ARCH 563: Contemporary Architectural Theory

Professor: Vittoria Di Palma

Spring 2015
Tuesdays 9:00-10:50
Watt Hall 1

Teaching Assistant:

Office Hours: Mondays 1:00-3:00, and by appointment

Course Description

This lecture course surveys architectural theory from 1960 to the present. Focusing on key figures, movements,
and texts, it provides an overview of the principal theories that have informed, animated, or destabilized the
architectural discourse of the past five decades. It begins with the challenges to Modernism articulated in the 1960s,
moves on to various formulations of postmodernism during the 1970s, examines the rise of critical theory in the
1980s, considers the challenges mounted against theory in the 1990s and the introduction of new topics of
concern, and concludes by addressing select topics of contemporary debate. Theory can be used as justification, as
propaganda, as a guide for practice, as a set of principles, as a vehicle of thought, as a platform for debate, and as an
architectural project in itself. This course considers the changing role of theory with respect to practice over the
past fifty years, and aims to furnish students with a set of questions, techniques, and tools for criticism and self-
critique. Lectures on particular figures and texts will alternate with presentation days devoted to the discussion of
key ideas and common themes of each decade surveyed.

Course Requirements and Grading

Attendance and Participation: 10%

Reading Responses: 10%
Reading Response Journal: 10%
Midterm: 35%
Final: 35%

Students are required to attend each lecture and to complete the required reading assigned before each class
session. Readings will be on reserve in the library and, in the case of articles, posted on Blackboard.

For each class session, students will be expected to submit a brief response to the required readings. It should
summarize the main argument of each assigned reading, and record any opinions, disagreements, or questions you
might have. These are to be submitted electronically, and are due by midnight on the day before each class
meeting. At the end of the semester, these responses are to be revised and submitted once again as a reading
response journal, which should take the form of an annotated bibliography.

There will be two exams: a midterm, and a final. Review sessions will be held prior to each exam.

No late work is accepted--i.e. no partial credit will be given for work that is turned in late. Being absent on a day
that a quiz, exam, presentation, paper, or final is held or due can lead to a student receiving an "F" for that
assignment.

The School of Architecture's attendance policy allows a student to miss the equivalent of one week of class
sessions (in our case, that means ONE class session) without penalty. If additional absences are required for
medical reasons or a family emergency, a pre-approved academic reason, or religious observance, the situation
should be discussed, in advance if possible, with me. For each absence above this number, the final grade may be
lowered by 1/3 point (i.e. from A to A- for one unexcused absence, from A- to B+ for two; from B+ to B for three,
etc.).
Any student not in class after the first 10 minutes is considered to be tardy. Three later arrivals constitute one
unexcused absence. Students who are physically present but mentally absent (whether because they are asleep, or
distracted by technology) will be marked as absent. Leaving class before it ends, or taking an extended bathroom
or water break that lasts 1/3 of the class time or longer, will be considered an unexcused absence.

Course Overview

January 13 Introduction: Architecture and Theory

January 20 Manifesto
January 27 Utopia
February 3 Type
February 10 History
February 17 City
February 24 Event
March 3 Midterm Review
March 10 MIDTERM EXAM
March 17 SPRING BREAK
March 24 Geometry
March 31 Diagram
April 7 Landscape
April 14 Ornament
April 21 Ecology
April 28 Conclusion and Final Review

May 12 FINAL EXAM

Weekly Topics and Reading Assignments:

January 13 Introduction: Architecture and Theory

Required Reading:
K. Michael Hays, "Introduction," Architecture Theory Since 1968 (New York and Cambridge:
Columbia Books of Architecture/MIT Press, 1998): x-xv

Kate Nesbitt, "Introduction," Theorizing a New Agenda for Architecture: An Anthology of

Architectural Theory, 1965-1995 (New York: Princeton Architectural Press, 1996): 16-70

Further Reading:
Joan Ockman, "Introduction," Architecture Culture 1943-1968: A Documentary Anthology. Edited
by Joan Ockman with the collaboration of Edward Eigen (New York: Rizzoli, 1993): 13-24

A. Krysta Sykes, "Introduction," Constructing a New Agenda: Architectural Theory, 1993-2009,

edited by A. Krysta Sykes (New York: Princeton Architectural Press, 2010): 14-27

K. Michael Hays, "Afterword," Constructing a New Agenda: Architectural Theory, 1993-2009,

edited by A. Krysta Sykes (New York: Princeton Architectural Press, 2010): 472-475

January 20 Manifesto

Required Reading:
Filippo Tommaso Marinetti, "The Futurist Manifesto" (1909) in Ulrich Conrads, Programs and
Manifestoes on Twentieth-Century Architecture (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1970): 34-38

Le Corbusier, Vers une architecture (1923), translated as Towards a New Architecture (New York:
 Dover, 1986): 1-20; 89-148

January 27 Utopia

Required Reading:
Reyner Banham, Theory and Design in the First Machine Age [1960] (Cambridge, MA: The MIT
Press, 1980): 9-12; 99-137; 220-246; 320-330

February 3 Type

Required Reading:
Aldo Rossi, L'architettura della città (1966), translated as The Architecture of the City by Diane
Ghirardo and Joan Ockman. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1982, chapters 1, 3

Further Reading:
Giulio Carlo Argan, "On the Typology of Architecture," (1963) in Kate Nesbitt, Theorizing a
New Agenda for Architecture: An Anthology of Architectural Theory, 1965-1995 (New York:
Princeton Architectural Press, 1996): 240-247

Alan Colquhoun, "Typology and Design Method," (1967) in Kate Nesbitt, Theorizing a New
Agenda for Architecture: An Anthology of Architectural Theory, 1965-1995 (New York: Princeton
Architectural Press, 1996): 248-257

February 10 History

Required Reading:
Robert Venturi, Complexity and Contradiction in Architecture (1966). New York: The Museum of
Modern Art, 2nd revised edition, 1977: 16-69

Manfredo Tafuri, Teoria e storia dell'architettura (1968), translated as Theories and History of
Architecture. London: Granada, 1980: 227-237

February 17 City

Required Reading:
Robert Venturi, Denise Scott Brown, and Steven Izenour, Learning from Las Vegas, Cambridge,
MA: MIT Press, 1972: 3-72 [mostly images]

Rem Koolhaas, "The Double Life of Utopia: The Skycraper," Delirious New York: A Retroactive
Manifesto for Manhattan (1978). New York: The Monacelli Press, 1994: 81-108

February 24 Event

Required Reading:

Philip Johnson and Mark Wigley, Deconstructivist Architecture. New York: Museum of Modern
Art and Boston: Little, Brown, 1988): 10-20

Bernard Tschumi, "Madness and the Combinative," Architecture and Disjunction. Cambridge,
MA: MIT Press, 1994: 173-190

March 3 Midterm Review

March 10 MIDTERM EXAM

March 17 SPRING BREAK

March 24 Geometry

Required Reading:
Greg Lynn, Multiplicitous and Inorganic Bodies," Assemblage 19 (December 1992) Cambridge:
MIT Press, 32-49

Greg Lynn, "Architectural Curvilinearity: The Folded, The Pliant, and the Supple," Architectural
Design 102 (March/April 1993), reprinted in Constructing a New Agenda: Architectural Theory,
1993-2009, edited by A. Krysta Sykes (New York: Princeton Architectural Press, 2010): 30-61

Further Reading:
Gilles Deleuze, The Fold: Leibniz and the Baroque, Translated by Tom Conley (Minneapolis:
University of Minnesota Press, 1992)

March 31 Diagram

Required Reading:
Toyo Ito, "Diagram Architecture," El Croquis 77: Kazuyo Sejima, pp. 18-24

Stan Allen, "Diagrams Matter" ANY 23 (1998): 16-19

Further Reading:
Robert Somol, "Dummy Text, or the Diagrammatic Basis of Contemporary Architecture," in
Peter Eisenman, Diagram Diaries (New York: Universe, 1999): 6-25

Anthony Vidler, "Diagrams of Diagrams: Architectural Abstraction and Modern

Representation," Representations 72 (Autumn 2000): 1-20

Ben Van Berkel and Caroline Bos, "Diagrams: Interactive Instruments in Operation," ANY 23
(1998); reprinted in This is not Architecture, Media Construction. London: Routledge 2002: 99-109

Stan Alan: "Artificial Ecologies: The Work of MVRDV," El Croquis 86 (1998): 26-33

April 7 Landscape

Required Reading:
Julia Czerniak, "Challenging the Pictorial: Recent Landscape Practice," Assemblage 34
(December 1997): 110-20

James Corner, "Edietic Operations and New Landscapes," Recovering Landscape: Essays in
Contemporary Landscape Architecture, edited by James Corner. New York: Princeton
Architectural Press, 1999:153-169

Charles Waldheim, "Landscape as Urbanism," The Landscape Urbanism Reader (New York:
Princeton Architectural Press, 2006): 35-53

Further Reading:
The Landscape Urbanism Reader, edited by Charles Waldheim (New York: Princeton
Architectural Press, 2006)

James Corner, Recovering Landscape: Essays in Contemporary Landscape Architecture (New York:
 Princeton Architectural Press, 1999)

Landscape Urbanism: A Manual for the Machinic Landscape, edited by Mohsen Mostafavi and Ciro
Najle. London: AA Publications, 2003

Large Parks, edited by Julia Czerniak, George Hargreaves, and John Beardsley (New York:
Princeton Architectural Press, 2007)

April 14 Ornament

Required Reading:
Jeffrey Kipnis, "The Cunning of Cosmetics," El Croquis 84 (1997): 22-29

Farshid Moussavi and Michael Kubo, "Introduction," The Function of Ornament (Barcelona:
ACTAR, 2006): n.p.

Further Reading:
Alina Payne, From Ornament to Object: Genealogies of Architectural Modernism (New Haven: Yale
University Press, 2012)

Farshid Moussavi and Michael Kubo, The Function of Ornament (Barcelona: ACTAR, 2006)

Adolf Loos, "Ornament and Crime," (1908), in Ornament and Crime: Selected Essays, edited by
Adolf Opel, translated by Michael Mitchell (Riverside, CA: Ariadne Press, 1998)

Siegfried Kracauer, "The Mass Ornament," The Mass Ornament: Weimar Essays (Cambridge,
MA: Harvard University Press, 1998)

April 21 Ecology

Required Reading:
Félix Guattari, The Three Ecologies, translated by Ian Pindar and Paul Sutton (London: The
Athlone Press, 2000): 19-45

Sanford Kwinter, "Notes on the Third Ecology" Ecological Urbanism, edited by Mohsen
Mostafavi with Gareth Doherty (Zürich: Lars Müller, 2010)

Further Reading:
Mohsen Mostafavi, "Why Ecological Urbanism? Why Now?" Ecological Urbanism, edited by
Mohsen Mostafavi with Gareth Doherty (Zürich: Lars Müller, 2010)

April 28 Conclusion and Final Review

Selected Bibliography

Architectural Theory, volume II: An Anthology from 1871-2005, edited by Harry Francis Mallgrave and Christina
Contandriopoulos. Oxford: Blackwell, 2008

Architecture and Feminism, edited by Debra L. Coleman, Elizabeth Ann Danze, and Carol Jane Henderson. New
York: Princeton Architectural Press, 1996
Architecture Theory Since 1968, edited by K. Michael Hays. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1998

Appadurai, Arjun. Modernity at Large: Cultural Dimensions of Globalization. University of Minnesota Press, 1996

Augé, Marc. Non-Places: Introduction to an Anthropology of Supermodernity. New York: Verso: 1995

The Anti-Aesthetic: Essays on Postmodern Culture. edited by Hal Foster. New York: The New Press, 1998

ANY 23: Diagram Work: Data Mechanics for a Topological Age, guest editors Ben van Berkel and Caroline Bos (June
1998)

Architecture and Theory: Production and Reflection, edited by Louise King. Hamburg, Germany: Junius Verlag, 2009

Architecture Culture 1943-1968: A Documentary Anthology. Edited by Joan Ockman with the collaboration of Edward
Eigen. New York: Rizzoli, 1993

Banham, Reyner. Theory and Design in the First Machine Age (1960). Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press, 1980

Constructing a New Agenda: Architectural Theory, 1993-2009, edited by A. Krysta Sykes. New York: Princeton
Architectural Press, 2010

Corner, James. Recovering Landscape: Essays in Contemporary Landscape Architecture. New York: Princeton
Architectural Press, 1999

Crib Sheets: Notes on the Contemporary Architectural Conversation. Edited by Sylvia Lavin and Helene Furján with
Penelope Dean. New York: The Monacelli Press, 2005

Deleuze, Gilles. The Fold: Leibniz and the Baroque, translated by Tom Conley. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota
Press, 1992

Ecological Urbanism, edited by Mohsen Mostafavi with Gareth Doherty (Zürich: Lars Müller, 2010)

Eisenman, Peter. Diagram Diaries. New York: Universe, 1999

Forty, Adrian. Words and Buildings: A Vocabulary of Modern Architecture. London: Thames and Hudson, 2000

Guattari, Félix. The Three Ecologies, translated by Ian Pindar and Paul Sutton. London: The Athlone Press, 2000

Introducing Architectural Theory: Debating a Discipline. Edited by Korydon Smith. London: Routledge, 2012

Johnson, Philip, and Mark Wigley. Deconstructivist Architecture. New York: Museum of Modern Art and Boston:
Little, Brown, 1988

Koolhaas, Rem. Delirious New York: A Retroactive Manifesto for Manhattan (1978). New York: The Monacelli Press,
1994

Koolhaas, Rem, and Bruce Mau, S, M, L, XL. New York: Monacelli Press, 1995

Landscape Urbanism: A Manual for the Machinic Landscape, edited by Mohsen Mostafavi and Ciro Najle. London: AA
Publications, 2003

The Landscape Urbanism Reader, edited by Charles Waldheim. New York: Princeton Architectural Press, 2006

Large Parks, edited by Julia Czerniak, George Hargreaves, and John Beardsley. New York: Princeton Architectural
Press, 2007
Lynn, Greg. Animate Form. New York: Princeton Architectural Press, 1999

Martin, Reinhold, and Kadambari Baxi, Multi-National City: Architectural Itineraries. Barcelona: ACTAR, 2007

Moussavi, Farshid, and Michael Kubo, The Function of Ornament. Barcelona: ACTAR, 2006

Payne, Alina. From Ornament to Object: Genealogies of Architectural Modernism. New Haven: Yale University Press,
2012

Rossi, Aldo. L'architettura della città (1966), translated as The Architecture of the City by Diane Ghirardo and Joan
Ockman. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1982

Rowe, Colin, and Fred Koetter, Collage City (manuscript in circulation from 1973; published later) Cambridge, MA:
MIT Press, 1978

Tafuri, Manfredo. Teoria e storia dell'architettura (1968), translated as Theories and History of Architecture. London:
Granada, 1980

Theorizing a New Agenda for Architecture: An Anthology of Architectural Theory 1965-1995, edited by Kate Nesbitt.
New York: Princeton Architectural Press, 1996

Tschumi, Bernard. Architecture and Disjunction. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1994:

Venturi, Robert. Complexity and Contradiction in Architecture (1966). New York: The Museum of Modern Art, 2nd
revised edition, 1977

Venturi, Robert, Denise Scott Brown, and Steven Izenour, Learning from Las Vegas, Cambridge, MA: MIT Press,
1972

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