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Visions and Agendas in Architecture (ABPL90403)
Graduate courseworkPoints: 12.5Not available in 2020
For information about the University’s phased return to campus and in-person activity in Winter and Semester 2, please refer to the on-campus subjects page.
Please refer to the LMS for up-to-date subject information, including assessment and participation requirements, for subjects being offered in 2020.
Overview
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This subject introduces an ongoing study of theories and polemics for architectural design from early modern times to the present. Figures such as Le Corbusier, Walter Gropius, Sigfried Giedion, Robert Venturi, Manfredo Tafuri, Kazuo Shinohara, and Rem Koolhaas are introduced and examined. The subject covers not only a history of the efforts of theorizing a progressive design agenda in modern society; it also explores persistent themes – such as space, vision, zeitgeist and tradition – that are still open to debate today. This subject provides an academic basis for critiques in design practice – in the studios and beyond. Based on critical and historical reading, it invites students to speculate on new agendas of design thinking for our time with its conditions, problems and prospects.
Intended learning outcomes
- To become familiarized with some important and selected design theories as promoted by influential figures in the history of architecture, especially its modern and current stages.
- To develop skills in proposing a self-selected project of theorization for design
- To develop skills in searching materials needed for developing a project of theorization for design.
- To develop skills in communicating – verbal, visual and textual – one's project of theorization for design.
- To develop skills in the formal presentation of one's project of design theorization through a systematic, visual and written documentation to a publishable standard.
- To train and cultivate critical thinking on design, on architecture and on the city, in a social and cultural context.
Generic skills
- Researching; Visual Reading and Understanding
- Visual and oral presentation techniques
- Creative Thinking
- Critical thinking and analysis.
Last updated: 3 November 2022
Eligibility and requirements
Prerequisites
None
Corequisites
None
Non-allowed subjects
None
Inherent requirements (core participation requirements)
The University of Melbourne is committed to providing students with reasonable adjustments to assessment and participation under the Disability Standards for Education (2005), and the Assessment and Results Policy (MPF1326). Students are expected to meet the core participation requirements for their course. These can be viewed under Entry and Participation Requirements for the course outlines in the Handbook.
Further details on how to seek academic adjustments can be found on the Student Equity and Disability Support website: http://services.unimelb.edu.au/student-equity/home
Last updated: 3 November 2022
Assessment
Due to the impact of COVID-19, assessment may differ from that published in the Handbook. Students are reminded to check the subject assessment requirements published in the subject outline on the LMS
Description | Timing | Percentage |
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Reading 1. Every student is randomly allocated to a week in the first half of the semester to do the reading of that week, to ensure an even spread of students per week to do the reading for this half of the semester; he/she is required to read and report to the seminar group about the reading for discussion
| First half of the teaching period | 2.5% |
Reading 2. Every student is randomly allocated to a week in the second half of the semester to do the reading of that week, to ensure an even spread of students per week to do the reading for this half of the semester; he/she is required to read and report to the seminar group about the reading for discussion
| Second half of the teaching period | 2.5% |
Proposal
| Week 3 | 5% |
Annotated Bibliography
| Week 6 | 20% |
Slide presentation. Every student is to do research and develop a position concerning design – he/she needs to cover the conventional wisdom or the status quo in the field and to develop his/her own polemic position – to be verbally presented to the class with a PPT presentation
| Week 9 | 20% |
Final Photo essay. Every student is to complete the Slide presentation, develop the project further, and formally present the ideas as a coherent theorization in an illustrated portfolio with images, diagrams and texts to a publishable standard
| Week 12 | 50% |
Last updated: 3 November 2022
Dates & times
Not available in 2020
Last updated: 3 November 2022
Further information
- Texts
Prescribed texts
K. Michael Hays, ed. Architecture Theory since 1968, Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 1998.
Hanno-Walter Kruft, A History of Architectural Theory: From Vitruvius to the Present, trans. R. Taylor, E. Callander & A. Wood, New York: Princeton Architectural Press, 1994.
- Available through the Community Access Program
About the Community Access Program (CAP)
This subject is available through the Community Access Program (also called Single Subject Studies) which allows you to enrol in single subjects offered by the University of Melbourne, without the commitment required to complete a whole degree.
Entry requirements including prerequisites may apply. Please refer to the CAP applications page for further information.
- Available to Study Abroad and/or Study Exchange Students
This subject is available to students studying at the University from eligible overseas institutions on exchange and study abroad. Students are required to satisfy any listed requirements, such as pre- and co-requisites, for enrolment in the subject.
Last updated: 3 November 2022