History of Art and Architecture 11

Landmarks of World Architecture

Spring 2021

Instructors: Patricio del Real and David J. Roxburgh, with Faculty from the Graduate School of
Design and Department of History of Art and Architecture
Lectures: Tuesday and Thursday, 12:00–1:15pm EST
Sections: Weekly, TBA
Head Teaching Fellow: TBA
Office Hours: David Roxburgh, Monday 3:30-5:00pm; Patricio del Real, Thursday 1:30-3:30pm

AIMS AND METHODS OF COURSE

The purpose of this course is two-fold: 1) to introduce students to a select group of significant monuments
of world architecture and urbanism, from ancient times to the present, and the unique aesthetic, cultural,
and historical issues that frame them; and 2) to present the main issues in the study of architecture and
urbanism and the various methods used to analyze and interpret buildings, spaces, and environments.

The lectures, which draw upon the expertise of numerous members of the Faculty, will address a different
culture or period each week, focusing on a single building, complex, or city chosen for its exemplary
character. These will reflect such projects as a modern capital city in Brazil, Shinto shrine in Japan, an
Islamic palace in Granada, and a holocaust memorial in contemporary Berlin—in addition to such wide-
ranging contexts as Pharaonic Egypt, Victorian England, Mughal India, Renaissance Florence, and 20th-
century America and Africa.

The sections will consider the multiple factors involved in the design and creation of buildings and cities
and how they affect our experience and understanding of architecture. Beginning at the simplest level of
learning how to read architectural drawings and other forms of graphic information, sections will move on
to increasingly complex subjects such as the role of the patron or client, materials and methods of
construction, form and function, relationship to landscape, the experience of urban space, the social and
political dimensions of architecture, and issues of cultural memory and preservation. The evolution from a
discussion of the building as object to themes engaging the work’s embeddedness in the world around it is
meant to encourage thinking about the relationship between architecture and its larger cultural context.

Sections and lectures have been coordinated and readings chosen to allow for weekly discussions to move
from the specific historical context at hand to the more general questions it raises. To promote the fullest
and in-depth understanding of the meanings and values that works of architecture embody, sections will
make special use of actual buildings and public places in and around Harvard.

READINGS AND COURSE WEBSITE

All of the assigned readings and study slides for midterm and final examinations’ preparation will be
made available on the course website under “Modules.” Readings should be completed before the
section meeting for which they are assigned in order to attain the maximum benefit from group
discussion. The course website also offers copies of the term sheets distributed at each lecture as well
as the assignments.
REQUIREMENTS
Short paper (4pp.): Reading a plan / drawing a plan: 10 % (due in class on February 11)
Short paper (4pp.): Reading an elevation: 10% (due in class on April 8)
Section Attendance and Participation: 40%
Midterm Examination: 15% (on March 18)
Final Examination: 25% (TBA)

In order to pass the course all requirements must be completed. The midterm (1 hour) and final (3 hours)
examinations will be offered within a 24 hour window beginning at 12:00pm EST on each day. The
midterm examination will comprise two slide comparisons and an essay drawn from course materials
(lectures, sections, and readings) between January 25 and March 4. The final examination—spanning the
entire lecture course and its materials—will comprise slide comparisons, a thematic essay, and a reflection
essay about your new understanding of architecture.

Lectures will be held on Tuesdays and Thursdays synchronously—we expect that students will attend the
live lectures. Sections will also be taught synchronously with a range of scheduled meetings to address
time zone differences. Further instructions on Zoom etiquette will be supplied in early lecture and section
meetings of the course.

ACCOMMODATIONS FOR STUDENTS WITH DISABILITIES

Any student needing academic adjustments or accommodations is requested to present his or her letter
from the Accessible Education Office (AEO) and speak with the Course Head or Head Teaching Fellow
by the end of the second week of the term (February 5th, 2021). Failure to do so may result in the
Course Head’s inability to respond in a timely manner. All discussions will remain confidential,
although AEO may be consulted to discuss appropriate implementation.

ACADEMIC INTEGRITY AND COLLABORATION

Students are encouraged to consult the Harvard University policy on matters of academic performance
and integrity outlined in the Handbook for Students, under the section “Academic Performance.”
Collaboration is not permitted in this course.

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Course Schedule

Lecture 1 Patricio del Real and David J. Roxburgh

Tuesday, Jan. 19 Introduction

Lectures 2 and 3 Yukio Lippit

Tuesday, Jan. 26 The Ise Shrines
Thursday, Jan. 28 The Metabolism of Architecture

(No Section) + Readings

William H. Coaldrake, “The Grand Shrines of Ise and Izumo: The

Appropriation of Vernacular Architecture by Early Ruling Authority,” in
Architecture and Authority in Japan (1996), 16–51
Jonathan Reynolds, “Ise Shrine and a Modernist Construction of
Japanese Tradition,” Art Bulletin (2001): 316–41

Lectures 4 and 5 Erika Naginski

Tuesday, Feb. 2 The Royal Saltworks at Chaux
Thursday, Feb. 4 Drawing Utopia

Section + Readings Reading Architectural Drawings

James Ackerman, “The Conventions and Rhetoric of Architectural
Drawing,” in Origins, Imitation, Conventions: Representation in the
Visual Arts (2002), 294–316
Anthony Vidler, “The Theater of Industry: Ledoux and the Factory-
Village of Chaux,” in The Writing of the Walls: Architectural Theory in
the Late Enlightenment (1987), 35–49

Lectures 6 and 7 Alina Payne

Tuesday, Feb. 9 Michelangelo’s Medici Chapel
Thursday, Feb. 11 Michelangelo’s Marble

Section + Readings: The Architect: Builder, Artist, Engineer, Professional

James Ackerman, “Michelangelo’s ‘Theory of Architecture’” and “The
Medici Chapel,” in The Architecture of Michelangelo (1961), 37–52
Alina Payne, “Materiality, Crafting, and Scale in Renaissance
Architecture,” Oxford Art Journal 32, 3 (2009): 365–86
Catherine Wilkinson, “The New Professionalism in the Renaissance,” in
The Architect (1997), pp. 124–160

Lectures 8 and 9 David J. Roxburgh

Tuesday, Feb. 16 The Alhambra
Thursday, Feb. 18 The Beholder and Experience

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 Section + Readings: Patron, Client, and Constituencies
D. Fairchild Ruggles, “The Eye of Sovereignty: Poetry and Vision in the
Alhambra’s Lindaraja Mirador,” Gesta 36, 2 (1997): 180–89
Alice T. Friedman, “People Who Live in Glass Houses: Edith
Farnsworth, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, and Philip Johnson,” in Women
and the Making of the Modern House: A Social and Architectural History
(1998), 127–57

Lectures 10 and 11 Lisa Haber-Thomson

Tuesday, Feb. 23 Pentonville Penitentiary
Thursday, Feb. 25 The Function of Architecture

Section + Readings: Form and Function

Robin Evans, “The Model Prison,” in The Fabrication of Virtue: English
Prison Architecture, 1750–1840 (1982), 346–97
Louis Sullivan, “The Tall Office Building Artistically Considered,”
Lippincott’s Magazine (1896): 403–09

Lectures 12 and 13 Peter Der Manuelian

Tuesday, Mar. 2 The Giza Necropolis
Thursday, Mar. 4 Visualizing the Pyramids

Section + Readings: Materials, Construction Methods, and Building Technologies

Mark Lehner and Zahi Hawass, “Pyramids: Funeral, Palace and Ritual
Process” and “How They Might Have Built the Pyramids,” in Giza and
the Pyramids (2017), 109–39 and 402–19
Peter Der Manuelian, “Giza 3D: The Real-Time Immersive Experience,”
in Digital Giza: Visualizing the Pyramids (2017), 124–53

Suggested Readings:
Mark Lehner and Zahi Hawass, “The Great Pyramid of Khufu,” in Giza
and the Pyramids (2017), 141–87

Lectures 14 and 15 Patricio del Real

Tuesday, Mar. 9 Brasilia
Thursday, Mar. 11 Beyond Brasilia

Section + Readings: The Political, Social, and Ideological Dimensions of Architecture

James Holston. The Modernist City: An Anthropological Critique of
Brasília (1989) chap. 2, “Blueprint Utopia,” 31-57
Paulo Tavares, “Beyond Brasilia, the Amazon,” in Latin American
Modern Architectures (2012), 191–210

Thursday Mar. 18 MIDTERM EXAMINATION

Lectures 16 and 17 Eve Blau

Tuesday, Mar. 23 The Karl-Marx-Hof and Red Vienna
Thursday, Mar. 25 The Politics of the Plan: Modern Architecture and the City

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 Section + Readings: Architecture and Urbanism
Eve Blau, “Revisiting Red Vienna as an Urban Project,” in Urban
Change. Social Design—Art as Urban Innovation (2017), 39–49
Le Corbusier, “Architecture or Revolution,” in Towards a New
Architecture (1927), 251–69

Suggested Readings:
Eve Blau, The Architecture of Red Vienna (1999), introduction and
chap. 8

Lectures 18 and 19 Rahul Mehrotra

Tuesday, Mar. 30 The Taj Mahal

Thursday, Apr. 1 Reclaiming the River Front Gardens: Conservation Challenges

Section + Readings: Architecture, Landscape, and Conservation

Rahul Mehrotra, “Constructing Cultural Significance: Looking at
Bombay’s Historic Fort Area,” Future Anterior 1, 2 (2004): 25–31
Elizabeth Moynihan, The Moonlight Garden: New Discoveries at the Taj
Mahal (2000), 15–40
James Corner, “Terra Fluxus,” in Landscape Urbanism Reader (2006), 22–
33

Suggested Readings:
Ebba Koch, The Complete Taj Mahal and the Riverfront Gardens of
Agra (2006), selections

Lectures 20 and 21 Michael Hays

Tuesday, Apr. 6 Memorial for the Murdered Jews of Europe
Thursday, Apr. 8 Presenting the Unthinkable: Memory and Abstraction

Section + Readings: Architecture, Cultural Memory, Identity

Peter Eisenman, “The Silence of Excess,” in Holocaust Memorial
Berlin (2005), n.p.
James Young, “Germany’s Holocaust Memorial Problem—and
Mine,” Public Historian 24, 4 (2002): 65–80
Pierre Nora, “Between Memory and History: Les Lieux de
Mémoire,” Representations 26 (1989): 7–24

Lectures 22 and 23 Suzanne Blier

Tuesday, Apr. 13 Anatomy of Architecture: Batammaliba
Tuesday, Apr. 20 Anthropology and Architecture

Section + Readings: The Vernacular

Suzanne Blier, “Houses are Human: Architectural Self-Images of Africa’s
Tamberma,” Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians, 42, 4
(1983): 371–382
Mike Christenson, “Viewpoint: ‘From the Unknown to the Known:’
Transitions in the Architectural Vernacular,” Buildings and Landscapes:

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 Journal of the Vernacular Architecture Forum 18, 1 (2011): 1–13
Ryan K. Smith, “Viewpoint: Building Stories: Narrative Prospects for
Vernacular Architecture Studies,” Buildings and Landscapes: Journal of
the Vernacular Architecture Forum 18, 2 (2011): 1–14

Lectures 24 and 25 Megan Panzano

Thursday, Apr. 22 Representing Representation: Current Projects of studioPM, LLC
Tuesday, Apr. 27 Zooming Out: Frameworks of Future-Focused Architecture

Section + Readings: On Contemporary Architectural Production

Ellie Abrons and Adam Fure, “Postdigital Materiality,” in Lineament:
Material, Representational, and the Physical Figure in Architectural
Production, eds. Gail Peter Borden and Michael Meredith (New York,
NY: Routledge, 2018), 185–195
Megan Panzano, “(Re)Building Attention: Architecture as Representation
with Responsibilities,” PLAT Journal, Issue 9.0 COMMIT, Rice School of
Architecture (2020): 36–47
Megan Panzano, “Image-Building: Soane and Architecture’s Interior,” The
Journal of Architectural Education, 75, 1 (forthcoming, 2021)

To be announced FINAL EXAMINATION