Buildings. Do they still exist? Not the process of their construction or the extraction made for their materials; not their impact on the environment or their service to the community; not who built them, who paid for them, or who lives in them; not the labor conditions under which they were designed, or the value proposition of their realization. The remains of building outside the frameworks of concern is a practical and ontological question, What is left, if anything, of buildings (and architecture) after cataloging their accumulated externalities?
The focus of this course is to develop a contemporary theory of buildings. It will proceed through the examination of historical contexts, current debates, and selected projects with a final effort of proposals for how to understand buildings (as architecture) today. Topics to be covered include: The Haunts of Contemporary Architecture, Buildings and their Discontents, Post-Millennial Constructions, Digitalis Exercitiis, Developmental Play in Full-Size Models, If-Then..What?, Not a Role (Model), Architecture Object Permanence, Counterfactual Architectural Histories, Metaverse Metaphysics, and the Diffusion of Building Resulting from Various Dalliances.
Open to all curious about the possibility that the interest of architecture may include buildings.
