In this course we examine how the multiple experiences of modernity give rise to different modes of architectural design and thinking from the late nineteenth century to the beginning of the twenty first. We understand modernity not as originating in a particular location, but rather as the result of complex entanglements that result in different experiences depending on location and context. These experiences stem from a negotiation with power that is in direct conversation with the design of space. Each lecture addresses a specific theme that participates in the production of modernity and traces its consequences in the built environment in multiple locations. We balance this extended scope with close formal analysis of specific buildings, cities, and landscapes, to understand how architectural production–both buildings and texts–contributes, redirects, or pushes back against these transformations and contexts.

We start at the end of the nineteenth century, when settler colonial expansion is assisted by the expansion of railroad networks and celebrated through multiple world exhibitions. Taylorism, efficiency studies, and first wave feminism inform the development of domestic spaces and social housing project; discussions over disease, ventilation, and eugenics participate in the development of architectural modernism. World War II sets the stage for accelerated technological development and increased symbolism in the construction and destruction of buildings and monuments. The car, the highway, and the suburb produce an oil dependent landscape with both global and local implications. Discussions over climate put pressure on the relative openness or closure of the building envelope, from the brise-soleil to the curtain wall. The return of monumentality is encouraged by developmentalism and nation-building. We follow the global 1968 moment and the expansion of postmodernism and neoliberalism. We conclude the course by reflecting on the role of history in current architectural conversations.

In addition to the lectures, all students are required to attend a weekly one-hour discussion section led by an assigned Teaching Fellow. Students are graded on attendance and participation, one section facilitation, and short exams or assignments.