This is the place we will accrue and store the new terminology that appears through the course.

• profession
• vernacular
• vocation

Introduction

What has drawn you to architecture as a future profession? For many people, it is the inspiration of buildings themselves that prompted the choice. Whether or not you have had a moment of dramatic revelation, it's a certainty that you have grown up in and around buildings and have developed some kind of appreciation for them (or at least some of them). This assignment asks you to think about your history with buildings as a biographical study.

Directions

Take some time to reflect on your past, its important moments, its daily activities, and how those were facilitated, shaped, or confounded by the built environment (you may wish to think of individual buildings as well as assemblages of them in cities, neighborhoods, etc.). Take notes on your thoughts. Reflect. Talk to people from your past about it. Don't rush this part. Assemble a narrative outline or series of case studies that illustrate your architectural biography. Collect photos of specific or representative buildings.

Timeline

TUES 25 AUG: project introduced in class meeting

MON 31 AUG: write more on your architectural biography; post images and short description to Blackboard ("My History") illustrating key aspects of your narrative

THU 07 SEPT: submit a draft essay (3-5 pages) for peer review

• peer review teams
• rubric

MON 09 NOV: submit final project in VoiceThread (5 min.) and final written paper (including illustrations; no length limit) to Dr. Amundson

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MON 31 AUG: presentation of the project

• • • • • • • view announcement
            • read full description
            • claim your typology

TUE 01 SEPT: discussion of project in class

MON 07 SEPT: complete your portion of the vernacular gallery

TUES 08 SEPT: by noon, submit a PDF summarizing your work to Dr. Amundson (via email)

• orient horizontally
• keep text to a minimum (phrases, not paragraphs)
• include world map, images of plan, view, and details
• overall assignment is to explain: how do they build houses here and why do they look different than they do elsewhere?

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• MIT dorms (Gehry)
• MIT Media Center (Gehry)
• bridge over Venice canal (Calatrava)
• Citicorp in NYC
• Boston Hancock
• Commerzbank, Frankfurt (Foster)
• Fallingwater
• Sydney Opera House
• Johnson Wax research tower (Wright)
• Columbus Convention Center (Eisenman)
• Guangzhou Opera House (Hadid)
• Farnsworth House (Mies)
• Denver Art Museum;
• Lawsuits
• Palacio de Exposiciones y Congresos Ciudad, Oviedo, Spain)=
• Johnson Museum Extension, Ithaca, New York
• Ray and Maria Stata Center,  Cambridge, Massachusetts
• Renee and Henry Segerstrom Concert Hall, Cosa Mesa, California
• Harmon Tower,  Las Vegas, Nevada
• Millennium Tower, San Francisco
• Villa Savoye, Poissy France
• Portland Building, Oregon
• State of Illinois Building (Thompson Center), Chicago
• Wexner Center for the Arts, Columbus OH
• Make It Right Foundation Homes, New Orleans
• 20 Fenchurch Street, London

EXAMPLES

• Chartres, Fallingwater, UVA (all achieve a “social ideal: p 43)
• Architecture that aspires to “art” p 44 : Kahn, Yale Art Gallery; I would add Italian Baroque and Seattle church
• Savoye, Farnsworth
• Decon: where comfort/convenience does not matter 57
• Stern’s shingle style, other trads
• Yale gothic buildings. Can you put Belmont’s buildings in this category?
• Woolworth, NY PL: civic presence, magnificence.
• Something serene in great architecture, even if it is surprising: Michelangelo, Giulio Romano, Hawksmoor, Sone, Lutyens, Corb, Mies, Kahn, Venturi, Gehry. WOMEN.???. “Emotional intensity” mattes (to Goldberg, at least)

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