11222 Critical Thinking and Contemporary Architecture

Requisite(s): 11213 Introduction to Theory and Architecture
Undergraduate

This subject builds on previous work in architectural history, theory and design. The subject is designed to synthesise and combine these areas, and dissolve traditional boundaries between theory and practice. The lecture content loosely covers the historical period from 1945 until the present, and has an emphasis on critical thinking and ideas in late modern architecture. However, the subject is neither an exhaustive nor a chronological historical survey. Instead the lectures concentrate on pursuing particular theoretico-cultural themes as they have unfolded throughout history and are manifest in the present. These themes may include: the idea of ornament; monumentality; the ruin; the image of the architect; the theory of the everyday; minimalism then and now; what is post-modernism; architecture and objecthood; the dialectic of the avant garde; architecture and fashion; experimental architecture; architecture as critical object; and others.

Typical availability

Autumn semester, City campus