The problem facing any subject in architectural practice is that practice is currently in a state of transition toward a model (or models) whose contours we can only guess at. But there is a strategy for handling such a situation.

Imagine a classic x-y-axis diagram, with a line arcing "northeast" from an origin-point called "yesterday" through a point called "today." Beyond that latter point the trajectory might spread in directions we can't predict, but we can say, with some confidence, that the trajectory will not spread along some line that did not originate at the point of "today." We can in fact be fairly certain that any possible trajectory will be constrained, in the manner of a vector-diagram, by the trajectory from which it originated.

So the goal of 4.222 will be to give you a firm sense of the trajectory American architectural practice has been following since World War II - but not, by any means, a "celebratory" understanding of that trajectory! American architectural practice has made major mis-steps in the past fifty years, and we want you to have a critical appreciation of how and why those mis-steps occurred.

But to categorize them as "mis-steps," you must have a framework from which you can securely judge them as such, and judge the degree to which they were mis-steps. If you had such a trustworthy critical framework, you would not only have a consistent basis from which to judge practice as it was conducted in the past and conducted today; you would have a standard with which to judge (and if necessary, resist and thus influence) developments in practice in the future.

As such a critical framework, I will be offering the conception of practice found in my book A Theory for Practice(which will be the required but "background" text for the subject). The book describes "The Good Life for an Architect," an orientation to architecture that gives a way to conduct both life and practice along the same set of principles. Those principles - those "instincts," if you will - give you a way of judging whether any future development is threatening or supporting the Good Life you want to live.

At our first class meeting I will lay out the syllabus for the subject.

Bear in mind that 4.222 is the ground upon which MIT's internationalist orientation collides with an MArch program's legislated mandate (enforced by NAAB) to be the first component toward standing for examination for licensure to practice architecture in one of the fifty states of the US. Bearing almost the entirety of this legal mandate on the shoulders of 36 hours of class time, the subject must, of necessity, focus almost exclusively on American architectural practice.

Students planning to return to other countries, or students not planning to stand for examination to practice, must therefore be prepared to draw analogies, applicable to their own situations, from the materials presented in 4.222. But, truth to tell, if you are in such a position, you will have been "analogizing" throughout your time at MIT, and 4.222 should draw upon skills you will have already developed.