VSA3310

Modern Architecture and Urbanism 1907-1968 ( 6 points, SCA Band 1, 0.125 EFTSL)

Leader: Conrad Hamann

Offered:
Clayton Second semester 2005 (Day)

Synopsis: A study of the modern movement in architecture and its placement in cities, suburbs and country, up to the broad challenge made to its assumptions and programs in the mid 1960s. The first part of the unit examines the related or converging movements in European architecture before and just after World War One. These include the expressionist architecture of Mendelsohn, Scharoun and their contemporaries in Germany and the Netherlands, the Soviet avant-garde of the 1920s, and Italian architecture's transformation of futurism. Part two of this unit considers the 'spread' of modern architecture in the United States, Latin America, Scandinavia and Finland, and in Britain.

Objectives: 1. To give you familiarity with the main developments in early and mid-Twentieth century Modern architecture and urbanism, from where most contemporary building either derives or reacts. 2. To familiarise you with how political and social concern works through the form and character of buildings, towns and cities. 3. To argue the connection between architecture and the town, the city and the country. 4. To argue how tradition and collective movements pervaded and informed a modern architecture and urbanism that consciously tried to break from both. 5. To familiarise you with a range of writing and speculation about architecture and the character of cities, as this developed in the first six decades of the twentieth century. 6. To accustom you to 'reading' buildings and urban form, and to the interpretation of plans and architectural renderings in published format (to introduce you also to working drawings and how they are interpreted). 7. To give you practice in speaking and writing about architecture, and to interest you in architecture's character and presence. 8. To complement several other subjects offered in Visual Arts. The subjects offered in twentieth century art history, and the history of photography, correspond in period. Modern architecture and urbanism also explores the persistence and transformation of Classical, Renaissance, Baroque and Medieval forms, and outlines architecture's parallels and links with other media.

Assessment: Essay (2000 words): 40% + Essay (2500 words): 60% + Third-year students will be expected to have worked at a higher level than second-year students.

Contact Hours: 2.5 hours (1 lecture and 1 tutorial) per week

Prerequisites: Normally a Visual Culture unit at second-year level or a background related to architectural or urban studies

Prohibitions: VSA2310