The first year program in History-Theory aims to expand studentsÆ horizons of knowledge about architecture while teaching foundational skills in reading and writing in the discipline. Even though students at the School of Architecture are expected to be highly literate and articulate, entering into a new fieldùsuch as architectureùis a difficult intellectual transition to make. Students will need to develop specific cognitive skills to address the new territories they will have to map. The first year program sets out to help students attain a basic literacy in the discipline while introducing a selection of the monuments of modern architecture together with contemporary ways of thinking about the field.

The theme for the fall workshop is Site. Objectifying and describing a site is typically difficult for beginning, or even advanced students, and yet is a skill all architects must master. Site is the precondition for construction and the link between architecture and the world. With forms of human habitation rapidly changing due to urbanization, site becomes a more important consideration every day. Seminars will address Fields, Territories, Surveys, Flows, and Contexts, surveying both historical and contemporary material to challenge students. As an introduction to architecture as an expanded field, students will encounter disciplines such as politics, geology, philosophy, infrastructural engineering, land art, archaeology, and landscape architecture. Buildings will illustrate responses to the topics and students will encounter a selection of the most significant works in modern and contemporary architecture. Projects discussed include HaussmannÆs Boulevards, the Paris Opera, MiesÆs Friedrichstrasse Skyscraper, the Villa Savoye, the Barcelona Pavilion, the Bauhaus, ArchigramÆs Instant City , SuperstudioÆs Continuous Monument, Herzog and de MeuronÆs Signal Box Auf dem Wolf, and the Sendai Mediatheque. Readings by authors such as Rem Koolhaas, Colin Rowe, Michel Foucault, St. Brendan, Guy Debord, John McPhee, John Stilgoe, Robert Smithson, and Georg Simmel will challenge students with the diverse ways by which we can describe sites. We will visit three nearby sites first-hand in order to learn how to discuss them. Afternoon writing workshops will focus on describing these sites.

see above

see above

see above

Lecture-Discussion Seminars will address Fields, Territories, Places, Topographies, and Surveys. Readings and Seminars addressing both foundational and contemporary material will challenge students. As an introduction to architecture as an expanded field, students will encounter disciplines such as politics, geology, philosophy, infrastructural engineering, land art, archaeology, and landscape architecture. Buildings will illustrate responses to the topics.