Introduction to Architecture Professor Michelle Apotsos mapotsos@gmu.edu George Mason University Robinson Hall B 113 - T/Th 1:30 pm 2:45am Office hours: TBA - Robinson Hall B 371 A Introduction This course examines the human built environment from the prehistoric period to the contemporary age. It will focus primarily on Western architectural form but will also address non-western structural traditions in order to provide students with a comparative perspective for understanding and interrogating architectural form across cultural boundaries. The primary goal of this course is to demonstrate the interaction between form and idea in architectural creation and equip students with the analytical skills to understand how political, social, cultural, and religious components of society control how individuals organize their built environment. Textbook: Fazio, Michael W., Marian Moffett, and Lawrence Wodehouse. Buildings Across Time: An Introduction to World Architecture. Boston: McGraw-Hill Higher Education, 2013. ***Notes about the readings - It is IMPERATIVE that you attend class. The readings you are assigned are designed to give you an idea of the breadth of architectural forms that exist in various historical, social, and cultural contexts. In class, we will distill these examples down into an understandable narrative. If you are not in class, you will find this material exceptionally challenging. - Supplementary reading materials indicated on the syllabus will be provided either via Blackboard or on reserve at the library. - Exam material will be taken directly from the readings. IMAGES AND/OR TERMS IN RED in class powerpoints are fair game for use in the exams and all are located in your textbook. A document containing a list of exam slides will be posted on blackboard a week before exams. Grading Requirements: Attendance 10% Midterm Exam 25% Final Exam 25% Response papers 15% Term Paper 25%
Response Papers You will be required to turn in 2 page-length response papers on readings of your choosing over the course of the semester. The response papers should summarize the reading and indicate why you find the material presented interesting and/or informative. I expect a detailed explanation of why you chose this reading; I like this reading because this building is cool is not sufficient. Papers are due on the day of the reading / lecture. Term Paper Your term paper will be a 3-page analysis of a building / monument / architectural space of your preference in the Washington D.C. area. I expect you to thoroughly research the building s architect, it s history, it s functions (and whether or not these have changed over time), and how you feel that the building serves (or does not serve) the function for which it was meant i.e., political, social, cultural, religious, nationalistic, etc. You will be given class time on September 19 th to go and study the building / monument / architectural space of your choosing. Papers are due November 21. Grading Scale: A+ (100-97) A (96-93) A- (92-90) B+ (89-87) B (86-83) B- (82-80) C+ (79-77) C (76-73) C- (72-70) D (69-60) F (59 and below) Important Notes: No make-up exams will be offered without a doctor s excuse or other official documentation. You must contact me within 24 hours of a missed exam to schedule the re-take with valid documentation. Please ask questions and contribute to discussion in class. Your unique viewpoints and opinions are extremely valuable and welcomed. Please turn off cell phones when class begins. Texting during class will be treated the same as talking during lectures. Use of electronic devices (including cell phones) during exams will be treated as an honor code violation. You will receive a 0 on the exam at the very least. Arrive on time for class. Discuss any special academic needs with me at the start of the term. All reading assignments should be completed before class each day. All assignments are to be turned in on time. For each additional day an assignment is late, your grade will drop by a third.
You are allowed a TOTAL of 3 absences over the course of the term, excused and unexcused. Each subsequence absence will affect your grade. The schedule and pace of the course may be adjusted as needed. If the need arises, a revised syllabus will be distributed. It is your responsibility to keep up with the most recently distributed version of the syllabus. All university policies of academic integrity and honesty will be enforced in this class: make sure that you are familiar with these policies. If you have not already signed up for the Mason Alert system, which will send texts concerning weather cancellations, etc. please do so at: https://alert.gmu.edu
Week 1: Introducing Architecture Aug 27 (Tue) Introduction to the course Aug 29 (Th) Term paper assigned Buildings Across Time: Chapter 1 The Beginnings of Architecture Week 2: Sept. 3 (Tue) Buildings Across Time: Chapter 2 The Greek World Sept. 5 (Th) Clemente Marconi, The Parthenon Frieze: Degrees of Visibility. RES: Anthropology and Aesthetics, No. 55/56 Absconding (Spring Autumn 2009), pp. 156-173. Class film: The Greek Awakening: Art from the 5 th Century BC Week 3: Sept. 10 (Tue) Buildings Across Time: Chapter 5 The Roman World Sept. 12 (Th) Alois Riegl, "The Modern Cult of Monuments: Its Character and Its Origin (1928), in The Nineteenth Century Visual Culture Reader. Edited by Jeannene M. Przyblyski and Vanessa R. Schwartz. New York : Routledge, 2004. Week 4: Sept. 17 (Tue) Buildings Across Time: Chapter 6 Early Christian and Byzantine Architecture Ousterhout, Robert. "Originality in Byzantine Architecture: The Case of Nea Moni," Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians 51 (1992): 48-60. Sept. 19 (Th) Take this class visit to head to D.C. and spend some time studying the the building / monument / architectural space that you have chosen for your term paper. Week 5: Sept. 24 (Tue) Buildings Across Time: Chapter 7 Islamic Architecture Sept. 26 (Th) Buildings Across Time: Chapter 3 The Architecture of Ancient India and Southeast Asia
Week 6: Oct. 1 (Tue) Buildings Across Time: Chapter 4 Traditional Architecture of China and Japan Cassandra Adams, Japan's Ise Shrine and Its Thirteen-Hundred-Year-Old Reconstruction Tradition, Journal of Architectural Education (1984-), Vol. 52, No. 1 (Sep., 1998), pp. 49-60. Oct. 3 (Th) Buildings Across Time: Chapter 10 Indigenous Architecture in the Americas and Africa Week 7: Oct. 8 (Tue) Apotsos, Michelle. Holy Ground: Mud, Materiality, and Meaning in the Djenne Mosque. Rutgers Art Review, Vol. 27 (Spring, 2012). Oct. 10 (Th) MID TERM EXAM Week 8: Oct. 15 (Tue) Columbus Day / NO CLASS Oct. 17 (Th) Buildings Across Time: Chapter 8 Early Medieval and Romanesque Architecture Week 9: Oct. 22 (Tue) Buildings Across Time: Chapter 9 Gothic Architecture Oct. 24 (Th) Franklin Toker, Gothic Architecture by Remote Control: An Illustrated Building Contract of 1340, The Art Bulletin, Vol. 67, No. 1 (Mar., 1985), pp. 67-95. Week 10: Oct. 29 (Tue) Buildings Across Time: Chapter 11 Renaissance Architecture Oct. 31 (Th) Pavel Kalina, European Diplomacy, Family Strategies, and the Origins of Renaissance Architecture in Central and Eastern Europe, Artibus et Historiae, Vol. 30, No. 60 (2009), pp. 173-190.
Week 11: Nov. 5 (Tue) Buildings Across Time: Chapter 12 Baroque Architecture Nov. 7 (Th) Robert Neuman, French Domestic Architecture in the Early 18th Century: The Town Houses of Robert de Cotte, Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians, Vol. 39, No. 2 (May, 1980), pp. 128-144. Week 12: Nov. 12 (Tue) Building Across Time: Chapter 13: Neo-Classicism, Romanticism, and the Rococo Nov. 14 (Th) Berry Bergdoll, Of Crystals, Cells, and Strata: Natural History and Debates on the Form of a New Architecture in the Nineteenth Century, Architectural History, Vol. 50, (2007), pp. 1-29. Week 13: Nov. 19 (Tue) Buildings Across Time: Chapter 14 Eclecticism, Industrialization, and Newness Nov. 21 (Th) Term paper due Michael McDonough, Selling Sarasota: Architecture and Propaganda in a 1920s Boom Town, The Journal of Decorative and Propaganda Arts, Vol. 23, Florida Theme Issue (1998), pp. 10-31. Week 14: Nov. 26 (Tue) Buildings Across Time: Chapter 15 The Twentieth Century and Modernism Nov. 28 (Th) Thanksgiving / No Class Week 15: Dec. 3 (Tue) TERM PAPER DUE Buildings Across Time: Chapter 16: Modernisms in the Mid- and Late Twentieth Century and Beyond Dec. 5 (Th) Felicity D. Scott, Involuntary Prisoners of Architecture, October, Vol. 106 (Autumn, 2003), pp. 75-101.
FINAL EXAM: December 17, 2013 from 1:30 pm 4:15 pm