Course Schedule and Catalog

Long Title: DESIGNING THE SOCIAL: ARCHITECTURE & COLLECTIVE ASSOC. - 'COMRADES,' 'THE DUDE,' AND BEYOND

Department: Architecture

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Language of Instruction: Taught in English

Course Type: Lecture

Credit Hours: 3

Description: Although one can point to the New England town hall in Alexis de Tocqueville's "Democracy in America" (1835/40) or the bowling alley in connection with Robert D. Putnam's "Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community" (2000), architecture's social agency has been notoriously and productively difficult to pin down and architecture's relationship to the social sciences has been as tense as it has been constant. The course will focus its efforts on architecture's past and potential contribution to what has historically been called 'civic association' - the realm of social activity outside the market and purview of the state. Each class will focus on a particular architectural mode of social projection through the close reading of a single architectural work. In the major assignment for the course, students will be asked to conceive alternate architectural modes of social engagement and to speculate on their potential implications. Space is limited and registration does not guarantee a space in this course. The final course roster is formulated on the first day class by the individual instructor. Graduate/Undergraduate Equivalency: ARCH 670. Mutually Exclusive: Cannot register for ARCH 370 if student has credit for ARCH 670.