ARC 3741 & 5745

Urban Architecture
Florida International University
Urban Architecture in the 20th Century
ARC3741 & ARC 5745

Tuesdays and Thursdays 9:30-11:00

Professor Gray Read, readg@fiu.edu (Office Hours: Tuesdays and Thursdays 11-2)

Purpose: This seminar will explore debates on urban architecture surrounding the rise of
Modernism in the 1920s and will follow those lines of thought into current discussions of
architectural design in cities. We will discuss the roots and implications of approaches to
urbanism from modernist utopias to the rebuilding of Berlin. Course will stress critical
thinking and writing.
Structure of Course: Seminar discussion. Students will present readings and topics.
Required readings must be completed for each class, the quality of discussion depends on
participation.
Graduate students are required to read additional texts listed as “grad” in schedule
Text: Readings are downloadable on course website and are available in reader at the
University Copy Center.
In-Class Presentations: Each student will present their research on a topic and will lead
the class in discussion.
Quizzes: Each class will have a discussion question. Students will discuss, then write
their answers to be handed in.
Essays : Each student will do research on a specific topic and write a term paper 20
pages in length. Assignments over the term will lead students through the process of
research and writing: a statement of topic, research proposal, bibliography and an outline.
Written work will be due at the beginning of class. Writing counts. I will edit and grade
essays then you will rewrite to improve both the clarity of your ideas and the quality of
writing.
Absenses: University policy states if you have three absences, you fail the course
Tips:
Keep up. Do the reading, Do the reading, Do the reading
Take notes. Keep a dedicated notebook for this course. Take notes on both the reading
and discussion. Sketches help.
Come to lectures; You are required to attend all departmental lectures.
Grading Scheme: Class Participation/Quizzes 40
Presentations 20
Term Paper 40
Total 100 points

To get an A: Do a good job on everything; put extra ideas/effort into it.

To get a B: Do a good job on everything
To get a lower grade: Do less
 ARC 3741 & 5745
Urban Architecture
Schedule

January 10:  Urban Metaphors: The city as theater, the city as world, city as body, city 
as machine
Reading: Camillo Sitte, “Introduction” City Planning according to Artistic
Principles, 1889 (excerpt)
Otto Wagner, Great Cities, 1911 (excerpt)
January 12:  Discussion

January 17:  Modern Mass Utopia
Reading: Le Corbusier, “A Contemporary City” in City of Tomorrow, 1925
Frank Lloyd Wright, “Decenralization and the New Scale of Spacing” in When
Democracy Builds, 1944
Grad: Frank Lloyd Wright, “Organic Architecture” in When Democracy Builds,
1944
Recommended: Fishman, Robert, Urban Utopias in the Twentieth Century (MIT
Press, 1999)
January 19: Discussion
Statement of Topic and Bibliography due:  2 pages

January 24: Surrealist Stroll: city of Memory and Dream
Reading: Louis Aragon, Paris Peasant (excerpt)
Grad: Michel de Certeau, "Walking in the City" in The Practice of Everyday Life
Recommended: Thomas Mikal ed. Surrealism and Architecture (Routledge Press,
2003)
January 26: Discussion
Due: Research Proposal (3 pages) and Bibliography (1 page) 

January 31: Rationalism: CIAM,  Post­war reconstruction
Reading: CIAM, Athens Charter (excerpt)
Jane Jacobs, Death and Life of Great American Cities (excerpt)
Grad: Victor Gruen, “Cityscape and Landscape”
Recommended: Eric Mumford, The CIAM Discourse on Urbanism, 1928-1960
(MIT Press, 2000)
February 2: Discussion

February 7: New Babylon, Archigram  
Reading: Gilles Ivain, “Formulary for a New Urbanism”
Constant, New Babylon (excerpt)
Recommended: Mark Wigley, Constant’s New Babylon (010 Press, 1998)
Simon Sadler, The Situationist City, (MIT Press, 1999)
February 9: Discussion
Rewrite of Research Proposal Due
 ARC 3741 & 5745
Urban Architecture

February 14: City of Desire: Delirious New York 
Reading: Rem Koolhaas, “Life in the Metropolis” or “the Culture of Congestion”
Grad: “Appendix: A Fictional conclusion” in Delirious New York
Recommended: Rem Koolhaas, Mutations (Actar, 2001)
February 16: Discussion

February 21: Self Organizing Cities
Reading: Christopher Alexander, New Theory of Urban Design (excerpt)
Grad: Renee Chow, “Beginnings of a Production System” In Suburban Space
Recommended: http://www.calresco.org/sos/sosfaq.htm
February 23:  Discussion

February 28: American Strip and Suburb
Reading; Venturi, Rauch and Scott-Brown, “A Significance for A&P Parking Lots
or Learning from Las Vegas” (excerpt)
Grad: Denise Scott-Brown and Robert Venturi, “On Ducks and Decoration”
Recommended: Stan Allen, “Urban Natures” in The State of Architecture at the
beginning of the 21st Century.
March 2:  Discussion
Due: Outline 6 pages

March 7: Defensive Cities
Reading: Mike Davis, "Fortress Los Angeles: the Militarization of Urban Space"
Recommended: Mike Davis City of Quartz 
March 9:  Discussion

March 14: The Granite Garden: Natural Systems in Cities
Reading: Ann Spirn, Granite Garden (excerpt)
Recommended: Timothy Beatley, Green Urbanism
Ann Spirn, The Language of Landscape
March 16: Discussion

March 21:  Spring Break, Enjoy  
March 23:  Spring Break, Enjoy

March 28:  New Urbanism/ Suburbanism
Reading: Plater-Zyberk & Duany, Suburban Nation (excerpt)
Recommended: New Urbanism: Peter Calthorpe vs. Lars Larup
March 30:  Discussion
Due: Term Paper

April 4:  Theatre of the City
Reading: Read “Theatre of Public Space”
 ARC 3741 & 5745
Urban Architecture
Recommended: Tschumi, Event-Cities 3: Concept vs. Context vs. Content
April 6:  Discussion

April 11:  Networked City
Reading: William Mitchell, “Imagining E-Topia”
Grad: Stan Allen, James Corner “Urban Natures”
April 13: Review

April 18: Jury Week, No Class

April 20

April 25: Absolute final deadline for rewrites of term paper

May 1:  Grades Due
 ARC 3741 & 5745
Urban Architecture

Urban Architecture
Course Bibliography
Spring, 2006

Alexander, Christopher. A New Theory of Urban Design. New York: Oxford University
Press, 1987.
Aragon. Paris Peasant. London: Pan Books, 1980.
Bacon, Edmond. Design of Cities. NY: Viking Press, 1967.
Beatley, Timothy. Green Urbanism: Learning from European Cities: Island Press, 2000.
Blundell-Jones, Peter, and Hans Scharoun. Hans Scharoun. London: Phaidon Press, 1995.
Burnham, Daniel. Plan of Chicago. NY: Princeton Architectural Press, 1993(1909).
Chow, Renee. Suburban Space: The Fabric of Dwelling. Berkeley: University of
California Press, 2002.
Corbusier, Le. The Athens Charter. Vol. (4th. New York: Grossman Publishers, 1973.
Cullen, Gordon. Townscape. London: Architectural Press, 1961.
Culot, Maurice, Jean-FranÁois Lejeune, and Fla.) Center for the Fine Arts (Miami.
Miami: Architecture of the Tropics. Miami: Brussels: Center of Fine Arts [i.e.
Center for the Fine Arts]; Archives d'Architecture Moderne, 1992.
Davis, Mike. City of Quartz: Excavating the Future in Los Angeles. London: Vintage,
1992.
Duany, Andres, Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk, and Jeff Speck. Suburban Nation: The Rise of
Sprawl and the Decline of the American Dream. 1st ed. New York: North Point
Press, 2000.
Fishman, Robert. Urban Utopias in the Twentieth Century. Cambridge, Mass: MIT Press,
1999.
———, ed. New Urbanism: Peter Calthorpe Vs. Lars Larup, Michigan Debates on
Urbanism. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan, 2005.
Halprin, Lawrence. Cities. NY: Reinhold, 1963.
Hays, K. Michael, ed. Architecture Theory since 1968, Columbia Books on Architecture.
Cambridge: MIT Press, 2000.
Hilberseimer, Ludwig. The New City: Principles of Planning. 1st ed. Chicago: Theobald,
1944.
Knabb, Ken. Situationist International Anthology. Berkeley: Bureau of Public Secrets,
1981.
Koolhaas, Rem. Delirious New York. NY: Monacelli, 1997.
———. Mutations. Vol. 2001: Actar, 2001.
Krier, Rob, and Colin Rowe. Urban Space. London: Academy Editions, 1991.
Landy, Ruth, Stephen Most, Christopher Alexander, and University of California
(System). Extension Center for Media and Independent Learning. Places for the
Soul the Architecture of Christopher Alexander. Berkeley, CA: University of
California Extension Center for Media and Independent Learning, 1990.
LeCorbusier. Concerning Town Planning. London: Architectural Press, 1947.
Libeskind, Daniel, Kurt Walter Forster, and Museum f¸r Gestaltung Z¸rich. Radix-
Matrix: Architecture and Writings. Munich: Prestel, 1997.
 ARC 3741 & 5745
Urban Architecture
Mallet-Stevens, Robert. L'art Cinematographique, Register of Microforms Masters.
Paris: Bibliotheque Nationale, 1988.
Mallgrave, Harry Francis. Otto Wagner: Reflections on the Raiment of Modernity. Santa
Monica, CA: Chicago: Getty Center for the History of Art and the Humanities;
Distributed by the University of Chicago Press, 1993.
McCoy, Esther, R. M. Schindler, Richard Joseph Neutra, and Louis H. Sullivan. Vienna
to Los Angeles: Two Journeys. Santa Monica, Calif.: Arts + Architecture Press,
1979.
McGee, Mark R. Berlin, 1925-1946-2000. Berlin: Nicolai, 2000.
Mikal, Thomas, ed. Surrealism and Architecture. London: Routledge Press, 2003.
Mumford, Eric. The Ciam Discourse on Urbanism, 1928-1960. Cambridge, Mass: MIT
Press, 2000.
Musée national d'art moderne (France). On the Passage of a Few People through a Brief
Moment in Time: The Situationist International: 1957-1972. Paris: Musée
Internatinale d'Art Moderne: Georges Pompidou Centre, 1989.
Ockman, Joan, ed. Architecture Culture 1943-1968. NY: Rizzoli, 1993.
Read, Alan, ed. Architecturally Speaking. London: Routledge Press, 2000.
Read, Gray. "The Theatre of Public Space." Journal of Architectural Education 58, no. 3
(2005): 53-62.
Rossi, Aldo, Peter Eisenman, Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in the Fine Arts,
and Institute for Architecture and Urban Studies. The Architecture of the City.
Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 1982.
Rowe, Colin. "The Architecture of Utopia." In Rowe, Colin. The Mathematics of the
Ideal Villa and Other Essays, 1976, P. 205-223; with Illus, 1976.
Rowe, Colin, and Fred Koetter. Collage City. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 1978.
Rykwert, Joseph. The Idea of a Town. Cambridge, Mass: MIT, 1958.
Saarinen, Eliel. The City, Its Growth, Its Decay, Its Future. NY: Reinhold, 1943.
Sadler, Simon. The Situationist City. Cambridge, Mass: MIT Press, 1999.
Sitte, Camillo. The Art of Building Cities: City Building According to Its Artistic
Fundamentals. Hyperion reprint ed. Westport, Conn.: Hyperion Press, 1979.
Smithson, Alison Margaret, and Peter Smithson. The Charged Void: Urbanism. NY:
Monacelli, 2005.
Spirn, Ann. The Granite Garden. NY: Basic Books, 1994.
———. The Language of Landscape. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1998.
Tschumi, Bernard. Architecture and Disjunction. Cambridge Mass: MIT Press, 1996.
Tschumi, Bernard, and Irene Chung, eds. The State of Architecture at the Beginning of
the 21st Century, Columbia Books of Architecture. NY: Monacelli Press, 2003.
Tyler, Norman. Historic Preservation: An Introduction to Its History, Principles, and
Practice. New York: W.W. Norton, 2000.
Wigley, Mark. Constant's New Babylon: The Hyper-Architecture of Desire. Rotterdam:
Witte de With, Center for Contemporary Art, 1998.
Wilson, Elizabeth. The Sphinx in the City. Berkeley, CA: University of California, 1991.