ARCH/urbanHISTORY/theory Fall 2011

SUPERSTUDIO, Continous Monument

 

“If, roughly from the sixteenth century to the nineteenth, a coded language may be said to have existed on the practical basis of a specific relationship between town, country, and political territory, a language founded on classical perspective and Euclidean space, why and how did this coded system collapse? Should an attempt be made to reconstruct that language, which was common to the various groups making up the society—to users and inhabitants, to the authorities and to the technicians (architects, urbanists, planners)?”

Henri Lefebvre, The Production of Space, 1974 (Oxford, Blackwell, 1991) 17.

 

This critical survey on architecture and urban theory from the 15th to the 19th centuries will concern itself with the question of the evolution and eventual devolution of the Western architectural canon. This course will investigate the making of the urban master-narrative in relationship to 20th century modern architecture and urban theories.

In the case of this particular subject and timeline, the master-narrative can be substituted for the master-plan. The building up of this history, the instrumentalizaton of various aspects of Renaissance, Mannerist, Baroque and Enlightenment architectural and urban histories have served to institutionalize over the course of the late 19th and early 20th centuries a scientific urban practice. The crises effecting architecture and urbanism in the post-WWII era were part of a much broader series of deep interrogations into the legitimacy of the meta-narrative effecting philosophy, the arts, and ultimately the sciences. We intend to examine how the emergence of the master-narrative—predicated on a series of highly exclusive canonic events, becomes further structured and authoritative.

Over the longer duration, however, such structures have proven to be increasingly problematic and marginal when considering the much more complex environments that make up today’s global society. The post-war (WWII) crisis in modernism and the rising supremacy of Post-Modern thought, finally punctuated by the shock of the revolutions of 1989 (see Francis Fukuyama’s end of history thesis, in End of History and the Last Man, New York, Simon&Schuster 1992. *) and subsequent aftershocks, with an endless number of crises, political, economic, social and environmental, have precipitated numerous rational and irrational counter-tendencies.

Today architects and urban designers are engaged in a dialectical debate over strategies and tactics that might either loosely guide—or tightly control the future of our great cities. This course is structured on a set of overlapping studies: an examination of the history of architecture and cities and their consequent critical interpretations that include recent theoretical developments and a weekly survey of different aspects of urban cultural production- from dance to rap, from theater to street art, from the printing press to internet as a means of gauging the city’s position within the transformation of public life and public space.

 

“The environment should be perceived as meaningful, its visible parts not only related to each other in time and space but related to other aspects of life: functional activity, social structure, economic and political patterns, human values and aspirations, even individual idiosyncrasies and character.

The environment is an enormous communications device…”

Kevin Lynch, Site Planning, Second Edition.

(Cambridge, MIT Press, 1971) 226.

 

Students will be required to develop a series of semester-long assignments and give class presentations on these assignments. Each student is asked to keep an updated web-blog linked to the class Tumblr site:

http://archurbanhistorytheoryiii.tumblr.com/

  1. RESEARCH CITY: East student at the beginning of the semester is asked to choose a city that experienced significant demonstrations, protests, assemblies or frequent mobbing (for this project cities already covered in previous classes are still eligible) and develop a semester long project that investigates the urban context’s multiple characteristics and physical dimensions (with an emphasis on distinguishing traditional histories from more recent events). Final presentations will be set to a specific template (See below) and consist of original diagrams, maps, charts, and axonometric drawings. A 2000 word text should accompany the presentation. (50%grade)
  2. ON LINE BLOG: Students are invited to create and continuously update their Blog site on their topic’s research (statistics, topography, politics and economics, but also cultural and visual documents) The assembly of information on your selected city will assist you and others in the class and also invited outside observers to review and comment on your ongoing research.  (35%grade)
  3. 3. RECENT EVIDENCE OF NEW CULTURAL PRODUCTION: The student will be invited to present in class a geography of resistance intrinsically linked to the city they have chosen to study. (15%grade)

 

*Francis Fukuyama “End of History” for online text see:

http://books.google.com/books?id=NdFpQwKfX2IC&printsec=frontcover&dq=fukuyama+end+of+history&source=bl&ots=LzSSZlD1Yz&sig=eerFXiKIY9YsBPot5mE7uGedBKg&hl=en&ei=1xgqTYaXI4SglAfotNT0AQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=8&ved=0CF4Q6AEwBw#v=onepage&q&f=false

 

 

CLASS TEXTBOOK:

David Grahame Shane, Recombinant Urbanism: Conceptual Modeling in Architecture, Urban Design and City Theory, London, Academy Press, 2005.

RECOMMENDED READINGS:

Lewis Mumford, The Culture of Cities, New York, Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1970

Kenneth Frampton, Modern Architecture: A Critical History, London, Thames and Hudson, 2007.

Lieven De Cauter, The Capsular Civilization, On the City in the Age of Fear. Rotterdam, Nai publishers, 2004

“There are also probably in every culture, in every civilization, real places—places that do exist and that are formed in the very founding of society—which are something like counter-sites, a kind of effectively enacted utopia in which the real sites, all the other real sites that can be found within the culture, are simultaneously represented, contested, and inverted. Places of this kind are outside of all places, even though it may be possible to indicate their location in reality. Because these places are absolutely different from all sites they reflect and speak about, I shall call them heterotopias.”

Michel Foucault, “Of Other Spaces: Utopias and Heterotopias” 1964 cited in Shane, Recombinant Urbanism,

231.

USERS MANUAL FOR THIS SYLLABUS: Monday classes are dedicated to open discussions called “BLOBS,”* on historical and emergent cultural production and their role or contribution to city identity. Wednesday’s are dedicated to lectures or “TALKS” where the presentation follows closely readings from the Class Textbook and examines historical relationships to Western “canonic” events related to architecture and the city. Specific web source readings and video excerpts are noted when available for each week’s assignment. NOTE: A number of Friday classes will be announced when scheduling conflicts arise with regularly scheduled classes on Mondays or Wednesdays.

The term *BLOB” is inspired by the Italian RAI 3 program that each evening edits together random sets of news, soaps and features, under the direction of Enrico Ghezzi.

WEEK 1.

Monday August 28. INTRO: Course Structure, The Web Page, Student BLOGS,

Basic Texts.

ASSIGNMENT DUE September 5. PLEASE SUBMIT TWO POSSIBLE CHOICES FOR YOUR CITY PROJECT, BASED ON THE ISSUE OF RESISTANCE AND URBAN SPACE. WITH THE INSTRUCTOR’S APPROVAL YOU WILL BE ASKED TO FIRST WRITE A BRIEF 500 WORD HISTORY OF THE CITY FROM ITS ORIGINS TO

PRESENT. MAKING the City Identikit. Cities can be studied as artifacts, (urban context, roads, centers, public spaces and architecture), as the structures supporting the social-economic fabric (trade, class, immigration, daily life, urban culture), and through creative representation, (manifestations of urban identity: humanities, poetry, prose, cinema, dance, photography, etc.,) Each student will be expected to track their assigned city over the course of the semester, diagramming, mapping, developing a bibliography, image library, and updating historical sources and current events. Assignment 1 will be the basis for the project paper for final grading.

WEDNESDAY August 31TALK: Reflections on the City.

Recombinant Urbanism: “What is City Theory?” 1.1-1.3

Urban Spectacles and Performances:

Street theater, ballet, Surrealist walks, International Situationists, Parkours, Skate,

Mumford, on the City –CITY AS THE PLACE OF OUR MORE VIOLENT MANIFESTATIONS:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e5b_59mls4M

 

Philosophy and the Matrix – Baudrillard

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e3tr0gSNBx4

WEEK 2:

Monday September 5: BLOB: Student PRESENT THEIR CITIES IN CLASS

 

Wednesday September 7: TALK:

BE PREPARED TO DISCUSS: PORTRAYING THE CITY, CINE 1: from Ruttmannʼs Berlin Symphony to Reggioʼs Koyaanisqatsi.

Berlin: Symphony of a Great City Walter Ruttmann, director, 1927.

Metropolis, Fritz Lang, director, 1927.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y5keBI_wk4g&feature=channel

Mumford “The City” 1939 (excerpts)

on the making of Lewis Mumfordʼs “The City:”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TjDmRTiPc-Y

Koyaanisqatsi: Life Out of Balance. Godfrey Reggio, 1982.

(opening)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XrQMB_xcDSE&NR=1

 

WEEK 3

MONDAY September 12. BLOB: (UTOPIAS, ENCLAVES, HETEROTOPIAS) reading: George Orwell, Animal Farm. Ray Bradbury, Fahrenheit 451,

Yellow Submarine, George Dunning (with the Beatles) 1968

http://www.imdb.com/video/screenplay/vi3383035161/

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A7F2X3rSSCU&feature=related

Zardoz, John Boorman with Sean Connery 1974

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kbGVIdA3dx0

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RuOZs1w9sQE&feature=watch_response

 

Brazil, Terry Gilliam 1985

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Wh2b1eZFUM

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RqtUI4XfhMM

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NcKlDMYnmug

 

Waterworld, Kevin Reynolds, director, Kevin Costner, Dennis Hopper, 1995

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oID8q6tdGfk

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GnMNfceY6mo&feature=related (at Universal Studios Hollywood)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=46lSslZe6Pk

 

WEDNESDAY September 14, TALK Recombinant Urbanism: “City Theory and City Design” 1.4- 1.4.6

Routes, Communications, Networks: from Silk Road to InfoBahn

BE PREPARED TO DISCUSS:

Fernand Braudel, The Mediterranean and the Mediterranean world in the age of Philip II translated from the French by Siân Reynolds see “Role of the Environment”

http://books.google.com/books?id=yAMe0bu3Jt4C&printsec=frontcover&cd=1&source=gbs_ViewAPI#v=one page&q&f=false

The Silk Road: Christopher I. Beckwith, Empires of the Silk Road: a history of Central Eurasia from the Bronze Age

http://books.google.com/books?id=5jG1eHe3y4EC&printsec=frontcover&dq=silk+road&hl=en&ei=BoAdTIjH

FoKKlwf3ydXwDA&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=5&ved=0CDsQ6AEwBDgK#v=onepage&q&f=false

Julie Hill, The Silk Road Revisited: Markets, Merchants and Minarets

http://books.google.com/books?id=zsYdMhR0fJsC&printsec=frontcover&dq=silk+road&hl=en&ei=4oEdTL_3

OoWBlAeDpcCRDQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=7&ved=0CEUQ6AEwBjgU#v=onepage&q&f=false

Marshall McLuhan, Quentin Fiore, The Medium is the Message: An inventory of Effects, Gingko Press, 2001, see http://marshallmcluhan.com/

Manuel Castells’s The Rise of the Network Society London, Wiley1996

FRIDAY September 16: SPECIAL EXTRA CLASS: TBA

WEEK 4

MONDAY September 19 LECTURE: Tom De Blasis, The Game Changer. NIKE Global Design Director  (Attendance Obligatory)

WEDNESDAY September 21 LECTURE: Larry Sass (Attendance Obligatory)

 

WEEK 5.

MONDAY September 26: BLOB DANCE/MUSIC:

BE PREPARED TO DISCUSS: Classic concert, Pop, Disco, Punk, Rap and Techno,

Singing in the Rain, (Gene Kelly) 1952

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D1ZYhVpdXbQ

West Side Story, Jerome Robbins, Robert Wise, 1961 (Music by Leonard Bernstein)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m8R9GiLImSw

Saturday Night Fever, John Badham, with John Travolta, 1977

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BvQ8sUbgA2c

TURF FEINZ “RIP RichD” YAK FILMS DANCING in the RAIN DANSE

Dancers are No Noize (red jacket), Man (back jacket), BJ (striped shirt), Dreal

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JQRRnAhmB58

http://www.youtube.com/THETURFFEINZ

 

 

WEDNESDAY September 28, TALK Town and Country Recombinant Urbanism: “What is Urban Design?” 2.1- 2.1.2

FURTHER READINGS:

Lewis Mumford, The City in History 1961.

http://books.google.com/books?id=q0NNgjY03DkC&printsec=frontcover&dq=mumford+the+city+in+history&hl=en&ei=Sw0dTOq7LcPflgfS6tW4Dg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CCUQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q&f=false

Merchant City States, the rise of the Merchant Class: READINGS: Henri Pirenne “City Origins” in Medieval

cities; their origins and the revival of trade, tr. from the French by Frank D. Halsey Princeton, Princeton

University Press, 1925, see link:

http://books.google.com/books?id=TKUN4UdfVaQC&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_book_other_versions#v=onepage&q&f=false

Max Weber, Chapter 1, the Nature of the City, in The City, New York, Free Press, 1975

 

WEEK 6.

MONDAY October 3, BLOB: Districts.

District B13 (Banlieue 13) Director Pierre Morel, Paris. 2004

http://www.imdb.com/video/screenplay/vi446824729/

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_GpOroM0g80

 

Alive in Joburg, Neill Blomkamp Director, 2006 (District 9 predecessor) This a short film from, which the movie District 9 is based off of Neill Blomkamp was originally set to produce the halo movie, which is now on hold indefinitely.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZlgtbEdqVsk

 

District 9, director Neill Blomkamp, 2009

http://www.imdb.com/video/imdb/vi3896050201/

website for District 9

http://www.d-9.com/

http://www.imdb.com/video/screenplay/vi2807890457/

http://www.imdb.com/video/imdb/vi52625945/

 

 

WEDNESDAY October 5 TALK: Renaissance City

TALK: Recombinant Urbanism: 2.1.3- 2.2.4

Philip James Jones, The Italian city-state: from commune to signoria, Oxford, Oxford University Press, 1997

http://books.google.com/books?id=rcR2pk4lknQC&pg=PA1&dq=city+state+history+italy&hl=en&ei=sE0aTKq1LofKNdbjjeAF&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=4&ved=0CEEQ6AEwAw#v=onepage&q=city%20state%20history%20italy&f=false

 

 

MONDAY October 10 LECTURE: Albert Pope Rice University (attendance required)

 

WEDNESDAY October 12 BLOB LITERATURE, PULP FICTION AND COMICS:

Dante, Proust, Kafka, JG Ballard, and Reading: Art Spiegelman MAUS.

Dante Alighieri, Divine Comedy, 1321

http://books.google.com/books?id=S9tytbCdeOEC&printsec=frontcover&dq=dante%27s+divine+comedy&hl=en&ei=dTcrTbf9DcWAlAeCj63QAQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CC4Q6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=dante%27s%20divine%20comedy&f=false

“L’Inferno” Francseco Bertolini, 1911

http://www.danteinferno.info/dante-inferno-movie.html

Situationists Internationale

http://www.cddc.vt.edu/sionline/index.html<

The Archigram Archival Project

http://archigram.westminster.ac.uk/

Art Spiegelman, Maus, New York, 1997.

http://books.google.com/books?id=ASajL1zsziAC&printsec=frontcover&dq=art+spiegelman+maus&source=bl&ots=QmKLgnpgPD&sig=q30rF1WQkfJDUYYVO6w-kF5Ysa8&hl=en&ei=XDsrTZOBDoH6lweQsviOAg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=3&ved=0CDgQ6AEwAg#v=onepage&q&f=false

 

FRIDAY October 14, EXTRA BLOB (with James Dart, NJIT)

 

WEEK 7.

MONDAY October 17 BLOB, WAR, readings: Kurt Vonnegut Slaughterhouse 5.

Germany Year Zero, Roberto Rossellini director, 1948

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I-DY0gulXp0

Hiroshima mon Amour part 1, Alain Resnais, director 1959

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-T7qPEeCjek

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hiroshima_Peace_Memorial_Museum (Architect Kenzo Tange)

The Pianist, Roman Polanski, director, 2002 with Adrien Brody

http://www.imdb.com/video/screenplay/vi988938521/

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g0kb5_nkc0w

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QjuPZyMG4_k

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QjuPZyMG4_k

 

Waltz with Bashir, Ari Folman, Director, 2008

http://www.imdb.com/video/imdb/vi3976855577/

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1OsulB8XSrE

 

WEDNESDAY October 19, TALK, Fortified Cities, Bastion cities, Ideal Cities, The Rise

of Utopian Cities

 

Recombinant Urbanism: “Three Urban Elements” 3.1

FURTHER READINGS:

Vitruvius Ten Books on Architecture

http://books.google.com/books?id=Vyzg2CAoP7UC&printsec=frontcover&dq=architecture%20treatise&source=gbs_book_other_versions#v=onepage&q=architecture%20treatise&f=false

Di Bernd Evers,Christof Thoenes, Kunstbibliothek Architectural theory: from the Renaissance to the present

(Berlin, Germany Taschen, 2003)

http://books.google.it/books?id=1wT5nGveyo0C&pg=RA1-PA128&lpg=RA1-

PA128&dq=treatise++architecture&source=bl&ots=_nzJ8Vi2U7&sig=01uFl2H6o6KDyphWgM3udS2XGr0&hl=it&ei=t6dVTJmOJeLsQbn9O3iAQ&

sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=10&ved=0CEwQ6AEwCTgK#v=onepage&q=treatis

e%20%20architecture&f=false

http://www.cca.qc.ca/en/collection/324-the-geometry-of-defense-fortifications-treatises-and-manuals

 

WEEK 8.

MONDAY October 24, ALL DAY RESEARCH SYMPOSIUM –NO CLASSES

 

WEDNESDAY October 26, TALK: The Baroque City:

TALK: Recombinant Urbanism: Enclave: A preliminary definition: 3.2-

Lieven de Cauter, On the City in the Age of Fear. Rotterdam, Nai publishers, 2004

 

FRIDAY October 28, EXTRA BLOB: BE PREPARED TO DISCUSS: PLAYS: from Anton Chekov, Berthold Brecht, Samuel Beckett

Anton Chekov, Nine Plays

Bertold Brecht Three Penny Opera. composer Kurt Weill, in collaboration with Caspar Neher. 31 August 1928, Theater am Schiffbauerdamm. Berlin.

 

 

Waiting for Godot, Samuel Beckett, 1948,1949

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BMz1-Kgz_DI

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=azhUBPDitk&feature=&p=5A5FAD0795C756A0&index=0&playnext=1

 

 

WEEK 9

MONDAY September October 31, TALK: Recombinant Urbanism: Armature: A Preliminary Definition, 3.3

Kenneth Frampton, Modern Architecture: A Critical History, London, Thames and Hudson, 2007.

WEDNESDAY November 2, LECTURE: Paul Lewis, Lewis Tsurumaki Lewis Architects, New York, Architects for Art House, Austin.

 

 

 

WEEK 10

MONDAY November 7, LECTURE: Michel Rojkind Architect, Mexico City

WEDNESDAY November 9, BLOB: The Future of urban culture Reading: J.G. Ballard: Millennium People, 2003.

 

Chris Marker La Jetee, (1963)

Part 1

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ClvTYd4XnEc

Part 2

http://it.youtube.com/watch?v=zxjBFA9XCv8

Trailer

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9GENscwqjzY&NR=1

Supersurface, Superstudio, 1973.

Westworld, Michael Crichton, Director, 1973

http://www.cinemagia.ro/trailer/westworld-westworld-3798/

Zardoz John Boorman Director, 1974

http://www.imdb.com/video/avod/vi1812502553/

 

MONDAY November 14, LECTURE Kyong Park, UCSD. Curator of the 2010 Anyang South Korea Biennale.

 

WEDNESDAY November 16. The Enlightenment and The Rise of the Industrial City

TALK: Recombinant Urbanism: Armature: A Preliminary Definition, 3.4

Manchester: Marx, Engels, working class history.

Jean-Jacques Rousseau, The Social Contract, 1762.

http://books.google.com/books?id=exNPAAAAMAAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=the+social+contract+jean+jacques+rousseau&source=bl&ots=7vHUSkgG0&sig=4rKPeZ4tz2en0J_G6vqATpC05b8&hl=en&ei=300rTYyOOIOclge4KDAAQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=7&ved=0CE4Q6AEwBg#v=onepage&q&f=false

Jacob Riis, How the other Half Lives, 1890

http://books.google.com/books?id=zhcv_oA5dwgC&printsec=frontcover&dq=how+the+other+half+lives&hl=en&ei=uO8cTJHYLoGClAfB4tHeDA&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CCwQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q&f=false

 

WEEK 11:

MONDAY November 21, BLOB The Avant-Garde 2. The Sixties to now: Minimalism, Pop, etc. Reading: Jack Kerouac, On the Road. Conceptual Art, Land Art, New Media, Post-Human, Global Art, Graffiti Art, Street Art.

Andy Warhol

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BRxvUneWcdQ

Dan Graham

http://www.tofu-magazine.net/newVersion/pages/RockMyReligion.html

Cindy Sherman

http://www.cindysherman.com/

http://www.tofu-magazine.net/newVersion/pages/Doll%20Clothes.html

Jeff Koons

http://www.jeffkoons.com/

Diller, Scofidio + Renfro

http://www.dsrny.com/

 

 

 

WEDNESDAY November 23 TALK: Recombinant Urbanism: 4.1: A Preliminary Definition of the Heterotopia, Recombinant Urbanism: 4.3, Rhizomic Assemblage and Heterotopias of Illusion. Workbund, Bauhaus, Ulm, US: Eames, Buckminster Fuller, Contemporary: Global Tools, Fabrica

Cedric Price, author, Hans Ulrich  Obrist ed., Re:CP, Birkhauser, 1999.

Peter Cook, Archigram, New York, Princeton Architectural Press, 1999.

Peter Lang, William Menking, Superstudio, Life Without Objects, Milan, Skira, 2003,

Simon Sadler, Archigram, Architecture without Architecture, Cambridge, MIT press, 2005

Hadas A Steiner, Beyond Archigram, The Structure of Circulation, London, Routledge, 2009

 

FURTHER READINGS: Bentham, the Panopticon, Insane Asylum,

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panopticon

Michel Foucault, Madness and Civilization: A History of Insanity in the Age of Reason, New York, Vintage, 1988

Michel Foucault, Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison, New York, Vintage, 1995