Course Syllabus

Description: The domain of architectural work is multi-faceted, as are the multiple forms of practice and knowledge that reflect back upon it.  In this sense, architectural expertise appears in many formats, media, and institutional frameworks that extend beyond, while often informing, the discipline’s role in the production of the built environment.  This heterogeneous field incorporates periodicals, books, pamphlets, exhibitions, installations, research institutes and labs, pedagogy, criticism, manifestos, historical scholarship, posters, films, videos, performances, conferences, online forums, protests, tactical media interventions, and much more.  These many architectural modalities, as well as their institutional and mediatic interfaces, or forms of dissemination, have each, in distinct ways, played important roles in the conceptualization and transformation of the discourse and the discipline.

Designed to look closely and critically at these fields of practice, this colloquium will focus on three interrelated platforms: (1) publications including magazines, reports, newspapers, and books and the architects, critics, writers, and publishers associated with them; (2) exhibitions in galleries, museums, worlds fairs, expos, biennales, and triennales and the architects, curators, and institutions involved, and; (3) experimental formats of research and the collaborative arrangements and institutions through which they function.  The course will not provide a comprehensive account of each of these practices.  Rather, we will use selected examples and scholarship to investigate what role these platforms have played in the formulation and understanding of architecture (broadly conceived) and we will work to identify their contribution to seminal debates, to transformations in architecture’s technical and aesthetic characteristics, to sponsoring critical experimentation, as well as to the careers of many architects and actors affiliated with them.  We will attempt to distinguish the different forms of expertise each of these platforms and media manifest; ask how they function as interfaces and to what audiences; and consider whether they serve to consolidate and codify existing architectural paradigms or to forge new critical and conceptual and well as aesthetic, material, and programmatic possibilities.  We will look at how various practices emerged in their specific historical context and ask to what degree they functioned to maintain a status quo or acted as critical and polemical launchings. We will ask, in turn, what scope there is for pushing new formats, developing new critical concepts, opening new trajectories of investigation, and expanding the very territories of the discipline. 

Requirements and Grades:  Students are expected to attend all sessions and to keep up with required readings. Requirements include a class presentation and a final paper or project. All work presented or submitted should be original and written for this course. Students should familiarize themselves with Columbia’s Faculty Statement on Academic Integrity, found at http://www.college.columbia.edu/academics/integrity-statement

The grade for this class will be determined as follows:

Class Presentation and Participation      50%

Final Paper or Project                            50%

Readings: The readings for this course vary in nature.  Some have been chosen because they are important primary or secondary source literature on a historical or contemporary subject, others more for their “form” than content, for what they can tell us (either explicitly or between the lines) about a particular mode of practice.  The latter type of texts will thus be studied somewhat in the manner in which one might look at an object: we will be asking who made it and why, how is it put together, what does it contain or reflect, how and where does it operate or function, what social, historical, and institutional parameters are relevant to understanding it.

Required readings are available on CourseWorks.  They are found under “Files,” then the sub-file “Shared Files,” and are organized by week.  

Presentations: Each student will be expected to give a 10-minute presentation of selected readings from a particular week; informally present their research for the class around mid-term; and make a final 20-minute presentation of their research for the colloquium during the final week of the semester. You should identify a topic that addresses an exhibition, publication, curator, writer, or research practice, etc. dating from the 19^th to 21^st century. You can elect to develop, in lieu of a final paper, a detailed “program” for an exhibition, publication, or research institute, or to develop “reviews” of either buildings, exhibitions or events paying attention to their critical stakes, content, format, and contribution to the field.

AAUP Statement

Knowledge flourishes when inquiry is free and respectful. This class aims to advance knowledge through discussion, debate, and carefully selected readings and assignments. In accordance with principles of academic freedom promulgated by the American Association of University Professors and affirmed by many universities, including Columbia, the instructor has the authority to set the class syllabus, which may include controversial material relevant to topics being studied. While all participants and their views will be treated respectfully, no one should expect to be shielded from challenging or even upsetting ideas, since thoughtfully engaging such ideas is crucial to free inquiry and intellectual growth.

AI Statement

The default for this seminar is that the use of generative Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools is disallowed unless the instructor states otherwise. If you find yourself needing to use AI tools for a specific purpose, please request permission in writing so we have a clear record. When approved, any such use must be appropriately acknowledged and cited, in every instance. In addition, note that the information produced by AI generative tools may be unreliable, inaccurate, biased, outdated, or copyrighted, and you will remain responsible for its use in this regard. To reiterate: each student is responsible for assessing the validity and applicability of any submitted AI output, and violations of this policy will be considered academic misconduct.