SPRING 2000
This information effective for Spring 2000.
Check with instructor the first day of class for any changes.
GE T5, A
TEACHING/INSTRUCTIONAL STAFF
Virginia Jansen, Professor of Art History
Cowell 203
e-mail: goth@cats.ucsc.edu
459-2055
+ co-instructor, architect
SYLLABUS
COURSE DESCRIPTION
Introduction to elements, technology, concepts, and semiotics of architecture in its buildings, functions, environments, societies, and history.
Introductory class; no prerequisites.
Team-taught by an architectural historian and a practicing architect, this class will juxtapose the visions and realities of architecture, past and present, providing a context for students to engage actively the forms and issues of architecture and the impact of the built environment on our lives. What do we all need to know about the Pantheon and the California "ranch-burger"?--and why? We will use the UCSC campus, with its diverse architecture and unique landscape, as a laboratory to investigate built form. Through lectures and discussions, sections, case studies, in-class and on-the-campus exercises, readings of architects' musings and sketchbooks, we will learn to "read" drawings, buildings, and spaces as well as to sketch as a way to think about places. We will consider formal qualities--scale, proportions, rhythms, light--structure and materials, physical, social and political influences on design, and the process of design, construction, and use.
Assignments: hands-on projects as well as written papers, including measuring, analysis, siting and a photo essay; midterm and final quizzes.
REQUIRED TEXTS:
Course Reader
Steen Eiler Rasmussen, Experiencing Architecture
Mario Salvadori, The Art of Construction
Philip Wilkinson, Pockets: Buildings
Nikolaus Pevsner et al., Penguin Dictionary of Architecture
ATTENDANCE is required at all classes including sections. Please note
that until the class roll is set, you must sign the attendance sheet
or e-mail goth@cats.ucsc.edu
the reason you were absent.
EVALUATIONS or LETTER GRADES will be based on knowledge, effort, and skill shown in the assignments and exams. Improvement over the quarter will be weighed.