Readings | Analysis of Contemporary Architecture | Architecture

Required Books

[AC] = Colquhoun, Alan. Modern Architecture. New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 2002. ISBN: 9780192842268.

[KF] = Frampton, Kenneth. Modern Architecture: A Critical History. London, UK: Thames and Hudson, 1992. ISBN: 9780500202579.

[UC] = Conrads, Ulrich. Programs and Manifestoes on 20th-Century Architecture. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1970. ISBN: 9780262030397.

Recommended Books

Le Corbusier. Towards a New Architecture. Architectural Press, 1946.

[RB] = Banham, Reyner. Theory and Design in the First Machine Age. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1980. ISBN: 9780262520584.

Venturi, Robert. Complexity and Contradiction in Architecture. New York, NY: Museum of Modern Art, 1977. ISBN: 9780870702815.

Venturi, Robert, Denise Scott Brown, and Steven Izenour. Learning from Las Vegas. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1977. ISBN: 9780262720069.

Hays, Michael K. Architecture Theory Since 1968. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2000. ISBN: 9780262581882.

———. Oppositions Reader: Selected Readings from a Journal for Ideas and Criticism in Architecture, 1973-1984. New York, NY: Princeton Architectural Press, 1998. ISBN: 9781568981536.

[JO] = Ockman, Joan. Architecture Culture, 1943-1968. New York, NY: Rizzoli, 1993. ISBN: 9780847815227.

Course readings.
LEC #	TOPICS	READINGS
1	Introduction	No readings
2	Louis Sullivan: Adler and Sullivan	Required [AC] "Organicism versus Classicism: Chicago 1890-1910." Pp. 35-50. [KF] "Adler and Sullivan, the Auditorium and the High Rise, 1886-95." Chapter 2, pp. 51-56. Sullivan, Louis H., "The Tall Office Building Artistically Considered." Lippincott Magazine, 1896. (PDF) Recommended Morrison, Hugh. "Youth and Early Training," "Auditorium Building," "Giving Form to the Skyscraper," and "Sullivan's Architectural Theory." Pp. 1-29, 56-84, 111-146, and 195-224 in Louis Sullivan, Prophet of Modern Architecture. New York, NY: W. W. Norton & Co., 1998. ISBN: 9780393730234. Wright, Frank Lloyd. "Book Three: Foreground." Genius and the Mobocracy. New York, NY: Duell, Sloan, & Pearce, 1949. ISBN: 9780818000225.
3	Frank Lloyd Wright	Required [AC] "Organicism versus Classicism: Chicago 1890-1910." Pp. 51-55. [KF] "Frank Lloyd Wright and the Myth of the Prairie, 1890-1916." Pp. 57-63 and "Frank Lloyd Wright and the Disappearing City." Pp. 187-191. [UC] "Organic Architecture." Pp. 25, 124-125. [JO] Read pp. 31-41. Wright, Frank Lloyd. "In Order to Be Modern, 1930." Pp. 337-338 in Frank Lloyd Wright Collected Writings, Vol. 1. Edited by Bruce Brooks Pfieffer. ISBN: 9780847815463. Recommended Wright, Frank Lloyd. "In the Logic of Contemporary Architecture," and "The Art and Craft of the Machine, 1901." Pp. 339-341 and 58-69 in Frank Lloyd Wright Collected Writings, Vol. 1. Edited by Bruce Brooks Pfieffer. ISBN: 9780847815463. Scully, Vincent. Frank Lloyd Wright: Masters of World Architecture. New York, NY: George Braziller, 1960, pp. 11-32. ISBN: 9780807602218.
4	Adolf Loos, Peter Behrens and the German Werkbund	[AC] Pp. 57-85 [UC] Pp. 19-24; 26-48 [KF] "Adolf Loos and the Crisis of Culture 1896-1931." Pp. 90-95 and "The Deutsche Werkbund 1898-1927." Pp. 109-115. [RB] "Adolf Loos and the Problem of Ornament." Pp. 88-97 Recommended Sarnitz, August. "Introduction" and "The Poor Little Rich Man." Pp. 1-21 in Adolf Loos:1870-1933: Architect, Cultural Critic, Dandy. Cologne, Germany: Taschen, 2003. ISBN: 9783822827727. Campbell, Joan. "Introduction." Pp. 3-8 in The German Werkbund: the Politics of Reform in the Applied Arts. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1978. ISBN: 9780691052502.
5	De Stijl and Schrader Schroder house	Required [AC] Pp. 109-120 [UC] Pp. 39-40;64-67; and 78-80 [KF] Chapter 16, pp. 142-148 [RB] "De Stijl: The International Phase." Pp.185-200 Recommended [RB] "De Stijl: The Dutch Phase." Pp.148-162 Yve-Alain, Bois. "Mondrian and the Theory of Architecture." Assemblage 4 (1987): 102-130. Overy, Paul, and Lenneke Buller, "Interview with Truus Schroder." Pp. 42-103 in The Rietveld Schroder House. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1988. ISBN: 9780262150330.
6	Walter Gropius: Bauhaus and Harvard	Required [AC] Pp. 159-170 [UC] Pp.44-53; 69-70; 95-97 [KF] Pp. 123-141 Gropius, Walter. "The Bauhaus: Crafts or Industry?" Journal of Architectural Education 18, no. 2 (1963): 31-32. Wingler, Hans Maria. Read pp. 136-137 in The Bauhaus: Weimar, Dessau, Berlin, Chicago. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, ISBN: 9780262730471. Recommended Giedion, Sigfried. Walter Gropius: Work and Teamwork. New York, NY: Reinhold Publishing, 1954, pp. 3-44. Pearlman, Jill. "Joseph Hudnut's Other Modernism at the 'Harvard Bauhaus'." The Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians 56, no. 4 (1997): 452-477. Pehnt, Wolfgang. "Gropius the Romantic." The Art Bulletin 53, no. 3 (1971): 379-392. Burchard, Charles. "Gropius at Harvard." Journal of Architectural Education 14, no. 2 (1959): 23-25.
7	Visit Gropius House, Lincoln, MA	No readings
8	Le Corbusier buildings and cities Documentary: La Tourette	Required [AC] Pp. 137-157; 209-216 [UC] Pp. 59-62; 89-94; 99-101 [KF] Chapter 17, pp. 149-160; and chapter 20, pp. 224-230 Recommended Brooks, H. Allen. "Childhood and Early Schooling, 1887-1902." Pp. 3-21 in Le Corbusier's Formative Years: Charles-Edouard Jeanneret at La Chaux-de-Fonds. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 1999. ISBN: 9780226075822. Von Moos, Stanislaus. "Urbanism." Pp. 187-238 in Le Corbusier: Elements of a Synthesis. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1982. ISBN: 9780262720083.
9	Mies van der Rohe: Berlin and America, less is more Documentary: Mies	Required [AC] Pp. 170-181; 231-246 [KF] Chapter 18, pp. 161-166; and chapter 26, pp. 231-237 [UC] Pp.74-75; 81-82; 102; 123; 154 Recommended Schultz, Franz. "Weimar at the Flood," and "America: The Triumph of Steel and Glass." Pp. 131-173 and 239-283 in Mies van der Rohe: A Critical Biography. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 1995. ISBN: 9780226740607. Lambert, Phyllis. "Space and Structure," and "The Seagram Building." Pp. 332-353 and 390-406 in Mies in America. New York, NY: Harry N. Abrams, 2003. ISBN: 9780920785690.
10	Philip Johnson and the International Style of 1932	Required [AC] Pp. 231-247 [KF] Pp. 238-261 Hitchcock, Henry R., and Philip Johnson. The International Style: Architecture Since 1922. New York, NY: W.W. Norton, 1932, pp. 11-21, 35-77. Blake, Peter. "Introduction." Pp. 9-22 in Philip Johnson. Germany: Birkhauser Basel, 1996. ISBN: 9783764353933. Recommended Hitchcock, H. Russell. "Twenty Years after International Style." Pp. 137-148 in [JO]. Matthews, Henry. "The Promotion of Modern Architecture by the Museum of Modern Art in the 1930s." Journal of Design History 7, no. 1 (1994): 43-59 Schultz, Franz. "MoMA, Russell, and the New Style," and "Barr Again, MoMA again, Mies Again." Pp. 58-86 and 171-198 in Philip Johnson: Life and Works. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 1996. ISBN: 9780226740584.
11	Alvar Aalto	Required [AC] Pp. 193-207 [KF] Chapter 22, pp. 192-202 Aalto, Alvar. "The Architects Conscience." Pp. 249-252 in [JO]. Schildt, Goran. Alvar Aalto. The Early Years. New York, NY: Rizzoli, 1984, pp. 15-16. ISBN: 9780847805310. Recommended Pallasmaa, Juhani. (1998). "Alvar Aalto: Towards a Synthetic Functionalism." In Alvar Aalto: Between Humanism and Materialism. New York, NY: Abrams, 1998, pp. 21-44. ISBN: 9780810961838. Schildt, Goran. "Return to America," and "Aalto at MIT." Pp. 96-107 and 117-129 in Alvar Aalto: The Mature Years. New York, NY: Rizzoli, 1991. ISBN: 9780847813292.
12	Louis Kahn	Required [AC] Pp. 248-254 [KF] Chapter 27, pp.238-246 Kahn, Louis. "Monumentality." Pp. 47-54 in [JO]. Tyng, Anne G. Louis Kahn to Anne Tyng: The Rome Letters 1953-1954. New York, NY: Rizzoli, 1997, pp. 61-79. ISBN: 9780847820092. Recommended Twombly, Robert C. "Form and Design." In Louis Kahn: Essential Texts. New York, NY: W.W. Norton, 2003, pp. 62-74. ISBN: 9780393731132. Goldhagen, Sarah W. "Struggling for a New Idiom: the Trenton Jewish Community Center and Bathhouse, and the Philadelphia Civic Center Plan." In Louis Kahn's Situated Modernism. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2002, pp. 102-111. ISBN: 9780300077865. Burton, Joseph. "Notes from volume Zero: Louis Khan and the Language of God." Perspecta 20 (1983): 69-90. Anderson, Stanford. "Public Institutions: Louis I. Kahn's Readings of Volume Zero." Journal of Architectural Education 49, no. 1 (1995): 10-21.
13	Eero Saarinen, Paul Rudolph	Required Tamko, Allan. "Search for Form: Expression and Overexpression." Pp. 33-48 in Eero Saarinen. 1962. Monk, Anthony. "Pen Portraits." In The Art and Architecture of Paul Rudolph. New York, NY: John Wiley & Sons, 1999, pp. 20-25. ISBN: 9780471997788. Recommended Merkel, Jayne. Eero Saarinen. London, UK: Phaidon Press, 2005, pp. 35-81. ISBN: 9780714842776. Rohan, Timothy M. "The Dangers of Eclecticism: Paul Rudolph's Jewett Arts Center at Wellesley." In Anxious Modernisms: Experimentation in Postwar American Culture. Edited by Sarah Williams Goldhagen. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2001, pp. 191-214. ISBN: 9780262072083.
14	Case-study house program	Required [AC] Pp. 233-237 Smith, Elizabeth. "Introduction." In Blueprints for Modern Living: History and Legacy of the Case Study Houses. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1999. ISBN: 9780262692137. McCoy, Esther. "Art and Architecture: Case Study Houses." Pp. 15-39 in Blueprints for Modern Living: History and Legacy of the Case Study Houses. Edited by Elizabeth Smith. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1999. ISBN: 9780262692137. Hayden, Dolores. "Model Houses for the Millions." Pp. 197-209 in Blueprints for Modern Living: History and Legacy of the Case Study Houses. Edited by Elizabeth Smith. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1999. ISBN: 9780262692137. Recommended Smith, Elizabeth. "Art and Architecture and the Los Angeles Vanguard." Pp. 145-165 in Blueprints for Modern Living: History and Legacy of the Case Study Houses. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1999. ISBN: 9780262692137. Isenstadt, Sandy. "Richard Neutra and the Psychology of Architectural Consumption." Pp. 97-117 in Anxious Modernisms: Experimentations in Postwar American Culture. Edited by Sarah Williams Goldhagen. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2002. ISBN: 9780262571654.
15	Field trip to Yale, overnight stay with Sunday trip to Exeter Library	No readings
16	Urbanism CIAM and Team X	Required [AC] Pp.217-229 [KF] Chapter 3, pp. 269-279 [UC] "CIAM 1, La Sarraz Declaration." Pp.109-113 Frampton, Kenneth. "Forward." In The CIAM Discourse on Urbanism, 1928-1960. By Eric Mumford. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2002. ISBN: 9780262632638. Mumford, Eric. "After CIAM." Pp. 267-274 in The CIAM Discourse on Urbanism, 1928-1960. By Eric Mumford. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2002. ISBN: 9780262632638. Recommended Mumford, Eric. "CIAM 1," and "Team X and CIAM 10, Dubrovnik, 1956." Pp. 9-27 and 238-265 in The CIAM Discourse on Urbanism, 1928-1960. By Eric Mumford. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2002. ISBN: 9780262632638.
17	Aldo Van Eyck	Required [KF] Pp. 271-279 Mumford, Eric. Hertzberger, Herman. "The Mechanism of the Twentieth Century and the Architecture of Aldo Van Eyck." Pp. 7-27 in Aldo Van Eyck. Amsterdam, Netherlands: Stichting Wonen/Van Loghum Slaterus. 1982. ISBN: 9789060017616.
18	James Stirling	Required [KF] Chapter 2, pp. 262-268 Stirling, James. "The Functional Tradition and Expression," and "Methods of Expression and Materials." Pp. 78-87 and 125-131 in Stirling: Writing on Architecture. Edited by Robert Maxwell. Milan, Italy: Skira, 1998. ISBN: 9788881183234. Recommended Stirling, James. "Afterthoughts on the Flats at Ham Common," "An Architect's Approach to Architecture," "Anti-Structure," and "James Stirling and Michael Dennis. NOtes from an Informal Discussion." Pp. 73-77; 88-109; 110-123; and 210-223 in Stirling: Writing on Architecture. Edited by Robert Maxwell. Milan, Italy: Skira, 1998. ISBN: 9788881183234.
19	Aldo Rossi and Carlo Scarpa	Required [KF] Pp. 294-295 Scully, Vincent. "The Ends of the Century Finds a Poet." Pp. 12-13 in Aldo Rossi: Buildings and Projects. New York, NY: Rizzoli, 1991. 12-13. ISBN: 9780847804993. Rossi, Aldo. The Architecture of the City. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1984. Pp. 13-27. ISBN: 9780262680431. Zambonini, Giuseppe. "Process and Theme in the Work of Carlo Scarpa." Perspecta 20 (1983): 21-42. Recommended Moneo, Rafael. "Aldo Rossi: The Idea of Architecture and the Modena Cemetary." Pp. 105-134 in Oppositions Reader: Selected Readings from a Journal for ideas and Criticism in Architecture, 1973-1984. Edited by Michael K. Hays. New York, NY: Princeton Architectural Press, 1998. ISBN: 9781568981536. Dal Co, Francesco. "The Architecture of Carlo Scarpa." Pp. 24-72 in Carlo Scarpa: The Complete Works. 1985.
20	Five Architects: Eisenman, Graves, Gwathmey, Hejduk, Meier	Required Rowe, Colin. "Introduction." Pp. 3-8 in Five Architects: Eisenman, Graves, Gwathmey, Hejduk, Meier. Edited by Peter Eisenman. New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 1975. ISBN: 9780195197945. Johnson, Philip. "Post Script." Pp. 137-138 in Five Architects: Eisenman, Graves, Gwathmey, Hejduk, Meier. Edited by Peter Eisenman. New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 1975. ISBN: 9780195197945. Recommended Rowe, Colin. "Transparency: Literal and Phenomenal." Pp. 159-182 in The Mathematics of the Ideal Villa and Other Essays. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1982. ISBN: 9780262680370. Rowe, Colin, and Robert Slutsky. "Transparency: Literal and Phenomenal, part 2." Pp. 205-225 in [JO].
21	Post Modernism: Less is a bore	Required Harvey, David. "Postmodernism in the City: Architecture and Urban Design." Pp. 66-98 in The Condition of Postmodernity. New York, NY: Wiley-Blackwell, 1991. ISBN: 9780631162940. Jencks, Charles. The Language of Post-Modern Architecture. New York, NY: Rizzoli, 1977, pp. 9-37; 39-63. ISBN: 9780847801671. Venturi, Robert. Complexity and Contradiction in Architecture. New York, NY: Museum of Modern Art, 2002, pp. 9-55. ISBN: 9780870702822. Recommended Venturi, Robert, Denise Scott Brown and Steven Izenour. "Part II: Ugly and Ordinary Architecture, or the Decorated Shed." Pp. 87-163 in Learning from Las Vegas. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1977. ISBN: 9780262720069.
22	Deconstructivist architecture	Required Wigley, Mark. The Architecture of Deconstruction: Derrida's Haunt. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1995. ISBN: 9780262731140. ———. "Postmortem Architecture: The Taste of Derrida." Perspecta 23 (1987): 156-72.
23	Rem Koolhaas and Frank Gehry Documentary: Sketches of Frank Gehry	Required Koolhaas, Rem. "Junk Space." A+U May 2000 Special issue OMA@work, 16-24. ———. "Bigness & Velocity." A+U May 2000 Special issue OMA@work, 196-208. Lucan, Jacques. OMA – Rem Koolhaas: Architecture 1970-1990 (1991): 8-31.
24	Suburbia, sprawl, Congress for New Urbanism, Duany Plater-Zyberk	Required Bressi, Todd. The Seaside Debates: A Critique of the New Urbanism. New York, NY: Rizzoli, 2002, pp. 27-58. ISBN: 9780847823451. Mohney, David. "Interview with Andres Duany," and "Interview with Elizabeth Plater-Zyber." Pp. 62-85 in Seaside: Making a Town in America. Princeton, NJ: Princeton Architectural Press, 1996. ISBN: 9780910413268. Love, Tim. "Ideology vs. Pragmatism in New Urbanism." Constructs, Yale School of Architecture, Fall 2008. Duany, Andres. "The Devil is in the Details" and "The House that Sprawl Built." Chapters 2 and 3 in Suburban Nation: The Rise of Sprawl and the Decline of the American Dream. New York, NY: North Point Press, 2001. ISBN: 9780865476066. Recommended Anderson, Stanford. "The 'New Empiricism-Bay Region Axis': Kay Fisker and Postwar Debates on Functionalism, Regionalism, and Monumentality." Journal of Architectural Education 50, no. 3 (1997): 197-207.
25	William McDonough, Green building practices	Required McDonough, William, and Michael Baaungart. "Waste Equals Food." Pp. 92-118 in Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the Way we Make Things. New York, NY: North Point Press, 2002. ISBN: 9780865475878. "Calling Mr. Green." New York Times Magazine, May 20, 2007.
26	Final review exhibition