Architecture of the House Through Space and Time HIAA 0081 Spring 2018 MWF 11-11:50 am LIST 110 Prof. Itohan I. Osayimwese Office hours: M 12:30-1:30, W 1-2, or by appointment Office: List 414 Email: itohan_osayimwese@brown.edu TA: Ciprian Buzila Office: List 404 Email: ciprian_buzila@brown.edu This undergraduate lecture course introduces the history of architecture by focusing on one building type, the house, across space and time. The house has been chosen because its familiarity makes it an ideal entry point into an understanding of the built environment. People have built houses in all periods and places. Houses can be minute or monumental, vernacular or works of high art, provide minimal shelter or afford the encompassing material and psychic satisfaction of a home. Studying houses offers us the opportunity to bypass some of architectural history s structural biases that have marginalized buildings because of their material composition, structural technologies, and racial and socioeconomic associations. By focusing on the house, we will therefore explore some of the major debates in the discipline: What is architecture? Who determines what is included/excluded in this category? And on what basis do they make these claims? Course Requirements and Grading Course grade will be based on the following: 1) Four quizzes (40%). Quizzes are scheduled and focus on terminology and concepts. Please note that there will be no make-up quizzes given. 2) Research and analysis of a house that you have spent a significant amount of time in (your childhood home, your grandparents house, etc. in the form of a proposal, draft, and a final synthesizing paper (50%). Details TBA. 3) Attendance and participation (10%). Includes attendance at one scheduled Saturday fieldtrip. Students may be required to contribute $10 toward admission fees for this fieldtrip. Required Texts Barbara Miller Lane, Houses for a New World: Builders and Buyers in American Suburbs, 1945-1965 (Princeton, 2015). Estimated cost: $50. Madhavi Desai and Miki Desai, The Bungalow in Twentieth-Century India: The Cultural Expression of Changing Ways of Life and Aspirations in the Domestic Architecture of Colonial and Post-Colonial Society (Routledge, 2012). Estimated cost: $50. Recommended Text Pevsner and Fleming, The Penguin Dictionary of Architecture and Landscape Architecture (Penguin, 2000).
Course Expectations Full attendance and participation is expected. Over the course of the semester, students will spend 36 hours in class. You can expect to spend approximately 8 hours per week reading (120 hours total). Studying for the quizzes will take circa 8 hours. It should take approximately 3 hours to research and write a proposal for your research project, between 15-20 hours researching and writing your draft, and 10-15 hours revising and finalizing your project for final submission at the end of the term. Late assignments will not be accepted. Extra credit assignments are not possible. All students are expected to abide by the academic code of Brown University: https://www.brown.edu/academics/college/degree/sites/brown.edu.academics.college.degree/files /uploads/academic-code.pdf. Policy on Digital Devices in Class: The use of laptops, phones, or tablets in class is not permitted, except when they are integral to specific assignments. I will notify you when this is the case. Otherwise, please turn all devices off during class. If a device is being used outside of these conditions in class then I will ask that you refrain from using it. Continued use may negatively affect your grade. I urge you print out PDFs and bring them to class along with your textbooks. During class, you should take notes by hand and then use your computer after class to help you expand on and clarify your understanding of the class conversation. Lastly, my lectures and our classroom discussions may not be recorded in any medium without written permission from me. Statement on Diversity and Inclusion It is my intent that students from all diverse backgrounds and perspectives be well-served by this course, that students' learning needs be addressed, and that the diversity that students bring to this class be viewed as a resource, strength and benefit. It is my intent to present materials and activities that are respectful of gender identity, sexuality, disability, age, socioeconomic status, ethnicity, race, nationality, religion, and culture. Please feel free to share with me (in person or anonymously) your suggestions for improving the effectiveness of the course for you personally, for other students, or student groups. Brown University is committed to full inclusion of all students. Please inform me early in the term if you have a disability or other conditions that might require accommodations or modification of any of these course procedures. You may speak with me after class or during office hours. For more information, please contact Student and Employee Accessibility Services at 401-863-9588 or SEAS@brown.edu. Academic Support Students in need of short-term academic advice or support can contact one of the deans in the Dean of the College office. The Brown University Writing Center can help students to improve their writing. You may benefit from showing a draft of written assignments to the staff: http://www.brown.edu/student_services/writing_center/.!! 2
Reading and Discussion Schedule *This reading schedule is subject to change.* Readings are either posted as PDFs on Canvas under <Pages> or are in your textbooks. Week 1: Introduction W 1/24 Why houses? F 1/26 Reading Houses: Barbara Miller Lane, Who Interprets? The Historian, the Architect, Anthropologist, the Archaeologist, the User?, in Housing and dwelling : perspectives on modern domestic architecture (Routledge, 2007), pp. 21-32. Week 2: Housing Patricians & Plebs in Greece & Rome M 1/29 Greek City, Oikos & Social Life: Lisa Nevett, Greek houses as a source of evidence for social relations, British School at Athens Studies, Vol. 15, Building Communities: House, Settlement and Society in the Aegean and Beyond (2007), pp. 5-10. W 1/31 Greek City, Oikos & Social Life: Homer, The Odyssey, Book 22, pp. TBA. Richard Jebb, An Introduction to the Illiad and the Odyssey, 7 th ed. (Boston: Ginn & Co, 1894), pp. 56-61 F 2/2 Section: Reading Buildings Workshop Week 3: Housing Patricians & Plebs in Greece & Rome M 2/5 Roman Villa & Domus & Insula: Umberto Pappalardo, The Domus Romana. Pictorial Decorations and Cultural Values, in Domus : wall painting in the Roman house, eds. Donatella Mazzoleni, Umberto Pappalardo (Getty, 2004), 41-52. W 2/7 Reinventing the Roman House: Witold Rybczynski, The Perfect House (Simon and Schuster, 2003), foreword, 1-26. F 2/9 Section: RISD Museum Visit Week 4: House as spatial system in China M 2/12 House as Structure & System: Ronald G. Knapp, Architecture of the Chinese House, in Chinese houses : the architectural heritage of a nation (New York : Tuttle Publishing, 2012), pp. 10-51. W 2/14 House as Social Practice: Ronald G. Knapp, Chinese House as Living Space, in Chinese houses : the architectural heritage of a nation (New York : Tuttle Publishing, 2012), pp. 52-82. F 2/16 QUIZ 1 3
Week 5: House as spatial system in China M 2/19 No Class Long Weekend W 2/21 Siheyuan, Shop Houses, Hakka Fortresses: Ronald G. Knapp, China s Fine Heritage Houses, in Chinese houses : the architectural heritage of a nation (New York : Tuttle Publishing, 2012), pp. 100-111, 156-165, 166-175, 184-191. F 2/23 Section: History Detectives Week 6: Islam and the Courtyard House M 2/26 Ancient Traditions in Islamic Residential Architecture: Norbert Schoenauer, 6,000 Years of Housing (New York: Norton, 2000), 145-168. W 2/28 Global Islam and Housing: Hisham Mortada, Traditional Islamic Principles of Built Environment (Taylor & Francis, 2003), 94-124. F 3/2 Section: Losing the Heritage of Islamic Residential Architecture PROJECT PROPOSAL DUE Week 7: Islam and the Courtyard House M 3/5 Of Palaces and Harems: Jateen Lad, Historical and sociological paradigms. A house divided : the harem courtyards of the Topkapı Palace, in The Courtyard House From Cultural Reference to Universal Relevance, ed. Nasser Rabbat, et al, (London, UK: Ashgate, 2010), 3-28. W 3/7 The Image of the Islamic House: Asiya Chowdhury, Edward W. Lane s Representaiton of the Cairene Courtyard House in The Courtyard House From Cultural Reference to Universal Relevance, ed. Nasser Rabbat, et al, (London, UK: Ashgate, 2010), 29-47. F 3/9 Section: Lecture Review Week 8: The Yoruba House in and out of Africa M 3/12 The Yoruba House in West Africa: John Michael Vlach, Affecting Architecture of the Yoruba, African Arts, 10/1 (October 1976): 48-54. W 3/14 Yoruba Palaces & Gardens: G. J. Afolabi Ojo, Yoruba palaces: a study of Afins of Yorubaland, pp. 13-48. F 3/16 Section: The Yoruba House in America QUIZ 2 4
Week 9: The Bungalow: A Global Housing Type M 3/19 Inventing the Bungalow in Colonial India: Madhavi Desai, Miki Desai, The Bungalow in Twentieth-Century India: The Cultural Expression of Changing Ways of Life and Aspirations in the Domestic Architecture of Colonial and Post-colonial Society (Routledge, 2012), pp. 1-26. W 3/21 Inventing the Bungalow in Colonial India: Madhavi Desai, Miki Desai, The Bungalow in Twentieth-Century India: The Cultural Expression of Changing Ways of Life and Aspirations in the Domestic Architecture of Colonial and Post-colonial Society (Routledge, 2012), pp. 39-62. F 3/23 Section: Lecture Review PROJECT DRAFT DUE Week 10: Spring Break M 3/26 W 3/28 F 3/30 Week 11: The Bungalow: A Global Housing Type M 4/2 Evolution of the Bungalow in the 20 th Century: Madhavi Desai, Miki Desai, The Bungalow in Twentieth-Century India: The Cultural Expression of Changing Ways of Life and Aspirations in the Domestic Architecture of Colonial and Post-colonial Society (Routledge, 2012), pp. 73-121. W 4/4 Reinventing the Bungalow: Madhavi Desai, Miki Desai, The Bungalow in Twentieth-Century India: The Cultural Expression of Changing Ways of Life and Aspirations in the Domestic Architecture of Colonial and Post-colonial Society (Routledge, 2012), pp. 123-161. F 4/6: Section: Bungalows Across the World QUIZ 3 Week 12: Newport and its Houses: from the Colonial Period to the Gilded Age M 4/9 Newport to 1840: James Yarnall, Newport Through Its Architecture: A History of Styles from Postmedieval to Postmodern (Salve Regina University Press, 2005), 1-9, 23-44. W 4/11 Italianate, Queen Anne, and Beaux Arts Houses in Newport: James Yarnall, Newport Through Its Architecture: A History of Styles from Postmedieval to Postmodern (Salve Regina University Press, 2005), 48-61, 85-97,135-150. F 4/13 Section: Building Newport s Houses James Yarnall, Newport Through Its Architecture: A History of Styles from Postmedieval to Postmodern (Salve Regina University Press, 2005), 135-150. S 4/14: FIELDTRIP: 300 YEARS OF AMERICAN RESIDENTIAL ARCHITECTURE IN RHODE ISLAND 5
Week 13: Housing the Industrial Revolution in New England M 4/16 Industrial Paternalism and Company Towns: Claire W. Dempsey, Richard E. Greenwood and Wm. Mckenzie Woodward, The Early Architecture and Landscapes of the Narragansett Basin, Vol. II (2001), pp. TBA. W 4/18 Multi-Family Worker s Housing in New England: Kingston Wm. Heath, Housing the Worker: The Anatomy of the New Bedford, Massachusetts, Three- Decker, Perspectives in Vernacular Architecture, Vol. 10, Building Environments (2005), pp. 47-59. F 4/20 Section: Documenting New England s Triple Deckers Date TBA (attendance required) Screening and discussion with filmmaker Marc Levitt about his film Triple Deckers: A New England Love Story, date & time TBA. Week 14: Houses & Housing in 20 th Century United States M 4/23 The Context for Little Boxes, Made of Ticky-Tacky : Barbara Miller Lane, Houses for a New World: Builders and Buyers in American Suburbs, 1945-1965 (Princeton, 2015), pp. 1-46. W 4/25 West Coast Suburbs: Barbara Miller Lane, Houses for a New World: Builders and Buyers in American Suburbs, 1945-1965 (Princeton, 2015), pp. 47-92. F 4/27 Finale: QUIZ 4 T 5/8 REVISED AND EXPANDED PROJECT DUE 6