Oxford University

Explore the architectural genesis of the modern world, beginning with the vital structural innovations of the late Victorian era, continuing on to the rise and spread of Modernism in European and American architecture - and concluding in the examination of contemporary architecture and future possibilities.

Trace the rise and spread of Modernism in European and American architecture. We will focus upon the earliest stirrings of Modernism per se in the Europe of the early 20th century (as in the work of Le Corbusier & the Bauhaus), before following the inter-war flight of the European intelligentsia to Britain and the USA. Our subsequent focus will then be principally upon the collision between the existing architectural culture of the USA (such as the work of architects such as Louis Sullivan and Frank Lloyd Wright) and the incoming flood of European Modernist ideas.

We'll conclude by concentrating upon such relevant contemporary topics as the influence of Le Corbusier, and of US Brutalism, upon British post-WW2 mass density housing; the advent of Post-Modernism - with particular attention being devoted to the works of architects such as Robert Venturi and Daniel Liebeskind and the use of CAD and the contemporary architecture of Richard Rogers, Norman Foster and Frank Gehry.

By the end of this course students will be able to understand:

• The overall historical trajectory of western European and American architecture during the period from the later 19th century to the present day.

• The broad outlines of the aesthetic and theoretical debates which have informed that historical trajectory.

• The principal structural innovations which have underpinned and enabled that historical development.

• The specific contributions made by each of the principal schools within the Modernist and Post-Modernist architectural traditions.

• The significance of the most important works by the principal architects mentioned during the course.

• The essential stylistic and theoretical nature of Modernism, and Post-Modernism, as expressed in architectural terms.

Unit 1: ‘Structure and Ornament’: Debates in late nineteenth-century architecture

Unit 2: Modern architecture before Modernism: Beaux Arts and Art Nouveau

Unit 3: Early Modernism: Le Corbusier, Purism and the Villa Savoye

Unit 4: Pre-Modernist American Architecture (i): The aesthetics of the skyscraper

Unit 5: Pre-Modernist American Architecture (ii): Frank Lloyd Wright

Unit 6: Mies van der Rohe in America

Unit 7: Modernism beyond America: Alvar Aalto and Oscar Niemeyer

Unit 8: Brutalism and utopia: Modernism and mass housing in post-war Britain

Unit 9: Post Modernism: Philip Johnson and Robert Venturi

Unit 10: Today and tomorrow: CAD and contemporary architecture