ARC2701/5711: History of Design from Antiquity to the Eighteenth Century
Fall 2015
Florida International University School of Architecture
Professor David Rifkind [[email protected]]
PCA 135, Monday, Wednesday and Friday, 10:00 – 10:50 [note: for undergraduate students, Friday classes are
discussion sections, convened by the teaching assistants. These sections will meet in smaller seminar rooms.]
Office hours, PCA383b, 305.348.1867, Wednesday and Friday, 1:30 – 4:00
teaching assistants: Zoe Russian Moreno [[email protected]], Danyealah Green-Lemons [[email protected]],
Danit Shneiderman [[email protected]]
This lecture course surveys world architecture, urbanism and landscapes from the ancient world to the eighteenth
century. In addition to the major monuments of European and North American architecture, considerable
attention will be given to the built environments of Asia, Africa, and Latin America. We will discuss architecture in
relation to major paradigms of thought, artistic explorations in other media, and social transformations related to
developments in politics, technology, science, religion and cultural exchange. The class places special emphasis
on the relationships between buildings, landscapes, cities and interiors.
Each lecture will focus on one or several case studies that will allow us to discuss key concepts in great detail. The
readings, by contrast, will discuss movements and social contexts in great breadth. Students will be expected to
synthesize the material from the lectures and readings
Requirements: Students will be evaluated through five in-class quizzes, four writing assignments and participation in
weekly discussion sections. Because the quizzes will deal with material drawn from both readings and lectures,
class attendance and careful examination of the assigned readings are both essential and mandatory.
The four writing assignments will comprise a single, semester-long examination of a building, project, landscape
or interior from the period covered by the class. Students will choose the subject for their writing assignments,
with the approval of the instructor. The first assignment (due class 15) is an annotated bibliography listing five
printed sources (books, book chapters or journal articles); students must write a one-paragraph synopsis of each
source. The second assignment (due class 24) is a 1,500-word essay that discusses the work in terms of close
observation. The third assignment (due class 33) is a 2,000-word paper which offers detailed analyses of the
work’s formal attributes. The fourth assignment (due class 41) is a 2,500-word essay which extends the previous
assignment’s analyses to interpret the work in relation to its cultural, social, political and environmental contexts,
while also understanding the work’s disciplinary autonomy and poetic gestures.
Students are required to take detailed notes in class and while reading the assigned texts outside class. Students
are required to take at least one page of notes and make at least one analytical sketch for each assigned reading;
students will submit a photocopy of these notes and sketches at each Friday discussion section. It is highly
recommended that design students take notes and sketch in the same sketchbooks they use in Design 1 and
Graphics 1.
Graduate students enrolled in ARC5711 are expected to master the content of the readings and lectures, and to
demonstrate an advanced understanding of the course material on the quizzes. While the assignments are the
same for both undergraduate and graduate students, the latter are graded at a higher standard.
Humanities with Writing Courses at FIU: In these courses students strengthen the critical reading and writing skills
needed to succeed within the University and beyond. Students interact analytically with, and respond critically to,
primary and secondary texts in the humanities and learn to integrate the ideas and words of others into their
own writing. By writing informed essays, students develop the ability to present ideas logically and sequentially
and to provide balanced exposition and critical examination of complex events, positions, arguments, or texts.
In these courses students learn to use writing as a form of inquiry in reflecting critically upon central topics in the
humanities, such as individual, moral, and social values; historical perspectives and events; culture and the arts;
philosophy; and religious beliefs and practices. Students address themes centered on the traditions; shared
values and myths; literary, artistic, historical, and philosophical traditions; and cultural standards and common
values which underlie contemporary societies and their historical antecedents.
The course text is available at the Graham Center bookstore:
Francis D.K. Ching, Mark M. Jarzombek and Vikramaditya Prakash, A Global History of Architecture, 2nd edition,
Hoboken: J. Wiley & Sons, 2010.
All other readings (besides the selected passages in the textbook) are available for download through the course
web site (http://davidrifkind.org/fiu/Design_I.html).
Other important texts on reserve at Green Library are Elizabeth Barlow Rogers, Landscape design: a Cultural and
Architectural History, Spiro Kostof, A History of Architecture, Kenneth Frampton, Modern Architecture: A
Critical History, and Marvin Trachtenberg and Isabelle Hyman, Architecture, from Prehistory to PostModernism.
Reading and sketching assignments
In order to better comprehend and internalize the assigned readings, students in History of Design are required
to take written notes and make analytical sketches of projects illustrated in the readings. Sketches are not
intended to be photorealistic depictions; they should instead be used as opportunities to understand a project in
terms of its composition, use, context and construction. See the examples posted online in the Image Blog
[http://davidrifkind.org/fiu/Design_I_Images_1/Pages/a_brief_guide_to_taking_notes.html].
Writing assignments
Students in History of Design learn to use writing as a form of inquiry in reflecting critically upon architectural
production and its reception as they relate to the humanities and other forms of cultural production and to
individual, moral, and social values; historical perspectives and events; culture and the arts; philosophy; and
religious beliefs and practices.
The writing assignments in the course allow students to strengthen the critical analytic, reading and writing skills
needed to succeed. Students interact analytically with, and respond critically to, primary and secondary texts in
the humanities and learn to integrate the ideas and words of others into their own writing.
The writing assignments stress analysis and insight. Examine your subject thoroughly. Exhaust it. Keep asking
yourself why a particular form or spatial relationship is important, how it generates meaning, and what kind of
meaning it conveys. Your work must be your own – plagiarism is grounds for dismissal from the class, and,
possibly, from the university – so be sure to properly cite your sources. Check all work for grammar and spelling
TWICE before submitting it.
Writing assignments are to be submitted through the TurnItIn on-line service, not by hard copy. Submit each
assignment by 10am on the date indicated on the syllabus.
The one-paragraph proposal (which precedes the four writing assignments) should identify the project you want
to research this semester (along with its location, date of construction and designer, if applicable), and give an
idea of why you want to study this work. You may choose any building, urban space, interior or landscape that
interests you, except that you cannot choose a project which is discussed in the required readings or in class, nor
one of the projects listed on the Image Blog’s guide to the writing assignments
[http://davidrifkind.org/fiu/Design_I_Images_2/Pages/a_brief_guide_to_writing_assignments.html].
The annotated bibliography (first assignment) must list five printed sources (books, book chapters or journal
articles) you intend to use for your research. Write a one-paragraph synopsis of each source. You may use an
internet database (such as JSTOR) to retrieve materials that have been published in print, and I encourage you to
use JSTOR, the Avery Index and WorldCat databases to search for sources. However, you may NOT use internetonly content for your research. Let me repeat that: do not use anything from the internet UNLESS it has already
appeared in print. Do not even think of wasting your time on Wikipedia. You may have points deducted from
your grade if you use internet sources, and you are very likely to include erroneous information.
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The second assignment is a 1,500-word essay that discusses the work in terms of close observation. Describe the
work in detail. Discuss its program, site, spatial qualities, construction and materials. How is it used? Who built it,
and who were its intended users? How does it relate to its physical context? Organize your observations
hierarchically, so that your essay begins with the project’s most important details. Devote one paragraph to each
important aspect of the work.
The third assignment is a 2,000-word paper which offers detailed analyses of the work’s formal attributes,
especially those discussed in the observation paper. Look closely at the project’s forms and spatial relationships.
How do these elements work together, and how do they prompt or react to their users’ actions? How does the
project serve its patron’s needs and aspirations? How does the work relate to its contexts (the built environment,
the natural environment, its cultural context, the history of architecture, and so on)? Organize your analyses
hierarchically, with each paragraph focusing on a specific theme or topic.
The fourth assignment is a 2,500-word essay which extends the previous assignment’s analyses to interpret the
work in relation to its cultural, social, political and environmental contexts, while also understanding the work’s
disciplinary autonomy and poetic gestures. How are the project’s forms and spatial relationships meaningful?
Whereas the analytical paper (assignment three) comprises a series of related analyses of individual aspects of
the project, the interpretive essay offers an overarching argument about the project. The first paragraph
establishes the argument, and every subsequent refers back to, and supports, the first paragraph.
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ARC2701/5732: History of Design from Antiquity to the Eighteenth Century
Schedule of classes
1 [8.24]
Introduction
2 [8.26]
Egypt: Temple and tomb
reading: Ching, Jarzombek and Prakash, pp. 39-46, 64-73.
3 [8.28]
Discussion section – Greece: the Agora and the city
reading: Leland Roth, Understanding Architecture. Boulder, CO, 2007, Ch.11 “Greek Architecture,”
pp215-245.
4 [8.31]
Periclean Athens: the Parthenon and the Acropolis
reading: Ching, Jarzombek and Prakash, pp. 121-131.
5 [9.2]
Rome: the Pantheon
reading: Ching, Jarzombek and Prakash, pp. 154-172, 191-211.
optional: Karl Lehmann, "The Dome of Heaven," Art Bulletin 27 (1945), pp. 1-27.
6 [9.4]
Discussion section – Rome: Hadrian’s Villa/quiz prep session
reading: Ching, Jarzombek and Prakash, pp. 202-211.
Charles W. Moore, “Hadrian's Villa,” Perspecta, Vol. 6, (1960), pp. 16-27.
Essay proposal due
7 [9.7]
Labor Day – no class
8 [9.9]
Teotihuacán: Urbanity and ritual
reading: Ching, Jarzombek and Prakash, pp. 146-147, 186-190, 222-228, 264-267, 328-30, 432-434,
477-478.
9 [9.11]
Discussion section – first quiz
short lecture: the elements of architecture – the Barcelona Pavilion
10 [9.14]
Lalibela: Monolithic architecture and the symbolic landscape
reading: Ching, Jarzombek and Prakash, pp. 414-415.
11 [9.16]
Gothic: Amiens Cathedral
reading: Ching, Jarzombek and Prakash, pp. 417-427.
12 [9.18]
Discussion section – writing a research paper
13 [9.21]
Tuareg: Nomadic architectures
reading: Labelle Prussin, African Nomadic Architecture: Space, Place, and Gender. Washington, 1995,
Ch.5, “The Tuareg.”
Ching, Jarzombek and Prakash, pp. 518-519.
14 [9.23]
Djenné: Temporality and ritual
reading: Jean-Louis Bourgeois, “The History of the Great Mosques of Djenné,” African Arts, Vol. 20,
No. 3, (May, 1987), pp. 54-92.
Ching, Jarzombek and Prakash, pp. 416.
optional: Labelle Prussin, “The Architecture of Islam in West Africa,” African Arts, Vol. 1, No. 2,
(Winter, 1968), pp. 32-35, 70-74.
Labelle Prussin, “An Introduction to Indigenous African Architecture,” The Journal of the Society of
Architectural Historians, Vol. 33, No. 3. (Oct., 1974), pp. 182-205.
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15 [9.25]
Discussion section – symbolic geometry and the Renaissance
reading: Rudolph Wittkower, “The Centrally Planned Church and the Renaissance,” in Architectural
Principles in the Age of Humanism, New York, 1949, pp.3-32 (also recommended: 101-154).
First writing assignment due
16 [9.28]
Angkor Wat: infrastructure and cosmology
reading: Ching, Jarzombek and Prakash, pp. 308-320, 347-349, 352-353, 392-395.
17 [9.30]
Ming China: the Forbidden City
reading: Ching, Jarzombek and Prakash, pp. 356-361, 400-403, 438-443.
18 [10.2]
Discussion section – second quiz
short lecture: legacies of the ancient in the modern – the Salk Institute
19 [10.5]
Renaissance Florence: Brunelleschi
reading: Ching, Jarzombek and Prakash, pp. 460-465.
20 [10.7]
Treatise and Temple: Alberti
reading: Ching, Jarzombek and Prakash, pp. 465-470.
21 [10.9]
Discussion section – Michelangelo and Neo-Platonism
reading: Erwin Panofsky, “The Neo-Platonic Movement and Michelangelo,” in Studies in Iconology:
Humanistic Themes in the Art of the Renaissance, New York, 1939.
22 [10.12]
Palazzo and Villa: Palladio
reading: Ching, Jarzombek and Prakash, pp. 471-473, 522-525.
optional: James Ackerman, Palladio, pp.19-35, 160-185.
23 [10.14]
Michelangelo: New Sacristy and Laurentian Library
reading: Ching, Jarzombek and Prakash, pp. 520-521, 534-535.
24 [10.16]
Discussion section – urban design in Baroque Europe
Reading: Edmund Bacon, Design of Cities (1967), New York, 1978, pp.131-161.
Second writing assignment due
25 [10.19]
Ottoman Istanbul: Sinan’s mosque complexes
reading: Sheila Blair and Jonathan Bloom, “The Age of Sinan”, in The Art and Architecture of Islam
1250-1800, pp. 218-230.
Ching, Jarzombek and Prakash, pp. 516-517.
optional: Gulru Necipoglu, “Anatolia and the Ottoman Legacy”, in The Mosque: History, Architectural
Development & Regional Diversity, Frishman and Khan, eds., pp.141-157.
Godfrey Godwin, “Sinan – the Rise to Greatness” in A History of Ottoman Architecture, Baltimore,
1971, pp.197-
26 [10.21]
Mughal India: the Taj Mahal
reading: Ching, Jarzombek and Prakash, pp. 503-509.
optional: Wayne Begley, “The Myth of the Taj Mahal and a New Theory of its Symbolic Meaning,”
The Art Bulletin, March 1979, pp.7-37.
27 [10.23]
Discussion section – third quiz
short lecture: Villa Savoye
28 [10.26]
The colonial city in New Spain
reading: Ching, Jarzombek and Prakash, pp. 526-530, 554-558.
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optional: Richard Kagan, “Four Cities and their Images,” in Urban Images of the Hispanic World,
1493-1793, 2000, pp.151-198.
29 [10.28]
Baroque Rome: Sixtus V
reading: Spiro Kostof, A History of Architecture, ch.20 “The Popes as Planners: Rome, 1450-1650,”
pp. 485-509.
optional: Spiro Kostof, The City Shaped: Urban Patterns and Meanings through History, Boston, 1991,
ch.4.
30 [10.30]
Discussion section – Reason, Ruins and Enlightenment
reading: Robin Middleton and David Watkins, Neoclassical and 19th-century Architecture, ch.2, “The
Picturesque Tradition in England,” pp.37-65.
31 [11.2]
Baroque Rome: Bernini and Borromini
reading: Ching, Jarzombek and Prakash, pp. 536-541.
optional: Trachtenberg and Hyman, ch. 9, pp. 326-342.
32 [11.4]
Baroque Paris and Versailles: Henri IV to Louis XIV
reading: Ching, Jarzombek and Prakash, pp. 560-567.
optional: Hilary Ballon, The Paris of Henri IV: Architecture and Urbanism, Cambridge, 1991.
Alberto Pérez-Gómez, Architecture and the Crisis of Modern Science, ch.5 “Perspective, Gardening,
and Architectural Education,” Cambridge, 1983, pp.165-201.
Trachtenberg and Hyman, ch. 9, pp. 348-358.
33 [11.6]
Discussion section – Architectural History, Archeology and Enlightenment
reading: Alan Colquhoun, "Three Kinds of
Historicism," Oppositions 26 (Spring 1984), pp. 29-39.
[first published in Architectural Design 53, 9/10 (1983)].
Third writing assignment due
34 [11.9]
Muromachi Japan: Kinkaku-ji
reading: Robert Treat Paine, Art and Architecture of Japan, ch. 24, “Secular Architecture: Muromachi,
Momoyama and Edo,” Baltimore, 1981, pp.415-431.
35 [11.11]
Veteran’s Day – no class
36 [11.13]
Discussion section – fourth quiz
37 [11.16]
Edo Japan: the Katsura Villa
reading: Marc Treib & Ron Herman, “The Japanese Garden in Cultural Context,” in A Guide to the
Gardens of Kyoto, Tokyo, 1980.
optional: William H. Coaldrake, “Castles: The Symbol and Substance of Momoyama and Early Edo
Authority,” in Architecture and Authority in Japan, 1996, ch. 5.
38 [11.18]
Enlightenment Paris: Laugier, Soufflot and Ste.-Geneviève
reading: Ching, Jarzombek and Prakash, pp. 568, 610-611.
optional: Trachtenberg and Hyman, ch. 10, pp. 374-399
39 [11.20]
The Picturesque landscape: Stowe and Stourhead [LECTURE, no discussion sections]
reading: Ching, Jarzombek and Prakash, pp. 582, 584-585.
optional: Elizabeth Barlow Rogers, Landscape design: a Cultural and Architectural History, New York,
2001, pp.232-280.
Trachtenberg and Hyman, ch. 10, pp. 389-393.
40 [11.23]
Antiquity and plurality: Piranesi and Soane
reading: Ching, Jarzombek and Prakash, pp. 608, 618.
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optional: Giovanni Battista Piranesi, “Opinions on Architecture,” in Observations on the Letter of
Monsieur Mariette..., introduction by John Wilton-Ely; translation by Caroline Beamish and David
Britt, Los Angeles, 2002, pp.2-83, 102-114.
Trachtenberg and Hyman, ch. 10, pp. 399-413.
41 [11.25]
City and utopia: Ledoux
reading: Ching, Jarzombek and Prakash, pp. 612-616.
optional: Trachtenberg and Hyman, ch. 10, pp. 399-413.
Fourth writing assignment due
42 [11.27]
Thanksgiving break
43 [11.30]
Design I final review – no class
44 [12.2]
Thomas Jefferson and the University of Virginia
reading: Richard Guy Wilson, “Jefferson’s Lawn: Perceptions, Interpretations, Meanings,” in Thomas
Jefferson's Academical Village: The Creation of an American Masterpiece, Charlottesville, 1993, pp.4773.
45 [12.4]
Discussion section – fifth quiz
In addition to the above sources, the following texts are highly recommended:
Histories:
Reyner Banham, Theory of Design in the First Machine Age, 1960.
Reyner Banham, A Guide to Modern Architecture, 1963.
Barry Bergdoll, European Architecture 1750-1890, 2000.
Peter Collins, Changing Ideals in Modern Architecture, 1750-1950. 1965, 1998.
Kenneth Frampton, Modern Architecture: A Critical History, 1980.
Sigfried Giedion, Space, Time and Architecture: The Growth of a New Tradition. Cambridge, 1941.
Elie Haddad and David Rifkind, eds., A Critical History of Contemporary Architecture 1960-2010, 2014.
John Dixon Hunt, The Genius of the Place: the English Landscape Garden, 1620-1820, New York, 1975.
Geoffrey and Susan Jelicoe, The Landscape of Man, 1975, 1995.
Vittorio Magnago Lampugnani, Architecture and City Planning in the Twentieth Century, 1985.
Peter Murray, The Architecture of the Italian Renaissance, London, 1986.
Lewis Mumford, The South in Architecture, 1941.
John Summerson, Architecture of the Eighteenth Century, New York, 1986.
Manfredo Tafuri and Francesco Dal Co, Modern Architecture, 2 vols. New York, 1986.
Manfredo Tafuri, Theories and History of Architecture [1968] London, 1980.
Robert Tavernor, Palladio and Palladianism, New York, 1991.
Anthologies:
Umbro Apollonio, ed., Futurist Manifestos. New York, 1973.
Stephen Bann, ed., The Tradition of Constructivism. New York, 1974.
Tim and Charlotte Benton, eds., Architecture and Design, 1890-1939: an International Anthology of Original Articles,
1975.
Ulrich Conrads, Programs and Manifestoes on 20th-century Architecture.
Catherine Cooke, Russian Avant-Garde: Theories of Art, Architecture and the City, London, 1995.
Michael Hays, ed., Architectural Theory Since 1968, Cambridge, 1998.
Elizabeth Basye Gilmore Holt, ed., A Documentary History of Art, 1957.
Hanno-Walter Kruft, ed., A History of Architectural Theory: from Vitruvius to the Present, New York, 1994.
Liane Lefaivre and Alexander Tzonis, eds., The Emergence of Modern Architecture - A Documentary History, from 1000
to 1810,
Harry Francis Mallgrave, ed., Architectural Theory, 2 vols., 2005, 2008.
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Kate Nesbitt, ed., Theorizing a New Agenda for Architecture. An Anthology of Architectural Theory, 1965-1995, New
York, 1996.
Joan Ockman, ed., Architecture Culture 1943-1968: A Documentary Anthology, New York, 1993.
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ARC2701/5732: History of Design from Antiquity to the Eighteenth Century
Class policies
Attendance at all classes is mandatory. Students must be prompt and attentive. For every two times a student
comes to class late, s/he will be marked absent. Per university and department policy, four absences will
result in a failing grade for the class.
Students are required to take thorough notes in class. You may use a laptop computer to take notes, however,
computers may be used only for note taking. Audio and video recordings made in class may be used for
individual study purposes only, and may not be shared or uploaded onto the internet without the
express permission of the instructor. Telephones may not be used for any purpose during class, other
than audio recordings.
Students are required to check their FIU e-mail account daily for announcements and updates to the syllabus.
Students will be evaluated in part through five in-class quizzes. Because the quizzes will deal with material drawn
from both readings and lectures, class attendance and careful examination of the assigned readings are
both essential and mandatory. Quizzes will be held at the beginning of class.
Students are encouraged to ask questions during class, and to meet with the instructor during office hours, or by
appointment outside of office hours.
Grading is based on the University System. The final grade will be determined on the following basis:
Participation in discussion sections
Writing Assignments (10% each)
Quizzes (10% each)
10%
40%
50%
Grades
94-100= A
90-93= A-
87-89= B+
84-86= B
80-83= B77-79= C+
74-76= C
70-73= C-
67-69= D+
64-66= D
60-63= D0-59= F
Student Rights and Responsibilities
It is the student’s responsibility to obtain, become familiar with, and abide by all Departmental, College and
University requirements and regulations. These include but are not limited to:
The Florida International University Catalog Division of Student Affairs Handbook of Rights and
Responsibilities
Departmental Curriculum and Program Sheets
Departmental Policies and Regulations
Student Work
The School of Architecture reserves the right to retain any and all student work for the purpose of record,
exhibition and instruction. All students are encouraged to photograph and/or copy all work for
personal records prior to submittal to instructor.
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