technology, 1960, in Rethinking Technology - A Reader in Architectural Theory, 2007, pp. 130-139 • Robert Venturi: Complexity and Contradic on in Architecture - Selec ons from a Forthcoming Book, 1965, in Nesbi , pp. 72-76

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Fr Feb 15 7 10:05-11:25 The Seven es - Pickin’ Up on Signs Required Reading: • Denise Sco Brown: Learning from Pop, 1971, in Architecture Theory since 1968, ed. K. Michael Hays, New York, 1998, pp. 60-66 • Peter Eisenman: Post-Func onalism, 1976, in Nesbi pp. 78-83 • Bernard Tschumi: Spaces and Events, 1983, in Architecture and Disjunc on, London, 1996, pp. • Robert Venturi & Denise Sco Brown: A Signifi cance for A&P Parking Lots or Learning From Las Vegas, 1968, in Nesbi , pp. 308-321

Tu Feb 19 8 10:05-11:25 The Eigh es - Po-Mo Pandemonic

Required Reading: • Charles Jencks: Post-Modern Architecture, 1977, in Architecture Theory since 1968, ed. K. Michael Hays, New York, 1998, pp. 306-316 • Jürgen Habermas: Modern and Postmodern Architecture, 1981, in Architecture Theory since 1968, ed. K. Michael Hays, New York, 1998, pp. 412-426

Fr Feb 22 9 10:05-11:25 The Nine es - Minimal Maximal Millennium

Required Reading: • Tony Judt: Nineteen Eighty Nine - The End of Which European Era? in Daedalus, Vol. 123, No. 3, Summer 1994, pp. 1-19 • Rem Koolhaas: Junkspace, 2002 • Alejandro Zaera: Interview with Jacques Herzog, Herzog & de Meuron, 1993

Tu Feb 26 10 10:05-11:25 The Naughts - Playful or Hollow - The End of Theory as We Know It?

Required Reading: • Kristoff er Lindhardt Weiss: The Pragma c Turn, in Danish Architecture of the 00’s, in The New Wave in Danish Architecture, Arkitektens Forlag, 2012, pp. 13-21 • Kristoff er Lindhardt Weiss: Pragma c Utopias - Interview with Bjarke Ingels, in Danish Architecture of the 00’s, in The New Wave in Danish Architecture, Arkitektens Forlag, 2012, pp. 39-55 • Boris Brorman Jensen: The Prelude to the Breakthrough, in The New Wave in Danish Architecture, Arkitektens Forlag, 2012, pp. 127-133 • Tom Nielsen & Kristoff er Lindhardt Weiss: Welfare Urbanism, in The New Wave in Danish Architecture, Arkitektens Forlag, 2012, pp. 276-275

Fr Mar 01 11 10:05-11:25 Mid Term Exam

Mar 02 - 10 Travel Break

Tu Mar 12 12 10:05-11:25 THEMATIC OVERVIEW This part delves deeper into a series of recurring themes that have shaped European architectural theories in the past fi ve decades Architectural Theory deals with ... Utopias

Required Reading: • David Pinder: In Defence of Utopian Urbanism - Imagining Ci es a er the ‘End of Utopia’, in Geografi ska Annaler, 84B, 2002, pp. 229-241 • Nathaniel Coleman: Introduc on - Utopias and Architecture? in Utopias and Architecture, Oxford, 2005, pp. 1-6 • Yona Friedman: from Mobile Architecture, 1959, in Architectural Theory, Vol. II - An Anthology from 1871-2005, ed. by Harry Francis Mallgrave and Chris na Contandripoulos, Oxford, 2008, pp. 351-353 • Yona Friedman: Program of Mobile Urbanism, 1958, in Architecture Culture 1943-1968, ed. Joan Ockman, New York, 1993, pp. 273-275

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Fr Mar 15 13 10:05-11:25 Architectural Theory deals with ... Utopias Architectural Readings: • Works by Yona Friedman, Archigram, Peter Cook, Norman Foster, Richard Rogers, and others.

Tu Mar 19 14 10:05-11:25 Architectural Theory deals with ... History

Required Reading: • Demetri Porphyrios: The Relevance of Classical Architecture, 1989, in Nesbi , pp. 91-96 • Peter Eisenman: The End of the Classical: The End of the Beginning, the End of the End, in Architecture Theory since 1968, ed. K. Michael Hays, New York, 1998, pp. 522-538

Fr Mar 22 15 10:05-11:25 Architectural Theory deals with ... History Architectural Readings: • Works by Terry Farrell, James S rling, Ricardo Bofi ll, and others.

Mar 23 - Apr 01 Travel Break

Tu Apr 02 16 10:05-11:25 THEMATIC OVERVIEW cont’d This part delves deeper into a series of recurring themes that have shaped European architectural theories in the past fi ve decades

Architectural Theory deals with ... Place

Required Reading: • Chris an Norberg-Schulz: The Phenomenon of Place, 1976, Nesbi pp. 412-428 • Juhani Pallasmaa: The Geometry of Feeling - A look at the Phenomenology of Architecture, 1986, Nesbi pp. 447453 • Kenneth Frampton: Towards a Cri cal Regionalism - Six Points for an Architecture of Resistance, in The An -Aesthe c, ed. Hal Foster, 1983, pp. 16-30 • Alexander Tzonis and Liane Lefaivre: Why Cri cal Regionalism Today? 1990, Nesbi pp. 483-492 • Michael Asgaard Andersen: Peter Zumthor and Juhani Pallasmaa in Conversa on, in Human Experience and Place - Sustaining Iden ty, AD Architectural Design, November, 2012

Fr Apr 05 17 10:05-11:25 Architectural Theory deals with ... Place Architectural Readings: • Works by Sverre Fehn, Peter Zumthor, Dimitris Pikionis, and others.

Tu Apr 09 18 10:05-11:25 Architectural Theory deals with ... Urbanism

Required Reading: • Aldo Rossi: Chapter 1 - The Structure of Urban Ar facts, from The Architecture of the City, in Italian 1966, in English 1982, pp. 28-61 • Maurice Culot and Leon Krier: The Only Path for Architecture, 1978, in Architecture Theory since 1968, ed. K. Michael Hays, New York, 1998, pp. 348-355 • Rem Koolhaas: Postscript: Introduc on for New Research ‘the Contemporary City’, 1988, in Nesbi , pp. 322-325 • Rem Koolhaas: Toward the Contemporary City, 1989, in Nesbi , pp. 326-330 • Rem Koolhaas: Beyond Delirious, 1993, in Nesbi , pp. 331-336

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Fall 2012

Fr Apr 12 19 10:05-11:25 Architectural Theory deals with ... Urbanism

Architectural Readings: • Works by Aldo Rossi, Rem Koolhaas, Oswald Mathias Ungers, Rob Krier, Leon Krier, and others. Apr 13 - 21 Travel Break

Tu Apr 23 20 10:05-11:25 THEMATIC OVERVIEW cont’d This part delves deeper into a series of recurring themes that have shaped European architectural theories in the past fi ve decade

Architectural Theory deals with ... Meaning

Required Reading: • Kenneth Frampton: Rappel á l’ordre, the Case for the Tectonic, 1990, in Nesbi , pp. 516-528 • Kenneth Frampton: Seven Points for the Millennium - An Un mely Manifesto, 1999, keynote address UIA Conference, Beijing. • Simon Guy and Graham Farmer: Contested Construc ons - The Compe ng Logics of Green Buildings and ethic, in Ethics and the Built Environment, ed. by Warwick Fox, London, 2000, pp. 73-87 • Sylvia Lavin: Prac ce Makes Perfect, in Construc ng a New Agenda - Architectural Theory 1993-2009, ed. by A. Krista Sykes, New York, 2010, pp. 449-459

Tu Apr 30 21 10:05-11:25 Architectural Theory deals with ... Meaning Architectural Readings: • Tony Fre on, Jean Nouvel, Ken Yeang, Renzo Piano, Norman Foster, and others.

Fri May 03 22 10:05-11:25 CODA Theory a er the Contemporary Required Reading: • Reinhold Mar n: Cri cal of What? Toward a Utopian Realism, 2005, in Construc ng a New Agenda - Architectural Theory 1993-2009, ed. by A. Krista Sykes, New York, 2010, pp. 346-362 • Christopher Hight: Meet the New Boss - A er the Death of Theory, in Theore cal Meltdown, AD Architectural Design, January 2009 • George Baird: “Cri cality” and Its Discontents, in Harvard Design Magazine, Fall 2004/Winter 2005, number 21, pp. 1-6

Tue May 07 23 10:05-11:25 Theory a er the Contemporary - course conclusion

Fri May 17 Deadline for hand-in of Cri cal Case Study Assignment. Send by email to [email protected] no later than Friday 17 May 23:59.

Schedule subject to change with as much no ce as possible. All future edits to the syllabus will be made on Blackboard only.

CEAT - Contemporary european architecture theory - spring 2013

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