Architectural Agency: Dig Where You Stand!

The course is organized as a graduate seminar that concludes the cycle of required courses in the history and theory of architecture for the M.Arch program. By revisiting histories of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, it treats the profession as an uncertain, contested and contingent category. It situates histories of architecture across continents in relation to developments, forces and processes including globalization, imperialism, nationalism, climate breakdown and (post)industrialization, as well as decolonization struggles and social, racial and gender movements. Instead of instrumentalizing architecture’s history as a repository of forms—a series of canonical buildings that each architect should recognize and revere—the course puts emphasis on relational thinking and contextualization. How did architects, buildings and objects respond to the aforementioned developments and forces? How have architects addressed the ever-expanding crises of human displacement? How does the praxis of architecture contribute to global environmental degradation? What type of reparative propositions have been put forth for a more equitable coexistence in a warmer, scarcer and unstable planet? The course takes place in the archives of the Heinz Architectural Center at the Carnegie Museum of Art. By digging in and out the Center’s collection, the course focuses on specific case studies to bring to the foreground tensions, questions, relations, interdependencies and alliances.