Texts and Theories in Western Architecture (U03408)

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

As a discipline, history is a matter of selecting and shaping historical data. Theory is a meditation upon the discipline and its data. The course is a study of historians, theorists and their texts. After an introduction considering the Period as the object of historical definition and as the tool of the historian, the course introduces theorists and theories of architecture from Vitruvius to Deconstruction. They are arranged chronologically so that the force of historical determinism and purposiveness of historical reflection may be gauged. The course concludes with a discussion of the proposition that cultural time moves in cycles.

? Keywords : architectural theory, historiography, architectural historiography

Entry Requirements

? 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 : Semester 1 (Blocks 1-2)

? Contact Teaching Time : 3 hour(s) per week for 11 weeks

First Class Information

Date	Start	End	Room	Area	Additional Information
18/09/2007	11:10	12:00

All of the following classes

Type	Day	Start	End	Area
Lecture	Tuesday	11:10	12:00	Central
Lecture	Friday	11:10	13:00	Central

Summary of Intended Learning Outcomes

The students will understand that, as well as the collecting of historical data about architecture, history is the sifting and shaping of it. The bases upon which these interventions are to be understood is a matter of evolution and of philosophy. The appreciation that history, as a study, has a history is one aim of the course. The other is that it be recognised as having a philosophy. Students, conscious of the philosophical nature of architectural history, will understand the need to reflect upon their own activity. Students will acquire a notion of the changeable character of history as a practice or discipline and will consider some of the promptings to that change: social, economic or idealistic. They will understand the status of historical periods as instruments of the historian. They will become familiar with the principal theorists and historiographers of architecture. They will be introduced to the work of modern architectural-theoretical and historiographical thinkers. They will read history critically.