Teaching is even more difficult than learning. We know that; but we rarely think about it. And why is teaching more difficult than learning? Not because the teacher must have a larger store of information, and have it always ready. Teaching is more difficult than learning because what teaching calls for is this: to let learn. The real teacher, in fact, lets nothing else be learned than learning.
History, Theory, and Criticism at the
Gerald D. Hines College of Architecture
Philip Johnson and John Burgee display a model of the new Gerald D. Hines College of Architecture based on Claude Nicholas Ledoux’s House of Education first published in L’Architecture (1804). The new building was inaugurated in 1986.
HTC courses foster critical thinking and offer students a forum for in-depth discussion on historical and theoretical issues facilitated by faculty with demonstrated expertise. HTC instructors promote meaningful research and critical writing opportunities based primarily on the preparation of in-depth papers.
Michelangelo Sabatino, Ph. D.,
Director of the History, Theory, and Criticism Program
Design Since 1945 (ARCH 1359): Spring
This introductory lecture class is aimed at providing architecture, industrial design and interior architecture undergraduates an overview of key texts, buildings, and objects that shaped the decades since the end of the Second World War. Students are encouraged to understand the socio-economic and cultural backgrounds that gave rise to ideas and ideals that traversed the work of architects and designers in the Americas, Europe, and Asia. This writing in the disciplines core curriculum course encourages students to develop visual-spatial skills as well as critical-analytical writing skills.
Modernism and Its Discontents: Architecture and Urbanism Since World War II (ARCH 6359): Fall
The years leading up to and following the Second World War dramatically challenged modern architecture as it had developed during the first decades of the Twentieth Century. In the aftermath of the Second World War architects began to rethink abstract modern ideals in relation to post-war realities. This graduate seminar explores the impact of buildings and ideas on the practice of architecture and urbanism in countries throughout the world from the Second World War to the present.
Expanding the Field of Design: Architecture, Infrastructure, Landscape and Urbanism (ARCH 6397 – 4397): Fall
NEW! From the gardens of sixteenth century Italy to the large-scale public works program overseen by the Tennessee Valley Authority, the field of design over the last several hundred years has expanded beyond architecture to include infrastructure, landscape and urbanism. This seminar examines a select group of interventions that responded to shifting cultural, economic and social developments. Students will be asked to produce research papers that explore the changing relationship between architecture, infrastructure, landscape and urbanism.
Architecture, Art, and Politics (ARCH 3350-6350): Fall
How have nationalist politics shaped twentieth-century art and architecture? How have the strategies of rightwing or leftwing governments differed in terms of their use of art or architecture as a tool of propaganda and self-aggrandizement? How did colonialism promote new forms of architecture? This course sets out to answer these and other questions by looking at a number of case studies in different geographical locations.
World Cities (ARCH 6349-4374): Spring
What is a world city? How do contemporary world cities differ from world cities of the 19th or 16th century for example? What role does architecture play in shaping contemporary world cities? As the introduction for the World Cities Undergraduate Minor, this course seeks to encourage students to critically explore cities of the world from different geographical, chronological and disciplinary perspectives. By examining the texts (and work) of urban theorists, anthropologists, planners as well architects, the course exposes students to a number of competing visions of civic life.
Related World Cities Symposia and Guest Speakers
- Concrete Utopias Symposium
- Baghdad and the Modernist Imagination Symposium
- Glocalism: or Regionalism Reconsidered?
- São Paulo – Urban Structure and Territorial Expansion
The European Metropolis (ARCH 3398-6398): Summer
The aim of this course is to enhance the design studio component of the graduate and undergraduate travel abroad program by exposing students to the study of noteworthy examples of architecture (ancient through contemporary); the sites and buildings visited are chosen because they embody a creative response to the cultural, material, and spatial qualities of the context for which they were realized. The course seeks to expose students to the creative process of architects for whom physical constraints (i.e. context in the broadest sense) enhanced (not hampered) architectural invention.
Survey of Global Architectural History II (ARCH 6341- 2351): Spring
This graduate and undergraduate course is a continuation of Survey of Architectural History, I (Arch 2350/6340). Its primary aim is to introduce students to a range of significant examples of global architecture, art, and urbanism from the fifteenth century to the present. Students are encouraged to explore the cultural, economic, and social circumstances that led to the realization and reception of important works of architecture, art, and urbanism throughout the globe. Students will develop visual and spatial literacy as well as critical-analytical skills by attending lectures, participating in discussions, reading assigned texts and completing writing assignments
Histories and Theories of Modern Architecture and Urbanism, 1750–present (ARCH 6363 – 4397): Fall
From the mid-Eighteenth century to the present, architects and historians have struggled to define the parameters of modern architecture and urbanism. Narratives have been constructed based upon different beginnings that emphasize the use of new materials and technologies as well as changing socio-economic conditions. This graduate and undergraduate course explores the cultural, economic, and political agendas that motivated different interpretations of modernity in architecture and urbanism. Through readings of texts and buildings, the course seeks to help students understand how the construction of historiographical narratives (and of “canons”) change according to the bias of individual authors.
Italian Design: Tradition and Modernity (ARCH 6397-3397): Spring
The arts and architecture of twentieth-century Italy are borne of a dialogue between two apparently contradictory impulses: the desire for continuity with the legacy of tradition (and craftsmanship) associated with a proto-industrial past and the need to accommodate new demands of a modern society. In dialogue with national and regional values (as well as international developments), different generations of Italian designers of various political persuasions strove to achieve modernity by way of a dialogue with classical and vernacular traditions of the past. This seminar examines the contribution of leading architects and designers whose work best exemplifies a creative tension between tradition and modernity.
Frames of Modernity (WLC 4352 - Department of Modern and Classical Languages): Fall
The graduate and undergraduate course completes WCL 4351 (Frames of Modernity I) offering a basic outline of the major theoretical trends in contemporary World Cultures from the end of World War II to the present time: Existentialism, Structuralism, Postmodernism, Deconstruction, Feminism, Gender Studies, Cultural Studies, Postcolonial Studies, Globalization Studies, and cultural perspectives from Non-Western Areas. Students will be oriented to world cultural processes through a study of works of literature, cinema, visual arts, architecture, and music in relation to selected historical and thematic emphases. A major dimension of the course will be its reliance on guest professors who will teach given units of the course.
Travel Abroad Program
Zaha Hadid’s Library & Learning Centre, Vienna, 2012
Visit to Trevi Fountain Rome, Italy 2011
Visit to Lingotto Turin, Italy 2010
Renzo Piano Building Workshop Genoa, Italy 2009
