MODERN ARCHITECTURES
Course developed and taught in the architecture program at the University of San Diego in Fall’19, Fall ‘20.

Course Description:
//This course is not a survey//

To be modern is to confront the demands of the dynamism of reason, progress, growth, and movement. This course will examine the architecture that some of these forces shaped. In lieu of an exhaustive survey, this course will examine modern architecture’s impetus and foils through key figures and projects during the period between the mid 19th century until right after the second world war. This history is always incomplete and conditional. There is no one modern; there is no one modernism. We will develop a plural sense of modern architecture by returning to very particular historical, social, technological, political, and material contexts.

As a meta exercise, this course will also address what it means to have a modernist pedagogical canon and why this exercise matters. We will discuss the stakes of approaching such a canon with both a receptive and critical posture.

For syllabus, please email.