M 9:30–12:00 p.m.
TBD
This seminar investigates a selection of radical experiments in architectural form and construction and associated theories within the last 60 years. Architecture has traditionally been defined in terms of fundamental stylistic principles such as symmetry, axial layouts, the concealment of infrastructural elements in "poche" and the representation of wall thicknesses, window openings, and surface treatments as abstract geometric forms.
Some architects have made a vocation of challenging these modes of defining the building by introducing novel materials, by making explicit use of colors or by embracing profoundly different points of departure. Some have designed for prefabrication or on-site fabrication. Others have given precedence to certain structural or sculptural forms and de-emphasized circulation or function. Others have begun with the design of technically performative components such as structural supports or mechanical ventilation systems, relegating architectural form to the status of secondary considerations or to a posteriori conclusions that emerge from the design process rather than leading it.
Where architects have worked at the "edges" of architectural convention in this sense, what has been at stake in these aesthetic choices? What modes of operation are associated with these practices; for instance, what are the implications for autonomy or collaboration in the design process? When has the radical challenge to architectural form been mobilized in parallel to cultural factors such as institutional design or cultural change? What has been the outcome?
The seminar will draw on architectural discourse and theory to develop a rubric through which to assess and compare a set of cases. On this basis, each student will research and write an assessment of a chosen case study.