UCLA ARCH&UD 10B (2023, 2024)

HISTORIES OF ARCHITECTURE & URBANISM II: 1500 to the present

Lecture, three hours; discussion, one hour; outside study, 11 hours. Survey of architectural and urban history from 1500 to present in global context. Exploration of buildings, cities, spaces, artifacts, landscapes, and ideas through their relation to geopolitical conditions and through their relation to theories of design. P/NP or letter grading.

The built environment provides a lens through which we can interpret world history. From the European colonization of the Americas to UNESCO’s designation of World Heritage Sites, architectural objects and urban spaces have reflected and reproduced societal transformations. This course introduces students to some of these transformations and a range of methods for their study. It proceeds thematically and semi-chronologically, with each week centering on a particular set of actors who have mobilized the built environment to advance a particular set of cultural, political, and economic agendas. Lectures, required texts, and discussion sections juxtapose individuals and networks, hegemony and resistance, the past and the present, to encourage diverse ways of seeing, thinking, and writing.