Architecture 170B

A Historical Survey of Architecture and Urbanism: 1400-Present

University of California, Berkeley, Spring 2005
Prof. Kathleen James-Chakraborty and Andrew M. Shanken
Office hours: 360 Wurster, Thursdays 2:30-4:30 and by appointment
e-mail: katjames@berkeley.edu
Prof. Andrew Shanken
Office hours: 365 Wurster, Thursdays 2:30-4:30 and by appointment
e-mail: ashanken@berkeley.edu
GSIs:
Byron Bronston:
Susanne Cowan
Sarah Lopez:
Lauren Mallas
Ipek Treli

bronston@berkeley.edu
susannecowan@yahoo.com
sll@berkeley.edu
lmallas@earthlink.net
ipek@berkeley.edu

GSI office:
Wurster Hall, Room 338.
Course website: http://www.arch.ced.berkeley.edu/courses/arch170/
Lectures:

Tuesday/Thursday, 12:30-2:00, plus one 1-hour section meeting to be arranged.

This course treats the history of architecture and urbanism from the Renaissance to the present. Although
the focus is on high-style architecture in Europe and the United States, attention will also be given to Asia,
Africa, Latin America, and to vernacular architecture. Our aim is to expose you to the architecture heritage
of recent centuries in its social and historical context. The course is a continuation of Architecture 170A.
COURSE REQUIREMENTS
[Note: in order to pass the course you must complete all of the requirements.]
1. Regular attendance at lectures.
2. Faithful attendance and participation in sections.
3. Completion of all reading assignments.
4. Term-paper proposal, draft, and a term paper with a text of at least 10 double-spaced, typed pages, not
including notes, bibliography, or illustrations.
5. Mid-term and final examinations.
Examinations in Architecture 170 differ significantly from those in non-visual courses because they include
slide questions. These, and to a certain degree all other questions, require precise information stored in
your memory. Without knowing the names, dates, and locations of the buildings and cities you have seen, it
is difficult to discuss their place in history and their importance to the cultures we are studying. Similarly,
without some knowledge of the general styles and periods it would be impossible to discuss individual
monuments.
The examination format varies from year to year. Past exams have included slide identifications and slide
comparisons between buildings or complexes which may or may not have been discussed in lectures or in
section. Beyond this visual material, the examination may also include brief definitions of terms and proper
names, questions based on the reading, and an essay touching upon some major concern of the course.

REQUIRED READING
Spiro Kostof, A History of Architecture: Settings and Rituals (available at ASUC bookstore on Bancroft
Way) plus a reader.
THE TERM PAPER
The purpose of this three-step exercise is to introduce you to the process of scholarly research and the
techniques of modern historical writing. It will help to show you how historians arrive at conclusions and
how they communicate their findings. On a more general level, the project will require you to get to know
the library system, learn to track down specific information, and practice your writing skills. You are
expected to utilize many of the wide range of resources available to students on this campus.
NOTE: PLAGIARISM IS A SERIOUS OFFENSE. IT WILL NOT BE EXCUSED FOR ANY REASON.
ANYONE GUILTY OF IT WILL RECEIVE AN F FOR THE COURSE, AND POSSIBLY BE SUBJECT
TO UNIVERSITY DISCIPLINE. IF YOU ARE UNCERTAIN WHAT PLAGIARISM IS, PLEASE
CONSULT YOUR GSI.
The term paper consists of three parts:
1. An annotated bibliography and project proposal, 2-3 pages. Your bibliography must include at least 3
citations of articles from scholarly journals.
2. A partial draft or in-depth outline of your paper which you will discuss with your TA in an
appointment. You must submit the draft/outline in order to pass the paper requirement.
3. An analytical essay, 10-12 pages of text (2500-3000 words).
NOTE: There is a penalty for late work, so plan your work carefully and take into account that there is
usually a shortage of materials in the libraries during the last two weeks before the term paper is due.
The topic
A historian begins a research project with a question. S/he then develops a thesis that attempts to answer
that question and continues to gather data from the particular point of view set out by the thesis. Along the
way the thesis is continually checked against new conclusions drawn from the accumulating data. Finally,
a point is reached when the question seems satisfactorily answered.
Choose a building, a group of buildings, an urban agglomeration or a landscape built within the
chronological boundaries of the course. GSIs will help you choose an interesting subject that is well
documented. Use an analysis of this work to answer one of the following three questions:
Questions:
(1) Buildings, landscapes, and urban design can all be expressions of identity. How did the patrons and/or
designers of your topic accomplish this?
(2) How did innovations in form, function, or technology affect the design, construction, and use of the
building, landscape, or urban design that is your subject?
(3) Ordinary places can tell extraordinary stories. Using your topic as an example to explain how and why
this happened.
The annotated bibliography
The historian who asks new questions never finds sources which give straight answers. S/he plays
detective, piecing together the story from all sorts of angles. Sources might include the building itself,
experienced in person and through drawings and photographs; primary documents, such as contemporary
descriptions or contracts; and secondary materials, such as travelers' journals or modern articles and
monographs.

Sources need to be evaluated. How careful was the author? What was the author's point of view? How do
his or her prejudices and intended audience affect the usefulness of the work for your research project?
After choosing a topic, begin to build a bibliography of useful sources.
The assignment should include a 1-2 page discussion of your research objective, including the building(s)
you are studying, the questions you are seeking to answer, and the way you plan to answer them. This
should be an overview of your project, showing where you are going and how you plan to get there.
Following this discussion of your project you should list the sources you will be using, following standard
bibliographical form and describing in a few sentences how each source pertains to your project. At least
three of your sources must be articles from scholarly journals. You can locate them through standard
references such as the Humanities index, Architecture index, and the Avery index. This assignment must be
typed with double spacing on 8 1/2 x 11 inch paper.
Writing the term paper
Any good scholarly essay or book has an introduction, a main body, and a conclusion. The point of view,
the concept, the thesis, the focus, or whatever one calls the guiding idea is set out in the introduction. Then
the thesis is supported by offering evidence that builds an argument clearly and logically. Finally, a
conclusion sums up and restates the thesis.
You should have little trouble organizing an essay once you have made a proposal and annotated
bibliography. You will know just which books and articles you need to read and take notes on. You will
know what it is that you are looking for when you read, and will note facts and theories that both support
and contradict your thesis.
While you are reading, begin to construct the outline for your essay. The process will help you see
relationships between ideas. It will steer you toward a coherent paper in which
1. The most important facts are given prominence
2. Facts are not gratuitous, but support the thesis
3. Analysis, not description, predominates.
The draft
The partial draft or detailed outline should indicate your thesis and show how the thesis will be developed.
What is the organization of the paper? What evidence will be used? The draft should show that you have
done your research and have begun to assemble both description and analysis into a coherent essay. The
draft should also display your writing skills. The draft assignment helps you to make orderly progress in
the assignment -- a paper written at the last moment is not your best effort. It allows you to receive
comments from your TA, either on substantive or analytical issues, additional ideas or sources to use, or
writing mechanics.
The final paper must be typed on 8 1/2 x 11-inch paper and stapled in the upper left-hand corner. No fancy
covers! All ideas, information, and quotations taken from your sources must be footnoted according to the
format set forth in Kate Turabians A manual for writers or the Chicago manual of style. Footnotes or
endnotes are acceptable. Your bibliography should follow a standard format. You should also include
appropriate illustrations. Illustrations, footnotes, and bibliography do not count in the 10-12 page length
assigned for the paper.

CLASS MEETINGS, READINGS, AND DUE DATES

January 18: Brunelleschi
Reading: Kostof, 375-401
January 20: Medici Florence
Reading: Kostof, 402-431
January 25. Renaissance Rome and Venice
Reading: Kostof, 452-483
January 27: Counter-Reformation Rome
Reading: Kostof, 484-509
February 1: Indigenous Architecture in Central and South America
Reading: Kostof, 432-51
February 3: Spain and Portugal in the New World
February 8: Resisting the Renaissance
Reading: Friedman, Architecture, Authority, and the Female Gaze
February 10: The Architecture of European Absolutism
Reading: Kostof, 510-543
PAPER PROPOSALS & ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHIES
DUE IN SECTION
February 15: The Ottomans and the Safavids
February 17: Mughal India
Reading: Lewandowski, "The Hindu Temple in South India"
February 22: Ming and Qing Dynasty China
Reading: Bettels, Traditional Architecture in China, excerpt
February 24: Momoyama and Edo Japan
Reading: Coaldrake, Architecture and Authority in Japan, excerpt
March 1: City and Country in Britain
Reading: Kostof, 546-569
March 3: Living on the North American Land
Reading: Kostof, 604-33
March 8: MIDTERM
March 10: Neoclassicism and the Civic Realm
March 15: The Industrial Revolution
Reading: Kostof, 571-603
March 17: Nineteenth-Century Paris
Reading: Kostof, 634-667
PAPER DRAFTS DUE IN LECTURE

March 29: The Domestic Ideal

Reading: Wright, Building the Dream, excerpt
March 31: Empire Building:
Reading: Chattopadhyay, Blurring Boundaries
April 5: Turn-of-the-century Chicago
April 7: NO CLASS
April 12: Inventing the Avant-Garde
Reading: Kostof, 668-719
April 14: The Avant-Garde in the 1920s
April 19: Imposing Urban Order
Reading: Wright, The Politics of Design in French Colonial Urbanism, excerpt
April 21: Modern Architecture and Urbanism, 1930-1960
Reading: Kostof, 720-43; Bozdogan, Modernism and Nation Building, excerpt
April 26: Postwar Japan
Reading: Suzuki, "Contemporary Architecture of Japan"
TERM PAPER DUE IN LECTURE
April 28: Africa: Tradition and Beyond
Reading: Blier
May 3: Postmodern Indian and Islamic Architecture
Reading: Kostof , 744-761
May 5: Notes on the Contemporary Scene
May 18: FINAL EXAM (5pm-8pm)