Catalog of Courses for Architectural History
Surveys architecture from the Ancient to the present.
We will explore how architecture affects us, as well as how it informs us about past societies. In what ways does architecture shape our experiences; how does it enhance or detract from human activities? This course will cover material from the pre-historic period through c. 1420 largely in Europe with some examples from Asia, Africa and the Americas. Classes will be a combination of lectures and in-class activities.
This course will examine architecture and urbanism from around 1400 C.E. to the present, tracing connections and distinctions that have guided the design, uses, and meanings of built environments around the globe. You will be introduced to celebrated buildings and less well-known sites and cities, with particular attention to the aesthetic, social, cultural, and institutional situations in which they developed.
Surveys Jefferson's architectural world with special emphasis on the Lawn.
Studies painting, architecture, and sculpture in Italy from the close of the Middle Ages through the sixteenth century. Focuses on the work of major artists such as Giotto, Donatello, Botticelli, Leonardo, and Michelangelo. Detailed discussion of the social, political, and cultural background of the arts.
Studies the painting, architecture, and sculpture or the sixteenth century, emphasizing the works of major artists, such as Leonardo, Michelangelo, Raphael, Giorgione, and Titian. Detailed discussion of the social, political, and cultural background of the arts.
Tracing the history of architecture and urbanism from 1870 through the 1970s, this course considers how architecture has participated in and responded to shifting aesthetic, technological, social, environmental, and theoretical challenges during this period. While Europe is an important terrain of investigation, the course emphasizes networks of exchange with Latin America, North Africa, Turkey, India, and Japan.
Topical offerings in architectural history.
Thomas Jefferson architecture was an art that encompassed more than simply shelter but embodied cultural and political values. This course will focus on his architectural and other designs (gardens, interiors, towns, campuses) and his interest in the arts. Course may include field trips.
Public Humanities and Cultural Change introduces undergraduate students to the power of place and story in the shaping of the American imagination. The multi-disciplinary course centers 1) engaging complex pasts, 2) place-based and community-based methodologies, 3) the inherently political nature of public humanities, and 4) impactful public engagement, especially across difference.
This interdisciplinary course covers the American South to the Civil War. While the course centers on the visual arts, architecture, material culture, decorative arts, painting, and sculpture; it is not designed as a regional history of art, but an exploration of the interrelations between history, material and visual cultures, foodways, music and literature in the formation of Southern identities. Course may include field trips.
We will critically assess the role of digital humanities in art and architectural history through an analysis of extant digital projects, discussions of ethical concerns, and data visualizations as well as a wide range of available tools such as GIS, Storymap, view-shed analysis, & 3D visualizations.We will consider best practices in digital site development employing a design thinking process.
Vernacular Architecture is often understood to be all the built environment that is not 'High Architecture.' This is a profound misunderstanding; Vernacular is any aspect of the built environment examined through the lens of the local AND it is a method of interrogating the relationship between architecture and the human experience. This lecture class enlists global examples to explore the many complex dimensions of vernacular.
This lecture course focuses on cities as centers of cultural, social, and artistic activity. It considers how we define cities, the forces that create and sustain them, and what makes them culturally distinctive. It looks at several cities at their moments of cultural, political, and architectural glory: Istanbul in the 16thcentury, London in the late 17th and 18th centuries, Paris in the 19th century, New York in the 20th century, and Shanghai in the 21st century.
The Asian-African conference in 1955, known as the Bandung Conference, imagined a movement of newly independent nations of Asia & Africa, joining mutual solidarity to support the development & cultural as well as political independence. In this seminar, students will study the history of the Bandung project, the notion of freedom, liberation, independence, & sovereignty, as well as the material culture & built environment. Grad version has additional requirements.
Our course will reconstruct the journey of Ibn Jubayr, a twelfth century Spanish Muslim who recorded his haj from Spain to Mecca. Using his lively travel diary, we will analyze the visual culture and built environment of the medieval Mediterranean and together recreate key sites from his journey with easy to use digital tools such as Neatline.
This course aims to introduce the principal architects, monuments, and themes of fifteenth- and sixteenth-century Italian architecture. The lectures will be varied in approach and scope, some considering broad issues, others focusing on particular architects, buildings, or texts. Special topics will include architectural theory, patronage, villas, gardens, architectural drawing, and urban design.
Examines how notions of gender shaped the production, patronage, and fruition of the visual arts in Italy between 1350 and 1600.
As the construction of cities redistributes its activities across the world in the twenty-first century, this course considers the ways in which architecture and architects are changed by a complex shifting field of forces. These forces include critical and ethical discourses, digital media, global finance and trade, developments in materials science, environmental awareness, and geo-political strategies.
Topical offerings in architectural history.
The Architectural History Colloquium combines lecture and discussion. Subject varies with the instructor, who may decide to focus attention either on a particular period, artist, or theme, or on the broader question of the aims and methods of architectural history. Subject is announced prior to each registration period. Enrollment is capped at 20.
Studies cultural exchanges in architecture between East and West, emphasizing master architects such as F.L. Wright and L. Kahn.
Studies the history of Buddhist architecture and allied arts in the Buddhist world, including East, South, and Southeast Asia. Lecture starts from the Indian stupas and ends in Japanese Zen gardens.
This course explores how archaeological and architectural evidence can be used to enhance our understanding of the slave societies that evolved in the early-modern Atlantic world. The primary focus is the Chesapeake and the British Caribbean, the later exemplified by Jamaica and Nevis. The course is structured around a series of data-analysis projects that draw on the Digital Archaeological Archive of Comparative Slavery.
This class is a field-based seminar on methods of analyzing and recording historic buildings, especially vernacular buildings and landscapes. Students will be introduced to intensive building analysis geared to understanding change over time. Students will also learn methods of careful field recording for both documentation and analysis. Graduate students will undertake additional course requirements. Course may include site visits.
This course examines current archaeological approaches to the reconstruction and explanation of the ways in which humans at once shaped and adapted to past landscapes. It emphasizes current theory as well as GIS and statistical methods for the analysis of diverse data from pollen spectra to topography. The course is structured around a series of projects in which students will have an opportunity to make sense of real archaeological data.
This course presents a series of case studies on trading events between Asia & Europe from Renaissance to the nineteenth century,&examines how architecture &urbanism in Asia changed in response to the practical needs of foreign trade. In tracing the impact of trade on architectural traditions in both Europe and Asia,this course offers an opportunity to document,organize,analyze& theorize one of the most important forces in the devel. of the world
This seminar surveys preservation from its historical beginnings through contemporary emerging trends, focusing on the changing nature of its ideals and practice in a critical and international perspective. We will explore the role of historic preservation and heritage in cultural politics, historical interpretation, urban development, and planning and design practice.
Open to all, this course concerns the interplay of UNESCO, heritage practices, & tourism in a comparative, international context. We will ask questions concerning definitions of heritage, decision-making concerning heritage resources, tangible & intangible heritage, tourism, & the ties between heritage & economic development. among other questions. While focused on China & the Asia-Pacific Region.
This course examines the history of American building technology. Over the past three centuries, a wide range of materials and techniques have been used to erect the structures in which we live, work, and play. Local buildings will serve as case studies for investigating this technology - from commonplace building materials such as wood, masonry, steel, and concrete to less familiar materials such as structural tile and iron vaulting.
Combining seminar discussions, shop exercises and laboratory exercises, this course explores the material culture of architecture from the perspective of materials science. Material culture is the physical stuff that is part of human life, and includes everything humans make and use including materials we use to shape the environment.
A cultural landscape tells the story of interactions between a natural landscape and cultural groups. In this course we'll focus on the history and development of the Virginia cultural landscape in the regional South, as well as its connections throughout North America and the Atlantic World.
American architecture from the first European contact to the death of Jefferson. Lectures and field trips.
Surveys American architecture from 1800 to the present.
The development of architecture from Thomas Jefferson to Frank Lloyd Wright, along with consideration of issues in housing, landscape design, city planning, and influences from Europe.
Surveys American architecture emphasizing the development of modernism.
Surveys traditional architecture in China, Japan, and Korea, focusing on the main features and monuments of East Asian and landscape architecture.
The history of architecture in modern Japan from Meiji period to the present. Focuses on post-WW II development; discusses the major influential architects such as Tange, Kikutake, Maki, Isozaki, Kurokawa, and Ando.
This course surveys the pre-modern history of gardens and designed landscapes. The sessions follow a roughly chronological sequence, with a thematic focus appropriate to each landscape culture, e.g. water infrastructure and agricultural systems, public and private space, theater and performance, court rituals, horticultural display, natural philosophy and aesthetic theory, visual representation, and the professionalization of landscape design.
This course examines gardens and landscapes of the modern period, tracing the complex relations between innovations in landscape design and social, technological, and ideological developments of the past 200 years. Case studies focus on the United States and Europe, with thematic emphasis on the rise of the bourgeoisie, the public park movement, modernism, environmentalism, the post-war consumer society, and the influence of earthworks/land art.
Topical offerings in architectural history.
Research seminar in select topics in architectural history.
Advanced work on independent research topics by individual students.
Advanced independent research projects by fourth year architectural history students. Prerequisite: Instructor approval and departmental approval of topic.
Required for all entering M.A. students. Introduces research tools and methods for architectural history and related disciplines, reflecting the current breadth of scholarship in the field. Specific research resources are analyzed in terms of their scope, special features, and applications to meeting research and information needs.
This course surveys the pre-modern history of gardens and designed landscapes. The sessions follow a roughly chronological sequence, with a thematic focus appropriate to each landscape culture, e.g. water infrastructure & agricultural systems, public & private space,theater & performance,court rituals,horticultural display,natural philosophy & aesthetic theory,visual representation, & the professionalization of landscape design. Graduates Only.
This course examines gardens and landscapes of the modern period, tracing the complex relations between innovations in landscape design and social, technological, and ideological developments of the past 200 years. Case studies focus on the United States and Europe, with thematic emphasis on the rise of the bourgeoisie, the public park movement, modernism, environmentalism, the post-war consumer society, and the influence of earthworks/land art.
This course examines the art and architecture of Venice from the fifth century until the seventeenth century. We consider the major "nuclei" of the city like Piazza San Marco and personalities that shaped the built and artistic environment -- Codussi, Sansovino, Palladio, & Titian for example. Our study explores the factors that contributed to Venetian art such as political and social context and contact with Byzantine, Islamic and northern Europe.
Special topics pursued in a colloquium.
Internship at World Heritage Site; Monticello or the University of Virginia. Some projects have a digital component. Graduate course will have additional course requirements. Course may include site visits.
This seminar surveys preservation from its historical beginnings through contemporary emerging trends, focusing on the changing nature of its ideals and practice in a critical and international perspective. We will explore the role of historic preservation and heritage in cultural politics, historical interpretation, urban development, and planning and design practice. Graduate course will have additional course requirements.
The Community History Workshop is both an in-depth historical analysis of the architecture, urban form, and planning of a selected community, and a forum for speculative futures and plan making for the community, informed by the historical analysis. This preservation-focused course explores the historical significance of the built landscape as an element in. Graduate course will have additional course requirements.
Explores a variety of approaches to conveying the architectural and cultural history of a community to a diverse public constituency. Builds upon ARH 5602 (Community History Workshop). Also analyzes the preservation implications of the work undertaken in collaboration with students in ARCH 8300 (Community Preservation Studio).
This combined upper level undergraduate and graduate class is a field based seminar on methods of analyzing and recording historic buildings, especially vernacular buildings and landscapes. Students will be introduced to an intensive building analysis geared to understanding change over time. Graduate course will have additional course requirements.
This course surveys the changing ideals, philosophy, and methods that have guided the historic preservation of buildings and landscapes at the University of Virginia. Taught by preservation professionals from the University's Office of the Architect the course will explore in case studies and readings the design and conservation decisions made on the Rotunda. Graduate course will have additional course requirements.
This field-based workshop explores advanced methods of both traditional and digital representation of historic buildings and landscapes. While engaging cutting-edge methods of digital representation, an emphasis will be placed on critical perspectives on storytelling, meaning, and representation. Graduate course will have additional course requirements.
Through lectures, readings, discussions and on-site tutorials, students in this course will learn fieldwork and archival research methodology through a detailed exploration of the historic UVA Birdwood site. Students will analyze and interpret the data collected to prepare field reports and formal architectural drawings explicating the meanings and significance of the site. 9am to 12pm daily, with time spent both on-site and in the studio.
Continuation of Internship in historic preservation/architectural history. 6-8 hours weekly. Course may include site visits. Graduate students will undertake additional course requirements.
Combining seminar discussions, shop exercises and laboratory exercises, this course explores the material culture of architecture from the perspective of materials science. Material culture is the physical stuff that is part of human life, and includes everything humans make and use including materials we use to shape the environment. Graduate course will have additional course requirements.
Advanced work on independent research topics by individual students. Departmental approval of the topic is required.
Surveys architecture from the Ancient to the present. Graduate course will have additional course requirements.
A seminar exploring how racialized inequalities have shaped American cities North & South,past & present,and the influence of racialized urban structures on the idea & experience of race in America. Topics include the effects of segregation,redlining,urban planning,redevelopment,white flight,ghettoization & neoliberal development on the form & culture of American cities & structures of inequality in the US. Graduate level will have additional req.
This class explores the wide range of approaches that have been taken to the complex relationships between body, sex, gender, and the built environment. Some see buildings as a direct expression of sexed bodies (phallic towers and breast-like domes), while others see buildings and settlements as expressions and reiterations of the gender structures of a culture.
This course will introduce students to the tools of visual analysis, reading architectural drawings and the study of architecture as a part of the larger cultural, social and political context of its society. While the course will focus on Western Europe, it will also include topics from the eastern Mediterranean and Asia.
This course will examine architecture and urbanism from around 1400 C.E. to the present, tracing connections and distinctions that have guided the design, uses, and meanings of built environments around the globe. You will be introduced to celebrated buildings and less well-known sites and cities, with particular attention to the aesthetic, social, cultural, and institutional situations in which they developed.
Vernacular Architecture is often understood to be all the built environment that is not 'High Architecture.' This is a profound misunderstanding; Vernacular is any aspect of the built environment examined through the lens of the local AND it is a method of interrogating the relationship between architecture and the human experience. This lecture class enlists global examples to explore the many complex dimensions of vernacular.
This lecture course focuses on cities as centers of cultural, social, and artistic activity. It considers how we define cities, the forces that create and sustain them, and what makes them culturally distinctive. It looks at several cities at their moments of cultural, political, and architectural glory: Istanbul in the 16thcentury, London in the late 17th and 18th centuries, Paris in the 19th century, New York in the 20th century, and Shanghai in the 21st century.
Our course will reconstruct the journey of Ibn Jubayr, a twelfth century Spanish Muslim who recorded his haj from Spain to Mecca. Using his lively travel diary, we will analyze the visual culture and built environment of the medieval Mediterranean and together recreate key sites from his journey with easy to use digital tools such as Neatline.
This course aims to introduce the principal architects, monuments, and themes of fifteenth- and sixteenth-century Italian architecture. The lectures will be varied in approach and scope, some considering broad issues, others focusing on particular architects, buildings, or texts. Special topics will include architectural theory, patronage, villas, gardens, architectural drawing, and urban design.
Examines how notions of gender shaped the production, patronage, and fruition of the visual arts in Italy between 1350 and 1600. Graduate students will undertake additional course requirements.
Tracing the history of architecture and urbanism from 1870 through the 1970s, this course considers how architecture has participated in and responded to shifting aesthetic, technological, social, environmental, and theoretical challenges during this period. While Europe is an important terrain of investigation, the course emphasizes networks of exchange with Latin America, North Africa, Turkey, India, and Japan.
As the construction of cities redistributes its activities across the world in the twenty-first century, this course considers the ways in which architecture and architects are changed by a complex shifting field of forces. These forces include critical and ethical discourses, digital media, global finance and trade, developments in materials science, environmental awareness, and geo-political strategies.
Topical offerings in architectural history.
A study of cultural exchanges and interactions in architecture between East and West. Major events and master architects like F.L. Wright and L. Kahn who contributed to the exchanges are discussed. The forms and meaning of East-West architecture are compared.
The history of Buddhist architecture and allied arts in the Buddhist world which includes East, South, and Southeast Asia. Lecture starts from the Indian stupas and ends in Japanese Zen gardens.
This course explores how archaeological and architectural evidence can be used to enhance our understanding of the slave societies that evolved in the early-modern Atlantic world. The primary focus is the Chesapeake and the British Caribbean, the later exemplified by Jamaica and Nevis. The course is structured around a series of data-analysis projects that draw on the Digital Archaeological Archive of Comparative Slavery.
An introduction to analytical methods in historical archaeology, their theoretical motivation, and their practical application in the interpretation of the archaeological record of the early Chesapeake. The use of computers in the analysis of real archaeological data is emphasized.
This course examines current archaeological approaches to the reconstruction and explanation of the ways in which humans at once shaped and adapted to past landscapes. It emphasizes current theory as well as GIS and statistical methods for the analysis of diverse data - from pollen spectra to topography. The course is structured around a series of projects in which students will have an opportunity to make sense of real archaeological data.
This course presents a series of case studies on trading events between Asia & Europe from Renaissance to the nineteenth century,&examines how architecture &urbanism in Asia changed in response to the practical needs of foreign trade. In tracing the impact of trade on architectural traditions in both Europe and Asia,this course offers an opportunity to document,organize,analyze& theorize one of the most important forces in the devel. of the world
This course investigates rural heritage sites, communities, and areas in Virginia's countryside in a context of historic trends and national practice. Exploring principles of historic preservation and land conservation, students will develop a critical understanding of the interactions of nature and culture in the settlement, development, & evolution of the countryside as part of an urban/rural continuum. Graduate course will have additional course requirements.
Open to all, this course concerns the interplay of UNESCO, heritage practices, & tourism in a comparative, international context. We will ask questions concerning definitions of heritage, decision-making concerning heritage resources, tangible & intangible heritage, tourism, & the ties between heritage & economic development, among other questions. While focused on China & the Asia-Pacific Region. Graduate students will have additional course requirements.
This course examines the history of American building technology. Over the past three centuries, a wide range of materials and techniques have been used to erect the structures in which we live, work, and play. Local buildings will serve as case studies for investigating this technology - from commonplace building materials such as wood, masonry, steel, and concrete to less familiar materials such as structural tile and iron vaulting. Graduate course will have additional course work.
A cultural landscape tells the story of interactions between a natural landscape and cultural groups. In this course we'll focus on the history and development of the Virginia cultural landscape in the regional South, as well as its connections throughout North America and the Atlantic World. The graduate course will have additional course requirements.
Thomas Jefferson, architecture was an art that encompassed more than simply shelter but embodied cultural and political values. This course will focus on his architectural and other designs (gardens, interiors, towns, campuses) and his interest in the arts. Graduate students will undertake additional course requirements. Course may include field trips.
A survey of American architecture from the first European contact to 1800 including Jefferson, urban form and landscape design.
A survey of American architecture from 1800 to present including landscape and urban design.
The development of architecture from Thomas Jefferson to Frank Lloyd Wright, along with consideration of issues in housing, landscape design, city planning, and influences from Europe.
A survey of American architecture emphasizing the development of modernism.
A survey and introduction of traditional architecture and allied arts in China, Japan and Korea. Study of the main features and major monuments of East Asian architecture and landscape architecture.
The history of architecture in modern Japan from the Meji period to the present. Focus on post-WW II development. Influential architects, like Tange, Kikutake, Maki, Isozaki, Kurokawa, and Ando are discussed along with urban issues.
Independent research on topics selected by individual students in consultation with a faculty advisor.
Required for candidates for the degree of Master of Architectural History. An investigation of the nature of architectural history, materials, methods, and writings.
This course introduces the critical practice of curating exhibitions for the public realm. It scrutinizes influential exhibitions in historical contexts to understand their impact on society and on the design professions, especially in setting new agendas. During the semester, students will research, curate and mount an exhibition at the School of Architecture based on a given archive and theme.
We will critically assess the role of digital humanities in art and architectural history through an analysis of extant digital projects, discussions of ethical concerns, and data visualizations as well as a wide range of available tools such as GIS, Storymap, view-shed analysis, and 3D visualizations. We will consider best practices in digital site development employing a design thinking process. Graduate course will have additional course requirements.
The Asian-African conference in 1955, known as the Bandung Conference, imagined a movement of newly independent nations of Asia & Africa, joining mutual solidarity to support the development & cultural as well as political independence. In this seminar, students will study the history of the Bandung project, the notion of freedom, liberation, independence, & sovereignty, as well as the material culture & built environment. Grad version has additional requirements.
Topical offerings in architectural history.
Special research topics pursued in a seminar.
This seminar surveys preservation from its historical beginnings through contemporary emerging trends, focusing on the changing nature of its ideals and practice in a critical and international perspective.We will explore the role of historic preservation and heritage in cultural politics, historical interpretation, urban development, & planning & design practice. Graduate Students will undertake additional course requirements.
This class is a field based seminar on methods of analyzing and recording historic buildings, especially vernacular buildings and landscapes. Students will be introduced to intensive building analysis geared to understanding change over time, while learning methods of careful field recording for both documentation and analysis. Graduate students will undertake additional course requirements. Course may include site visits.
Combining seminar discussions, shop exercises and laboratory exercises, this course explores the material culture of architecture from the perspective of materials science. Material culture is the physical stuff that is part of human life, and includes everything humans make and use including materials we use to shape the environment. Graduate course will have additional course requirements.
Public Humanities and Cultural Change introduces undergraduate students to the power of place and story in the shaping of the American imagination. The multi-disciplinary course centers 1) engaging complex pasts, 2) place-based and community-based methodologies, 3) the inherently political nature of public humanities, and 4) impactful public engagement, especially across difference. Graduate version has additional requirements.
Supervised teaching research under the guidance of a faculty supervisor, Permission of the Chair.
Preparation and completion of a thesis..
Research on topic for Master Thesis.
For Thesis Preparation, taken before a thesis director has been selected.
Topical offerings in architectural history.
Special research topics pursued in a seminar.
Seminar discussion of special research topics. Past topics have discussed anthropomorphism in Renaissance and Baroque architecture; Alberti's De re Aedificatoria; Renaissance and Baroque buildings in their larger settings; the Rome of Julius II; Renaissance and Baroque classification of Buildings; Renaissance Space; Brunelleschi and Alberti; Renaissance urbanism; Rome and the Renaissance; and the Renaissance palace.
Special research topics pursued in a seminar.
Special research topics pursued in a seminar.
Special research topics pursued in a seminar.
Special research topics pursued in a seminar.
Advanced work on independent research topics by individual students. Departmental approval of the topic is required.
For doctoral dissertation, taken under the supervision of a dissertation director.