Modernist fantasies of infinite growth, premised on the relentless exploitation of natural environments, can be traced back in large part to the early modern period (ca. 1400–1750) in Europe. At this time, artisans, practitioners, intellectuals, and politicians gradually became convinced that humans could master nature, through art and industry, to yield endless abundance and material wealth. Often assimilated by its proponents and later historians under the rubric of “improvement,” it was an explosive and ultimately dangerous idea, and did not go unchallenged: to its detractors, in fact, we owe some our earliest notions of natural balance and sustainability.

 This class will study these debates and their manifestation in designed natures across scales, from art and decorative objects, to gardens, to engineered territories, focusing on Europe and its overseas empires. Throughout, we will explore how nature came to be seen as a resource, and examine how concepts of ingenuity, labor, value, abundance, and scarcity inflected early modern thinking across the interconnected realms of natural philosophy, political economy, and art and architecture.

4.s60 Undergraduate | 4.s62 Graduate

Note: for the Spring 2025 term, 4.s60 is a HASS-H subject

How does architecture impact the environment? How does the environment impact architecture? Drawing on case studies from the ancient world to the present day, and from geographies across the globe, this class will explore the myriad ways in which the creation of architecture has involved the modification of natural environments and climates and the exploitation of resources. Rather than examining architecture’s history as a succession of monuments, this course investigates the metabolic processes of raw material extraction, transportation, and manipulation that made the creation of buildings, infrastructures, and designed landscapes possible in the first place. Students will explore how material and climatic considerations played into the design and aesthetic of buildings at various points in time, while gaining an awareness of the largely-invisible, increasingly far-flung networks of environmental management and labor that underpin our built environment.

Required for doctoral students in HTC as a prerequisite for work on the doctoral dissertation. Prior to candidacy, doctoral students are required to write and orally defend a proposal laying out the scope of their thesis, its significance, a survey of existing research and literature, the methods of research to be adopted, a bibliography and plan of work. Work is done in consultation with HTC Faculty, in accordance with the HTC PhD Degree Program guidelines.

Required of doctoral students in HTC as a prerequisite for work on the doctoral dissertation. The Minor Exam focuses on a specific area of specialization through which the student might develop their particular zone of expertise. Work is done in consultation with HTC faculty, in accordance with the HTC PhD Degree Program Guidelines.

Required of doctoral students in HTC as a prerequisite for work on the doctoral dissertation. The Major Exam covers a historically broad area of interest and includes components of history, historiography, and theory. Preparation for the exam will focus on four or five themes agreed upon in advance by the student and the examiner, and are defined by their area of teaching interest. Work is done in consultation with HTC faculty, in accordance with the HTC PhD Degree Program Guidelines.

Examines themes in the history of design, with emphasis on Euro-American theory and practice in their global contexts. Addresses the historical design of communications, objects, and environments as meaningful processes of decision-making, adaptation, and innovation. Critically assesses the dynamic interaction of design with politics, economics, technology, and culture in the past and at present. 

EPHEMERAL HISTORIES (ARCHITECTURE & THE CONSTRUCTION SITE)

What is the history of the construction site? The paradox of the construction site lies in the fact that, although the construction site is inescapably essential to the realization of architecture, it must be ephemeral, superseded by the durable forms of the completed building. Such traces that remain, in documents, photographs, or physical marks upon the building, have been of passing interest to architectural history for the information they reveal about the realized object, but the construction site itself—as a place, as an event, as a design—has largely been ignored by an architectural history and theory not inclined toward ephemerality.

This seminar will address the construction site with rigorous historical interpretation and methodological experimentation. Readings and discussions will develop a knowledge of the construction site as a point of organization, material transformation, and intellectual and physical work. These approaches will pursue questions such as the valuation of tools and techniques, the legal armature of contracts and regulations, the social conventions of race, class, and gender, and the cultural appraisal of work and craft. The goal of the seminar will be to develop prototypical approaches to the history of the construction site that explore the possibilities of ephemeral history. Students will carry out detailed and speculative research into selected construction sites; and will use that research in digital mediums of text, sound, and image to model ephemeral histories that expand the historical accounting of a construction site to include information extending from wages to weather reports.

The class is open to doctoral and masters degree students. Enrollment will be limited to 12.

General study of modern architecture as a response to important technological, cultural, environmental, aesthetic, and theoretical challenges after the European Enlightenment. Focus on the theoretical, historiographic, and design approaches to architectural problems encountered in the age of industrial and post-industrial expansion across the globe, with specific attention to the dominance of European modernism in setting the agenda for the discourse of a global modernity at large. Explores modern architectural history through thematic exposition rather than as simple chronological succession of ideas.

The colonial city represents a nexus of power, culture, and spatial organization, serving as both a tool of imperial expansion and a site of (asymmetrical) exchange.  This seminar examines the historical, theoretical, and critical dimensions of colonial cities, tracing their evolution from the ancient Greek polis to the present day and extending into speculative futures of space colonization. By exploring diverse models and case studies, this seminar highlights how colonial urbanism shaped the political, social, and cultural landscapes of cities across history and geography.

Historically, colonial cities have embodied the ambitions of empires to conquer and settle new territories, from the Roman castrum to Renaissance-era trading hubs and British colonial centers in India. These cities were not only practical mechanisms of governance and control but also symbolic representations of domination and ideology. Theoretical frameworks, such as those underpinning the Hippodamian model of Greek colonies or Haussmannian urban planning in 19th-century France, reveal the deliberate strategies behind spatial design and social organization.  Critically, this seminar engages with the legacies of colonialism, interrogating how colonial urban experiments have perpetuated inequalities and influenced contemporary postcolonial cities.

Looking forward, the concept of colonial urbanism extends beyond Earth, as aspirations for space colonization echo historical practices of conquest and settlement. The exploration of the colonial city invites critical reflection on the enduring impact of colonial ideologies on urban environments, emphasizing the need to reimagine cities as spaces of inclusivity and resistance. Through a cross-cultural, cross-temporal, and interdisciplinary approach, this seminar provides a comprehensive understanding of the colonial city as both a historical phenomenon and a lens for analyzing current and future urban paradigms.

Research paper required. 

Examination of historical method in art, design, and/or architecture, focusing on periods and problems determined by the research interest of the faculty member leading the seminar. Emphasizes critical reading and viewing and direct tutorial guidance. 

Additional work required of students taking the graduate version. 

This seminar examines episodes in the history of art and design from the perspective of the materials used in their production. Engaging a variety of organic and modern substances and examining selected case studies of their manipulation across diverse geographies from the ancient world to the mid twentieth century, the class asks how materials have historically conditioned the conception and meanings of artworks and how a focus on matter can bring into view the environmental impacts and the human costs of design. What meanings, for example, did metals or minerals mined from the earth or imported from distant parts of the world hold for early modern viewers? How can the study of furniture inlaid with ivory from Southeast Asia or made from mahogany sourced in the eighteenth-century Caribbean expose the blind spots attending the global systems of labor and transportation that moved such materials? Conversely, how might the uses of wood veneer reveal historical ideologies and/or period imaginaries of nature, time, and a nascent ecological awareness? What can the material attractions of porcelain, of plate glass, and plastics reveal about cultural and political imaginaries in Asia, in Europe and beyond? And what does clay have to do with the styling and planned obsolescence for which the twentieth-century American automobile industry was renowned?