ARC154   Humanities 52   (10 credits)

Description

ARC 154 concerns the reciprocal relationship between architecture and society, exploring the issues through a broad range of case studies. Mainly dwellings, these include several from anthropological sources dealing with vernacular buildings to show how architecture worked when people built for themselves directly without recourse to building specialists and mechanised technology. The course seeks to establish that architecture works not only through style and symbolic reference but also in the way it is organised, through the framing of human activities and rituals. The cross-cultural approach prompts the question of what remains specific to a local context and what can be regarded as universal.

Reading List