Analysis of Contemporary Architecture
Course facts
- Payment: Free, no certificate
- Credits: Non Credit
- Learning style: Self-paced, start anytime
- Resources: Projects with Examples
MIT OpenCourseWare details
- As taught in: Fall 2009
- Department: Architecture
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Survey architects including Wright, Le Corbusier, Kahn and Gehry, and analyze one building through drawings or research.
A larger visual vocabulary lets a designer talk better about design and place new ideas within a tradition. To build one, this class moves architect by architect through modern and contemporary work, using lectures, short documentaries, readings and visits to buildings, then ends with each student analyzing one building in depth.
What You Will Achieve
- Discuss the key architects and movements of modern architecture
- Evaluate a building’s significance from a first-hand visit
- Reconstruct a building’s plans, sections and elevations
- Write a researched analysis of a building and its architect
Program Overview
Wright, the Bauhaus and Le Corbusier
The opening sessions set out the canon.
- Louis Sullivan and Frank Lloyd Wright
- Loos, Behrens and the German Werkbund
- De Stijl and the Bauhaus
- Le Corbusier and Mies van der Rohe
Aalto, Kahn and the Case-Study Houses
Later modernism and its challengers follow.
- Alvar Aalto and Louis Kahn
- Saarinen and Rudolph
- Case-study houses
- CIAM and Team X
Toward the Present
The final sessions come closer to our time.
- Rossi, Scarpa and Five Architects
- Post Modernism and Deconstructivism
- Koolhaas and Gehry
- New Urbanism and green building
Course Completion
Job Outlook
This knowledge supports architecture and design work, and study in the field, where past buildings inform current ideas.
Good for: Architecture students and curious readers who want a guided tour of modern buildings and their makers.
Keep in mind: From fall 2009, the page offers final project guidance and student examples, with no lecture notes or videos, so you would study the buildings on your own.
Bottom line: A useful syllabus for self-guided study of modern architecture, more a map than a full course.
Frequently Asked Questions
What are the final project options?
Either reconstructed plans, sections, elevations and a physical model, presented on two boards, or a research paper of about 15 pages on a building of your choice.
Are there student examples?
Yes. The page has a building list with bibliography notes and student projects on the Kaufmann Desert House, Taliesin West and the Victoria McAlmon House.
Which buildings did the class visit?
The calendar lists the Gropius House in Lincoln, a field trip to Yale and a visit to Exeter Library.
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