Syllabus – Architectural Studies

Below are links to assignments for the program that have deadlines during the course of the term. In addition, you should complete all fourteen unit tests, covering the various viewing assignments, at some point before the end of the term.

You also have a choice of writing any two from four prompts involving different topics at specific locations we will visit in each country: Stonehenge (site pedagogy and interpretation), Chartres Cathedral (color scheme restoration), Eixample (urban planning experimentation) and the Ara Pacis Museum.

Week 1 (Oxford)

Read excerpts from Marcus Vitruvius’s De Architectura (c. 25 BCE) for small group discussions.

Watch Susan Greaney’s presentation to University of York graduate students in conservation before visiting Stonehenge. Then, after we visit Stonehenge, write a response to the pedagogical approach and implementation of the new interpretation center.

View before visiting:

Stonehenge (Ancient)

Salisbury Cathedral (Medieval)

Blenheim Palace (Baroque)

Keble College (Modern)

Week 2 (London)

Read excerpts from Andrea Palladio’s Four Books on Architecture (1570) and make rough drawings for maximum and minimum window dimensions for a room measuring 40 by 40 feet.

Read excerpts from Abott Suger’s Liber de rebus in administratione sua gestis (c. 1145) and Bernard of Clairvaux’s Apologia (c. 1125) and examine the “Campus Galli” or “Plan of St. Gall” (from the early 9^th century) for small group discussions.

View before visiting:

Assyrian (Ancient, Near Eastern), view before British Museum visit

Parthenon (Ancient, Greek), view before British Museum visit

Hampton Court Palace (Renaissance)

Chiswick House (Anglo-Palladian)

Tate Modern (Contemporary)

St. Paul’s Cathedral (Baroque)

Tower of London (Norman)

Week 3 (London)

Read excerpts from Andrea Palladio’s Four Books on Architecture (1570)

View before visiting:

Tower of London

BedZED (Contemporary)