Postgraduate Course: Culture and performance in the history of construction (ARCH11171)
Course Outline
| School | Edinburgh College of Art |
College | College of Humanities and Social Science |
| Course type | Standard |
Availability | Available to all students |
| Credit level (Normal year taken) | SCQF Level 11 (Postgraduate) |
Credits | 10 |
| Home subject area | Architecture and Landscape Architecture |
Other subject area | None |
| Course website |
http://www.homepages.ed.ac.uk/dtheodo1/ConstrHist.html |
Taught in Gaelic? | No |
| Course description | This course reviews the historic aspects of the culture of construction as the ¿highly interconnected process between craft and science¿, beyond a historic survey. Building is examined as the manifestation of technological advancement of organised societies and the role of individuals like masons rather than designers and patrons, in materialising collective aspirations and co-ordinating endeavour. Assessment of the performance of these processes can also inform current architectural and engineering practice. Aspects of architectural conservation are also integrated as they are relevant to the critical process of selection or survival of these manifestations.
Some specific areas in the field are selected like the creation of fire-proof long spans, lessons from disasters, technology transfer, tectonics of fabric, processes of assembly. Each area is examined in a seminar through recurring themes like masons and patronage, efficiency and performance, regional variations, cultural context, production practice.
The subject of the course is broad, rather than specific, as it attempts to provide an alternative method in reading architectural forms and their production, integrating knowledge from the technological culture point of view. Learning will be supported with on-line discussion of case studies, site visits and workshops on specific historic techniques.
Assessment is based on an essay that discusses the creation and performance of a working model that reproduces a specific historic construction process resulting from critical survey and understanding of key details or a building type.
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Entry Requirements (not applicable to Visiting Students)
| Pre-requisites |
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Co-requisites | |
| Prohibited Combinations | |
Other requirements | None |
| Additional Costs | N/A |
Information for Visiting Students
| Pre-requisites | None |
| Displayed in Visiting Students Prospectus? | Yes |
Course Delivery Information
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| Delivery period: 2013/14 Semester 2, Available to all students (SV1)
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Learn enabled: Yes |
Quota: None |
Web Timetable |
Web Timetable |
| Course Start Date |
13/01/2014 |
| Breakdown of Learning and Teaching activities (Further Info) |
Please contact the School directly for a breakdown of Learning and Teaching Activities |
| Additional Notes |
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| Breakdown of Assessment Methods (Further Info) |
Please contact the School directly for a breakdown of Assessment Methods
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| No Exam Information |
Learning Outcomes
On completion of this course, the student will be able to:
1. Apply knowledge of the contribution that masons and construction technology can make to the development of architectural forms.
2. Understand how the wider range of standard and historic structural schemes became possible as a condition of materials, procurement, training and aspirations.
3. Critically analyse architectural designs and their production through the study of the links between building process and its cultural context.
4. Learn from precedent through the reproduction of a historic construction process and assessment of its performance. |
Assessment Information
| Essay or coursework (100 %) |
Additional Information
| Academic description |
The course is based on queries from my ongoing research on the structural performance and technology of historic construction systems. This work has highlighted issues beyond the technical problems and design strategies, which can be of wider interest to students of the culture of building and its agents. The subject of the course is broad, rather than specific, as it attempts to provide an alternative method in reading architectural forms and their production, integrating knowledge from the technological culture point of view. As such it is offered to who already has a basic knowledge of technology and history, including Conservation MSc students. Learning will be supported with on-line discussion of case studies, site visits and workshops on specific historic techniques.
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| Syllabus |
1. The idea of building (the prehistoric builder, vernacular construction)
2. Hiding the fabric (Roman, baroque, neoclassicism)
3. Prominence of the fabric (tectonics, early modernism, brickwork, artificial ruins)
4. Building fabric as a sculpture (the classic world, neoclassicism)
5. Optimisation and fire-proof long spans (Roman, Gothic, early shells)
6. Learning from ruins (Romanesque, late Roman)
7. Transmission of knowledge (empirical rules, scientific approach, building regulations)
8. Processes of assembly (timber and steel structures, Renaissance, neoclassicism)
9. Lessons from disasters (Beauvais, WTC, Ronan Point, Royal Mile, London Fire)
10. Technology transfer (industrialisation, Gothic to Greece and the Levant, colonies)
11. The (humble) house
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| Transferable skills |
Not entered |
| Reading list |
Acland, J. H. (1972). Medieval structure: the gothic vault. Univ. of Toronto Press, Toronto, Canada.
Armit, I. (2003). Towers in the North, The Brochs of Scotland. Tempus Publishing, Gloucestershire, 2003.
Edinburgh New Town Conservation Committee (1981). The care and conservation of Georgian Houses. 3rd edition, The Architectural Press, London
Mainstone, R. J. (1998). Developments in structural form. Architectural Press, London.
Nicholson, Peter (1828). A Popular and Practical Treatise on Masonry and Stone-cutting (1st ed.). London: Thomas Hurst, Edward Chance & Co.
Ousterhout, R. (2008). Master Builders of Byzantium. 2nd edition, University of Pennsylvania Museum Publications
Theodossopoulos, D. (2011). Structural design in building conservation. Taylor & Francis [outline of conservation theory, overview of main historic structural types]
Yeomans, David T. The development of timber as a structural material / Aldershot : Ashgate/Variorum, c1999. Series: Studies in the history of civil engineering ; v. 8
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| Study Abroad |
Not entered |
| Study Pattern |
The course is expected to take up 100 hours of student effort |
| Keywords | construction history, building culture, conservation, stonework |
Contacts
| Course organiser | Dr Dimitrios Theodossopoulos
Tel: (0131 6)50 2300
Email: d.theodossopoulos@ed.ac.uk |
Course secretary | Miss Lyndsay Hopes
Tel: (0131 6)51 5735
Email: Lyndsay.Hopes@ed.ac.uk |
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