Department of the History of Art and Architecture, University of Pittsburgh, Fall term 2011 (2121)

HAA0040/CRN 11846:Introduction to Western Architecture; Mon/Wed 11-11:50 a.m. and weekly section meetings

Frick Fine Arts Auditorium (room 125)

COURSE LOGISTICS FOR

INTRODUCTION TO WESTERN ARCHITECTURE

Professor Franklin Toker

and instructors Jennifer Donnelly and Josephine Landback

The following section/recitation meetings constitute the third hour of instruction each week:

A: Thursday at 3: Frick room 203 (CRN 11986)

B: Thursday at 4: Frick room 202 (CRN 11984)

C: Friday at 10: Frick room 204 (CRN 11985)

D: Friday at 11: Frick room 204 (CRN 11981)

E: Friday at 12: Frick room 204 (CRN 11980)

F: Friday at 1: Frick room 204 (CRN 11987)

G: Friday at 2: Frick room 204 (CRN 11982)

H: Friday at 3: Frick room 204 (CRN 11983)

SCHEDULE OF LECTURES AND SECTION MEETINGS

1. Monday August 29: ARCHITECTURE AND THE COSMOS: A FIRST LOOK, AT EGYPT

2. Wednesday August 31: ARCHITECTURE AND THE COSMOS: A SECOND LOOK, AT SUB-SAHARAN AFRICA

Section meetings Thursday and Friday, September 1 and 2, will explore how to understand architectural graphics, using the Frick Fine Arts Building as a convenient example. Kindly prepare in advance for your section meeting by exploring the building itself and familiarizing yourself with the two plans in the Sourcebook or online in our website (www.franktoker.pitt.edu: click on HAA0040).

[Monday September 5: NO CLASS--UNIVERSITY OBSERVES LABOR DAY]

3. Wed September 8: ARCHITECTURE AND BEAUTY: GREECE

Section meetings Thursday and Friday, Sept. 8 and 9. Viewing Greek architecture in its urban setting.

4. Mon September 12: ROMAN ARCHITECTURE I: FOUNDATIONS

5. Wed September 14: ROMAN ARCHITECTURE II: CONCRETE VISIONS

Sections Sept 15 and 16: Roman architecture

6. Mon September 19: EARLY CHRISTIAN ARCHITECTURE

Two take-home essay topics for the first midterm will be handed out in class today. Email your essay responses to your TA (teaching assistant) before midnight next Monday, September 26 for two bonus points (2% of your term grade); or in any case before midnight Wednesday September 28.

7. Wed September 21: BYZANTINE ARCHITECTURE, followed by lunch for those who can make it: meet in the front room of William Pitt Union foodcourt (first people there grab tables, please).

Sections: Development of Christian architecture; review for first midterm

8. Mon September 26: EARLY MEDIEVAL, CAROLINGIAN, OTTONIAN ARCHITECTURE.

9. Wed September 28: FIRST MIDTERM TEST on classes 1 through 8.

no sections this week

10. Mon October 3: ARCHITECTURE, MEMORY, MORALITY, AND QUALITY

11. Wed October 5: ROMANESQUE ARCHITECTURE

Sections: the new aesthetics and technology of medieval architecture

[Mon October 10: NO CLASS--UNIVERSITY OBSERVES FALL BREAK]

12. Special meeting-time TUESDAY October 11, usual hour of 11 a.m.: GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE I: THE ENGINEERING

13. Wed October 12: GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE II: THE POETRY, followed by touring local Gothic at Heinz Chapel and St. Paul Cathedral: meet outside lecture hall or join as much as you can.

Sections: the multiple sides to Gothic

14. Mon October 17: THE EARLY RENAISSANCE: BRUNELLESCHI

15. Wed October 19: DIFFERENT DIRECTIONS: ALBERTI AND FILARETE

Sections: transition from Gothic to Renaissance

16. Mon October 24: THE HIGH RENAISSANCE: LEONARDO AND BRAMANTE

17. Wed October 26: PERSONAL VISIONS: MICHELANGELO AND PALLADIO

Sections: transformations in Renaissance style

18. Mon October 31: BAROQUE ARCHITECTURE IN ITALY

The next two take-home essay topics will be handed out in class today. Email your essay responses to your TA before midnight next Monday, October 31 for two bonus points; or in any case before midnight Wednesday November 2.

19. Wed November 2: BAROQUE IN FRANCE AND ENGLAND

Sections: Fundamental elements of Baroque style; review for second midterm

20. Mon November 7: THE ROCOCO STYLE, followed by SECOND MIDTERM TEST on classes 10 through 20

21. Wed November 9: NEOCLASSICISM AND RATIONALISM

no sections this week

22. Mon November 14: ROMANTICISM IN ARCHITECTURE

23. Wed November 16: CONTRADICTIONS IN 19th-CENTURY ARCHITECTURE, followed by a fieldtrip examining 19th-century ideas on architecture and urbanism right in Oakland: meet outside lecture hall or join as much as you can.

Sections: contradictions in the architecture of the 18th and 19th centuries; Ruskin and Viollet-le-Duc

24. Mon November 21: HARNESSING--BUT ALSO SUPPRESSING--THE NEW TECHNOLOGIES

[Wed November 23: NO CLASS--UNIVERSITY OBSERVES THANKSGIVING BREAK]

no sections this week

25. Mon November 28: FRANK LLOYD WRIGHT AND ARCHITECTURE AS SECOND NATURE

The final two take-home essay topics will be handed out in class today. Email your essay responses to your TA before midnight next Monday, December 5 for two bonus points; or in any case before midnight Wednesday December 7.

26. Wed November 30: INTERNATIONAL STYLE: GROPIUS, LeCORBUSIER, MIES

Sections: contradictions in the architecture of the 19th and early 20th centuries; Sullivan and Wright; different concepts of modernism in Europe

27. Mon December 5: ARCHITECTURAL HISTORY IS DEAD!--OR IS IT?

28. Wed December 7: ARCHITECTURE TODAY: CYBERTECTURE? GREEN?--or BOTH? followed by THIRD MIDTERM TEST on classes 21 through 28.

no sections this week; everyone enjoy your break!

COURSE INFORMATION

Welcome to this introductory course in western architectural history. It is "introductory" not because the course is simple but because it is aimed at the vast majority of you who have no intention of majoring in the history of art or architecture. Nonetheless, you are going to learn an amazing amount about the history of architecture between August and December, and you will grow tremendously in making critical judgments on buildings. To accomplish that much by semester's end requires both the instructor and the students in this course to maintain high standards. But relax: some 3,300 students have preceded you in this class, and almost all have enjoyed it.

What is "history of architecture"? Each lecture and section meeting will be devoted to looking at buildings. But architectural history goes beyond the level of just enjoying the sublimity of the Pyramids or the exquisite lines of Greek temples. We do indeed start by describing the buildings and giving them a provisional critique ("Look at those elegant proportions" or "Isn't that marble lovely?"), but if we go no farther, then we are merely engaging in architectural appreciation. Instead, the lectures and the texts you will read go on to research the history of the buildings and their community, and analyze the structures in an interdisciplinay way. Now we are engaging in history of architecture, or architectural history. Architectural history employs many methodologies, or approaches. Both the lectures and the texts are sometimes concerned with technology, at other times with politics, at other times with aesthetics, sometimes with astronomy and magical "keys" to plans, and still other times with the psychology of architecture. Some class lectures will present archaeological evidence for buildings, while others will stress architects, patrons, or architectural theory. Your instructor draws on all these methods to give you the richest possible understanding of architecture.

Class meetings consist of the lectures Monday and Wednesday at 11 a.m., and a third hour in section meetings upstairs in rooms 202, 203, and 204 on Thursdays and Fridays (see the front page of these Course Logistics for exact times and CRN numbers). Check your registration immediately to see to which section you have been assigned. You are obliged to attend the section meeting for which you are registered. You may ask the instructor if he or she has no problem with your transferring to a more convenient section, but this the instructor can only do within narrow limits.

Organization of the Sourcebook and its relation to the lectures. The Sourcebook for HAA0040 is on sale at the Book Center, also online on our class website (www.franktoker.pitt.edu click on HAA0040), and also in one hardcopy version that you can photocopy at the Reserve Desk in Frick Fine Arts Libary. Whatever form you use to get the Sourcebook is up to you, but the hardcopy sold at the Book Center is the most convenient, with lots of room to create notes.

The Sourcebook gives you my own notes on the development of architectural style and some historical context for the different periods. If you read this before my Monday and Wednesday lectures, these notes will help fix in mind the concepts I am bringing out. The Sourcebook pages have certain standard elements: the Reading indicated at the top of each unit indicates the pages in Leland Roth's text, Understanding Architecture. It is your responsibility to learn all that the text and the instructor say about the general periods (Roman, Modern, etc.) and specific observations about the "Key Work" buildings.

Key works. Certain buildings and some theoretical writings on architecture are "key works," for which you are responsible both in the essays and the multiple-choice parts of the three midterms. Normally, the "key works" are those that are numbered and bolded; but in the same list there may be works in context to which I may make reference in the lectures. Nearly all the key works are illustrated in the text or on the website. However, key works can also be added or dropped: it is essential that you attend every class to learn about these works. If you miss a class or section, get the list of key works from another class member (it's wise to gather up emails from several other students as soon as the course begins).

The "literature of architecture." This is a concept wider than merely the "Key Works." It basically means what you need to know to discuss architecture, and encompasses names of buildings, architects, patrons, some cultural figures, and literary texts that were important to architectural evolution. You are responsible for these concepts in the three midterms. This listing accompanies almost every lecture, and lists terms that are illustrated and defined in lectures and sections (most are also listed in Roth's glossary on his pp. 617-33).

The class texts are two: this Sourcebook (and its website) and Roth's Understanding Architecture. You will need to study both closely for the three midterms. Roth illustrates most but not all the buildings we will study, so you should also check the images on the website, which you can also conveniently print out for study purposes. As soon as you buy the text, read it in conjunction with this Sourcebook or the website; pick out the "key works" and concentrate on those. Use the rest of Roth's chapters as general background. You may skip over buildings that we are not covering in detail, but looking at those additional buildings will give you more background for the tests. Why not shoot for an A+ in the course?

This class is NOT part of CourseWeb, for several good reasons, but you can get everything on the class website: as stated earlier, just go to www.franktoker.pitt.edu then click on "HAA0040 Introduction to Western Architecture." This class was probably the first large humanities course at the University to have a full visual Internet component. The website gives you a facsimile of this Sourcebook and all the essential thumbnail images. From time to time I may also email the class collectively or students individually.

Grading in this course is simple: each of the three midterms counts for 30%; you earn an additional 10% for participation in section meetings; and you might also get up to 10% in bonus points (see below). The TA's will faithfully record your grades, but you are also responsible for keeping a running tabulation of your grade-standing.

The midterms: essays plus multiple-choice: half the midterm grades come from the essays. You can write on either of the two essay questions that will be handed out beforehand: for half your midterm grade you will respond in three or four doublespaced sheets that you will email directly to your TA within 7 days for bonus points, or within 9 days without such points. None but documented medical excuses will be accepted if you turn in no essay before the deadlines. The essays will be tested in the Turnitin.com software to made certain this is your original work. Your TA will grade your essay and respond with your grade by email.

Agreement for use of Turnitin software: Students agree that by taking this course all required papers may be subject to submission for textual similarity review to Turnitin.com for the detection of plagiarism. All submitted papers will be included as source documents in the Turnitin.com reference database solely for the purpose of detecting plagiarism of such papers. Use of Turnitin.com page service is subject to the Usage Policy and Privacy Pledge posted on the Turnitin.com site.

The midterm Scantron questions: The other half of the midterm grade will come from the Scantron ("fill in the bubbles") test that you will take in class. There will be 27 questions, each worth 2%, on specific facts about the "key works," terms, and larger concepts like theoretical issues, writings on architecture, or differences between the various architectural styles. That means that you can flop on two questions and still get a full 50%, or 54% if you really know your stuff.

Note that all three tests will ask questions about buildings, cities, and projects WITHOUT showing images. The midterms are not cumulative in terms of the "key works" on which you will be tested. You can determine your grade when the correct Scantron answers are announced in class at the following lecture; the sheets themselves will not be returned.

The conversion of number grades to letter grades is: 90s are A's; 80s are B's; 70s are C's; 60s are D's; and below 60 is F. Improvement all term long can offset weak early grades: your term grade will reflect not just data-processing but your own motivation. Please note that W (withdrawal) grades are assigned by the Dean's office alone, not by professors, and that G (incomplete) grades are given only for documented illness, accidents, or emotional stress.

Bonus points can earn you ten extra term-grade points: up to 6 for turning your take-home essays in early; up to 8 because you can score 54% rather than 50% maximum on the multiple-choice tests; and other points for attendance (normally 1/2 point) and asking/answering questions or making comments during the lectures. You can document those questions and comments by sending me an email (citing the point you made or the question that you answered) that same day.

Make up your own grade!--at least for section participation. The 10% of your term grade for HAA0040 that comes from your participation in section meetings involves three factors:

1) your regular section meeting attendance;

2) your participation in small group and class discussions;

3) your asking questions and offering comments in class generally.

You can't actually "dictate" your section participation grade, but your input will strongly assist your section instructor in determining that grade. At the last section meeting, you will be asked to assess your class participation from 0 to 10, meaning:

0 to 3: poor attendance and/or little significant participation;

5-7: frequent attendance and occasional to average participation;

8-10: consistent attendance and frequent participation.

A suggested method of study. What follows is an abridgement of a study guide created by Don Simpson, a former TA in this course. Each of the three tests covers 27 key buildings or key terms, all mapped out for you with no surprises, so you can begin devising a study routine weeks before each test. Very helpful are flashcards (low-tech but surprisingly useful) of all the key works and key terms. You can print out thumbnail images of the buildings from the class website, and stick them to the front of the cards: this is particularly useful to trigger your visual memory. Or you can simply write the name of the building on the front.

On the back of each card, start with the information provided in the Sourcebook (date, architect, style, city, patron, etc.); look at the photo captions in Roth, Understanding Architecture, which will include approximately the same information but perhaps add a pertinent fact or two. Then, as you do the readings, make notes of important points, keeping in mind FACIT (a study process outlined in the Sourcebook): the building's intended function; aesthetic experience on the viewer; physical and sociohistorical context; ideology, including political and religious world view; and technology, including construction materials and methods.

Try to have at least a "Wiki stub" for each FACIT point, and as you notice holes in your information, ask questions of the instructors either via email or before or after lectures, or during section meetings. Include page numbers from Roth and the Sourcebook so you can refer back to those whenever you need to brush up.

Make flashcards of key terms. Consult the glossary in Roth first (pp. 617-33); also consult the book index, and other recommended books listed in the Sourcebook. Observe how the terms are used in lectures and in the textbook; ask the Frick librarians to show you to the shelf of architectural dictionaries in the reference room off of the main reading room (D.K. Ching's Visual Dictionary of Architecture is great for starters). Develop clear, concise definitions, not only so that you understand the vocabulary, which is important, but also so you can express their meaning on the exam without casting about for words and getting garbled. Make sure to associate at least one key work with each key term.

You may also want to make flashcards for the "works in context," and for any other terms that you want to have at your fingertips so you can use them comfortably when it comes to writing the essay. You can write out a stack of flashcards now, then add information to them week by week. But keep up, and drill with them. Just making the cards will help you learn the material, but using them each day will lodge the information even more securely, and be painless compared to cramming the weekend before the test. Learning dates, names of architects, spellings, etc., may seem trivial, but having those facts at your fingertips will give you a sense of confidence and (let's be honest) will make you sound like you know what you are talking about!

Do the additional online readings. These are all hotlinked from the online Sourcebook, or can be typed into your browser. Print them out, read them, and bring any questions you have to our attention. These will provide you with a deeper and broader understanding of relevant issues. You may find this tough stuff, so don't be discouraged if you have to reread certain passage more than once or have to ask for help to clarify concepts.

Study groups are very helpful. You should know enough people in class so that getting a study session together should be easy and fun--and it works. Before each midterm, look over the key works. Make sure you can cover FACIT for each building; structuring your midterm essays around FACIT for each relevant building could be a helpful strategy that will ensure that you have a well-rounded essay that covers all aspects of the question.

Academic integrity. This course follows this Department's statement on academic integrity: "Plagiarizing is an act that violates the Student Conduct Code, and will not be tolerated in this class. Plagiarized assignments will result in a failing grade for that assignment." Plagiarism is here defined as the use of six words in a row without a quotation mark and/or clear indication of their origin. Cheating in any manner will result in an automatic F for the term.

Recording class lectures: In response to students' secretly recording classes and uploading them to YouTube, the University of Pittsburgh Faculty Assembly made this additional ruling: "To ensure the free and open discussion of ideas, students may not record classroom lectures without the written permission of the instructor; any such recording, if approved, can be used solely for the student's private use."

Students with a disability should tell the instructor and contact Disability Resources and Services, 216 William Pitt Union, for accommodation in lectures and tests.

Meeting hours, lunches, and fieldtrips. The TA's for this course hold office hours in Frick room 151, by the entrance to Frick Library: two hours a week as posted on that door. The telephone number to that office is 412.648.2178; the TA's will provide you with their emails at the first section meetings.

I would enjoy talking with you in my office (balcony of Frick Library reading room) any Tuesday morning between 10:00 and 12 noon. That is also a good time to telephone me (412.648.2419) without needing to come to the office, or emailing me at ftoker@pitt.edu .

I'm also happy to make special chances for us to meet. I plan to have lunch together in September; a fieldtrip in October to look at Gothic architecture as revived in Heinz Chapel and St. Paul Cathedral; and a second fieldtrip to observe "Beaux-Arts planning" in Oakland, in November. I'm open to suggestions about other fieldtrips or events.

READINGS

REQUIRED READINGS:

1) This Sourcebook: you can photocopy it from the reserve desk in Frick Library, or print it out from our website, but for efficiency you might consider spending a few bucks more and buying the hardcopy version at the Book Centre.

2) The class text: Leland Roth, Understanding Architecture--second edition, 2007--is on sale at the University Book Center. You can certainly buy the first edition, but be aware that page and illustration numbers have changed.

There are two parts to the Roth text: the second half is a chronological history of western architecture, but the first 155 pages are dedicated to architectural "issues" like function, structure, space, scale and proportion, architectural acoustics, architecture and the natural environment, and the role of the architect; all of which Roth discusses from a non-chronological perspective. These are excellent pages, and well worth careful reading. These important themes will be incorporated in the lectures and section meetings, so you are obliged to read the first 155 pages of Roth on your own.

RECOMMENDED READINGS:

You'll find these listed in the summaries of a number of the class lectures. The easiest way to access many of the articles is on JSTOR, the electronic database for scholarly articles. If you are on campus, just go to the electronic version of this syllabus and click on the URL for the article you want. But from home you will need several extra steps. On the opening page of the ULS (www.library.pitt.edu , find the box on the right called "Connecting from Off Campus?" Then click on https://sremote.pitt.edu and give your UPittsburgh i.d. and password, then click on "Pitt Digital Library" and you'll go to the library home page. Click the tab "Find Articles," and on the next screen, scroll down to the third box and click on "Art and Architectural History." On this new screen, scroll down sixteen boxes to JSTOR. Connect to JSTOR, and get to the article by author's name (most reliable) or article title. Everything will work much faster from an on-campus machine, but eventually you'll get the same results.

THE FOLLOWING IMPORTANT BOOKS ARE ON RESERVE in Frick Library: ask to see the "reserve list" for this class

William J. Mitchell, City of Bits: Space, Place, and the Infobahn (On Architecture)

Marian Moffett, Michael Fazio, Lawrence Wodehouse, Buildings Across Time: an introduction to world architecture.

Christian Norberg-Schulz, Meaning in Western Architecture

Steen Eiler Rasmussen, Experiencing Architecture

Marvin Trachtenberg and Isabelle Hyman, Architecture, from Prehistory to Post-Modernity.

In addition the following books are in the regular Frick collection (those marked + are in the main room or the nearby reference room) as supplementary reading for architectural traditions you may want to learn more about:

R. Branner, Gothic Architecture

F. Brown, Roman Architecture

Julius Glück, "African Architecture," in D. Fraser, ed., The Many Faces of Primitive Art, pp 224-243.

L. Grodecki, Gothic Architecture

+C. Harris, Historic Architecture Sourcebook

+Harris and Lever, Illustrated Glossary of Architecture 850-1830

+ International Dictionary of Architects and Architecture. 2 vols. In Reference Room at NA40.I48. A most useful set of sketches of major buildings and architects in the western tradition.

+The dictionary of art (34 v., 1996: reference room N31 D5 1996): lists all major architects & building styles. This is also available as the database Oxford Art Online (known also as Grove Art Online).

R. F. Jordan, Victorian Architecture

S. Kostof, A History of Architecture

H.E. Kubach, Romanesque Architecture

B. Lowry, Renaissance Architecture

S. Lloyd, et al., Ancient Architecture: Mesopotamia, Egypt, Crete, Greece

W. MacDonald, Early Christian and Byzantine Architecture

+R. Mair, Key Dates in Art History

C. Mango, Byzantine Architecture

+Macmillan Encyclopedia of Architects, 4 vols.

R. Middleton, Neoclassical and Nineteenth Century Architecture

H. Millon, Baroque and Rococo Architecture

+H. Millon, Key Monuments in the History of Architecture

P. Murray, Architecture of the Renaissance

C. Norberg-Schulz, Baroque Architecture

C. Norberg-Schulz, Late Baroque and Rococo Architecture

J. Norwich, ed., The World Atlas of Architecture

E. Panofsky, Gothic Architecture and Scholasticism

N. Pevsner, Outline of European Architecture

+N. Pevsner, Fleming, and Honour, Dictionary of Architecture

+J. Pierce, From Abacus to Zeus: A Handbook of Art History (defines many art terms, including those used in description and analysis of architecture)

R. Scranton, Greek Architecture

J. Summerson, The Architecture of the Eighteenth Century

J. Summerson, Heavenly Mansions

J. Varriano, Italian Baroque and Rococo Architecture

J.B. Ward-Perkins, Roman Architecture