Semester:
Offered:
Patricio del Real (Department of History of Art and Architecture)
First-Year Seminar 65M 4 credits (fall term) Enrollment: Limited to 12
Architecture is the backdrop of our lives. Although we routinely encounter buildings—we live in them, use them, visit them—we often ignore them. This First-Year Seminar brings buildings to the foreground of your lives and asks: How does architecture live among us? We begin from the premise that, fundamentally, to be able to "read" architecture and the built environment, is to be equipped with the skills to better understand the world we live in. In this seminar, we will visit select case studies in the Boston area. We will examine architectural works from different periods and in different mediums. We will visit built works and analyze unbuilt projects; read manifestos and historical descriptions; look at archival drawings and period photos, all to reveal the disciplinary, cultural, and social forces embodied in architecture. This class will help you understand how architecture lives among us.