051-0116-00L  Theory of Architecture II

SemesterSpring Semester 2021
LecturersL. Stalder
Periodicityyearly recurring course
Language of instructionGerman
CommentOnly for Architecture BSc, Programme Regulations 2011.


AbstractThe lecture course offers an introduction to key themes and questions of modern architectural theory over two semesters. Part one addresses formative "figures of thought" and their materialization in built and spatial structures. Part two critically examines different forms of architectural practice through the work of exemplary protagonists.
ObjectiveUnderstanding of the historic development of architectural theory during modernity and critical discussion of its key terms and concepts from a transdisciplinary perspective.
ContentIn the second part of the lecture course our focus will be on factors of production in architecture as well as various approaches and forms of architectural practice from the twentieth century to the present. Different "work models" will be introduced and critically discussed through a series of exemplary case studies with a focus on actors and their agency. By doing so, we seek to highlight architects' varying fields of activity within their specific local and changing historical contexts. We encounter architects, who not only shaped environments that were increasingly characterized by an abundance of new industrially manufactured materials and products, but who also organized labour and production processes. In addition to that, we will study attempts to restructure the capitalist building sector through cooperation, and we will look at the work of salaried architects in municipal and state planning offices. Finally, we will turn to such strategies as field work, analysis of the everyday, and activism.
Lecture notesHandouts summarizing the content of weekly lectures will be available for download from the website of the Visiting Lectureship for the Theory of Architecture.
LiteratureAll required readings for the lectures will be available for download from the website of the Visiting Lectureship for the Theory of Architecture.

In addition to those key readings, the following monographs and anthologies are useful complementary sources for the lecture course:

- Adrian Forty, Words and Buildings: A Vocabulary of Modern Architecture, London: Thames & Hudson, 2000.

- Susanne Hauser, Christa Kamleithner, Roland Meyer, eds., Architekturwissen. Grundlagentexte aus den Kulturwissenschaften, Bielefeld: Transcript, 2013, 2 Vols.

- K. Michael Hays, ed., Architecture Theory since 1968, Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press, 1998.

- Harry Francis Mallgrave, ed., Architectural Theory, Oxford: Blackwell, 2006–2008, 2 Vols.

- Ákos Moravánszky, ed., Architekturtheorie im 20. Jahrhundert. Eine kritische Anthologie, Wien, New York: Springer, 2003.

- Joan Ockman, Architecture Culture, 1943–1968: A Documentary Anthology, New York: Rizzoli, 1993.