Professor Ghirardo Architecture 214b

School of Architecture Spring 2000

Description

This course is a survey of the history of architecture and the urban environment from 1400 to the present. The immediate goal of the course is to foster visual literacy by developing familiarity with the Western architectural tradition. An equally fundamental aim is to place this architectural tradition within a historical framework in which the role of architecture in that larger system of cultural expression can be explored.

Web Site: http://www.usc.edu/dept/architecture/slide/ghirardo/indexa.html

Requirements

Sections: Sections will meet each Thursday. Attendance is mandatory. Material covered in sections will include all of the readings, the exams, and the paper.

Reading: Weekly reading assignments, which should be completed before the appropriate class, are outlined in the attached lecture schedule. Students will review and discuss readings in sections. Lectures will cover material for the most part only partially covered in the text, and will primarily consist of material not covered in the readings. Therefore, students are encouraged to attend. If you miss a class, try to obtain notes from a classmate. The readings designated below are due on Tuesday, for the lecture, but will be discussed in section on Thursday.

Examinations: There will be seven exams during the course of the semester. They will consist of slide identifications and slide comparisons. Dates of these exams are listed in the lecture schedule below. Most of the images to be covered in the exams are available for study on the 214b web site; those shown only in lecture may not be on the web site. No makeup exams will be given without a medical excuse from a doctor. All in-class exams will take place during section.

Writing assignments: There are three papers assigned for the course, based on the readings. Details for the paper will be handed out.

Grading:
Participation 15%

Take Home Papers 40%

In Class Quizzes 45%

Ground Rules:

Every student must complete all assignments in order to receive a passing grade for the course. Plagiarism or any other form of cheating will result in a failing grade for the class.

Late Assignments: Papers will be marked down one full grade for each day late; make-up exams will only be given with a verified doctor's excuse. Papers will not be accepted after three days, resulting in a grade of F. All assignments are to be turned in to your TA.

Lecture and Reading Schedule

T 1/11 Introduction. Course Organizaion

Th 1/13 Lecture: Architectural Theory from Vitruvius to Viollet-le Duc

Reading: Introduction, Alberti, On the Art of Bu;ilding in Ten Books

T 1/18 Lecture: Alberti and Classicism in the Quattrocento

Reading: Alberti, On the Art of Building in Ten Books, 2-32. 189-243

T 1/25: Lecture: Renaissance Cities

Reading: Trachtenberg, 281-305

Alberti, On the Art of Building, 117-153

T 2/1: Lecture: Domestic Architecture Rural and Urban

Reading: Trachtenberg, 305-333

T 2/8: Lecture: The Architecture of Royalty

first take home paper quiz due

Reading: Trachtenberg 335-358

T 2/15: Lecture: Women in Renaissance Cities

Reading: Trachtenberg 358-392

T 2/22: Lecture: TBA

Reading: Trachtenberg 392-423

T 2/29: Lecture: Cities of Spectacle

Reading: Trachtenberg 423-44

T 3/7: Lecture: Romanticism and Revivals

Reading: Trachtenberg 444-474

second take home quiz due

Spring Break

T 3/21: Lecture: TBA

Reading: Trachtenberg 474-96

T 3/28: Traditional and Vernacular Landscapes

Reading: Trachtenberg 496-522

T 4/4: Lecture: TBA

Reading: Trachtenberg 522-544

T 4/11: Lecture: Typologies of Consumption

Reading: Trachtenberg 544-63: Ghirardo, 7-27

third take home quiz

T 4/18: Lecture: Modern Housing

Reading: Ghirardo, 28-69

T 4/25: Twentieth Century Theory

Reading: Ghirardo, 69-96. 171-94

TEXTS:

Trachtenberg & Hymans, Architecture from Prehistory to Post-Modernism*

Alberti, On the Art of Building in Ten Books*

Turabian, A Manual for Writers of Term Papers, Theses and Dissertations*

Ghirardo, Architecture after Modernism

Sections and Teaching Assistants

Section 1: Heather Lenkin Section 2: Danny Cervezo

Section 3: Maria Martinez Section 4: Anupama Mann

List the name, location, date and architects of both buildings; then compare and contrast the two images. Your discussion should be

conducted in complete sentences; lists of observations are not acceptable. Always consider the formal information on the screen in relation to the larger cultural, religious, and political factors.

Due: Tuesday, March 25, 2000, in section. (late after 9pm)

Length: 500 words, in two pages approximately. Papers significantly shorter

or longer will be marked down.

Format: Type, double spaced. See Turabian for the correct format. Be sure that you keep a copy of the final paper.

NB: Late papers will be dropped one full grade per day of lateness, and will not be accepted after the third day. Be sure to read guidelines on plagiarism in The Chicago Manual of Style or other sources in the university. Plagiarism will result in a failing grade for the class.

Subject:

Alberti, Classicism and Architectural Design

Leon Battista Alberti 1404-72

De Re Aedificatoria 1452

Tempio Malatestiano/San Francesco, Rimini 1446-50

Santa Maria Novella, Florence 1472

San Sebastiano, Mantua 1460

Sant'Andrea, Mantua 1470 (designed)

Palaces

Palazzo Medici, Florence 1444

Palazzo Pitti, Florence 1485 (begun)

Palazzo Rucellai, Florence 1446-50

Palazzo della Cancelleria, Rome ca.1490

Terms & Names

Sigismondo Malatesta Cortile

Cosimo de'Medici piano nobile

string course Gonzaga

Michelozzo di Bartolomeo (1396-1472)