Syllabus – Arch 3120: Systems, Texts and Building - Architectural Theory and Analysis University of Virginia School of Architecture Fall 2019 - Updated 10 November 2019 William Sherman, Professor

9 October 2019 1

Synopsis Architecture is a cultural practice where constructed and inherited models of understanding intersect with lived experience. The relationship between design and theory is recursive – both practices drive new questions and inform each other through the proposition of new lines of inquiry. These cycles of design, contextualization and reflection advance the work of architects, theorists and the discipline as a whole. The course is based on the following premises:

• that the cycles of design and reflection enact the construction and revision of mental models of the world • that the mental models are cumulative, manifesting themselves in conscious, unconscious and collective design decisions in different

and sometimes conflicting ways • that the practice of architecture is inherently nonlinear, complex, and resistant to causal logics in its reception and societal impact • that the terms by which a work may be analyzed, measured and understood are open-ended • that the core of architecture is in constant flux, while its boundaries are fluid and porous, creating an indeterminate, loosely constrained

field of practice • that multiple modes of knowledge of the world - philosophical, scientific, aesthetic, empirical – all contribute to the understanding of

architecture • that architecture operates across scales, from molecular processes, to the body, the room, the building, the city, the region and the

planet This course explores a broad array of issues raised by theories of design – its approach is cumulative rather than chronological, and is loosely framed around four mental models of the way in which architecture shapes experience and understanding: a linguistic model based on its capacity for representation; a mechanistic model based on its intentions to reflect and enact social change; a perceptual model based on its construction of connections between the site and human experience; and an ecological model based on the inherent complexity of its interaction with the world. These ways of knowing manifest themselves in the range of concerns that will be addressed in the class, including questions of aesthetics, perception, meaning, societal impact, ecology, global change and urbanism. With such a broad scope, the course is intended to provide a framework for further investigation in other coursework, design studios and independent research. Within each topic, connections will be made to built works, including the development of tools for analysis and interpretation.

Syllabus – Arch 3120: Systems, Texts and Building - Architectural Theory and Analysis University of Virginia School of Architecture Fall 2019 - Updated 10 November 2019 William Sherman, Professor

9 October 2019 2

Logistics and Grading

This is a three-credit course, with interactive lectures/workshops at 11:00 to 11:50 am on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. The course requirements are as follows:

1 Commonplace Book entries – 4 @ 6.25% each 25% 2 Interim Quiz – 2 @ 12.5% 25% 3 Research Paper 40% 4 Class Participation and Exercises 10%

All students are expected to bring laptops or tablets to the lectures for in-class exercises. Attendance is mandatory at all lectures and workshop sessions. The grading criteria for the assignments and quizzes will include the incorporation of source material from the readings, the degree of effort and ambition to develop the analysis and arguments. Students are responsible for the understanding of the lecture content, the readings and the workshop exercises. The semester-long development of a website will be a central project of the course, with regular required posts. The research paper will be developed in stages during the second half of the course. Readings should be completed prior to each class. All assignments are due on Fridays at 11:00 am or as indicated in the syllabus. The Honor Code governs all work for this course. While discussion and the sharing of ideas is encouraged and expected, each student is to produce his or her own work for submissions or class discussions unless approved in advance. The in-class exercises will permit the use of each student’s own notes and prior research. Any written or graphic material submitted for any assignment that is not produced by the student must have its source identified with standard academic citation. Professor Sherman is available to discuss any issues raised by the course, during office hours from 2:00 – 4:00 on Tuesdays and 3:00 – 5:00 on Wednesdays in Campbell 420 or by appointment. His telephone is (434) 924-7592 and email sherman@virginia.edu. The teaching assistants are most easily found in the fourth-floor studios and will set individual office hours. The course will use Wordpress blogs (or equivalent) for the submission of student work, all linked off the primary site, https://archuva3120.wordpress.com/. Course information, including readings and lectures, is available on the Collab Site. The readings are also available on open reserve in the Fine Arts Library.

Syllabus – Arch 3120: Systems, Texts and Building - Architectural Theory and Analysis University of Virginia School of Architecture Fall 2019 - Updated 10 November 2019 William Sherman, Professor

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Schedule Week Topic Date Lecture Readings and Assignments 1 Models of Thought

8.28 Where we are Course introduction

8.30 Models of Thought and Structures of Knowledge

Vitruvius, Ten Books on Architecture, Book I, chapters 2-3; Book II, ch. 1 Alberti, On the Art of Building in Ten Books, Book I, Chapters 1, 2 Laugier, Essay on Architecture, Introduction, chapter 1 Le Corbusier, Towards a New Architecture, pp. 7-14, 63-79

2 9.2 Body/Building:

Clockwork and Complex Systems

Steven Johnson, Emergence, pp. 73-100 Dana Meadows, Thinking in Systems, pp. 145-165 William Sherman, “Energetic Organizations”

9.4 CIAM: La Sarraz Declaration, in Programs and Manifestoes, pp. 109-113 CIAM: Charter of Athens, in Programs and Manifestoes, pp. 137-145 Jencks, Theories and Manifestoes of Contemporary Architecture, selected readings from “The Complexity Paradigm” section

9.6 Workshop In-class Exercise, Website Set Up and First Blog Post Due – Entry 1

3 Theories of Form 9.9 Foundations of Modern Form

Le Corbusier, Towards a New Architecture, excerpts Le Corbusier, “Five Points on Architecture,” in Conrads, Programs and Manifestoes, pp. 99-101 Adolf Loos, “Ornament and Crime” and “Architecture (1910)”

9.11 Conrads, Programs and Manifestoes, pp. 34-38, 72-75, 78-82, 117-120 Louis Kahn, “Monumentality”

9.13 Workshop

Workshop: On Writing Reading: Grant and Birkenstein, They Say, I Say, pp. 1-77, 184-201

Syllabus – Arch 3120: Systems, Texts and Building - Architectural Theory and Analysis University of Virginia School of Architecture Fall 2019 - Updated 10 November 2019 William Sherman, Professor

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Week Topic Date Lecture Reading 4

Theories of Form (continued)

9.16 Re-engaging History

Robert Venturi, Complexity and Contradiction in Architecture, from Perspecta 9/10 Aldo Rossi, The Architecture of the City, pp. 12-61

9.18 Colin Rowe, “The Mathematics of the Ideal Villa,” essay Colin Rowe and Fred Koetter, “The Crisis of the Object and the Predicament of Texture”, in Collage City, pp. 50-85

9.20 Workshop In-class exercise, blog post due – Entry 2

5 9.23 Formal Operations: Complexity and Parametrics

Stan Allen, “From Object to Field,” AD 67, pp. 24-31 Greg Lynn, “Architectural Curvilinearity”, in Constructing a New Agenda: Architectural Theory 1993-2009, pp. 30-61

9.25 Patrick Schumacher, “Parametricism” Alejandro Zaera-Polo, “Patterns, Fabrics, Prototypes, Tessellations”

9.27 Workshop

In-class exercise

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Theories of Grounding

9.30 Tectonics, Place and Perception

Kenneth Frampton, “Prospects for a Critical Regionalism,” in Perspecta 20, pp. 147-162 and in Foster, The Anti-Aesthetic, “Towards a Critical Regionalism: Six points for an Architecture of Resistance,” pp. 16-30

10.2 Peter Zumthor, Thinking Architecture, pp. 9-34 Steven Holl, Juhani Pallasmaa, Alberto Perez-Gomez, Questions of Perception, pp. 27-42

10.4 No Class (Studio NYC Trip)

Blog Post due – Entry 3

Syllabus – Arch 3120: Systems, Texts and Building - Architectural Theory and Analysis University of Virginia School of Architecture Fall 2019 - Updated 10 November 2019 William Sherman, Professor

9 October 2019 5

Week Topic Date Lecture Reading 7 Theories of

Grounding (continued)

10.7 No Class Reading Day

10.9 Guest Lecture: WG Clark

Clark, WG, “Replacement” Recommended: Burns, “On Site”, in Drawing, Building, Text, pp. 147-167 Christophe Girot, “Four Trace Concepts in Landscape Architecture”, in Corner, Recovering Landscape, pp. 59-68 Vicente Guallart, Geologics, pp. 3-95

10.11 Workshop Interim Quiz I

8 Guest Perspectives 10.14 Guest Lecture: Schaeffer Somers

Pallasmaa, “The Sixth Sense: The Meaning of Atmosphere and Mood” Giffords, Environmental Psychology Matters, Introduction Recommended: Pallasmaa J. Keynote: Imagination and Empathy, YouTube: https://youtu.be/hnsvTrCtuuQ. Published May 2014.

10.16 Guest Lecture: Felipe Correa and Devin Dobrowalski

Manuel de Sola Morales, “The Culture of Description” John Stilgoe, “Wuthering Immensity”

10.18 Workshop: Rebecca Coleman

Talk: Research Methods I

9 Theories of the Landscape

10.21 Reading the Site James Corner, “Terra Fluxus”, in Landscape Urbanism Reader, pp. 21-34 Kristina Hill, “Shifting Sites”, in Burns and Kahn, Site Matters, pp. 131-156

10.23 Process and Place Elizabeth Meyer, “Sustaining Beauty” Anita Berrizbeitia, “rePlacing Process”

10.26 Workshop In-class exercise, Blog Post Due – Entry 4: Research Paper Abstract and Outline

Syllabus – Arch 3120: Systems, Texts and Building - Architectural Theory and Analysis University of Virginia School of Architecture Fall 2019 - Updated 10 November 2019 William Sherman, Professor

9 October 2019 6

Week Topic Date Lecture Reading 10 Theories of

Performance 10.28 Biological

Analogies Sanford Kwinter, Architecture and the Biologies of Life,” in Far from Equilibrium, pp. 128-132 Manuel De Landa, A Thousand Years of Non-Linear History, pp. 25-56

10.30 Time, Flow and Energy

Kiel Moe, Insulating Modernism, pp. 188-227 Fernández-Galiano, Fire and Memory, pp. 2-32 Michelle Addington, “Contingent Behaviors,” in Energies, pp. 12-17

11.01 Workshop

Discussion

11 11.4 Ecological Design

Stephan Behnisch and Transsolar, Ecology.Design.Synergy, excerpts Brian Walker and Salt, Resilience Thinking, pp. 28-38, 74-95, 145-151

11.6 Sustainability

Bill McDonough and Michael Braungart, Cradle to Cradle, Ch. 3-5

11.8

Workshop Review and Discussion

12 Critical Perspectives 11.11 Workshop Review and Talk: Research Methods II Research Draft 1 Due

11.13 Guest Lecture: Ila Berman

Luce Irigaray, “The Question of the Other” Luce Irigaray, “A Personal Note”

11.15 Workshop Quiz #2

Syllabus – Arch 3120: Systems, Texts and Building - Architectural Theory and Analysis University of Virginia School of Architecture Fall 2019 - Updated 10 November 2019 William Sherman, Professor

9 October 2019 7

Week Topic Date Lecture Reading 13 Critical Perspectives

(continued) 11.18 Gender, Identity

and Otherness

Diana Agrest, “Body, Logic, Sex,” from Gender Space Architecture, pp. 358-370 Mary McLeod, “Everyday and ‘Other’ Spaces,” from Gender Space Architecture, pp.182-202

Theories of the Contemporary City

11.20 Guest Lecture: Ellen Bassett

TBD

11.22 The Post-Modern City and Global Flows

Rem Koolhaas, “Advancement vs Apocalypse,” in Ecological Urbanism, pp. 56-77 Marc Auge, Non-Places: An Introduction to Super-Modernity, excerpts Antoine Picon, Smart Cities, excerpts

14 Critical Practices 11.25 Alternative Practices

Awan, Schneider, Till, Spatial Agency, excerpts Bryan Bell, Good Deeds, Good Design, excerpts Alejandro Aravena, Elements, excerpts Anna Heringer, Rebuilding the Future, excerpts Final Papers Due Tuesday 11.26, 5:00 pm

11.27 Thanksgiving Break No Class 11.29

15 Conclusions 12.2 Are we Human?

Beatriz Colomina and Mark Wigley, Are We Human?, excerpts

12.4 Final Remarks

In-class Exercise

12.6 Final Charrette

No Class