Autumn 2016: Thursdays 1.00pm - 3.

00pm: Coates Road Auditorium

Ruth Hudson-Silver

To enrich your awareness of the theories and

ideas that inform contemporary practice,
conversation and debate.
To enhance your critical writing and research
skills.
To develop a reflective and critical approach
to architecture which can be applied to your
own design projects and future work in
practice.
The lecture series is structured over ten
weeks, each week bringing a new theme to
form the toolkit

Class Participation 15%

Essay 85%
Class Participation
Submission of an Archi-tweet after every
lecture. Full details to be provided in the
introductory lecture. These will be marked as
Pass or Fail.
Essay
3000 word research paper to be submitted
on Wednesday 18th January 2017, by 3pm
to the new Student Service Centre as a hard
copy and on moodle. Full details below.

Your essay may focus on one work, such as a built project, installation, film or book, or you may
choose to compare and contrast two works.
You should begin with the material presented in the lectures and recommended readings to
develop your chosen topic with further research using scholarly resources. You must reference
all your sources and provide a detailed bibliography at the end of your essay.
The essay will be marked on the following criteria:

Research: Quality and depth of available resources

Argument: Analytical, critical and logical, to be backed up with suitable evidence
Writing: Structure, accuracy, references and the use of appropriate visual material
Conclusion: Interpretation of the argument

October 6th: Introduction

To introduce the lecture series as a means of developing a set of tools that are relevant for
both theory and practice.
October 13th: Walking the City
We will be looking at the role that walking plays for theorists and philosophers and how
architects can interpret these ideas to inform their practices.
Recommended reading:
Chapter Walking in the City The Practice of Everyday Life Michel de Certeau
One Way Street Walter Benjamin

October 20th: Mapping the City

We will look briefly at the history of cartography. We will see how architects, theorists,
filmmakers and artists have chosen to work with the themes of the city.
Recommended reading:
The Unknown City: Contesting Architecture and Social Space edited by Borden, Kerr, Rendell
The Situationist City Simon Sadler
October 27th: Reading the City
The third lecture will look at Reading both as a physical act, but also in terms of assessing the
city.
Recommended reading:
Words and Buildings Adrian Forty
November 3rd: Storytelling
We will examine the importance of fairy tales and folklore as a device for making architecture.
We will look at contemporary architects that refer to the power of storytelling within their
work.
Recommended reading:
The Uses of Enchantment the Meaning and Importance of Fairy Tales Bruno Bettelheim
Yes is More An Archicomic on Architectural Evolution Bjarke Ingels Group
Recommended Ted Talk:
Why great architecture should tell a story Ole Scheeran
November 10th: Essay workshop
We will look at ideas for your essays and how these may be structured or represented using
case studies from other works and volumes.
November 17th: The Everyday
We will be looking at the concept of the everyday as a key period after modernism and postmodernism.
Recommended reading:
The Practice of Everyday Life Michel de Certeau
November 24th: Space and Scale
We will be looking at theories of space and scale and how they have informed our
understanding of space as architects.
Recommended reading:
The Poetics of Space Gaston Bachelard
The Production of Space Henri Lefebvre
December 1st: Travel
We will look at the impact that travel has had on our built environment. This will be both in
terms of advancing technology and shorter journey times, but also traveling and negotiating
space within a single building.
Recommended reading:
The Art of Travel Alan de Botton
December 8th: Information and Data
We will look at how the IT industry has borrowed heavily from the architectural world in terms
of both language and structure. We will also look at the representation of information and
data.
Recommended reading:
Information is Beautiful David McCandless