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Barnard and Columbia Architecture

PERCEPTIONS OF ARCHITECTURE! !
V3117, Spring 2016

Version 1.0

Mondays (lectures): 4:10 - 5:25, Diana 504

Wednesdays (Seminars): 4:10 - 5:25
A: Diana 504, B: Altschul 530, C: Altschul 805
Lecturer & Section Leader: Ralph Ghoche, [email protected],
Office Hours: Wed. 1:10-3pm, 500K Diana
Section Leader: James Graham, [email protected]
Section Leader: Leah Meisterlin, [email protected]

COURSE DESCRIPTION

The object of the course is to introduce

students to the discipline of architecture
as a discursive field. The course aims to
foster a critical understanding and
awareness of some of the decisive
ideas, theories and debates relating to
architecture and urbanism over the past
century and beyond.
Perceptions of Architecture is organized
thematically into three parts. The first,
Architecture, a Brief History, casts a
wide historical net, examining
architecture from its shadowy beginnings
(the tomb, the stone, the tree) to its
(dematerialized) present state. The
purpose here is to interrogate the
profession: what is the architects role
and how has it changed? What
questions and challenges are faced by
architects in the design process? What is
the architects responsibility vis-a-vis the
larger public sphere? This first of three
parts will foreground the role that urban
and spatial organization play in the
construction of social practices, human
subjectivities and political awareness.
Photo: Dan Cooper, Architectural Forum 72, no. 20 (April, 1940)

The second part, Concepts and Representations, will shift the focus from the architect to the building by
examining key elements of architectural design: the drawing, space, construction and the plan. The goal
here is to develop in students a more intimate sense of the way that architects conceive, develop and
translate ideas into built form.
The third part, Architecture in the Expanded Field, takes its title from Rosalind Krauss pivotal essay on
the land art sculpture movement in the 1970s. Krauss argued that sculptors had effaced all identifying
markers of their discipline to the extent that their work could only be determined by a series of negative
propositions (not-landscape, not-architecture, not-sculpture, etc...). This final part of the course seeks to
interrogate the outer edges of architectural theory and practice, allowing us to reflect on the nature of
architectural expertise and on the horizons and the limits of design thinking.

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COURSE SUMMARY

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Architecture, a Brief History

The Architect

The House

The City

Utopia
PART ! II Concepts and Representations

Drawing: Spatial Representation and Projection Systems

Space: Abstraction and Experience

Construction: Structure and Production

The Plan: Function, Program and Spatial Organization

PART ! III Architecture in the Expanded Field

The Digital: From Computation to Replication

Producing Discourse

Datascapes

Against Architecture
PART!

COURSE REQUIREMENTS
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1.

Readings: There will be approximately 50 pages of reading a week. There are two required texts per week
and one additional reading. The readings will be posted on courseworks. All readings must be completed
before the relevant lecture. You are required to bring a copy of the readings to the Wednesday seminars.
Also, please keep in mind that it is essential to gain a good grasp of the main themes elaborated in the
readings before class. Youll probably need to read some essays twice and do additional research online to
get a proper handle on the material.

2.
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Course Assessment and Grading:

Participation (Seminars)! !
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12 x 1 point! = 12%
Weekly Reading Responses and Questions!
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12 x 1point! =12%
Weekly Lecture Synopses!
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12 x 1 point! = 12%
Class Presentation / Seminar Chair!
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=14%
Assignment / Due: Fri 02/12, 10AM.!
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= 10%
Term Paper Outline + Bibliography / Due: Fri 02/19, 10AM. !!
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= 5%
Term Paper Draft to Writing Fellow (~1000 words) / Due: Fri 03/04, 10AM outside DIANA 500F
Term Paper First Draft to Instructors (~1000 words).Include copy of writing fellow comments.
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/ Due: Fri 03/25 at 10AM! !
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= 15%
Term Paper Final Draft to Writing Fellow! / Due: Fri 04/15,10AM outside DIANA 500F
Term Paper Final (~2500 words). Printed w/ images. Include comments from writing fellows!
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/ Due: Wed 05/06 at 10AM outside DIANA 500F ! = 20%

3.

Participation and Attendance: Attendance to all course meetings is mandatory. An attendance sheet will
be distributed at each meeting. More than two unexcused absences will lead to a reduction of one letter
grade. More than four unexcused absences will lead to an automatic failure in the course. If you have a
good reason for missing class, please inform the professor by email beforehand. Students are required to
wisely and consistently contribute to theweekly seminar discussions. Only full participation will assure that
you receive full marks for this course assessment criteria.

4.

Weekly Reading Response and Question: Weekly Reading Responses are due Sunday nights at
midnight. I will set up online discussion boards for each week on courseworks. You will be able to see your
classmates responses only once you have added your own response to the forum. Once you have added
your response, I recommend that you read some of the other responses on the forum.

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For each week of the course, you are asked to:

write a 200-250 word response (no less, no more) to issues and polemics encountered in the
readings for that week. In responding to the readings, you will need to briefly summarize the
arguments that you feel are central to the weeks theme.
End your response with one question. The question should not seek a factual answer (how much...,
when did.... etc.) but should address what you see as the main points of debate in the readings.
The purpose of weekly responses is:
to demonstrate that youve read the assigned readings for the week.
To show that, beyond simply reading the texts, youve thought about the central arguments and
themes, that youve been able to draw connections between that week's various readings (and
possibly, the readings from previous weeks), and finally, that youve been able to scale-up your
thinking and consider some of the larger social / political / personal stakes involved.
Your responses should address all of the weeks required readings. The responses will be graded on a
total of 1 point. In order to get a full 1 point, your response needs to demonstrate that youve read the
readings and been able to focus on the main issues and arguments they present. For summaries that are
poorly written, incomplete or do not demonstrate an adequate grasp of the material, students will get an R
for the first couple of weeks, meaning that theyll need to resubmit the response within a weeks time.
Lateresponsescannotbeaccepted.

5.

Weekly Lecture Synopses: Index cards will be distributed at the start of each lecture. During the lecture,
you are asked to write your name and date on one side, and make a concise list describing the central
arguments presented during the lecture. You should submit your index card to the professor at the end of
the lecture. The purpose of this exercise is to encourage active listening and to help students synthesize
and organize the material delivered in the lectures. You may quote the lecturer verbatim but please make
sure not to share your list with your classmates. See academic integrity below.

6.

Class Presentations / Seminar Chair: Students will be grouped into pairs (referred to here as seminar
chairs) and the pair will be required to give a presentation and lead the discussion for one seminar. Each
of the seminar chairs will present one of the two readings with bullet points. The third reading (marked by a
dash), will be used as supplementary material that may be brought into the presentation if useful. Seminar
chairs are also encouraged to consult some of the additional readings at the end of the syllabus. Seminar
chairs are required to submit their presentation notes to the professor at the end of the seminar.
Seminar chairs should make sure to include these elements in their presentations:
i. Background information on the author: Be sure to open your close reading by telling us a little about
the author. What was the authors formation (an architect, philosopher?). Is the author an import
figure? Why? What particular works or ideas is the author remembered for? Did the author have
significant political or intellectual affinities? When did the author write their significant works? What
context is the work reacting to? What debates was the author embroiled in?
ii. A close reading of the texts: A good close reading of a text will depart from the narrative sequence of
that text and begin by foregrounding the main themes and arguments. In other words, you should
identify the main themes and arguments (thesis) of the reading and state them at the onset of your
presentation rather than tediously going through every element of the authors argument. After that
your can fill in the details: how does he support his/her claim? etc... A great presentation will have
clearly stated the main themes, arguments and will have identified the stakes of such arguments (Why
is this important? What is the context? How does this argument/idea differ from other possible
interpretations?).
iii. Visual presentation: As chairs, you must each choose at least one building, urban scheme, or visual
project to illustrate the main themes and questions addressed in the readings. You should combine
your images into one slideshow which youll present as after the close reading on the texts. You may
need to consult with your professor a week before your presentation to determine what might be
appropriate projects to present.
iv. Chairing the discussion: The seminar chairs are responsible for leading the seminar discussion.
Prepare a set of questions or discussion points to get the conservation started.

7.

Assignment: Due: Fri 02/12 at 10AM. Visit one of the buildings listed below and take a photo of a part or a
detail of the building that you feel is significant. Use judgement when taking the photo. Think about the

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quality of light and the way that the frame of the photo responds to the geometries of the building. Explain
your choice in a 400-500 word essay. What does this detail or part of the building that youve captured say
about the building as a whole? You may need to do some online research on the building to help
understand the intentions that went into its design. A successful photo and essay will reveal something
about the building that is not present at first glance but that is nonetheless essential to its meaning and
understanding. Please make sure to use footnotes following the Chicago Manual of Style 16th edition.
Buildings: The Old Whitney Museum by Marcel Breuer (corner of Madison Avenue and 75th Street), Louis
Sullivans Bayard Building (65 Bleecker Street), Ludwig Mies van der Rohes Seagram Building (375 Park
Ave), Kevin Roches Ford Foundation Building (320 E 43rd St), Kazuyo Sejima and Ryue Nishizawa/
SANAAs New Museum (235 Bowery), Vito Acconci and Steven Holls Storefront for Art and Architecture
(97 Kenmare St).
8.

Term Paper: Each student will prepare a 8-10 page term paper (~2500 words). For the subject of your
term paper, you have two options. 1. You may choose one of the houses and buildings listed at the end of
the syllabus. 2. Or you can suggest a building or paper topic of your choice and get it approved by your
instructor. If you choose the second option, you must meet with your instructor to get your topic approved
before Monday Feb. 15th. You must use footnotes following the Chicago Manual of Style, 16th edition. See
Course Assessment and Grading for term paper submission deadlines.

9.

Class Field Trip to New Haven: There is one class field trip to New Haven scheduled in the course. There
are no required textbooks for the course, but students should expect to spend approximately $35 on
transportation to and from New Haven, Connecticut.

10. Writing Fellows Program: This course is part of the Writing Fellows Program at Barnard College. Writing
Fellows will review the first draft and the final drafts of your term papers. Failure to submit your outline, or
drafts to the Writing Fellows will result in a 10% grade reduction for the term paper.
The Head Writing Fellow for your course is Annie Wang ([email protected]; 224-401-5263).
11. Statement from the Writing Fellows Program: One of the requirements of this course is working with a
Barnard Writing Fellow.The Barnard Writing Fellows Program (founded in 1991) is designed to help
students strengthen their writing in all disciplines. We believe that writing is a process; it happens in stages,
in different drafts. Often the most fruitful dialogues about your writing occur with your peers, and the Writing
Fellows are just that.They are not tutors or TAs; they are Barnard undergraduates who participate in a
semester-long workshop in the teaching of writing and, having finished their training, staff the Barnard
Writing Center and work in courses across the disciplines.It is not their role to comment on the accuracy of
the content of your papers, nor to grade your work. They are not enrolled in your course.You will probably
know more about the courses specific material than they do, and your papers must therefore be written
clearly enough so that the non-expert can understand them.
Two dates are listed for each piece of writing assigned. You will hand in your first draft to your instructor on
the first date, who will pass it on to your Writing Fellow. The Writing Fellow will read it, write comments,
and conference with you on it, after which you will have a week to revise the paper and hand in a final
version on the second date.
Sign up for your Writing Fellow in class when you first hand in your paper. Conference locations will be
indicated on the sign-up sheet. Please make a note of when and where you have scheduled your
conference. Also, please make sure to record your Writing Fellow's email and phone number when you
sign up for your conference in case you need to contact her.
Some common writing problems to avoid:
1. Use of Quotations: The most common issue has to do with the use of quotations. Students often use
quotations in order to avoid explaining a point or making an argument themselves. They often will insert a
quotation directly into a paragraph without context and without mentioning the source. Many students will
use quotations that are two to three sentences long without any analysis. As a general rule, quotations
should be used sparingly and need to be explained and discussed by the student. It is often preferable to
paraphrase a quotation in the students own words and add a footnote citing the source.
2.Thesis Statement: All final papers must have a clearly articulated thesis statement (1-2 sentences long).
Your thesis statement shouldfocus on thelarger stakes (why is this important? How does it add to or
dispel some of our assumptions about subject X) and connect it to anexisting discourse (this can be a

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discourse that weve examined in class or not).A strong thesis statement will help structure your essay
and give the reader a bettersense of the purpose of eachparagraph in the overallargument.
3. Run-On Sentences: Often, students will try and cram too many ideas into one sentence. This tends to
lead to grammatical problems. Good writing often alternates between a short, declarative sentence, and
longer descriptive sentences.
GRADING SCALE

97.5 - 10 = A+
92.5 - 97.4 = A
90.0 - 92.4 = A-

87.5 - 89.9 = B+
82.5 - 87.4 = B
80 - 82.4 = B-

77.5 - 79.9 = C+
72.5 - 77.4 = C
70 - 72.4 = C-

67.5 - 69.9 = D+
62.5 - 67.4 = D
60 - 62.4 = D-

Below 60 = F
LEARNING OBJECTIVES

1. Develop a critical understanding and awareness of some of the decisive ideas, theories and debates relating
to architecture and urbanism over the past century.
2. Develop an understanding of the history of the profession of architecture, and of the questions and
challenges faced by architects in the design process.
3. Understand the role that urban and spatial organization play in the construction of social practices, human
subjectivities and political awareness.
4. Understand the way that discourses traditionally seen as external to the discipline of architecture inform and
elucidate its practice and production.
5. Understand the ideological and paradigmatic shifts in history that have shaped our notions of cities and
architecture.
6. Demonstrate the ability to read texts critically and to relate issues encountered in these texts to
contemporary architectural discourse and practice.
7. Develop research, writing, and critical thinking skills through the research and writing of a term paper that
use textual and visual evidence to state a meaningful thesis.
STUDENTS WITH DISABILITIES

Students with disabilities who will be taking this course and may need disability-related accommodations are
encouraged to make an appointment with me as soon as possible. Disabled students who need test or
classroom accommodations must be registered in advance with the Office of Disability Services (ODS) in 105
Hewitt.
ACADEMIC INTEGRITY

In no case, may you copy from someone else's homework or notes. Similar essays submissions are grounds
for failure. All paraphrases and citations of the words and ideas of others must be properly credited (author,
title, page number) to avoid plagiarism, which is grounds for failure. This class is conducted in accordance with
University policy on matters of academic honesty and integrity and with attention to the Colleges Honor Code.

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All essays listed in the course schedule below are required reading.
required reading
- additional reading

CLASS SCHEDULE
WEEK 1
Wed 01/20

Introduction

PA R T I

A R C H I T E C T U R E , A B R I E F H I S TO RY

WEEK 2

THE ARCHITECT

Mon 01/25

Wed 01/27

[The architect through the ages: Renaissance disegno, 19th c. engineer vs. architect,
beaux-arts composition, the avant-garde architect, women in architecture, nonplan, the death of the author. Architectural theory through the ages: the treatise, the
manifesto, after theory. The iconography of the architect. The architects instruments]

Vitruvius, The Education of the Architect, in The Ten Books on Architecture (Dover
Publications, 1960), 5-13.
Leon Battista Alberti, Prologue, in On the Art of building in Ten Books (1991), 1-6.
Denise Scott Brown, Room at the Top? Sexism and the Star System in Architecture,
from Ellen Perry Berkeley, ed., Architecture: A Place for Women (Smithsonian
Institution Press, 1989).
Andrew Saint, Ch. 1 The Architect as Hero and Genius, in The Image of the
Architect (Yale University Press, 1983), 1-18.

WEEK 3

THE HOUSE

[The origins of shelter in Vitruvius, Cesariano, Laugier, Lequeu. Housing from the
Renaissance to the present: Palladios Villa Rotunda, 18th c. character theory, the
19th c. interior, Loos Villa Muller, Le Corbusiers Villa Savoy, Fullers Dymaxion
house, bubbles and nomadic enclosures, Venturis Vanna Venturi house, Lynns
Embryological houses ]

Mon 02/01

Wed 02/03

Adolf Loos, Architecture (1910), On Architecture (Ariadne Press, 2002).

Reyner Banham, A Home is not a House, in Art in America 2 (April 1965), 109-118.
Colin Rowe, The Mathematics of the Ideal Villa (1947), in The Mathematics of the
Ideal Villa and Other Essays (MIT Press, 1987), 1-28.

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WEEK 4

THE CITY

[The emergence of the modern metropolis: the arcade, Marxism, St-Simon and the
city as circulatory organism, railway space and time, Haussmann, the Opra Garnier,
the Flaneur, the modern Blas individual. Modern schism between public and private
sphere: the Looshaus. Speed and flow in modern and contemporary cities: linear
cities to spaces of flow]

Mon 02/08

Wed 02/10

Fri 02/12

Hannah Arendt, The Public and the Private Realm, in The Human Condition, 2nd
edition (University of Chicago Press, 1998), 22-78.
Georg Simmel, The Metropolis and Mental Life (1903).
Paul Virilio, The Overexposed City, in Lost Dimension, trans. Daniel Moshenberg
(Semiotext(e), 1991), 927.
Due: ASSIGNMENT. MS Word format. Emailed to section instructor

WEEK 5

UTOPIA

[Changing understanding of the relationship between ideality and reality: optical

correction in ancient Greece, Renaissance adjustment, Thomas More, Ledouxs
Saltworks. 19th and early 20th c. industrial towns: Owen, Fourier, Garnier. Avantgarde utopia: Le Corbusier, Hilberseimer. Post-War utopia: Brasilia, Toulouse leMirail. Counter utopia: Superstudio, Archizoom. Resurgence of utopian ambition]

Mon 02/15

Wed 02/17

Le Corbusier, A Contemporary City, The Center of Paris, and Finance and

Realization, in The City of To-Morrow and its Planning (1927) (Dover, 1987),
163-180, 274-289, 290-302.
Superstudio, Twelve Cautionary Tales for Christmas: Premonitions of the Mystical
Rebirth of Urbanism. Architectural Design 42 (Dec. 1971), 737- 742.
Antoine Picon, Learning from Utopia: Contemporary Architecture and the Quest for
Political and Social Relevance, JAE 67, no. 1 (March 2013), 17-23.

Fri 02/19

Due: OUTLINE AND BIBLIOGRAPHY. MS Word format. Emailed to section instructor.

WEEK 6

LIBRARY WORKSHOPS w/ Meredith Wisner

Research & Instruction Librarian for Art & Architecture, Barnard College
Mon 02/22

Group 1

Wed 02/24

Group 2

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PA R T I I

C O N C E P T S A N D R E P R E S E N TAT I O N S

WEEK 7

DRAWING: SPATIAL REPRESENTATION AND PROJECTION SYSTEMS

Mon 02/29

Wed 03/02

[Perspectivism to objectivity: one and two-point perspective, anamorphosis,

projective geometry, axonometry. This is not a pipe: the collapse representational
space: Piranesi, Eisenstein, House X. Contemporary representation: CAD, diagrams]

Robin Evans Translations from Drawing to Building (1986), in Translations from

Drawing to Building (MIT Press, 1997), 153-194.
Stan Allen, "Mapping the Unmappable: On Notation," in Practice, Architecture,
Technique and Representation (G+B Arts International, 2000), 31-46.
Yve-Alain Bois, Metamorphosis of Axonometry, Daidalos 1 (Sept. 15, 1981), 40-58.
Due: DRAFT VERSION OF FIRST HALF OF TERM PAPER: to your writing fellow.

Fri 03/04

WEEK 8

SPACE: ABSTRACTION AND EXPERIENCE

[The invention of space: Semper, Empathy Theory, Loos raumplan. Avant-garde

space and time: Futurism, Malevich, El Lissitzky, van Doesburg. Place and occasion:
van Eyck, Bachelard. Perception: Merleau-Ponty, Virilio and Parents oblique
architecture. Spatial narratives: Libeskinds Jewish extension to the Berlin museum]

Mon 03/07

Wed 03/09

WEEK 9

El Lissitzky, Proun Space (1923) and A. and Pangeometry (1925), in Russia: An

Architecture of World Revolution (MIT Press, 1984), 138-140, 142-148.
Kenneth Frampton, "Towards a Critical Regionalism: Six Points for an Architecture of
Resistance," in The Anti-Aesthetic: Essays of Postmodern Culture (Bay Press, 1983),
16-30.
Adrian Forty, Space, in Words and Buildings. A Vocabulary of Modern Architecture
(Thames and Hudson, 2000), 256-275.

S PR IN G B R E A K
(rotation of seminar instructors)

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WEEK 10

CONSTRUCTION: STRUCTURE AND PRODUCTION

[An architecture of skin and bones: Botticher, Semper, Sullivan, Wright, Mies. Modern
separation between space and structure: Le Corbusiers Domino frame, Mies in
America. Louis Kahn and the return of the wall. Tectonics: Scarpa, Kahn. The
contemporary demise of tectonics]

Mon 03/21

Wed 03/23

Sigfried Giedion, Introduction and Iron: First Attempts, in Building in France,

Building in Iron, Building in Ferro-Concrete (1928) (Getty, 1995), 85-109.
Kenneth Frampton, Rappel l'Ordre, the Case for the Tectonic (1990), in Labour,
Work and Architecture (Phaidon Press, 2002), 90-102.
Robin Evans, Mies van der Rohes Paradoxical Symmetries, in Translations from
Drawing to Building and Other Essays (MIT Press, 1997), 233-277.
Due: REVISED VERSION OF FIRST HALF OF TERM PAPER: to your instructor.
Include writing fellow comments.

Fri 03/25

WEEK 11

THE PLAN: FUNCTION, PROGRAM AND SPATIAL ORGANIZATION

[Enfilade, the invention of the hallway, biological metaphors: function, circulation.

Neo-Gothic and Art and Crafts flexibility and function: Viollet-le-Duc, Ruskin, Morris.
Form follows function: Greenough, Sullivan. Modern functionalism: Sachlichkeit, the
Frankfurt kitchen, Le Corbusier. Segregation of urban functions: Athens Charter. Postmodern post-functionalism: Eisenman, Tschumi, Koolhaas]

Mon 03/28

Wed 03/30

Robin Evans, Figures, Doors and Passages, in Translations from Drawing to

Building and Other Essays (MIT Press, 1997), 55-92.
Rem Koolhaas, The Double Life of Utopia: The Skyscraper, in Delirious New York
(Monacelli Press, 1994), 81-160.
Le Corbusier, Three Reminders to Architects: Plan, in Towards a New Architecture
(Dover, 1986), 43-64.

Sat 04/02

Field Trip: NEW HAVEN (all day).

PA R T I I I

A R C H I T E C T U R E I N T H E E X PA N D E D F I E L D

WEEK 12

THE DIGITAL: FROM COMPUTATION TO REPLICATION

[19th and early 20th c. computation and data collection. Post-war cybernetics and
network theory. Complexity Theory. Deleuze and the fold. Repetition vs. replication.
Parametric architecture]

Mon 04/04

Wed 04/06

Walter Benjamin,The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction (1936).

Greg Lynn, Animate Form, in Animate Form (Princeton Architectural Press, 1999),
8-43.
Mario Carpo, The Fall, in The Alphabet and the Algorithm (MIT Press, 2011),
80-120.

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WEEK 13

PRODUCING DISCOURSE
(lecture by James Graham)

[Architecture and the book: printing techniques, means of representation, and

architectural knowledge. Modernism as media. Owen Jones, Bruno Taut, Erich
Mendelsohn, El Lissitzky as bookmakers. Paper architecture: Archigram and others.
Architecture as research practice: Learning from Las Vegas, Delirious New York
again, Atelier Bow-Wow, Project on the City.]

Mon 04/11

Wed 04/13

Victor Hugo, Ceci tuera cela, Notre-Dame de Paris, trans. Alban Krailsheimer
(Oxford University Press, 1993), 192206.
Robert Venturi, Denise Scott Brown, and Steven Izenour, Learning from Las Vegas:
The Forgotten Symbolism of Architectural Form(MIT Press, 1977), 172.
Denise Scott Brown, Little Magazines in Architecture and Urbanism, Journal of the
American Institute of Planners (July 1968), 22333.
Due: FINAL COMPLETE DRAFT OF TERM PAPER to your writing fellow.

Fri 04/15
WEEK 14

DATASCAPES
(Lecture by Leah Meisterlin)

Mon 04/18

[Looking for Architecture in Data Practices: Sensing and Modeling, Smart Cities,
Urban Informatics, Systems, and Situated Technologies.]
Wed 04/20

Gilles Deleuze, Postscript on the Societies of Control, October 59, 1992, pp. 38.
Adam Greenfield and Mark Shepard, Situated Technologies Pamphlets 1: Urban
Computing and its Discontents (The Architectural League of New York, 2007).
Samuel Kinsley, The Matter of Virtual Geographies, Progress in Human Geography
38, no. 3 (2014), 364384.

WEEK 15

AGAINST ARCHITECTURE

[Architecture and social control: Benthams panopticon, Taylorism, modernist

planning, dystopias. Critique: Bataille, Situationists, Lefebvre, Virilio. Architecture as
mass spectacle: Krakauer, Debord, Baudrillard. Architecture and ideology: Tafuri,
Jameson. Counter practice: Matta-Clark, Dahlsberg, surveillance culture]

Mon 04/25

Wed 04/27

Fri 05/06

Gilles Deleuze and Flix Guattari, 1440: The Smooth and the Striated, in A
Thousand Plateaus: Capitalism and Schizophrenia (University of Minnesota Press
1987), 474-500.
Michel Foucault, Space, Knowledge and Power, interview with Paul Rabinow,
Skyline (March 1982), republished in Michael K. Hays, ed., Architecture Theory Since
1968 (MIT Press, 1998), 428-439.
Tom McDonough ed., The Situationists and the City (Verso, 2009), Chap. 6, The
Critique of Urban Planning, 139-167.
Due: FINAL VERSION OF TERM PAPER to your instructor. Include images and a
bibliography. Include previous drafts with comments by writing fellows.

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ADDITIONAL READINGS
PART I: ARCHITECTURE, A BRIEF HISTORY
THE ARCHITECT

Leon Battista Alberti, Prologue, in On the Art of building in Ten Books (1991), 1-6.

Avery Library, Catalogue of the Andrew Alpern collection of drawing instruments at the Avery Architectural and
Fine Arts Library Columbia University in the City of New York (NY: W.W. Norton, 2010).

Denise Scott Brown, Room at the Top? Sexism and the Star System in Architecture, from Ellen Perry Berkeley,
ed., Architecture: A Place for Women (Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1989).

Dana Cuff, Architecture: The Story of Practice (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1992).

Adrian Forty, Design, in Words and Buildings: A Vocabulary of Modern Architecture, 136-141.

Spiro Kostof, The Architect: Chapters in the History of the Profession (New York: Oxford University Press, 1977).

Bernard Rudofsky, Before the Architects, Design Quarterly 118/119 (1982): 60-63.

James Scott, Authoritarian High Modernism, in Seeing like a State (1998).

Andrew Saint, Architect and Engineer: A Study in Sibling Rivalry (New Haven [Conn.]; London: Yale University
Press, 2007).

Vitruvius, The Education of the Architect, in The Ten Books on Architecture (New York: Dover Publications,
1960), 5-13.

Stephen Parcell, Four Historical Definitions of Architecture (Montreal: McGill-Queen's University Press, 2012).

Gwendolyn Wright, On the Fringe of the Profession: Women in American Architecture, in The Architect, ed. Spiro
Kostof (New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press: 1977), 280-308.

THE HOUSE

William Curtis, The Image and idea of Le Corbusiers Villa Savoye at Poissy, in Modern Architecture Since 1900
(London : Phaidon Press, 1996), 274-285.

Buckminster Fuller, "The Dymaxion House, Architectural Forum (March 1932), 285-288.

Martin Heidegger, Building, Dwelling, Thinking in Poetry, Language, Thought, translated by Albert Hofstadter
(New York: Harper Colophon Books, 1971), 141-160.

Marc-Antoine Laugier, An Essay on Architecture (Los Angeles: Hennessey and Ingalls, 1977), 1-22.

Witold Rybczynski, Home: A Short History of an Idea (New York: Penguin Books, 1987).

Joseph Rykwert, On Adams House in Paradise: The Idea of the Primitive Hut in Architectural History (New York:
MoMA; Greenwich, CT: New York Graphic Society, 1972).

Vitruvius, The Origin of the Dwelling House, in The Ten Books on Architecture (New York: Dover Publications,
1960), 38-41.

Beatriz Colomina, The Split Wall: Domestic Voyeurism, in Sexuality and Space (New York: Princeton
Architectural Press, 1992), 73-130.

THE CITY

Wolfgang Schivelbusch, Railway Space and Railway Time, 1986.

Stephen Kern, The Culture of Time and Space 1880-1918 (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1983).

Anthony Vidler, Photourbanism: Planning the City from Above and from Below, in Vidler, The Scenes of the Street
and Other Essays (New York: Monacelli Press, 2011), 317-328.

Marshall Berman, In the Forest of Symbols: Some notes on Modernism in New York, All That Is Solid Melts into
Air: The Experience of Modernity (Penguin Books, 1988), 287-329.

Peter Hall, The City of Perpetual Public Works, in Cities in Civilization (1998), 706-745.

Margaret Crawford, excerpts from Everyday Urbanism, in The Urban Design Reader, Michael Larice and
Elizabeth Macdonald eds. (Taylor and Francis, 2013), 344-357.

UTOPIA

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Thomas More, Utopia (1516), in The Utopia Reader, Gregory Claeys and Lyman Tower Sargent, eds. (New York:
New York University Press, 1999), 77-93.

Aldous Huxley. Brave New World (1932), in Gregory Claeys and Lyman Tower Sargent, eds., The Utopia Reader
(New York: New York University Press, 1999), 347-363.

David Harvey, Spaces of Hope (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2000).

Anthony Vidler, "Cities of Tomorrow," Artforum International (Sep 2012).

Rowe, Colin. The Architecture of Utopia, in The Mathematics of the Ideal Villa and Other Essays (Cambridge
MA: The MIT Press, 1976): 205-217.

Vidler, Anthony. Ledoux and the Factory-Village of Chaux, in The Writing of the Walls (New York: Princeton
Architectural Press, 1987): 35-50.

Reyner Banham, Megastructure: Urban Futures of the Recent Past (London: Thames and Hudson, 1976), pages
7-11, 196-216.

Peter Lang, "Suicidal Desires," in Superstudio: Life Without Objects, ed. Peter Lang and William Menking (Milan:
Skira, 2003), 31-51.

Manfredo Tafuri Toward a Critique of Architectural Ideology, Contropiano 1 (January-April 1969), reprinted in
Architecture Theory since 1968, ed. M. Hays, 2-35.

Manfredo Tafuri and Francesco Dal Co, The International Concept of Utopia, in Modern Architecture, 383-390.

Martino Stierli, Building No Place: Oscar Niemeyer and the Utopias of Brasilia, JAE 67, no. 1 (March 2013), 8-17.

James Holston, "The modernist city and the Death of the Street," in Theorizing the city- the new urban
anthropology reader. S.M. Low ed. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 245-276.

Mike Davis and Daniel Bertrand Monk, Floating Utopias: Freedom and Unfreedom of the Seas, in Evil Paradises:
Dreamworlds of Neoliberalism

Marie Theres Stauffer, "Utopian Reflections, Reflected Utopia- Urban Designs by Archizoom and Superstudio," AA
Files 47 (Summer 2002).

PART II: CONCEPTS AND REPRESENTATIONS

DRAWING: SPATIAL REPRESENTATION AND PROJECTION SYSTEMS

Alberto Perez-Gomez, Louise Pelletier, Prelude. Mapping the Question: The Perspective Hinge, in Architectural
Representation and the Perspective Hinge (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1997), 2-87.

Jonathan Crary, The Camera Obscura and its Subject, in Techniques of the Observer (Cambridge, MA: MIT
Press, 1992), 25-66.

Colin Rowe with Robert Slutsky, Transparency: Literal and Phenomenal in The Mathematics of the Ideal Villa and
Other Essays (MIT Press, 1982): 159-183.

Robin Evans, Architectural Projection, in Eve Blau and Edward Kaufman, eds. Architecture and Its Image: Works
from the Canadian Centre for Architecture (Montral: Canadian Centre for Architecture, 1989), 18-35.

Hubert Damisch, The Origin of Perspective, trans. John Goodman (Cambridge: MIT Press, 1994), Chap. 2,
Perspective, a Thing of the Past? 22-40.

Bernhard Schneider, "Perspective Refers to the Viewer, Axonometry Refers to the Object," Daidalos 1 (Sept. 15,
1981): 81-95.

Massimo Scolari, "Elements for a History of Axonometry." Architectural Design 55, nos. 5-6 (1985): 73-78.

Vilm Flusser, On the Crisis of Our Models [n.d.], trans. Erik Eisel, in Flusser, Writings, ed. Andreas Strhl
(Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2006), 75- 84.

Werner Oechslin, From Piranesi to Libeskind: Explaining by Drawing Daidalos 1 (Sept., 1981), 15-20.

Stan Allen, "Plotting Traces- On Process," in Practice, Architecture, Technique and Representation (Amsterdam: G
+B Arts International, 2000), 47-70.

SPACE: ABSTRACTION AND EXPERIENCE

August Schmarsow, The Essence of Architectural Creation, (1893) in Empathy, Form and Space (Santa Monica,
CA: Getty, 1994), 281-297.

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Peter Collins, New Concepts of Space, in Changing Ideals in Modern Architecture (London: Faber and Faber,
1965), 285-294.

Maurice Merleau-Ponty, Space, in The Phenomenology of Perception, trans. Colin Smith (London and New York:
Routledge, 1962), 243-298.

Edward S. Casey, Retrieving the Difference Between Place and Space, Architecture, Space, Painting (London:
Academy Editions / St Martin Press, 1992), 54-57.

Martin Heidegger, Building, Dwelling, Thinking, in Basic Writings: Ten Key Essays (New York: Harper Collins,
1993), 343-364.

Paul Virilio, Architecture Principe, in The Function of the Oblique: The Architecture of Claude Parent and Paul
Virilio (London: AA Publications, 1996), 11-13.

Theo van Doesburg, Towards a Plastic Architecture, (1924) in Programs and Manifestoes on 20th-Century
Architecture (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2002), 78-80.

Nigel Thrift, Intensities of Feeling: Towards a Spatial Politics of Affect, Geografiska Annaler. Series B, Human
Geography 86, No. 1, Special Issue: The Political Challenge of Relational Space (2004), 57-78.

CONSTRUCTION: STRUCTURE AND PRODUCTION

Edward R. Ford, Mies Van der Rohe and the Steel Frame, Details of Modern Architecture (Cambridge: MIT
Press, 1990): 260-275.

Sigfried Giedion, Introduction, in Building in France, Building in Iron, Building in Ferroconcrete, (1928) trans.
Duncan Berry (Santa Monica, CA: Getty, 1995), 85-100.

Eduard Sekler, Structure, Construction, Tectonics, Structure in Art and in Science, ed. G. Kepes (1965) 89-95.

Rosalind E. Krauss, The Originality of the Avant-Garde and Other Modernist Myths (Cambridge: MIT Press, 1985),
Grids, 8-22.

William J. Mitchell, Antitectonics: The Poetics of Virtuality, in The Virtual Dimension: Architecture, Representation,
and Crash Culture (Princeton, NJ: Princeton Architectural Press, 1998), 205-217.

William Jordy, "The Laconic Splendor of the Metal Frame: Ludwig Mies van der Rohes 860 Lake Shore
Apartments and His Seagram Building, in American Buildings and Their Architects, vol. 5 (Garden City, N.Y.:
Oxford University Press, 1972), 221-278.

THE PLAN: FUNCTION, PROGRAM AND SPATIAL ORGANIZATION

Adolphe Behne, No Longer Shaped Space but Designed Reality, in The Modern Functional Building (1926),
trans. Michael Robinson (Santa Monica, CA: Getty, 1996), 119-148.

Reyner Banham, Conclusion: Functionalism and Technology, in Theory and Design in the First Machine Age
(Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1980), 320-330.

William H. Jordy, The Symbolic Essence of Modern European Architecture of the Twenties and its Continuing
Influence, JSAH 22, no. 3 (Oct., 1963), 177-187.

Adrian Forty, Function, in Words and Buildings. A Vocabulary of Modern Architecture (New York: Thames and
Hudson, 2000), 174-195.

Peter Eisenman, Post-Functionalism, Oppositions 6 (Fall 1976): i-iii.

Rem Koolhaas, The Double Life of Utopia: The Skyscraper, in Delirious New York (Monacelli Press, 1994),
81-160.

Anthony Vidler, Diagrams of Diagrams: Architectural Abstraction and Modern Representation, in

Representations 72 (Autumn, 2000), 1-20.

Robert E. Somol, Dummy Text, or The Diagrammatic Basis of Contemporary Architecture, in Diagram Diaries
(New York: Universe Publishing, 1999), 6-25.

Bernard Tschumi, "Illustrated Index, Themes from The Manhattan Transcripts," AA Files 4 (July 1983), 65-75.

Anthony Vidler, Toward a Theory of the Architectural Program, October 106 (Autumn, 2003), 59-74.

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PART III: ARCHITECTURE IN THE EXPANDED FIELD

THE DIGITAL: FROM COMPUTATION TO REPLICATION

Antoine Picon, Digital Culture in Architecture: An Introduction for the Design Professions (Basel: Birkhuser,
2010).

Greg Lynn, Architectural Curvilinearity: The Folded, the Pliant and the. Supple, Folding in Architecture (1993),
pp 8-15.

Mark Wigley, The Architectural Brain, in Network Practices: New Strategies in Architecture and Design, eds.,
Anthony Burke and Thrse Tierney (New York: Princeton Architectural Press, 2007), 3053.

Stan Allen, From Object to Field, Architecture After Geometry, Peter Davidson and Donald L Bates (guesteditors), AD Profile 127, AD 67, May-june 1997, pp 24 -31.

Stan Allen, Terminal Velocities: The Computer in the Design Studio, in Practice, Architecture, Technique and
Representation (Abingdon, UK: Routledge, 2009), 70-95.

Christopher Hight, Manners of Working: Fabricating Representation in Digital Based Design, in The SAGE
Handbook of Architectural Theory (London: SAGE Publications, 2012), 410-429.

Patrik Schumacher, Parametricism: A New Global Style for Architecture and Urban Design, (2009), in The Digital
Turn in Architecture 1992-2010: AD Reader (West Sussex, UK: Wiley & Sons, 2013), 240-257.

Reinhold Martin, Critical of What? Toward a Utopian Realism, Harvard Design Magazine 22 (Spring/Summer
2005).

PRODUCING DISCOURSE

Mario Carpo, Architecture in the Age of Printing: Orality, Writing, Typography, and Printed Images in the History of
Architectural Theory (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2001).

Richard Wittman, "Architecture Parlantean Anti-Rhetoric?," Daidalos (June, 1987), 12-23.

Richard Wittman, Architecture, Print Culture and the Public Sphere in Eighteenth-Century France (Routledge,
2007).

Adrian Forty, The Language of Modernism, in Words and Buildings: A Vocabulary of Modern Architecture
(Thames & Hudson, 2000), 18-27.

Alan Colquhoun, Sign and Substance: Reflections on Complexity, Las Vegas and Oberlin, Oppositions 5
(Summer 1976), p. 176-186.

Anthony Vidler, Books in Space: Tradition and Transparency in the Bibliothque de France, Representations 42,
Special Issue: Future Libraries (Spring, 1993), pp. 115-134.

DATASCAPES

Michael Batty, The New Science of Cities (Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press, 2013).

William J. Mitchell, City of Bits: Space, Place, and the Infobahn (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1996).

Mark Shepard, Sentient City: Ubiquitous Computing, Architecture, and the Future of Urban Space. (Cambridge,
MA and New York, NY: MIT Press and the Architectural League of New York, 2011).

Lev Manovich, Chapter 27: Trending: The Promises and the Challenges of Big Social Data, in Matthew K. Gold,
Debates in the Digital Humanities (Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press, 2012).

Kazys Varnelis, Introduction: Networked Ecologies, in The Infrastructural City: Networked Ecologies in Los
Angeles (Barcelona and New York: Actar, 2008), 6-16.

AGAINST ARCHITECTURE

Wolfgang Schivelbusch, "The Street," in Disenchanted Night: The Industrialization of Light in the Nineteenth
Century, 79-134.

Jeremy Bentham. The Penitentiary Panopticon CTRL [SPACE]: Rhetorics of Surveillance from Bentham to Big
Brother (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2002),114-119.

Michel Foucault, Panopticism, in Discipline and Punish, trans. Alan Sheridan (London: Penguin, 1977), 195228.

Guy Debord, Society of the Spectacle (New York: Zone Books, 1995), chaps. I, II, VII.

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Avery Gordon, Trevor Paglen, Heather Rogers, excerpt from An Atlas of Radical Cartography (Journal of
Aesthetics and Protest Press, 2008).

Rafi Segal and Eyal Weizman, The Mountain, in A Civilian Occupation: The Politics of Israeli Architecture (TelAviv-Jaffa: Babel, 2003), 79-99.

Paul Virilio, Military Space, in The Virilio Reader (Malden, MA: Blackwell, 1998), 22-28.

Frederic Jameson, Architecture and the Critique of Ideology, in Architecture, Criticism, Ideology Joan Ockman,
ed. (Princeton, NJ: Princeton Architectural Press, 1985), 51-87.

Manfredo Tafuri, Toward a Critique of Architectural Ideology, Contropiano 1 (January-April 1969).

Margaret Crawford, excerpts from Everyday Urbanism, in The Urban Design Reader, Michael Larice and
Elizabeth Macdonald eds. (Taylor and Francis, 2013), 344-357.

Anthony Vidler, ed., Architecture between Spectacle and Use (Clark Art Institute, 2008).

Jean Baudrillard, The Beaubourg Effect: Implosion and Deterrence, October 20 (Spring, 1982), 3-13.

Georges Bataille, Architecture, and Slaughterhouse, in Neil Leach, ed., Rethinking Architecture: A Reader in
Cultural Theory (London and New York: Routledge, 1997), 20-21.

Denis Hollier, Against Architecture: The Writings of Georges Bataille (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1992).

TERM PAPER TOPICS / LIST OF HOUSES AND BUILDINGS

Description:
The writing assignment for this term requires that you choose a building or project from the list below and
describe the project with a focus on the intentions and ideals motivating its design, its the spatial dynamic
and, if pertinent, the socio-political atmosphere from which it was conceived. Furthermore, explain in your
own words how and why this building or project can be seen to embody the spirit of the modernity and the
modern movement. You are welcome to choose a building not listed below but it can not be a building
covered in class. If you choose a building not listed below, please discuss your choice with me before
proceeding.
A few things to keep in mind:
1. The terms modernity and the modern movement have some overlap but are not the same. Modernity is a
term with a much longer historical scope that encompasses the slow intellectual and material
transformations that, one may argue, have their source in the Enlightenment (and some would say, start
as early as the late medieval period and early Renaissance) and take a mature form in the work of the
avant-garde and beyond. One can think of, for instance, Galileo Galilei, Francis Bacon, Isaac Newton, but
also nineteenth-century thinkers and reformers such as Saint-Simon, Charles Baudelaire, and Karl Marx,
as making important contributions in this regard. The modern movement, by contrast, points to a more or
less coherent and organized movement in the late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century that sought to
transform the arts (architecture included) by challenging and subverting traditional values and accepted
norms.
2. The buildings and projects Ive listed below are not covered in this class. Ive chosen buildings that
demand you to do some research beyond what can be found on the internet. The goals of this
assignment are twofold: to improve your writing and research skills. It is essential, therefore, that you
familiarize yourselves with the library and with online research tools such as the Avery Index, JSTOR,
Grove Art Online, and other online databases. A library representative will be visiting the class sometime
soon, and I am always happy to help you with your research as best I can. All I ask is that you begin the
research (and have a preliminary bibliography to show me) before you seek out my advice.
3. Be reminded that you can email your instructor with your thoughts and ideas anytime.You may also wish
to meet with your instructor to discuss the many possible avenues your paper can take.
4. Finally, and it goes without saying, do not plagiarize. Plagiarism can lead to a failing grade in the course
and, for repeated offenses, expulsion from the school. As I mentioned to you all in class, using footnotes
to properly credit the sources of the your ideas and interpretations does not weaken your paper but
strengthens it. It shows that youve been able to harness the ideas of others effectively and highlights your
ability to synthesize competing interpretations for the sake of your own argued point.

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List of Buildings and Projects in Chronological Order:

August Endell, Atelier Elvira, Munich, Germany, 1896-1898
August Perret, No. 25bis Rue Franklin, Paris, France, 1903
Josef Hoffman, Palais Stoclet, Brussels, Belgium, 1905-1911
Mies Van der Rohe, Riehl House, Potsdam-Babelsberg, Germany, 1907
Bruno Taut, Alpine Architecture, unbuilt, 1917
Henri Sauvage, 13, rue des Amiraux, Paris, France, 1919-1930
Hans Poelzig,The Groes Schauspielhaus (Great Theater), Berlin, 1919
Erich Mendelsohn, Einstein Tower, Potsdam, Germany, 1919-1921
Walter Gropius and Adolf Meyer, Sommerfeld House, Berlin, Germany, 1920-22
Rudolf Schindler, The Schindler House, Los Angeles, 1922
Le Corbusier, La Petite Maison, Corseaux, France, 1923
Frank Lloyd Wright, Millard House, also known as La Miniatura, Pasadena, California, 1923
Kurt Schwitters, Merzbau, Hannover, Germany, 1923-1937
Robert Mallet-Stevens, Villa Noailles, Var, France, 1923-1927
Hugo Hring, Farm, gut garkau, Germany, 1923-1926
Fritz Hger, The Chilehaus, Hamburg, Germany, 1924
Rudolf Steiner, Second Goetheanum, Dornach, Switzerland, 1925-1928
Mies Van der Rohe, Erich Wolf House, Guben, Germany (now Poland), 1926
Ludwig Wittgenstein, Wittgenstein House, Vienna, Austria, 1926
Adolf Loos, Project for Josephine Baker House, Paris, France, unbuilt, 1927
Konstantin Melnikov, Melnokov House, Moscow, 1927-1929
Pierre Chareau, Maison de Verre, Paris, France, 1928-1932
Eileen Gray and Jean Badovici, E-1027 House, Roqbrune-Cap-Martin, France, 1929
Hannes Meyer, ADGB Trade Union School, Bernau, Germany, 1930
Hans Scharoun, Baensch house, Berlin, Germany, 1933
Luigi Figini and Gino Pollini, Casa Elettrica, Monza, Italy, 1930
Rudolf Schwarz, Fronleichnam Church, Aachen, Germany, 1930
William Lescaze, Lescaze House, New York City, 1933-1934
Eileen Gray, Tempe Pailla house, Castellar, France, 1934
Marcel Lods, etc., La Maison du Peuple, Clichy, France, 1935-1937
Paul Nelson, Suspended House, unbuilt, 1936-1938
Curzio Malaparte with Adalberto Libera, Casa Malaparte, Isle of Capri, Italy, 1937
Mies Van der Rohe, Resor House, Jackson Hole Wyoming, unbuilt. 1937

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