DEPARTMENT OF ARCHITECTURE Arch. 170A
College of Environmental Design Fall 2006
Shanken

Architecture 170A: A Historical Survey of Architecture And Urbanism: Antiquity to the Middle Ages

Instructor:

Prof. Andrew Shanken (ashanken@berkeley.edu)

(office: 468 Wurster Hall, 642-1452)

Office hours: Thurs 3:00-5:00 and by appointment.

Graduate Student Instructors: (office: 338 Wurster Hall)

Gabriel Arboleda (arboleda@berkeley.edu)

Tiago Castela (tcastela@berkeley.edu)

Cecilia Chu (ceciliachu@berkeley.edu)

Clare Robinson (clare@berkeley.edu)

Avigail Sachs (avigail@berkeley.edu)

CLASS MEETINGS: Lectures: Tuesday/Thursday, 12:30-2:00, 155 Dwinelle Hall; one hour required Section Meeting.

Course Website: www.arch.ced.berkeley.edu/courses/170/ Selected Powerpoints may be posted on bspace.berkeley.edu/portal

SUBJECT MATTER

This course provides an overview of the history of the built environment from the beginnings to about 1400CE. The scope is broad in geographical and cultural terms. Although the prime emphasis is on the Mediterranean basin and the West in general, a substantial number of lectures will be devoted to Asia, Africa, and the pre-Columbian Americas. Our aim is to expose you to the architectural heritage of the past in its social and historical context.

Textbook: Spiro Kostof, A History of Architecture (Second Edition)

SCHEDULE OF LECTURES AND READINGS 170A 2003

Aug. 29 Introduction to the Course

Aug. 31 The Beginnings of Architecture

Section: Introduction and Organization

Reading: Kostof, the two prefaces and pp. 3-41

Sept. 5 The Beginnings of Urban Civilization

Sept. 7 Old Kingdom Egypt

Section: Methods of Architectural History/Formal Analysis

Reading: Kostof, pp. 42-79

Sept. 12 Architecture, Technology, and Urbanism in Ancient Egypt

Sept. 14 Bronze Age Mediterranean: Crete and Mycenae-kathleen lectures

Formal Analysis due in Section this week!

Section: Sources in the Library System

Reading: Kostof, pp. 79-90, 91-113

Sept. 19 The Greek Temple and the Sacred Precinct

Sept. 21 Greek and Hellenistic Cultures

Section: Researching and Writing a Research Paper

Reading: Kostof, pp., 161-190*Note: This is heavy reading. Please take care to plan ahead.

PAPER PROPOSAL AND ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY DUE TODAY

Sept. 26 The City of Rome and its Building Types

Sept. 28 Roman Urbanism

Section: Hierarchy and monumentality in architecture

Reading: Kostof, pp. 191-215, 217-219

Oct. 3 Jerusalem Through the Ages-Avigail lectures

Oct. 5 Early Christian Architecture

Section: Liturgy and architecture

Reading: Kostof, pp. 245-267, 284-293

Oct. 10 Byzantium and Byzantine Architecture

Oct. 12 MIDTERM EXAMINATION

Section: Midterm review

Reading: Kostof, pp. 245-260

Oct. 17 Asia in the first millennium BCE

Oct. 19 Buddhist and Hindu Architecture in South Asia

Section: Ancient Cities

Reading: Kostof, pp. 227-231, 394-98; and George Michell, Gregory Alles, in reader and on website.

Oct. 24 Pilgrimage in the East and West

Oct. 26 Japanese Architecture-Greg Levine Lectures

Section: No Section: GSI’s will have extra hours set aside for consultation

Reading: To be announced

Oct. 31 Landscape and Lineage in Imperial China-Cecilia Lectures

Reading: Kostof pp. 231-233, Heng Chye Kiang and Else Glahn in reader and on website.

PAPER DRAFT DUE IN LECTURE TUESDAY

Nov.2 Masonry structures in North America, South America

and Southern Africa

Section: Eurasian Land Routes,

Reading: To be announced

Nov. 7 The Mayan Civilization in Mesoamerica-Stephen Lectures

Nov. 9 Teotihuacan in Mesoamerica-Gabriel Lectures

Section: Native American Urbanism

Reading: Kostof, pp. 129-132 [for comparison with the "order" of Teotihuacan], 233-241, Teotihuacan readings in reader and on website; William Coaldrake and Maya readings in reader and on website.

Nov. 14 Architecture of Islam

Section: Ritual and the Mosque

Reading: Lekson et al. and Martin Judge in reader and on website and Kostof, pp. 219-220, 269-72, 364-73, 398-401.

Nov. 16 “The Barbarians:” European Architecture after the fall of Rome

Section: Monastic Architecture

Reading: Kostof, pp. 269-284, 295-323.

Nov. 21 Medieval Countryside and Cities

TERM PAPERS DUE TODAY

Nov. 23 Thanksgiving Holiday

Section: no sections

Reading: Kostof, pp. 349-366, 375-83, 323-333

Nov. 28 Romanesque and Early Gothic Architecture in Europe-Kathleen

Nov. 30 Medieval Urbanism in Europe-Tiago Lectures

Section: Medieval Urbanism in the West or Gothic and Islamic Structure

Reading: Kostof, pp. 333-341

Dec. 5 Gothic Architecture

Dec. 7 Conclusions

No Section

Reading: Kostof, pp. 341-47, 386-394

FINAL EXAMINATION: Exam group 17, December 18,12:30-3:30 pm.

COURSE REQUIREMENTS

[Note: in order to pass the course you must complete all of the requirements.]

[1] Regular attendance at lectures.

[2] Faithful attendance and participation in sections.

[3] Formal Analysis: a 1-2 page paper and drawing

[4] Term paper proposal and annotated bibliography, partial draft, full rough draft, and a term paper with a text of at least 10 double-spaced typed pages, not including notes, bibliography, or illustrations.

[5] Assigned reading.

[6] Mid-term examination (Oct. 14) and Final examination (December 18,12:30- 3:30 pm) No early examinations will be given for any reason

QUIZZES AND EXAMINATIONS

Quizzes: The GSI’s have the right to give short pop quizzes to students on the weekly readings. These will be considered part of the participation grade.

Examinations in Arch. 170 differ significantly from those in non-visual courses because they include slide questions. These, and to a certain degree all other questions, require precise information stored in your memory. Without knowing the names, dates and locations of the buildings and cities you have seen, it is difficult to discuss their place in history and their importance to the cultures we study. Similarly, without some knowledge of the general styles and periods, it would be impossible to discuss individual monuments.

The examination format varies from year to year. Past exams have included slide identifications and slide comparisons between buildings or complexes which may or may not have been discussed in lectures or in section. Exam questions will be drawn from the readings, including Kostof. Beyond this visual material, the examination would also include brief definitions of terms and proper names, questions based on the reading, and an essay touching upon some major concern of the course.

GRADING POLICY AND BREAKDOWN

[1]  All six requirements (see Course Requirements) must be completed to receive a passing grade. Any student failing to attend sections, submit the formal analysis, to take both exams, or to submit all portions of the term paper will be receive an F for the course, no matter what the average of the completed assignments.

Please take special note that you must hand in your complete rough draft with your finished paper. Your draft must obviously be an earlier, significantly different version of your paper, with editing. No paper will be accepted without an accompanying rough draft.

[2]  NO Incomplete (I) grades will be assigned except for medical reasons, and only when accompanied by a physician’s note.

Participation: 10%, Formal Analysis: 5%, Midterm: 25%, Paper: 35%, Final Exam: 25%

REQUIRED READING

Spiro Kostof, A History of Architecture: Settings and Rituals (available at ASUC store)

Additional reading will be made available in two forms, as a reader and online. Your G.S.I. will compile a list of students who would like to purchase a reader.

THE TERM PAPER

The purpose of this three-step exercise is to introduce you to the process of scholarly research and the techniques of modern historical writing. It will help to show you how historians arrive at conclusions and how they communicate their findings. On a more general level, the project will require you to get to know the library system, learn to track down specific information, and practice your writing skills. You are expected to utilize many of the wide range of resources available to students on this campus.

NOTE: PLAGIARISM IS THE MOST SERIOUS ACADEMIC OFFENSE. IT WILL NOT BE EXCUSED FOR ANY REASON. ANYONE GUILTY OF IT WILL RECEIVE AN F FOR THE COURSE AND WILL, WITHOUT EXCEPTION, BE REPORTED TO THE DEPARTMENT AND TO THE UNIVERSITY. IF YOU ARE AT ALL UNCERTAIN WHAT PLAGIARISM IS, PLEASE CONSULT YOUR GSI OR THE PROFESSORS.

The term paper consists of four parts:

[1] An annotated bibliography and project proposal, 2-3 pages, due September 21. Your bibliography must include at least 3 citations of articles from scholarly journals.

This assignment should include a 1-to-2-page discussion of your research objective, including the building(s) you are studying, the questions you are seeking to answer, and the way you plan to answer them. This should be an overview of your project‑‑where you are going and how you plan to get there.

Following this discussion of your project you should list the sources you will be using in standard bibliographic form and state in a few sentences how the source pertains to your project‑‑how it helps to answer your research question. This assignment must be typed with double spacing on 8 1/2-by-11-inch paper.

[2] A draft of your paper, due in lecture Oct.31. You must submit this in order to pass the paper requirement.

The draft should consist of a portion of your paper, meaning that it makes sense by itself, even though it may not include your entire argument. It might consist of the discussion of a single building, the analysis of one aspect of your problem, or some other module of the final work. Most likely it will cover one section of heading of your outline. The draft should be as polished as you can make it, recognizing that when you have written the entire paper, you may have some new information or your argument may change. The purpose of this portion of the term-paper assignment is to offer you suggestions about your writing style, the way you develop an argument, or your use of evidence while there is still time to improve your paper.

[3] An analytical essay, 10-12 pages of text, due at the beginning of lecture Nov. 21.

Just as craft and presentation are essential to good design, so it is in architectural history that writing and presentation are essential to a good paper. This doesn't mean that you should spend hours designing an elaborate cover for your paper. It does mean that, having written your paper as well as you can, you should then take care that it is carefully assembled. Papers must be typed on 8 1/2-by-11-inch paper. ALL ideas, information, and quotations taken from your sources must be footnoted. A bibliography of the sources you used must be included. Edit your work, and make certain that it is free of typographical errors, and that the notes, bibliography, and other mechanical elements follow a consistent format. There are many acceptable guides to format, including the MLA Style Sheet and the Chicago Manual of Style. One that is particularly easy to use is Kate L. Turabian, A Manual for Writers of Term Papers, Theses, and Dissertations, which is available in all libraries and in nearly any bookstore. You should also include appropriate illustrations (properly labeled describing what is shown and crediting the source), and refer to them in the text. Illustrations, footnotes, and bibliography do not count in the 10-12-page length assigned for the paper.

NOTE: The penalty for late work is a dropped grade per day (An A becomes an A- after one day, a B+ after two days), so plan your work carefully and take into account that there is usually a shortage of materials in the libraries during the last two weeks before the term paper is due.

ALSO NOTE that you must turn in your full rough draft with your term paper to receive credit for your work (see Course Requirements above).

PICKING A TOPIC

An historian begins a research project with a question. S/he then develops a thesis that attempts to answer that question and continues to gather data from the particular point of view set out by the thesis. Along the way the thesis is continually checked against new conclusions drawn from the accumulating data. Finally, a point is reached when the question seems satisfactorily answered.

Choose a building, a group of buildings, an urban agglomeration or a landscape built within the chronological boundaries of the course, but which has not been or will not be discussed at length in lectures or sections. GSIs will help you choose an interesting topic that is well documented.

Determine from some preliminary reading a significant question to ask. For example,

[1]  How and why has a particular building type changed form over time?

[2]  Why do cities from the same culture take such different forms at diverse periods or locations?

[3]  How is building form affected by technology?

[4]  How have the needs of the client or user affected architectural design in a specific building?

[5]  What is the relationship between theory and practice in a particular architect's work?

[6]  How did a particular style, technology, or building type move from one culture to another? Why did it do so?

The thrust of your research should then be to find and write up a convincing answer to the question.

Since the assignment is to write an analytical essay, be sure you are asking and answering a question about your building(s).

AN ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY

The historian who asks new questions never finds sources which give straight answers. S/he plays detective, piecing together the story from all sorts of angles. Sources might include the building itself, experienced in person and through drawings and photographs; primary documents, such as contemporary descriptions or contracts; and secondary materials, such as travelers' journals or modern articles and monographs. Please consult the bibliography on the course website.

Sources need to be evaluated. How careful was the author? What was the author's point of view? How do his or her prejudices and intended audience affect the usefulness of the work for your research project?

After choosing a topic, begin to build a bibliography of useful sources.

The assignment to be handed in September 23 should include a 1-2 page discussion of your research objecting, including the building(s) you are studying, the questions you are seeking to answer, and the way you plan to answer them. This should be an overview of your project, showing where you are going and how you plan to get there.

Following this discussion of your project you should list the sources you will be using, following standard bibliographical form and describing in a few sentences how each source pertains to your project. At least three of your sources must be articles from scholarly journals. You can locate them through standard references such as the Humanities Index, Architecture Index, and the Avery Index. This assignment must be typed with double spacing on 8 1/2 x 11 inch paper.

WRITING THE TERM PAPER

Any good scholarly essay or book has an introduction, a main body, and a conclusion. The point of view, the concept, the thesis, the focus, or whatever one calls the guiding idea is set out in the introduction. Then the thesis is supported by offering evidence that builds an argument clearly and logically. Finally, a conclusion sums up and restates the thesis.

You should have little trouble organizing an essay once you have made a proposal and annotated bibliography. You will know just which books and articles you need to read and take notes on. You will know what it is that you are looking for when you read, and will note facts and theories that both support and contradict your thesis.

While you are reading, begin to construct the outline for your essay. The process will help you see relationships between ideas. It will steer you toward a coherent paper in which

[1]  The most important facts are given prominence

[2]  Facts are not gratuitous, but support the thesis

[3]  Analysis, not description, predominates.

THE DRAFT

The partial draft or detailed outline should indicate your thesis and show how the thesis will be developed. What is the organization of the paper? What evidence will be used? The draft should show that you have done your research and have begun to assemble both description and analysis into a coherent essay. The draft should also display your writing skills. The draft assignment helps you to make orderly progress in the assignment ‑‑ a paper written at the last moment is not your best effort. The draft also allows you to receive comments from your GSI, either on substantive or analytical issues, additional ideas or sources to use, or writing mechanics.

THE FINAL PAPER

The final paper must be typed on 8 1/2 x 11-inch paper and stapled in the upper left- hand corner. No fancy covers! All ideas, information, and quotations taken from your sources must be footnoted according to the format set forth in Kate Turabian’s A Manual for Writers, the Chicago Manual of Style, or the MLA Style Sheet. Footnotes or endnotes are acceptable. Your bibliography should follow a standard format. You should also include appropriate illustrations. Illustrations (properly labeled with sources cited), footnotes, and bibliography do not count in the 10-12 page length assigned for the paper.