Special Subject: Study in Modern Architecture — The Globe, The Planet and the World

(pre-approved for MArch HTC elective Fall 2023)

This seminar looks at the emerging culture and crisis of ‘bigness’ that emerged in the field of architectural history in the 1980s – early 2000’s. There are now things like Long History, Deep History, Global History and so forth. Whereas much has been made of microhistories, little has been made of macrohistories. We will, therefore, try to make sense of this shift and embodied critiques of Eurocentrism as well as their on-going transformations, potentials, and problematics. Since secondary literature and analysis of this phenomenon is practically non-existent, we will study the phenomenon by trying to assemble different takes and perspectives to get a more critical understanding of the field. Students will be asked to develop a lecture/syllabus as a way to experiment with these scalar perspectives. Though a reading intensive course, MArchs are welcome to develop a better and more critical understanding of new directions in contemporary architecture.

4.s68 Syllabus (MIT Certificate Protected)