Intro To Architecture

Course Description

A survey of the history of architecture covering major architects, buildings, theories, and urban and landscape developments from the Renaissance through Postmodernism. Emphasis on European and American architectural history within its social and global contexts. Introduction to basic methods of architectural analysis. How do we understand architecture? How can we contextualize the spaces and places of our built environments, and how do these environments contextualize us? This course explores the history of architecture from prehistory to the present and highlights key examples from around the world. Focus is on the visual and spatial (site, structure, form) and the theories surrounding these. Architectural creations are considered in conjunction with the transfer of technology and ideas, the exchanges of diverse peoples and cultures, and the shifting political and social contexts of building within changing landscapes and urban environments. Architecture is above all an embodiment of human communication to be discussed with analytical, critical and historical perspective. Analysis and interpretation of the buildings themselves and primary source texts underpin cross-cultural views of interconnected creativity, innovation and invention.

Architectural production is seen as integral to human, geological and environmental contexts: As people and their surroundings shape objects and buildings, so too do these visual, material and spatial representations of human thought change landscapes and communication. Creativity and innovation are understood in a complex set of relationships with what is known and practiced, what can be seen and touched and experienced kinesthetically, and what can be remembered and imagined. The making of intricate visual, material and spatial meanings is contingent on ordered ideas—on inventive technologies and planning: Yet the works themselves express multifaceted motivations. Exploration of how visual, material and spatial concepts grow in expression—and change expression itself—frames the fundamental dimensions of architectural history. This course will help you to understand architecture from many perspectives, and no prerequisite in art or architectural history is necessary.

Basic Enrollment Requirements: Unofficial Transcript – High School Diploma or current high school transcript (for high school students only in applicable classes), Bachelor’s Degree, or progress towards a Bachelor’s Degree + 3.0 GPA.

Refund Policy: The refund policy for Courses at Tufts offerings is dependent on the course length. Please refer to the section details to confirm any exceptions to the standard refund policy. The refund policies are viewable here: https://universitycollege.tufts.edu/policies#Refunds

Remission Eligible: Yes; first day of term.