Courses Taught
[01]
“Architecture or Revolution”? Intersections of Politics and Design
Regarding the social unrest of his time, the famous modernist architect Le Corbusier once stated that it’s either “architecture or revolution.” But what about architecture in revolution and as revolution? How has architecture been put in the service of radical politics? And how have architects translated their ideologies into design? In this course, we will look at the intersection of architecture and radical politics by reading, among other, leftist European architects and Soviet avant-gardists who used architecture to restructure society along with socialist and social-democratic principles; about architectures of fascism and crony capitalism; and about designers from both the radical left and right who theorized total destruction as the precondition for their utopias (or dystopias). Writing assignments for the course include manifesto, visual analysis, critical essay, and petition.
[01]
Ahmet Öğüt, Bakunin‘s Barricade, 2015, various materials. A barricade inspired by Mikhail A. Bakunin’s unrealized proposal from 1849. Installation view, Kunsthal Charlottenborg, 2017.
Ahmet Öğüt, Bakunin‘s Barricade, 2015, various materials. A barricade inspired by Mikhail A. Bakunin’s unrealized proposal from 1849. Installation view, Kunsthal Charlottenborg, 2017.
[02]
Left to right: Vladimir Tatlin, The Monument to the Third International, c. 1920s; Rasheed Araeen, Homage to Tatlin, 1968; Zaha Hadid, Tower Scheme for the Guggenheim Museum, 1992.
Left to right: Vladimir Tatlin, The Monument to the Third International, c. 1920s; Rasheed Araeen, Homage to Tatlin, 1968; Zaha Hadid, Tower Scheme for the Guggenheim Museum, 1992.
[02]
History of Modern Architecture
This class reviews modern architectural developments across the world from the Enlightenment to the post-modern period. Structured roughly chronologically, each week is anchored in a sociopolitical transformation that impacted architectural design and thought. Over the course of the semester, we will look at the origins of modern architecture and trace several trajectories of the modern movement through the perspective of historical revolutions and revolutionary moments. This survey of modern architecture aims to achieve a geopolitically conscious understanding of architecture by familiarizing students with the chronology and geography of various architectural developments; with the global and intertwined intellectual, social, political, and economic transformations within which these architectural developments took shape; and with various key architects and architectural movements and theories.