Architecture, Materiality and Climate

This course is taught as part of the Critical and Contextual Studies module to second year architecture students. The aim of this module is to develop critical thinking and an understanding of the social, political and cultural contexts in architectural practice.

Lectures focus on mass-produced building materials, steel, concrete, glass and plastic and trace relevant historical concepts, design approaches and key historical buildings from industrial revolution to present and across different geographies. They underscore the intersections of materiality with social and environmental considerations, while introducing students to key figures, buildings and historical and theoretical issues in architectural history.

Week 1: Introduction to research and writing in different styles

Week 2: Cast iron and steel

Recommended Readings

Giedion, S (1941) ‘The Schism Between Architecture and Technology’ in Space, Time and Architecture: The Growth of a New Tradition. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. pp.209-226.

Mertins, D (2005) ‘Mies’s Event Space’, Grey Room 20, pp. 60-73.

Videos

ARTE (n.d.) The Sainte Genevieve Library, Episode 34.

Week 5: Reinforced concrete

Recommended Readings

Le Corbusier (1931) Towards a New Architecture.

Celik, Z (1992) ‘Le Corbusier, Orientalism, Colonialism’, Assemblage 17, pp. 59-77.

Barber, D (2012) ‘Le Corbusier, the Brise-Soleil, and the Socio-climatic Project 1929-1963’, Thresholds, 40, pp. 21–32.

Avermaete, T et al. (2014) Casablanca Chandigarh: A Report on Modernization. Montreal: Centre canadien d’architecture.

Videos

ARTE (n.d.) The Convent of La Tourette, Episode 14.

ARTE (n.d.) Rolex Learning Centre, Episode 54.

Kahn, N (2004) My Architect.

Cazanave, J (2015) The Century of Le Corbusier.

Week 6: Reinforced concrete in Britain

Recommended Readings

Bullock, N (2002) Building the Post-War World: Modern Architecture and Reconstruction in Britain. London: Routledge.

Swenarton, M (2015) ‘High Density without High Rise: Housing Experiments of the 1950s by Patrick Hodgkinson’ in Swenarton, M., Avermeate, T. & van den Heuvel, D. (eds.) Architecture and the Welfare State. Abingdon, Oxon: Routledge.

Thoburn, N (2018) ‘Concrete and council housing’, City, 22:5-6, 612-632, DOI: 10.1080/13604813.2018.1549203

Calder, B (2022) Raw Concrete: The Beauty of Brutalism. London: Penguin.

Videos

Architecture Foundation (2017) Neave Brown in Conversation.

Week 10: Glass

Recommended Readings

Reichlin, B (1984) 'The Pros and Cons of the Horizontal Window The Perret – Le Corbusier Controversy', Daidalos 13, pp.64-78.

Friedman, A T (1998), ‘People Who Live in Glass Houses: Edith Farnsworth, Ludwig Mies Van Der Rohe and Philip Johnson’ in Women and the Making of the Modern House: A Social and Architectural History. New York: Harry N. Abrams, 126-59.

Murray, S (2009) Contemporary Curtain Wall Architecture. Princeton, NJ: Princeton Architectural Press, pp. 9-63

Martin, R (2010) ‘Materiality: Mirrors’ and ‘Subjects: Mass Customization’ in Utopia’s Ghost: Architecture and Postmodernism, Again. Minneapolis MN: University of Minnesota Press. pp. 93-146.

Harwood, J (2013) ‘Corporate Abstraction’, Perspecta 46, pp. 218–247.

Week 11: The vernacular

Recommended Readings

Rudofsky, B (1964) Architecture without Architects. New York: Museum of Modern Art

Frampton, K (1983) ‘Towards a Critical Regionalism: Six Points for an Architecture of Resistance’

Fathy, H (1986) Natural energy and vernacular architecture: principles and examples with reference to hot arid climates. Chicago: University of Chicago Press

Passanti, F (1997) ‘The Vernacular, Modernism, and Le Corbusier’, Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians 56, pp. 438-451.

Pyla, P I (2007) 'Hasan Fathy Revisited: Postwar Discourses on Science, Development, and Vernacular Architecture',Journal of Architectural Education 60(3), pp. 28-39.

Week 14: Plastics

Recommended Readings

Walker, A (1994) ‘Plastics: The Building Blocks of the Twentieth Century’, Construction History 10, pp. 67–88. London: Routledge.

Colomina, B (2004) ‘Unbreathed Air 1956’, Grey Room 15, pp. 28-59.

Clarke, A J (2022) 'Plastic fantastic: Tupperware parties', Architectural Review.

Engelsmann, S et al. (2010) Plastics in Architecture and Construction, Birkhäuser.