Architectural History I: Antiquity to Baroque

This lecture course will introduce major historical narratives, themes, sites, and architects from ancient Greece to the end of the Baroque period. We will take an extended look at the dawn of the modern period during the 15th and 16th centuries through a global perspective, turning eastward from Renaissance Europe to the Ottoman, Mughal, Chinese, and Japanese empires. The great chronological and geographic span of this course will be pulled together around the themes of classicism and its subsequent reinterpretations as well as the pursuit of the tectonic ideal. Our aim is to recognize how these ideological pursuits of modern architecture evolved out of longer historical processes. We will also pay close attention to major sites of landscape and urban-scale work. Requirements will include a mid-term exam, a final exam, and a series of short papers.