Aims: To introduce and examine theoretical positions relating to design activity, and the ideas and explanations advanced by both practitioners and historians to account for the way in which architectural solutions are generated, and the way in which it is thought that they ought to be generated.
Learning Outcomes:
Students should be able demonstrate knowledge about the ways in which critical ideas and sources have influenced modern design, and progress towards an understanding as to how their effect is manifest in the design strategies proposed by individual architects.
Skills:
Guided research; seminar presentation; teamwork organization in preparing and delivering the presentation.
Content:
Seminars that analyse a succession of key theories and theoreticians, and their relationship to modern architectural design, with an emphasis on the period between the second half of the 18th century and the early part of the 20th century. Theoretical topics covered include functionalism, rationalism and the notion of 'honesty' in relation to design and the employment of structure and material. Theoretical discourse is also located within the context of the broader intellectual background commencing with the Enlightenment, moving on to the 'battle of the styles' and the debate over the role of ornament and attempts to banish it, taking into consideration technological and social developments. Particular attention will be given to figures such as Claude Perrault, Laugier, John Soane, Heinrich Hubsch, Gottfried Semper, Viollet-le-Duc, Otto Wagner, Adolf Loos and Le Corbusier.
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