What are the sufficient qualities of a building? Is it sturdy? Is it beautiful? Is it ecological? Does it represent society? What are its costs (financial and planetary), and what does it afford (access and allowance)? Building problems are an ever-changing set of mutually negotiated possibilities and dilemmas, out of which architecture arises not as a specific set of codes or positions but rather as an emergent epistemology. The study of architecture’s history elaborates on this condition of continuances, inversions, and rejections, where agency is never entirely complete nor absent.
This course introduces architecture’s history and examines developments from ancient origins to the recent. It is required for first-year students in the three-year Master of Architecture degree program but is also open to other Taubman students.
