PRELIMINARY SYLLABUS
Architecture 173A/273A: Modern Architecture (3 units)
Prof. Kathleen James-Chakraborty
Tuesdays and Thursdays, 9:30-11:00
Office Hours: Thursdays, 2:00-4:00 and by appointment
Telephone: (510) 642-4503
e-mail: katjames@uclink4.berkeley.edu
Course Description: The subject of this course is the professionally-designed
environments of the twentieth-century: buildings, cities, landscapes, and objects.
The focus, however, will be on buildings. The scope is global, although the
emphasis will be on developments in the United States, Britain, France, the
Netherlands, Germany, Italy, India, and Japan. It is organized around three
interlocking themes. First is the emergence and institutionalization of the
modern movement in the context of both pre-existing alternatives and
postmodernism. Second is the role of metaphors for modernity and diverse
forms of modernization in shaping the designed environment. Third is the
position of avant-garde positions at any given time in relationship to both
architectural establishment and vernacular alternatives. The readings have been
chosen to acquaint students with influential and/or outstanding examples of
theory, criticism, and history and to teach them to be able to distinguish between
the three. Students are expected to participate in the discussions that will be
integrated into each class meeting.
Course Requirements:
173A: Undergraduate students must write three short papers based on the
lectures and reading and take a final exam. M.Arch students may also select this
option. Each paper will count for 30% and the final for 40%. A plus/minus
grade will be awarded based on class participation.
273A: MSc and PhD students must write a 15-20 page research paper on a topic
to be chosen in consultation with the instructor (Option B). M.Arch students may
also select this option. The grade will be based on the paper with a plus/minus
grade awarded for class participation.
OPTION: In lieu of one-two short papers or all or part of the research paper,
students may chose in consultation with the professor to work on a National
Register nomination on the Donald Olson House or on documenting the
walkways and gateways in the Berkeley hills.
Fieldtrips:
There will be three required and two optional fieldtrips (walking tours). Each
required trip will begin at 9:00AM at a designated location in Berkeley and finish
in time for students to attend classes at 11:10.
August 29: Introduction
August 31: The New
Reading: Reading: Otto Wagner, Modern Architecture, 61-80.
1) Willow Tea Rooms, Charles Rennie and Margaret MacDonald Macintosh,
Glasgow, Scotland, 1904
2) Hotel Van Eetvelde, Victor Horta, Brussels, Belguim, 1898
3) La Maison du Peuple, Horta, Brussels, 1895
4) La Samaritaine, Jourdain, Paris, France, 1905
5) Carson, Pirie, Scott (originally Schlesinger and Meyer), Louis Sullivan,
Chicago, Illinois, 1898-1906
6) Secession Building, Josef Olbrich, Vienna, Austria, 1898
7) Purkersdorf Sanitorium, Josef Hoffmann, Vienna, 1904
8) Post Office Savings Bank, Otto Wagner, Vienna, 1906
September 5: Domestic Modernity
Reading: Adolf Loos, Ornament and Crime, from Conrads, Programs and
Manifestos, 19-24.
1) Mietskaserne, Berlin, Germany, c 1900
1) Lilong houses, Shanghai, China, early twentieth century
3) Casa Mila, Antonio Gaudi, Barcelona, Spain, 1910
4) Letchworth, Unwin and Parker, England, begun 1902
5) Scheu House, Adolf Loos, Vienna, 1912
6) Robie House, Frank Lloyd Wright, Chicago, Illinois, 1910
7) The Ashmore, Sears Roebuck and Company, 1916
September 7: Walking Tour: Arts and Crafts Movement Berkeley
Reading: Richard Longstreth, On the Edge of the World, excerpt.
First Church of Christ Science, Bernard Maybeck, Dwight Way at Bowditch, 1911
Thorsen House, Greene and Greene, 1908-10
International House, George Kelham, 1928-30
September 12: Controlling the other
Reading: Gwendolyn Wright, The Politics of Design in French Colonial
Urbanism, 85-160.
1) Metro stations, Hector Guimard, Paris, 1898-1904
2) Gare d’Orsay, Victor Laloux, Paris, 1900
3) Ananta Samakhom Throne Hall, Tamayo and Rigotti, Bangkok, Thailand, 1907
4) City Plan, Daniel Burnham, Chicago, 1909
5) Shophouses, Singapore, early twentieth-century
6) City Plan (Edmund Lutyens, 1912), Secretariat (Herbert Baker, 1912-27), and
Viceroy’s Palace (1913-31, Lutyens), New Delhi, India
7) Plan, Henri Prost, Rabat, Morocco, 1913
8) Palacio del Concejo Deliberante, Ayerza and Le Monnier, Buenos Aires, 192531
September 14: Walking Tour: the Beaux-Arts Campus
OPTION A: FIRST PAPER TOPIC HANDED OUT
Reading: Sally Woodbridge, John Galen Howard and the University of
California, excerpt.
Hearst Mining Building, John Galen Howard, 1902-07
Wheeler Hall, Howard, 1915-17
Doe Library, Howard, 1907-17
Hearst Gymnasium, Maybeck and Julia Morgan, 1926-27
September 19: Issues of Identity
Reading: Barbara Lane, National Romanticism, 163-248
1) Beurs, Henrik Berlage, Amsterdam, the Netherlands, 1903
2) City Hall, Ragner Östberg, Stockholm, Sweden, 1907-23
3) Train Station, Gesellius, Lindgren, and Saarinen, Helsinki, Finland, 1904-19
4) City Plan, Walter Burley Griffen, Canberra, Australia, 1912
5) State Capital, Bertram Goodhue, Lincoln, Nebraska, 1920-32
6) Sun Yat-sun Mausoleum, Lu Yanzhi, Nanjing, China, 1925
September 21: Industrial Modernity
OPTION A: FIRST PAPER DUE
OPTION B: PAPER PROPOSAL DUE
Reading: Hermann Muthesius and Henry van de Velde, “Theses and Antitheses,” in Conrads, excerpt
1) Margarete Steiff factory, Richard Steiff, Giengen an der Brenz, Germany, 1903
2) AEG Turbine Factory, Peter Behrens, Berlin, Germany, 1909
3) Ford Motor Company Factory, Albert Kahn, Highland Park, Michigan, 1910
4) Fagus factory, Walter Gropius and Adolf Meyer, Alfeld, Germany, begun 1911
5) Glashaus, Bruno Taut, Cologne, Germany, 1914
6) Van Nelle factory, Mart Stam for Brinkmann and Van Vlugt, Rotterdam, the
Netherlands, 1929
7) Zeche Zollverein Pithead XII, Schupp and Kremmer, Essen, Germany, 1932
September 26: Architecture and Revolution
Reading: Bruno Taut, and Walter Gropius, in Conrads, excerpt.
1) Centennial Hall, Max Berg, Wroclaw, Poland, 1913
2) Einstein Tower, Erich Mendelsohn, Potsdam, Germany, 1921
3) Bauhaus, Gropius, Dessau, Germany, 1926
4) St. Engelbert, Dominikus Böhm, Cologne-Riehl, 1932
5) Monument for the Third International, Vladimir Tatlin, project, 1920
6) Lenin Library, Ivan Leonidov, project, 1927
September 28: Housing and Houses
Reading: Le Corbusier, Towards a New Architecture
1) Karl Marx Hof, Karl Ehn, Vienna, 1930
2) Praunheim Siedlung, Ernst May (kitchen by Grete Schütte-Lihotzky),
Frankfurt, Germany, 1927
3) Narkomfin Apartments, Ginzburg and Milinis, Moscow, 1928-29
4) Schroeder House, Gerrit Rietveld, Utrecht, the Netherlands, 1924
5) E-1027, Eileen Gray, Cap Martin-Roquebrunne, France, 1929
6) Villa Savoye, Le Corbusier, Poissy, France, 1931
7) Villa Maraia, Alvar Aalto, Noormarkku, Finland, 1936-39
October 3: The Architecture of Capital
Reading: Carol Willis, Form Follows Finance, 19-107.
1) Tribune Tower Competition, Raymond Hood, Eliel Saarinen, and Walter
Gropius, Chicago, 1922
2) Kavenagh Building, Sanchez, Lagos and De La Torre, Buenos Aires, 1933-35
3) Rockefeller Center, Associated Architects, New York, New York, 1929-40
4) Bank of China, Palmer and Tuner with Lu Quianshou, Shanghai, China, 1937
5) City of Three Million, Le Corbusier, 1923
6) WOGA complex, Erich Mendelsohn, Berlin, 1928
7) Metro Cinema, Thomas Lamb, Calcutta, India, 1934-35
8) Texaco gas station prototype, Walter Teague, United States, 1937
October 5: The Architecture of Institutions
Reading: Barbara Miller Lane, Architecture and Poltiics, 147-216
1) Woodland Cemetery, Gunnar Asplund, Stockholm, 1915-40
2) Town Hall, Willem Dudok, Hilversum, the Netherlands, 1930
3) German Pavilion, Mies van der Rohe, Barcelona, 1929
4) National and University Library, Joze Pleccnik, Ljubljana, Slovenia, 1936
5) Zepplinfeld, Albert Speer, Nuremberg, Germany, 1937
6) Casa dal Fascio, Giuseppe Teragni, Como, Italy, 1932-36
7) Tennessee Valley Authority, United States, begun 1933
October 10: Modernism on the Move
Readng: Sibel Bozdogan, Modernism and Nation Building, excerpt
1) Isokan Building, Welles Coates, London, England, 1934
2) Lovell Beach House, Rudolf Schindler, Newport Beach, California, 1926
3) Falling Water, Frank Lloyd Wright, Bear Run, Pennsylvania, 1936
4) Havens House, Harwell Harris, Berkeley, 1941
October 12: Brazil
OPTION A: SECOND PAPER TOPIC HANDED OUT
Reading, Zilah Quesado Deckker, Brazil Built, 23-86
1) Ministry of Education, Lucia Costa, Oscar Niemyer, and others with Le
Corbusier as Consultant, Rio de Janerio, 1937-43
2) Pampulha, Niemeyer and Roberto Burle Marx, Brazil, begun 1942
3) City Plan, Lucio Costa, Brasilia, 1957
5) Ministries and Plaza of the Three Powers, Niemeyer and Marx, begun 1957
October 17: Postwar community
Reading: Hassan Fathy, Architecture for the Poor, 19-62
1) New Gourna, Hassan Fathy, Egypt, 1948
2) Unite d'Habitation,Le Corbusier, Marseilles, France, 1953
3) Vallingby, Sweden, begun 1950
4) Eames House, Charles and Ray Eames, Los Angeles, 1949
5) Levittown, Long Island, New York, begun 1947
6) Christ Lutheran Church, Eliel Saarinen, Minneapolis, 1949
7) Southdale, Victor Gruen, Edina, Minnesota, 1956
October 19: Walking Tour: Mid-century Modernism in Berkeley
OPTION A: SECOND PAPER DUE
OPTION B: ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY DUE
Reading:: Alice Friedman, Women and the Making of the Modern House, 126-59.
Meet at intersection of Cedar Street and Rose Walk
Rose Walk, Maybeck, 1913; houses Henry Gutterson, 1924-36
Greenwood Common
Walton House, Oscar Gerson with Samuel Goodman, 1940
Gillis House, John Dinwiddie
October 24: Competing Cold War Hegemonies
Reading: Annabelle Wharton, Building the Cold War, excerpt
1) Palace of Culture, Lev Rudnev, Warsaw, Poland, 1955
2) Stalinallee, Hermann Henselmann, Berlin, 1956
3) 860-880 Lake Shore Drive, Mies van der Rohe, Chicago, 1951
4) General Motors technical center, Eero Saarinen and Thomas Church, Warren,
Michigan, 1956
5) Penn Center, Emery Roth, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, begun 1953
6) Hilton Hotel, SOM and Eldem, Istanbul, Turkey, 1954
7) Cabrini Housing, Chicago Housing Authority, Chicago, 1942-58
October 26: Modern Monumentality
Reading: Conrads, Programs and Manifestoes, 137-145.
1) City Plan and Assembly, Le Corbusier, Chandigarh, India, begun 1952
2) Town Center, Aalto, Säynätsalo, Finland, 1952
3) Peace Center, Kenzo Tange, Hiroshima, Japan, 1956
4) Philharmonie, Hans Scharoun, Berlin, 1963
5) United States Embassy, Edward Durrell Stone, New Delhi, India
6) State Mosque, Baharuddin Abi Kassim, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, 1971
7) Opera House, Jorn Utzon, Sydney, Australia, 1956-73
October 31: Infrastructure for Science and Education
Reading: Stefan Muthesius, The Postwar University, excerpt
1) University City, Mexico City, begin 1949
3) Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut
Morse and Stiles Colleges, Eero Saarinen, 1962
Art and Architecture Building, Paul Rudolf
3) Ruhr University, Hentrich-Petschnigg, Bochum, Germany, 1962-67.
4) Simon Fraser University, Arthur Erikson, Vancouver, Canada, begun 1963
5) Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad, 1962-74
6) Kresge College, Charles Moore and William Turnbull, Santa Cruz, California,
1972-74
November 1: The Sociology of Institutions
Reading: Alison Smithson, Team X Primer, 74-95.
1) Children's Home, Aldo van Eyck, Amsterdam, 1960
2) Gandhi Smarak Sangrahalaya, Sabarmati Ashram, Charles Correa,
Ahmedabad, 1963
3) Torre Velasca, Belgiojoso, Peressutti, and Rogers, Milan, Italy, 1960
4) Economist Group, Peter and Alison Smithson, London, England, 1964
5) Social Security complex, Seldad Habki Eldem, Istanbul, Turkey, 1970
November 7: Metabolism and Situationalism
Reading: Reyner Banham, Megastructure, excerpt
1) Richards Medical Research Building, Philadelphia, 1957-65
2) Plan for Tokyo Bay, Tange, 1960
3) Expo 67, Montreal, Canada, 1967
US Pavilion, Buckminster Fuller
Habitat, Moshe Safdie
4) Nakagin Capsule Building, Kisho Noriaki Kurokawa, Tokyo, Japan, 1972
5) Centre Pompidou, Rogers and Piano, Paris, 1977
November 9: Vernacular Informality
Reading: Venturi, Izenour, and Scott-Brown, Learning from Las Vegas
1) Vanna Venturi House, Robert Venturi, Philadelphia, 1964
2) Condominiums, MLTW, Sea Ranch, California, 1966
3) Fire Station Number 4, Venturi, Rauch, and Scott-Brown, Columbus, Indiana,
1967
4) Byker Wall, Ralph Erskine, Newcastle, England, 1969-82
5) Faneuil Hall Marketplace, Benjamin Thompson, Boston, Massachusetts, 1978
6) Gehry House, Frank Gehry, Santa Monica, California, 1978
7) Grameen Bank Housing, Bangladesh, begun 1984
2:30 Optional walking tour:
Meet at University and San Pablo
November 14: The Search for Order
OPTION A: THIRD PAPER TOPIC HANDED OUT
Reading: Kenneth Foster, “Critical Regionalism”
1) Sher-e-Bangla Nagar, Dhaka, Bangladesh, 1962-83
2) Asian Games Housing, Raj Rewal, New Delhi, India, 1982
4) Brion family tomb, Carlo Scarpa, San Vito di Altivole, Italy, 1969-78
5) San Cataldo Cemetery, Aldo Rossi, Modena, Italy, begun 1971
6) House, Mario Botta, Stabio, Switzerland, 1981
7) Koshina House, Tadeo Ando, Osaka, 1981
8) House X, Peter Eisenman, project, 1975-78
November 16: Post Modern Historicism
Reading: Aldo Rossi, Architecture of the City, 28-61
1) AT&T Building, Johnson and Burgee, New York, 1980
2) Portland Building, Michael Graves, Portland, Oregon, 1980
3) Spaces d'Abraxas, Taller de Arquitectura, Marne-la-Vallee, France, 1982
4) Ritterstrasse Apartments, Rob Krier, Berlin, 1982
5) Seaside, Andres Duany and Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk, Florida, 1985
6) Tskuba Center, Arata Isozaki, Tskuba, Japan, 1983
7) Island Mosque, Abdel Wahed El-Wakil, Jiddah, Saudi Arabia, 1986
2:30: Optional Walking tour.
Meet in front of the Goldman School of Public Policy
November 21: Museums
Reading: Diane Ghirardo, Architecture after Modernism, 63-96
OPTION A: THIRD PAPER DUE
1) Kimbell Museum, Fort Worth, Texas, 1966-72
2) Gumma Prefecture Museum of Art, Arata Isozaki, Takasaki, Japan, 1974
3) East Building, National Gallery, I. M. Pei, Washington, D. C., 1969-78
4) High Museum, Richard Meier, Atlanta, Georgia, 1983
5) Neue Staatsgallerie, James Stirling, Stuttgart, 1984
6) Jawahar Kala Kendra, Museum, Charles Correa, Jaipur, India, 1992
7) Jewish Museum, Daniel Libeskind, Berlin, 1989-97
8) Guggenheim Museum, Frank Gehry, Bilbao, Spain, 1997
November 28: Making Across Cultures
Reading: TBA
1) Haj Terminal, Skidmore, Owings, and Merrill, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, 1983
2) Hong Kong Bank, Norman Foster, Hong Kong, 1979-86
3) Peak competition winner, Zaha Hadid, project for Hong Kong, China, 1984
4) Arab Cultural Center, Jean Nouvel, Paris, 1987
5) Patkaus for Native Americans
6) Marmburra Marika House, Glenn Murcutt, Yirkala, Australia, 1994
7) Jean Marie Tijbaou Cultural Center, Renzo Piano, Noumea, New Caledonia,
1998
November 30: Remembering and Forgetting
OPTION B PAPER DUE
Reading: TBA
1) Protest, Plaza del Mayo, Buenos Aires, begun 1979
2) Vietnam War Memorial, Maya Lin, Washington, D.C., 1982
3) Parc de la Villette, Bernard Tshumi, Paris, 1984
4) International Building Exhibit, West Berlin, 1986
Wilhelmstrasse Housing, Rossi
Apartment Building at Checkpoint Charlie, Eisenmann and Robertson,
1981-86
5) Critical Reconstruction, Berlin-Mitte, begun 1990
Galleries Lafayette, Jean Nouvel, 1993-96
6) Duisburg Nord Industrial Park, Peter Latz, 1990-2001
7) Refuge housing, Shigeru Ban, Kobe, Japan
December 5: Spaces and Structures of Modern Life
Reading: Kenneth Frampton, Studies in Tectonic Culture, 335-76
3) Ricola Factory and Storage Building, Herzog and de Meuron, Mulhouse,
France, 1993
4) Kinbasha Pachinko Parlor II, Kazuyo Sejima, Naka, Japan, 1993
5) Mobius House, Van Berkel and Bos, Mobius House
6) Royal Library, Schmidt, Hammer, and Lassen, Copenhagen, Denmark, 1999
7) Mediatheque, Toyo Ito, Sendai, 2000
December 7: Global Cities
Reading: Saskia Sassan, Global Cities, excerpt
1) Canary Wharf, masterplan by Skidmore Owings and Merrill, London, begun
1987
2) Euralille, master plan by Office of Metropolitan Architecture, Lille, France
3) Bellagio Hotel, Jon Jerde, Las Vegas, Nevada, 1998
4) Durga Puja, Calcutta, India, annual festival
5) Petronas Towers, Cesar Pelli, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
6) Pudong development, Shanghai
December 14: Final Exam, 8-11 AM
NO CREDIT WILL BE RECEIVED FOR WORK NOT COMPLETED ON TIME
WITHOUT A WRITTEN MEDICAL EXCUSE OR PERMISSION GRANTED
BEFORE HAND BECAUSE OF A PERSONAL EMERGENCY. NO CREDIT
WILL BE RECEIVED FOR THE COURSE UNLESS YOU COMPLETE EACH
ASSIGNMENT. ANY CASES OF CHEATING OR PLAGIARISM WILL RESULT
IN A FAILING GRADE, AND BE REPORTED TO THE APPROPRIATE
AUTHORITIES.