Assignment
Many of the key buildings discussed in the videos will be relevant to the short answer essay questions, because many of those questions will ask you to give examples. The essay questions will be based on the questions below. Most of them will take the form of questions that ask you to give a brief explanation of a concept or theoretical position and (often) to explain how a particular example is relevant to your understanding of it.
Modern Colonialism/American Modern
What did the French colonial theorists of the early 20th century mean by "associationism," and how did this concept infuence the work of French architects in North Africa and Indochina (Laprade, Hebrard)?
How did the classic American skyscrapers of the 1920s express a "modern" style? What issues shaped their design?
In what ways can the design of Fallingwater be seen as a kind of manifesto for Frank Lloyd Wright's alternative to European modernism?
What were the main principles of Wright's concept of "Broadacre City," and how do his Usonian house designs ft into it?
Mid-Century and Politics (Module 11)
What were some of the key characteristics of architecture under Italian Fascism?
What were some of the key characteristics of architecture under the Nazi regime?
What were some of the key characteristics of Soviet architecture under Stalin?
What were some of the key characteristics of "reconstruction modernism" after 1945, and how are these refected in the structures built to house the United Nations?
How can Giuseppe Terragni's Casa del Fascio be seen as an attempt to reconcile the requirements of Fascism with a modernist aesthetic?
Postwar Architecture (Module 12)
How are Alvar Aalto's ideas about the importance of civic culture and its buildings evident in his design for Saynatsalo Town Hall?
How can the later works of Mies van der Rohe be seen as reviving or reinterpreting aspects of classicism?
What was "urban renewal" in the US during the 50s and 60s, and what was the basis of Jane Jacobs' critique of it?
The Postcolonial World (Module 13)
What was Le Corbusier's role in the plan of Chandigarh? How did he modify his architectural approach to suit India and why?
What were some of the different ways in which Latin American architects expressed the cultural and political aspirations of their countries in the period after World War II (plan on using examples).
What was meant in the 1950s by "Tropical Architecture"? What were its main characteristics?
What are "metabolism" and "megastructure," and what were some projects that show metabolist or megastructural tendencies?
(Not all of the relevant examples will necessarily come from Module 13.)
The Critique of Modernism in the 50s and 60s (Module 14)
What are some of the main ideas of Robert Venturi's Complexity and Contradiction in Architecture? Why are they important to the course of architectural theory in the period after the 60s, and how are they evident in some of his designs?
What are some of the main reasons that the work of Archigram was important to the evolution of architectural thinking in the 1960s and 70s? How is that work related to other trends, and what characteristics of Archigram's graphics made the work so impactful?
From the 80s to the Present (Module 15)
What are some of the main characteristics of Postmodernism in architecture? What is a good example of Postmodernism as it was practiced in the 1980s?
What were some of the main characteristics of what was briefy called "Deconstruction"? Why are architects like Frank Gehry and Peter Eisenman associated with that term?