Architecture and Society

Architecture and Society

Assignment

St. George Castle, also known as Elmina castle.

[British colonial era in West Africa - Ghana]

The ways that members of society relate to one another are shaped and reflected in architecture, and in this

way, as historian Robert Fishman writes at the opening of his book Bourgeois Utopias, “Every civilization gets

the monuments it deserves.” This semester project challenges you to choose, research, and critically analyze a

building (or urban space) as a means of understanding the society that gave rise to it, and to carry your

insights forward to the concerns of the present moment.

Requirements

The final outcomes of this work will be a research paper, footnoted and illustrated, and a presentation and

discussion with peers and guest critics. Graduate papers should be about 2000 words plus footnotes and

reference 3+ books or journal articles

You will work on this project in a series of stages, as outlined below. The deliverables at each stage will include

writing, citations, and images to illustrate the text. Submissions should be double-spaced, with one-inch

margins on all sides, with end-note citations of referenced literature in Chicago Manual of Style format.1

Images could either be included with the text or at the end of the paper in a Figures section.

1: Choose a Structure [Due end-of-day Friday, January 18]

Send a ranked list of 3 buildings or urban spaces that you would like to research. You may select

these from the suggestions list, or, if there is a topic from off of the list that interests you, feel most

welcome to propose buildings or spaces from off of the list. The instructor will make final assignments

from these lists to ensure that there are no duplicates.

1 Author’s first and last name, Title of book in italycs (Publisher location: publisher, year of publication), page

numbers. For example: Michael Pollan, The Omnivore’s Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals (New York:

Penguin, 2006), 99–100.

2: Initial Presentations: Topic and Interpretation/Point of View [Tuesday, February 5]

Create a brief, focused, and compelling 5-minute presentation (with slide visuals) of the building/site

you have chosen, and your initial argument/point of view about how social relations are shaped by

and/or reflected in the building/site. The last slide must include an initial list of book and journal

sources that you intend to use in your research. Peer-review sheets will be filled out during the

presentations.

3a: Interim Submission [Due end-of-day Thursday, February 7]

Submit a 1000-word partial draft of the paper that accomplishes three things:

1. Establishes the basic who, what, when, where, why of the project—put the project in

context.

2. Provides a thoughtful description of the spatial/visual characteristics of the project,

answering questions, as appropriate, such as: how is the project situated in its

urban/environmental context? how are the spaces or functions of the building

organized? How are structure, materials, and ornament approached?

3. Leverages this description to argue for your interpretation/point of view about how the

spatial/visual characteristics of the building shape and/or reflect the society that made

it. What lessons or new perspectives do the project seem to offer us in the present?

Give the paper a title that speaks to the way that you will analyze the project.

Upload the 1000-word text, with footnote citations and figures, to Blackboard by the end of the day

on Feb. 7.