Foundations 112
ARCHITECTURE: BEAUTY and SHELTER
Spring, 2012 * Three Credit Hours
1. Instructor: Douglas Griggs. Phone: 502 867 069. Email:
Office hours and location: TBA
2. Course Description:
After studying the purposes of architecture for shelter and beauty, students will learn various ways of analyzing buildings. The focus will be on houses of the past 100 years, but other major buildings will also be studied. The skills of writing, “reading” buildings, and developing and presenting arguments will be emphasized. Field trips for “experiencing” architecture included.
3. Textbooks:
The Architecture of Happiness. Alain deBotton. New York: Pantheon, 2006. 0-375-42443-1
Why Architecture Matters. Paul Goldberger. New Haven: Yale, 2009.978-0-300-14430-7
Other readings will be on closed reserve in the LRC.
4. Student Learning Outcomes (See “6.” below for assessment of each Outcome)
a. Students will learn to “read” buildings by examining such features as horizontal and vertical elements, symmetry and asymmetry, solids and voids, and materials used.
(Skill: (T)o read (that is, to examine carefully and evaluatively) written and other kinds of texts for content and meaning…)
b.Students will learn to use these “reading tools” to discuss and write critically and analytically about buildings, some of which will be familiar, everyday structures and some of which may seem novel, different, or even bizarre. (Skills To compose logical, original, and critical…responses…)
c. Students will develop an understanding (i) of the impact the built environment and the buildings in it have on those who use and live in that environment and (ii) how architects consider and plan for this impact when they are designing the environment and the buildings in that environment. (Skill: To engage, deeply and meaningfully, with course material…in critical discussions of that material…)
d. Students will (i) appreciate the diversity in architectural styles, (ii) recognize what is considered excellence in architecture, and (iii) be able to explain persuasively their own developing architectural tastes.
(Skill: To argue coherently and persuasively...using logical organization, adequate support, independent thought…)
e. Students will be able to demonstrate their understanding of important elements of architecture by comparing a pre-assessment paper written in the first class with a post-assessment paper on the same material on the final exam.
(Skill: Students will self-assess by reflecting thoughtfully…)
f. Students will be able to explain the tension in architecture between practicality and usefulness on the one hand and beauty and delight on the other.
(Skill: To argue coherently and persuasively…)
5. Course Outline NOTE: Subject to change as needed.
Week 1: Compare and contrast paper (written in class; re-write as part of final exam)
Architectural features to be examined. Students will be expected to use these
concepts as they make critical responses to buildings examined during the rest
of the semester.
Read Goldberger, Introduction and Chapter 1 (pp. 1-26 only): “Meaning, Culture
and Symbol” and Rybczynski, Chapter 1, “Nostalgia,” pp. 1-14 (LRC reserve)
Walking campus architectural tour
Week 2: Styles in architecture: new, copied, influences
Read Goldberger pp. 37-46 and Choay, “Rationalism and Mechanism,” pp. 14-18
(LRC reserve)
Walking tour of domestic and commercial buildings in Georgetown. Pairs of
students will chose one structure to describe and analyze in detail in class.
Week 3: Architecture as guide/influence on living, working, socializing
Read de Botton, Chapter 3, “Talking Buildings,” pp. 77-97, Isaacson, “Pathways,”
pp. 55-61 (LRC reserve)
Paper: Analysis of the social influence of one or more familiar buildings (reflections
and analysis based on observation and concepts from reading and class
discussion). Individual writing conferences with instructor on first draft.
Week 4: How buildings encourage and discourage various behaviors; analysis of two or more
campus buildings/environments. Skim Winters (LRC reserve)
Week 5: Architecture to relax? To stimulate?
Read Goldberger, Chapter 2, “Challenge and Comfort,” pp. 41-64; Hildebrand,
Chapter 3, “Exploring,” pp. 51-63 (LRC reserve). Paper assignment: “My
Domestic Space.”
Week 6: Where are we now? How are we doing? Student feedback on class.
Architecture as art
Read de Botton, Chapter 1, “The Significance of Architecture,” pp. 9-26
Midterm exam
Week 7: Architecture as art, continued
Read Goldberger, Chapter 3, “Architecture as Object,” pp. 65-109; Le Corbusier,
“The Engineer’s Aesthetic and Architecture,” pp. 15-24 (LRC reserve)
Week 8: Examination of historical examples of architecture as art
Reading: Numerous books on architects on closed reserve in LRC. Students chose
an architector a specific building to analyze as art; paper assignment (to be
part of a larger later paper on architecture as art)
Week 9: The spaces created in and around buildings
NOTE: Architectural trips are planned for Louisville and/or Cincinnati. Those field
experiences will provide data for this unit of study.
Read Goldberger, Chapter 4, “Architecture as Space, pp. 109-139.
Paper (first draft): Building as Art
Week 10: Architecture as historical speech
Read Goldberger, Chapter 6, “Buildings and Time,” pp. 171-212; Wright,
“Education and the Issues, “ pp. 229-237 (LRC reserve)
Expanded “Building as Art” paper.
Week 11: Architecture as comfort
Read de Botton, Chapter 4, “Ideals of Home,” pp. 105-169
Week 12: Architectural preferences: causes and implications
Read Goldberger, Chapter 7, “Buildings and the Making of Place,” pp. 212-236
Week 13: Student presentations: “their” architectural choices
Week 14: Student presentations, concluded. Course feedback. Read de Botton, Chapter 6,
“The Promise of a Field,” pp. 251-267.
ow How
6. Evaluation and Related Skills
Class participation (quantity and quality) 35 points
(Skill 4.c.)
Initial “Compare and Contrast” paper 25
(Skill 4.e.)
Presentation (pairs) of Georgetown building 15
(Skills 4.a. and 4.b.)
“Social Influence” paper (final draft) 25
(Skill 4.b.)
“My Domestic Place” paper 25
(Skill 4.d. and 4.f.)
“Encourage/Discourage” paper 25
(Skill 4.a.)
Midterm exam 25
(Focus on Skill 4.a.)
“Building as Art” paper/class presentation 25
(Skills 4.d.and 4.f.)
Final exam (including re-write of initial “Compare and
Contrast” paper) 50
(Skills 4.b., d., e. and f.)
Quizzes (as needed, probably 5, @ 10 points each) 50
(Probably focused on Skill 4.a.)
Total 300
Grading Scale
A 93 – 100 C 72-77
AB 88 - 92 D 65-71
B 83 - 87
BC 78 - 82
7. Attendance Policy
Since this will be a discussion class, students are expected to attend. More than two unexcused absences will result in points deducted from total. Attendance on field trips is mandatory.
8. Bibliography (all on closed reserve in the LRC)
Baker, Milnes Baker, American House Styles: A Concise Guide. New York: Norton (1996)
Betsky, Aaron, Building Sex: Men, Women, Architecture, and the Construction of Sexuality.
New York: William Morrow (1991)
Choay, Francoise, Le Corbusier. New York: Braziller (1960)
Drexler, Arthur, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe. New York: George Braziller (1960)
Frederick, Matthew, 101 Things I Learned in Architecture School. Cambridge: MIT Press
(2007)
GEEI Group for Environmental Education, Our Man-Made Environment (Book Seven). Philadelphia (1970)
Gutheim, Frederick, Alvar Aalto. New York: George Braziller (1960)
Hildebrand, Grant, Origins of Architectural Pleasure. Berkeley: University of California Press
(1999)
Isaacson, Philip M., Round Buildings, Square Buildings, & Buildings that Wiggle Like a Fish.
New York: Knopf (1988)
Le Corbusier, Towards a New Architecture. New York: Praeger (1959)
McAlester, Virginia & Lee, A Field Guide to American Houses. New York: Knopf (1996)
Moore, Charles; Allen, Gerald; Lyndon, Donlyn, The Place of Houses. New York: Holt,
Rinehart and Winston (1974)
Mumford, Lewis, The Brown Decades. New York: Dover (1931)
Stick and Stones. New York: Dover (1924)
Rybczynski, Witold, Home: the Short History of an Idea. New York: Penguin (1986)
The Most Beautiful House in the World. New York: Viking (1989)
Salvadori, Mario, The Art of Construction. Chicago: Chicago Review Press (1990)
Scully, Vincent, American Architecture and Urbanism. New York: Holt (1988)
Architecture: The Natural and the Manmade. New York: St. Martin’s Press
(1991)
Winters, Nathan B., Architecture Is Elementary. Salt Lake City: Gibbs Smithy (2010)
Wright, Frank Lloyd, On Architecture. New York: Duell, Sloan and Pearce (1941)
9. Academic Honesty
The Honor System is in effect at all times in this class. Any infractions will be reported immediately.
10. This syllabus may be changed by the instructor at any time based on class needs, interests, and scheduling issues.