THE UNIVERSITY of EDINBURGH

DEGREE REGULATIONS & PROGRAMMES OF STUDY 2024/2025

Timetable information in the Course Catalogue may be subject to change.

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DRPS : Course Catalogue : Edinburgh College of Art : Architecture - History

Undergraduate Course: Architectural Historiography in Practice (ARHI10060)

Course Outline
SchoolEdinburgh College of Art CollegeCollege of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences
Credit level (Normal year taken)SCQF Level 10 (Year 4 Undergraduate) AvailabilityAvailable to all students
SCQF Credits20 ECTS Credits10
SummaryThis course asserts that there is a history of architectural history. Students address this proposition by engaging with the work of key architectural historians of the past and present and by analysing changes in disciplinary procedures and emphasis over time.
Course description This course thus seeks to define a discipline that documents, interprets, and responds to sites, objects, and events that may range from prehistoric settlements to ephemeral media spectacles. The ultimate objective of the course is twofold: to familiarise students with the most important contributions to the historiography of architecture and to ask how the discipline might be reinvented in our own time. The course will be delivered in the form of seminars led by staff members with input from students, who will all be expected to have read selected works in advance of each session. This course runs through weeks 1-11. A weekly two-hour contact teaching seminar supports more self-directed study. The course is taught alongside the postgraduate course version 'Histories and Theories of Architecture' (ARCH11234), but with assignments and seminars that are specifically geared to nurturing the skills of UG students. The postgraduate version of the course has different learning outcomes and coursework requirements.
Entry Requirements (not applicable to Visiting Students)
Pre-requisites Co-requisites
Prohibited Combinations Other requirements None
Information for Visiting Students
Pre-requisitesNone
High Demand Course? Yes
Course Delivery Information
Academic year 2024/25, Not available to visiting students (SS1) Quota:  0
Course Start Semester 2
Timetable Timetable
Learning and Teaching activities (Further Info) Total Hours: 200 ( Seminar/Tutorial Hours 22, Feedback/Feedforward Hours 1, Formative Assessment Hours 1, Summative Assessment Hours 1, Programme Level Learning and Teaching Hours 4, Directed Learning and Independent Learning Hours 171 )
Assessment (Further Info) Written Exam 0 %, Coursework 100 %, Practical Exam 0 %
Additional Information (Assessment) This course comprises of 2 assessment components:

Reading Diary (3000 words) 20%, due in Week 12.

Book Review Essay (2500 words) 80%, due in Week 12.

Weekly Reading Diary: each week students will submit a 275 word summary analysis of that week's reading in preparation for class. This will amount to a total of 3,000 words for the duration of the course.

Book Review Essay: students will select a classic text from the history of architecture and analyse its structure, content, thesis, and methodology/historiography. This is an exercise in understanding how texts on the history of architecture are put together, and how they have been written in the past.
Feedback Students will receive Formative Feedback in written form on an essay plan (300 words) early in the semester, and through tutorial meetings.

As per University regulations, students will receive detailed written Summative Feedback on completed coursework (Book Review Essay and Reading Diary). This will outline the strengths and weaknesses of the written submissions, providing advice for structuring and completing future written submissions.
No Exam Information
Learning Outcomes
On completion of this course, the student will be able to:
  1. Demonstrate knowledge of the origins and development of the disciplines of architectural history and theory.
  2. Critically evaluate a range of significant texts within architectural history and theory, showing awareness of the range of scholarly positions within the disciplines.
  3. Communicate a critical awareness of the relationship of architectural history and theory to architectural production.
Reading List
Arnold, D., Reading Architectural History (Routledge, 2002)
Leach, A., What is Architectural History? (Polity, 2010)
Tournikiotis, P., The Historiography of Modern Architecture (MIT Press, 2001)
Vidler, A., Histories of the Immediate Present: Inventing Architectural Modernism (MIT Press, 2002)
Watkin, D., The Rise of Architectural History (Architectural Press, 1980)










Additional Information
Graduate Attributes and Skills Research and Enquiry: the ability to think critically about written texts, demonstrating extensive knowledge of the discipline of architectural history and its scholarly traditions.

Personal and Intellectual Autonomy: apply skills in interpreting methods and approaches toward professional and scholarly writing.

Communication: the ability to research, prepare, and write a critical and coherent text.
Keywordsarchitectural history,methodology,historiography
Contacts
Course organiserMr Dimitrij Zadorin
Tel:
Email: dzadorin@exseed.ed.ac.uk
Course secretaryMs Louisa King
Tel: (01316) 502306
Email: Louisa.King@ed.ac.uk
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