What is Modernism? (U00854)

? Credit Points : 20 ? SCQF Level : 10 ? Acronym : ACE-3-AHModern

The reported demise of the modernist project and the dawn of the postmodernist age invites us to reconsider the nature of the modern movement that has dominated architectural design in the twentieth century. The course will investigate those elements of architectural theory and design that were considered by their creators to be essentially and specifically modern in the period 1800-1970. It will be constructed around nine "imperatives": Functionalism, Urbanism, Mobility, Control/the Expert/the Profession, Monumentality, Organicism, Spirituality and Socialism. These imperatives do not represent exclusive categories: some are mutually supportive while others are antagonistic. Viewed together, they embrace the principal intellectual, technical, and social forces that combined to produce the new impulse in architectural design known as the Modern Movement.

Entry Requirements

? This course is not available to visting students.

? Pre-requisites : AH2A & 2B; or Honours entry to History of Art or its combined degrees; or Honours entry to BMus (Music) or by agreement of the Head of Subject Area

Subject Areas

Home subject area

Architecture - History, (School of Arts, Culture and Environment, Schedule A)

Delivery Information

? Normal year taken : 3rd year

? Delivery Period : Not being delivered

? Contact Teaching Time : 2 hour(s) 40 minutes per week for 11 weeks

Summary of Intended Learning Outcomes

In addition to exploring the Modern Movement, the course will also consider the impact of modernist thought, as defined in the realm on architecture, on the wider contexts of urban design, social theory, and philosophical discourse. Throughout history architectural analogies have been invoked to explain structures of thought, and this relationship has been particularly strong in the contexts of modernist and postmodernist theory.
The course will investigate those elements of architectural theory and design that were considered by their creators to be essentially modern in the period 1800-1970. It will also consider the impact of modernist thought, as defined in the realm of architecture, in the wider contexts of urban design, social theory and philosophical discourse.The honours course requires that students read and research in a more self-directed way than in previous years. They are called upon to organise more diffuse and challenging material, constructing more sophisticated architectural-historical argument, informed by analysis of primary sources and corrected by critical awareness with regard to secondary texts