SPRING 2019

M | W | F 11:15a – 12:05p
Architecture 2112 | 6108 Prof. Marisabel Marratt

History of Architecture II: Modern Architecture

Eventually everything connects – people, ideas, objects, etc.

... the quality of the connection is the key to quality per se.
– Charles Eames

H.Labrouste, Salle Labrouste C. Jeanneret, Ozenfant House (1922) L. Kahn, Kimball Art Museum (1966-1972)
Biblioteque Nationale (1862-68)

When you have all the answers about a building before you start building it, your answers are not true.
The building gives you answers as it grows and becomes itself.
– Louis Kahn

Course Description

The course surveys the history of modern architecture from 1750 -1990. We will explore architecture, buildings
and structures, and study the transformations that take place in their forms, materials and uses. We will also
broaden our understanding of the conditions that allowed these to manifest – the specificities of culture, place
and time, and the technological, social, economic and political forces that informed these transformations. We
will study the formal characteristics of specific projects, the concerns that animated them, as well as the
tendencies they highlight, through an exploration not only of the objects themselves, but by listening to their
retelling, either in the words of those present, or in the connections made by those, such as historians, ever
looking backward, in order to move forward. We will come to understand how some connections may sequence,
while others gently overlay or overlap, and still others jump entire generations. In some cases, the terms and the
words used to make these connections will often be as revealing as the objects themselves.

To study history simply as a catalogue of styles, or as a linear sequence of rote names and dates is to ignore its
active, living quality. In doing so we risk ignoring the powerful connections that exist between “people, ideas,
objects”, in time, and through to our present.

Some of the works we study may still be visited, some have been destroyed, and some may never have existed
at all, except solely as a drawing, image or text. Yet even the latter will show the enormous potential these
projections have for envisioning new architectures and new modes for inhabiting landscapes and cities.
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 SPRING 2019

M | W | F 11:15a – 12:05p
Architecture 2112 | 6108 Prof. Marisabel Marratt

As history is perpetually being told and retold, so too will you join in the re-telling, as you write about these
structures and others you encounter in your various assignments. As you keep up with your assigned readings,
you will find your eye becoming sharper in the looking, and your words more precise in the telling.

Teaching Team

Professor:
Marisabel Marratt, Lecturer: mmarratt3@gatech.edu

Graduate Teaching Assistants:

Anna Preece Kiningham: apreece3@gatech.edu
Stephanie Wright: swright34@gatech.edu
Maryam Al-Attasi: maryamalattasi@gatech.edu
Anna Toth: anna.toth@gatech.edu

In the second week of class, you will be assigned to one of the Teaching Assistants listed. They will be your first
point of contact for advising on your assignments, for quiz and examination material and all other material
covered in the course. The TA Assignments will be posted as of Monday 1/14. Please make use of you TA’s
posted office hours for further assistance with the materials of the course.

All Undergrads will be assigned to an individual TA. You will meet in smaller groups regularly throughout the
semester with your assigned TA.

Required Readings

You are required to obtain your own copy of the following text:

William J.R. Curtis, Modern Architecture Since 1900

Required Readings from the following texts will be available on Canvas:

Michael Fazio, Marian Moffett, Lawrence Wodehouse, A World History of Architecture.
Benjamin Flowers, Skyscraper: The Politics and Power of Building New York City in the 20 th Century.
Selected Readings assigned and uploaded to Canvas as required on a per week basis.

The slide presentations and course handouts will be uploaded to Canvas and stored under “Resources”. These
will be available at the end of each week.

You are strongly advised to keep up with your readings, on the week assigned. We have a lot of ground to cover,
and lectures and readings, while in synch., will complement, rather than repeat each other. The quizzes will
draw primarily from the readings, while the exams will draw from the material and focus of the lecture.

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 SPRING 2019

M | W | F 11:15a – 12:05p
Architecture 2112 | 6108 Prof. Marisabel Marratt

PLEASE NOTE:
Class topics and reading assignments are subject to revision throughout the semester as circumstances warrant.

Class Schedule:

Week 1:

M| Jan 07 L1. Course Introduction, Classicism in the 18th Century and the Vision of Social Progress.
W| Jan 09 L2. Architecture and Archaeology. The Grand Tour, Eclecticism and Romanticism
Late 18th to mid-19th Century.
F| Jan 11 Walkabout Assignment – No Class
Readings: Fazio et Al: pp. 378- 416 (Uploaded on Canvas)

Week 2:

M| Jan 14 L3. The Beaux Arts and the Polytechnique –Early experiments in iron, glass and steel.
Late 18th to mid-19th Century.
W| Jan 16 L4. Iron and Glass Architecture – Redefining the Public Domain.
Mid-19th Century to early 20th Century.
F| Jan 18 Architectural Terms Review – Meet in TA Groups.
Readings: Curtis: pp. 21-31, Fazio: pp 416- 425
+ Selected readings: To be available on Canvas

Week 3:

M| Jan 21 Martin Luther King Holiday – No Class

W| Jan 23 L5. The Chicago School and the Prehistory of the Tall Building
Mid-19th Century to early 20th Century.
F| Jan 25 QUIZ I (Material up to and including L5)
Readings: Curtis: pp. 21-31, Fazio: pp 416- 425
+ Selected readings: To be available on Canvas

Week 4:

M| Jan 28 L6. The Arts and Crafts Movement

Mid-19th Century to early 20th Century.
W| Jan 30 L7. Art Nouveau, Jugendstil, and the Vienna Secession – The Awakening Century
Early 20th Century.
F| Feb 1 Journal Exercise – No Class
Readings: Curtis: pp. pp. 53-71, 87-97, Fazio: pp. 425-439
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 SPRING 2019

M | W | F 11:15a – 12:05p
Architecture 2112 | 6108 Prof. Marisabel Marratt

Week 5:

M| Feb 4 L8. Structural Rationalism and Concrete as a Vision for a New Architecture.
Mid-19th Century to 1930’s.
W| Feb 6 REVIEW FOR EXAM I
F| Feb 8 EXAM I (Material up to and including L8)
Readings: Curtis: pp. 73-85, Fazio: 479 -490
+ Selected readings: To be available on Canvas

Week 6:

M| Feb 11 L9. Reconstructions I: Rebuilding is Rethinking. The Deutscher Werkbund, and

Expressionism. 1907- 1925.
W| Feb 13 L10. Movements and Manifestos. Cubism, Surrealism, Dadaism, and de Stijl
1910- 1930’s.
F| Feb 15 Exam I Debrief: Meet in TA groups.
Readings: Curtis: pp. 98-106, 149-181; Fazio: pp. 462-478
+ Selected readings: To be available on Canvas
Week 7:

M| Feb 18 L11. Walter Gropius, Mies van der Rohe, the Deutscher Werkbund and the Bauhaus
1915 - 1935
W| Feb 20 Introduction of Journaling Assignment and Fieldwork.
F| Feb 22 Journaling Fieldwork Assignment 1 – No Class
Readings: Curtis: pp. 107-111,
+ Selected readings: To be available on Canvas

Week 8:

M| Feb 25 L12. Futurism, Constructivism and Italian Rationalism. Technology and the Social Project
1910- 1930’s.
W| Feb 27 L13. International Style: The Machine and Other Myths of Modernism
1920’s through 1930’s
F| Feb 29 QUIZ II (Material from L8 up to and including L13)
Readings: Curtis: pp. 183-199, 201-215, 351-369, 257-285, 305-327

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 SPRING 2019

M | W | F 11:15a – 12:05p
Architecture 2112 | 6108 Prof. Marisabel Marratt

Week 9:

M| Mar 4 L14. Building Boom: The Empire State Building and New York City Skyscrapers
1920’s and 1930’s.
W| Mar 6 L15. Reconstruction II: The Postwar in America and Europe.
1940’s – 1960’s
F| Mar 8 Journaling Assignment 2 – No Class
Readings: Flowers: pp. 97-145 (to be made available on Canvas)
+ Selected readings: To be available on Canvas

Week 10:

M| Mar 11 L16. The Bauhaus Diaspora, Mies van der Rohe and the Rise of Miesian America
1940’s through 1960’s.
W| Mar 13 REVIEW FOR EXAM II
F| Mar 15 EXAM II (Material from L8 up to and including L16)
Readings: Curtis: pp. 395-415
+ Selected readings: To be available on Canvas

Week 11: MIDTERM BREAK

Week 12:

M| Mar 25 L17. From International Style to Regionalism I – Late Le Corbusier, and New Brutalism
1930’s to 1970
W| Mar 27 L18. From International Style to Regionalism II – Louis Kahn, Monumentality and
Architecture in the Developing World.
1940’s through 1970’s
F| Mar 29 Exam II Debrief – Meet in TA Groups
Readings: Curtis: pp. 371-391, 415-451, 491-527,
Flowers: pp. 197-168
+ Selected readings: To be available on Canvas
Week 13:

M| Apr 1 L19. Architecture as Performance and Event. The Radicalism of the Ephemeral
1960’s through 1970’s.
W| Apr 3 L20. Architecture, Structure and Language. The Sign and other Forms of Code.
1960’s and 1970’s.

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 SPRING 2019

M | W | F 11:15a – 12:05p
Architecture 2112 | 6108 Prof. Marisabel Marratt

F| Apr 5 JOURNALS DUE: Uploaded by 12 pm.

Readings: Selected readings: To be available on Canvas

Week 14:

M| Apr 8 School of Architecture Classes CANCELLED.

W| Apr 10 School of Architecture Classes CANCELLED.
F| Apr 12 FINAL REVIEWS – No Class
Readings: Selected readings: To be available on Canvas

Week 15:

M| Apr 15 FINAL REVIEWS – No Class

W| Apr 17 L21. Post Modernisms
Mid- 1970’s – 1990.
F| Apr 19 QUIZ III (Material from L17 up to and including L21)
Readings: Selected readings: To be available on Canvas

Week 16:

M| Apr 22 L22. The Digital Turn – Last Instructional Day

W| Apr 24 READING PERIOD
F| Apr 26 EXAM PERIOD
Readings: Selected readings: To be available on Canvas

Week 17:

M| Apr 29 EXAM PERIOD

W| May 1 EXAM PERIOD
F| May 3 - Commencement

NOTE: THE FINAL EXAM (DATE TBD) WILL COVER MATERIAL FROM THE ENTIRE SEMESTER

Technology in the Classroom:

Please silence all cell phones during class. Please limit your use of electronic devices while in class for note-
taking and engaging with class-related work.

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 SPRING 2019

M | W | F 11:15a – 12:05p
Architecture 2112 | 6108 Prof. Marisabel Marratt

Communications:

Your Georgia Tech email address is your official address. Canvas, and TA’s will regularly send announcements
and course updates to this address. Be vigilant.
You are responsible for any updates that will come your way. Failure to receive or send a required email or
assignment, does not constitute an acceptable excuse for missing an assignment or other required work.

Grading:

Undergraduate:

Quizzes: (lowest grade dropped) 15%

Digital Journal: 20%
Exam 1 15%
Exam 2 25%
Final Exam (comprehensive) 25%

Graduate:

Quizzes: (lowest grade dropped) 10%

Digital Journal: 25%
Exam 1 15%
Exam 2 25%
Final Exam (comprehensive) 25%

PLEASE NOTE: A student with an average of 85% or greater heading into the Final Instructional Day, has the
option of skipping the Final Exam.

Every Student will keep a digital journal. Throughout the semester your TA or I will distribute assignments for
you to complete in your journal. The Journals will be due on Friday, April 5.

Note: Graduate students and outgoing departmental seniors will be expected to demonstrate critical thinking
and complexity of engagement with the material in this journal and other work.
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 SPRING 2019

M | W | F 11:15a – 12:05p
Architecture 2112 | 6108 Prof. Marisabel Marratt

Attendance Policy:

Please note that your attendance is not calculated in the grading breakdown. As responsible adults you are
expected to manage your own time in college. However, as the saying goes: “it will all come out in the wash” –
Your quizzes and exams are graded and will reflect your engagement with the course materials.

HOWEVER, ABSENCE FROM ANY SCHEDULED QUIZ, EXAM OR ASSIGNMENT THAT HAS NOT BEEN EXCUSED
WILL AUTOMICALLY CONSTITUTE A ZERO FOR THAT EXERCISE.

THE INSTITUTE POLICY ON ATTENDANCE AND ABSENCES MAY BE FOUND HERE:

http:// www.registrar.gatech.edu/students/formlanding /iaabsences.php

Course Policies:

Alongside prompt and timely attendance to all scheduled events for the course, enrollment indicates that you
have read and acknowledge the following:

Academic Integrity:
Georgia Tech aims to cultivate a community based on trust, academic integrity, and honor. Students are
expected to act according to the highest ethical standards. All Georgia Tech students should familiarize
themselves with and abide by the Georgia Tech Honor Code:

http://www.catalog.gatech.edu/rules/18/

Good Conduct:
All persons in the classroom are expected to behave with courtesy towards others and in a way that does not
interfere with the regular conduct of the class. Cell phones are to be turned off when students enter the
classroom and should remain off for the duration of class:

 Code of Conduct: http://www.catalog.gatech.edu/rules/19/

 Expectations: http://www.catalog.gatech.edu/rules/22/

Disabled Assistance:
Students with disabilities requiring special accommodations are required to obtain an accommodations letter
from the ADAPTS Office (www.adapts.gatech.edu).

Disabled Assistance: http://www.catalog.gatech.edu/rules/1.php

http://www.disability services.gatech.edu/rules/1.php