Contemporary Theories in Architecture

This lecture-and-seminar course looks at a specific set of contemporary theoretical and historical ideas. Team-taught by an architectural historian and an architect, it seeks to foster a dialogue between theory and practice.  The course aims to develop analytical and critical skills via discussion and varied writing venues: short trenchant papers, one which looks to the world from theory and the second which looks to theory from the world, and a lengthier, more developed research essay.  The objective is not only to expose students to a relevant body of writing and work but to also develop skills in relating theoretical investigaton to its embodiment in built form and space.  The intention of the course is to afford the intellectual context and framework by which students might begin to position their own architectural ambitions.

Prerequisites: ARCH 504 and ARCH 505, or permission of the instructor.