College of Environmental Design
Department of Architecture, UC Berkeley
Architecture Slide Library

Architecture 170B. A Historical Survey of Architecture and Urbanism: From the Renaissance to the Present

Instructor: Stephen Tobriner. Office: 356 Wurster Hall. E-mail: tobriner@uclink4.berkeley.edu

Teaching associates: Jennifer Cousineau, Andrew Johnston, Omar Nagati, Jessica Sewell, Claire Tichi. TA office 338 Wurster.

Lectures: Tuesday/Thursday, 12:30-2:00, 155 Dwinelle, plus one 1-hour section meeting to be arranged. Sections meet in various rooms TBA.

This course is a survey of the history of architecture and urbanism from the Renaissance to the present. Although the focus is on high-style archtiecture in Europe and the US, attention will also be given to Asia, Africa, Latin America, and to vernacular architecture.. Our aim is to expose you to the architectural heritage of recent centuries in its social and historical context. This course is a continuation of Arch. 170A.

COURSE REQUIREMENTS

[Note: in order to pass the course you must complete all of the requirements.

1. Regular attendance at lectures.
2. Faithful attendance and participation in sections.
3. Completion of all reading assignments.
4. Turn in 1)Term-paper proposal, 2) draft, and 3) a term paper with a text of at least 10 double-spaced, typed pages, not including notes, bibliography, or illustrations.
5. Mid-term and final examinations.

Examinations in Arch. 170 differ significantly from those in non-visual courses because they include slide questions. These, and to a certain degree all other questions, require precise information stored in your memory. Without knowing the names, dates, and locations of the buildings and cities you have seen, it is difficult to discuss their place in history and their importance to the cultures we are studying. Similarly, without some knowledge of the general styles and periods it would be impossible to discuss individual monuments.

The examination format varies from year to year. Past exams have included slide identifications and slide comparisons between buildings or complexes which may or may not have been discussed in lectures or in section. Beyond this visual material, the examination would also include brief definitions of terms and proper names, questions based on the reading, and an essay touching upon some major concern of the course.

REQUIRED READING

1. Spiro Kostof, A History of Architecture: Settings and Rituals , 2nd edition (available at Campus Textbook Exchange on Bancroft Way or ASUC Bookstore)
2. A reader, available at Odin Readers, 2146 Center Street

THE TERM PAPER

The purpose of this three-step exercise is to introduce you to the process of scholarly research and the techniques of modern historical writing. It will help to show you how historians arrive at conclusions and how they communicate their findings. On a more general level, the project will require you to get to know the library system, learn to track down specific information, and practice your writing skills. You are expected to utilize many of the wide range of resources available to students on this campus.

NOTE: PLAGIARISM IS A SERIOUS OFFENSE. IT WILL NOT BE EXCUSED FOR ANY REASON. ANYONE GUILTY OF IT WILL RECEIVE AN F FOR THE COURSE, AND BE REPORTED TO THE DEPARTMENT AND TO THE UNIVERSITY. IF YOU ARE UNCERTAIN WHAT PLAGIARISM IS, PLEASE CONSULT YOUR TA OR THE PROFESSOR.

The term paper consists of three parts:

1. An annotated bibliography and project proposal, 2-3 pages, due in section Feb. 10 (whichever day your assigned section meets). Your bibliography must include at least 3 citations of articles from scholarly journals.

2. A partial draft or an in-depth outline of your paper, due in lecture Mar.16. You must submit the draft/outline in order to pass the paper requirement.

3. An analytical essay, 10-12 pages of text, due by 5:00 April 20.

NOTE: There is a penalty for late work, so plan your work carefully and take into account that there is usually a shortage of materials in the libraries during the last two weeks before the term paper is due.

Picking a topic

A historian begins a research project with a question. S/he then develops a thesis that attempts to answer that question and continues to gather data from the particular point of view set out by the thesis. Along the way the thesis is continually checked against new conclusions drawn from the accumulating data. Finally, a point is reached when the question seems satisfactorily answered.

Choose a building, a group of buildings, an urban agglomeration or a landscape built within the chronological boundaries of the course, but which has not been or will not be discussed at length in lectures or sections. TAs will help you choose an interesting topic that is well documented.

Determine from some preliminary reading a significant question to ask. For example,

1. How and why has a particular building type changed form over time?
2. Why do cities from the same culture take such different forms at diverse periods or locations?
3. How is building form affected by technology?
4. How have the needs of the client or user affected architectural design in a specific building?
5. What is the relationship between theory and practice in a particular architect's work?
6. How did a particular style, technology, or building type move from one culture to another? Why did it do so?

The thrust of your research should then be to find and write up a convincing answer to the question.

Since the assignment is to write an analytical essay, be sure you are asking and answering a question about your building(s).

The Annotated Bibliography

The historian who asks new questions never finds sources which give straight answers. S/he plays detective, piecing together the story from all sorts of angles. Sources might include the building itself, experienced in person and through drawings and photographs; primary documents, such as contemporary descriptions or contracts; and secondary materials, such as travelers' journals or modern articles and monographs.

Sources need to be evaluated. How careful was the author? What was the author's point of view? How do his or her prejudices and intended audience affect the usefulness of the work for your research project?

After choosing a topic, begin to build a bibliography of useful sources.

The assignment to be handed in September 16-21 should include a 1-2 page discussion of your research objecting, including the building(s) you are studying, the questions you are seeking to answer, and the way you plan to answer them. This should be an overview of your project, showing where you are going and how you plan to get there.

Following this discussion of your project you should list the sources you will be using, following standard bibliographical form and describing in a few sentences how each source pertains to your project. At least three of your sources must be articles from scholarly journals. You can locate them through standard references such as the Humanities Index, Architecture Index, and the Avery Index. This assignment must be typed with double spacing on 8 1/2 x 11 inch paper.

Writing the Term Paper

Any good scholarly essay or book has an introduction, a main body, and a conclusion. The point of view, the concept, the thesis, the focus, or whatever one calls the guiding idea is set out in the introduction. Then the thesis is supported by offering evidence that builds an argument clearly and logically. Finally, a conclusion sums up and restates the thesis.

You should have little trouble organizing an essay once you have made a proposal and annotated bibliography. You will know just which books and articles you need to read and take notes on. You will know what it is that you are looking for when you read, and will note facts and theories that both support and contradict your thesis.

While you are reading, begin to construct the outline for your essay. The process will help you see relationships between ideas. It will steer you toward a coherent paper in which

1. The most important facts are given prominence

2. Facts are not gratuitous, but support the thesis

3. Analysis, not description, predominates.

The Draft

The partial draft or detailed outline should indicate your thesis and show how the thesis will be developed. What is the organization of the paper? What evidence will be used? The draft should show that you have done your research and have begun to assemble both description and analysis into a coherent essay. The draft should also display your writing skills. The draft assignment helps you to make orderly progress in the assignment -- a paper written at the last moment is not your best effort. It allows you to receive comments from your TA, either on substantive or analytical issues, additional ideas or sources to use, or writing mechanics.

The final paper must be typed on 8 1/2 x 11-inch paper and stapled in the upper left-hand corner. No fancy covers! All ideas, information, and quotations taken from your sources must be footnoted according to the format set forth in Kate Turabian's A Manual for Writers or the Chicago Manual of Style. Footnotes or endnotes are acceptable. Your bibliography should follow a standard format. You should also include appropriate illustrations. Illustrations, footnotes, and bibliography do not count in the 10-12 page length assigned for the paper.

Schedule of Lectures< Sections, and Readings

MIDTERM EXAMINATION!

Date	Material covered and Assignments
Jan. 18	Architecture and cities around us.
Jan. 20	Continuity and revival in the Renaissance.
	Reading: Kostof, pp. 3-19, 375-386, Alberti on the Art of Building in Ten Books
Jan25	Antiquity and the search for perfection in the Renaissance
Jan27	Shaping the Renaissance city
	Reading: Kostof, pp. 403-412
Feb1	The state as a work of architecture
Feb. 3	Islamic architecture in Turkey
	Reading: Kostof, pp. 412-431; 453-483, Friedman, Architecture, Authority, and the Female
Feb8	India: Hinduism and Islam
Feb10	Islamic architecture in Africa, Iran and India
	Reading: Kostof, pp. 453-483, Lewandowski, The Hindu temple in south India PROPOSAL AND BIBLIOGRAPHY DUE THIS WEEK IN SECTION!
Feb15	China, Tibet 1400-1800
Feb17	Japan 1400-1700
	Reading: Kapp, Construction of the Rural Chinese House; James McClain, Edobashi, Power, Space and Popular Culture in Edo
Feb22	Precolumbian America
Feb24	Spain and Portugal in the New World
	Reading: Kostof, pp. 433-51, Richard Townsend, Sacred Landscapes; Inga Clendinnen, Tenochtitlan: The Public Image
Feb 29	Baroque urbanism in Rome, 1585-1750
Mar2	Baroque architecture in 17th and 18th century Italy
	Reading: Kostof, pp. 523-38
Mar 7	MIDTERM EXAMINATION!
Mar9	Architecture, urbanism and landscape in the service of absolutism: France in the 17th- and 18th- centuries
	Reading: Kostof, pp. 523-538
Mar9	Architecture, urbanism and landscape in the service of absolutism: France in the 17th- and 18th- centuries
	Reading: Kostof, pp. 523-538
Mar. 14	Baroque and Rococo architecture in Europe and America
Mar. 16	Architecture in 17th century England and its impact on the American colonies
	Reading: 538-543, 605-618
Mar21	Foundations of modern architectural theory: Neo-classicism
Mar23	Foundations of modern architectural theory: the Picturesque and the Gothic
	Reading: 547-569. INDIVIDUAL CONSULTATIONS WITH GSIs.
Mar28	Spring Break
Mar30	Spring Break
Apr. 4	Engineering, industry, and architecture
Apr. 6	Architecture and planning in 19th-century Paris
	Reading: 571-604

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