Architectural Theory Since 1960

Arch 314 | 3 Units | Fall 2017

Monday and Wednesday 10:00am-11:20am
Mudd Hall 101

Denise Scott Brown and Robert Venturi, Learning from Las Vegas, 1972

Gary Fox
garyfox@usc.edu

“Theory” is ambiguous. A form of mediation between idea and reality, theory has been
deployed as justifcation, as explanation, as tool for analysis, as propaganda, or as architecture
itself. Discourse is predicated on theory.

This lecture course takes up an expanded notion of architectural theory, considering the role
theoretical production has played vis-à-vis both the discipline and broader social, political, and
technological conditions. Through such a lens, the course surveys a history of architectural
discourse from roughly 1960 to the present. The course opens briefy with the re-theorizing of
modernism that took place more or less after the fact in the early 1960s. It turns to the various
theoretical challenges to modernism articulated well into the 1970s. The course considers the
emergence of a self-identifed postmodernism during this same period, and then takes up the
rise of critical theory in the 1980s and the challenges posed to it in the 1990s. The course

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concludes by focusing on selected topics from the contemporary debate in the 2000s. With a
focus on key fgures, texts, and debates, the course reconstructs a history of contemporary
architectural discourse, highlighting the ideas and theories that have enacted or destabilized
architectural thought. Students are encouraged to develop their own positions with regard to
these debates, both theoretical and practical.

Learning Objectives

This course aims to encourage students to:

1. Be able to situate and analyze cultural objects, concepts, and debates within their
broader political, economic, and social contexts
2. Establish associations and comparisons between diverse historical objects, both
synchronically and diachronically
3. Hone analytic and critical skills through a variety of strategies including close analysis of
images and texts, written responses, and in-class discussions
4. Actively participate in and lead discussions
5. Develop original arguments and theses, with a focus on making connections across
periods and disciplines

Course Requirements

1. Attendance and Participation: 10%

Students are required to attend each lecture and to complete the assigned required
reading before each class session. Readings will be posted on Blackboard.

2. Reading Responses: 15%

Students will be expected to submit a brief, 1-page commentary that responds to the
required readings for the week. This should take the form of an analytical summary that
briefy states and comments on the main points of each reading. Responses are to be
submitted electronically on Blackboard, and are due no later than 5:00 p.m. the Sunday
evening following the week's lectures. No late reading responses will be accepted.

3. Group Presentation: 15%

Students will be asked to participate in a group presentation on one of the student
presentation days scheduled throughout the semester. Groups will present on a theme
drawn from the reading that is characteristic of the decade surveyed. Presentations
should connect themes to at least one architectural project not discussed in lecture.
Students will sign up for a presentation day by Week 2.

4. Midterm Examination: 25%

5. Final Examination: 35%

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Course Policies

No late work will be accepted—i.e. no partial credit will be given for work that is turned in late.
Being absent on a day that a quiz, exam, presentation, paper, or fnal is held or due can lead to
a student receiving an “F” for that assignment.

The School of Architecture's attendance policy allows a student to miss the equivalent of one
week of class sessions (in our case, that means two class sessions) without penalty. If additional
absences are required for medical reasons or a family emergency, a pre-approved academic
reason, or religious observance, the situation should be discussed, in advance if possible, with
me. For each absence above this number, the fnal grade may be lowered by 1/3 point (i.e. from
A to A- for one unexcused absence, from A- to B+ for two; from B+ to B for three, etc.).

Any student not in class after the frst 10 minutes is considered to be tardy. Three tardies
constitute one unexcused absence. Students who are physically present but mentally absent
(whether because they are asleep or distracted by technology) will be marked as absent. Leaving
class before it ends, or taking an extended bathroom or water break that lasts 1/3 of the class
time or longer, will be considered an unexcused absence.

Grading Scale

A 95-100
A- 90-94
B+ 87-89
B 83-86
B- 80-82
C+ 77-79
C 73-76
C- 70-72
D+ 67-69
D 63-66
D- 60-62
F 59 and below

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Course Overview

August 21 Course Introduction: “Architectural Theory”?

August 23 Theorizing Modernity
August 28 Play
August 30 Authorship
September 4 LABOR DAY: NO CLASS
September 6 Environment
September 11 Student Presentations: Themes of the 1960s
September 13 Pop
September 18 Behavior
September 20 Autonomy
September 25 Historicism and Multivalence
September 27 Student Presentations: Themes of the 1970s
October 2 Midterm Review
October 4 MIDTERM EXAM
October 9 Events
October 11 Site, Place, Region
October 16 Consumption and Late Capitalism
October 18 Deconstruction
October 23 Student Presentations: Themes of the 1980s
October 25 Geometry
October 30 Diagrams and Fields
November 1 Control
November 6 The Mediated Body
November 8 Student Presentations: Themes of the 1990s
November 13 Ornament
November 15 The Generic
November 20 Platforms
November 22 Thanksgiving Break: NO CLASS
November 27 Student Presentations: Themes of the 2000s
November 29 Conclusion and Final Review

December 11 FINAL EXAM

8:00-10:00 am To confrm the date and time of the fnal for this class, consult the USC Schedule of
Classes at www.usc.edu/soc

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Weekly Topics and Reading Assignments

August 21 Introduction: What do we mean by “architectural theory”?

August 23 Prelude: Theorizing Modernity

Required Reading:
Clement Greenberg, “Modernist Painting” (1960, rev. 1965), in The New Art (New
York: E. P. Dutton & Co., Inc., 1966): pp. 100-110

Reyner Banham, Theory and Design in the First Machine Age (London: The
Architectural Press, 1960): pp. 9-12; 320-330

August 28 Play

Required Reading:
Constant Nieuwenhuys, “Another City for Another Life,” Internationale Situationniste
No. 3, December 1959, in Constant: New Babylon (The Hague: Gemeentemuseum
Den Haag, 2015): pp. 162-167

Guy Debord, “The Organization of Territory” (1967), in The Society of the Spectacle
(Detroit: Black & Red, 1970): pp. 90-96

August 30 Authorship

Required Reading:
Robert Venturi, Complexity and Contradiction in Architecture (New York: The
Museum of Modern Art, 1966): pp. 22-23; 30-38

Roland Barthes, “The Death of the Author” (1967), in Image, Music, Text (New York:
Hill and Wang, 1977): pp. 142-148

Michel Foucault, “What is an Author?” (1969), in The Foucault Reader (New York:
Pantheon Books, 1984): pp. 101-120

September 4 LABOR DAY: ***NO CLASS***

September 6 Environment

Required Reading:
Ian McHarg, “Man and Environment” (1963), in To Heal the Earth: Selected Writings
of Ian L. McHarg (Washington, DC: Island Press, 2007): pp. 10-23

Buckminster Fuller, Operating Manual for Spaceship Earth (Carbondale: Southern

Illinois University Press, 1968): chs. 4 and 8

September 11 Themes of the 1960s: Student Presentations

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September 13 Pop

Required Reading:
Hans Hollein, “Alles ist Architektur,” Bau 1/2, 1968: pp. 460-462 (plus images)

Denise Scott Brown, “Learning from Pop,” Casabella 359/360, 1971: pp. 15-23

Robert Venturi, Denise Scott Brown, and Steven Izenour, Learning from Las Vegas
(Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1972): pp. 3-19 (plus images)

September 18 Behavior

Required Reading:
Joachim Wohlwill, “The Environment is Not in the Head!” in Environmental Design
Research Vol. 2 (Stroudsburg, PA: Dowden, Hutchinson, & Ross, Inc., 1973): pp.
166-181

Jean Baudrillard, “The Precession of Simulacra,” Art & Text No. 11, September 1983:
pp. 109-137

September 20 Autonomy

Required Reading:
Peter Eisenman, “Notes on Conceptual Architecture: Towards a Defnition,”
Casabella 359/360, November-December 1971: pp. 48-58

Colin Rowe, Introduction to Five Architects (New York: Wittenborn, 1972): pp. 3-7

September 25 Historicism and Multivalence

Required Reading:
Robert A. M. Stern, “Gray Architecture as Post-Modernism, or, Up and Down from
Orthodoxy,” L'Architecture d'Aujourd'hui 186, August-September 1976: pp. 242-245

Charles Jencks, “Post-Modern Architecture,” in The Language of Post-Modern

Architecture (New York: Rizzoli, 1977): pp. 308-316

Alan Colquhoun, “Historicism and the Limits of Semiology” (1972), in Collected

Essays in Architectural Criticism (London: Black Dog Publishing, 2009): pp. 97-105

September 27 Themes of the 1970s: Student Presentations

October 2 Midterm Review

October 5 MIDTERM EXAM

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October 9 Events

Required Reading:
Bernard Tschumi, The Manhattan Transcripts (London: Academy Editions, 1981):
entire book (mostly images)

October 11 Site, Place, Region

Required Reading:
Edward Said, Orientalism (New York: Vintage Books, 1979; 2003): pp. 1-28

Kenneth Frampton, “Towards a Critical Regionalism: Six Points for an Architecture of

Resistance,” in Hal Foster, The Anti-Aesthetic: Essays on Postmodern Culture (New
York: The New Press, 1983): pp. 16-30

October 16 Consumption and Late Capitalism

Required Reading:
Frederic Jameson, “Postmodernism, or the Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism,” New
Left Review No. 146, 1984: pp. 53-92

October 18 Deconstruction

Required Reading:
Philip Johnson and Mark Wigley, Deconstructivist Architecture (New York: Museum
of Modern Art and Boston: Little, Brown, 1988): pp. 10-20

Catherine Ingraham, “Milking Deconstruction, or Cow Was the Show?” Inland

Architect, September/October 1988: pp. 61-65

October 23 Themes of the 1980s: Student Presentations

October 25 Geometry

Required Reading:
Greg Lynn, “Multiplicitous and Inorganic Bodies,” Assemblage 19, December 1992:
pp. 32-49

Greg Lynn, “Architectural Curvilinearity: The Folded, The Pliant, and the Supple,”
Architectural Design Vol. 63 No. 3/4, March-April 1993: pp. 8-15

October 30 Diagrams and Fields

Required Reading:
Toyo Ito, “Diagram Architecture,” El Croquis 77: Kazuyo Sejima, 1996: pp. 18-24

Stan Allen, “From Object to Field,” AD: Architecture After Geometry Vol 67 No. 5/6,
May-June 1997: pp. 24-31

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November 1 Control

Required Reading:
Michel Foucault, selections from “The Body of the Condemned” and “Panopticism,”
in Discipline and Punish (New York: Vintage Books, 1975; 1995): pp. 3-7 and 195-
209

Gilles Deleuze, “Postscript on the Societies of Control,” October Vol. 59, Winter
1992: pp. 3-7

November 6 The Mediated Body

Required Reading:
Beatriz Colomina, “Intimacy and Spectacle,” AAFiles 20, Fall 1990: pp. 5-14

Elizabeth Grosz, “Cyberspace, Virtuality, and the Real: Some Architectural

Refections” (1997), in Architecture from the Outside: Essays on Virtual and Real
Space (Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press, 2001): pp. 75-90

November 8 Themes of the 1990s: Student Presentations

November 13 Ornament

Required Reading:
Jeffrey Kipnis, “The Cunning of Cosmetics,” El Croquis 84, 1997: pp. 22-29

Farshid Moussavi and Michael Kubo, “Introduction,” The Function of Ornament

(Barcelona: ACTAR, 2006): n.p.

November 15 The Generic

Required Reading:
Rem Koolhaas, “Junkspace,” October 100, Spring 2002: pp. 175-190

November 20 Platforms

Required Reading:
David Joselit, “Formats,” in After Art (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2012):
pp. 55-84

Sylvia Lavin, “Too Much Information,” Artforum Vol. 53 No. 1, September 2014: pp.
347-353, 398

November 22 THANKSGIVING BREAK ***NO CLASS***

November 27 Themes of the 2000s: Student Presentations

November 29 Conclusion and Final Review

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December 11 FINAL EXAM
8:00-10:00 am To confrm the date and time of the fnal for this class, consult the USC Schedule of
Classes at www.usc.edu/soc.

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