ARCH 100
(GA)
Architecture and Ideas (3) General introduction to world architecture, emphasizing the relationship between concepts, philosophies, values and ideologies in shaping the built environment.
ARCH 100 Architecture and Ideas (3)
(GA)
(BA) This course meets the Bachelor of Arts degree requirements.
This course introduces architecture and urbanism for a general audience. It presents key concepts that have shaped the built environment, and provides an ongoing framework for evaluations of what makes a good building or city. The material discussed is taken from prehistory to the present, and encompasses both major works of architecture and consideration of common building types and contexts. Although monuments and philosophies from the Western tradition predominate, it brings in issues and examples of global scope as well.
The course is structured around a set of themes. These include: how architecture embodies spiritual beliefs; affects private and community life; evolving definitions of the architect; and how ideas about aesthetics, technology, tradition, and other cultural forces shape buildings and influence diverse, often conflicting notions of what constitutes "good" architecture.
The topics discussed will demonstrate multiple ways of understanding buildings and cities. Lectures and assigned readings explore significant illustrative structures, design theories, and the cultural and intellectual contexts in which they emerge. Through the lectures and readings students will become familiar with an extensive set of architectural works, as well as a wide range of influential architectural concepts, authors, and texts. ARCH 100 will ultimately help students analyze and judge buildings and the arguments about them critically, and better understand buildings and cities as ideologically charged artifacts that influentially structure human experience.
General Education: GA
Diversity: None
Bachelor of Arts: None
Effective: Summer 2011
Note : Class size, frequency of offering, and evaluation methods will vary by location and instructor. For these details check the specific course syllabus.