Introductory description

This module looks at the relationship of modernist architecture to tradition and historic cities.

Module aims

Outline syllabus

This is an indicative module outline only to give an indication of the sort of topics that may be covered. Actual sessions held may differ.

1. Introduction: Modernism and its discontents
2. The International Style versus national modernisms
3. Conservation from SPAB to Carlo Scarpa
4. Conservative surgery and the Townscape movement
5. Housing form and the creation of community
6. Universities and New Towns
7. Traffic and Towns: Planning the Postwar City
8. The conservation movement
9. Modern Churches: Coventry Cathedral and Vatican II

Learning outcomes

By the end of the module, students should be able to:

• Demonstrate an understanding of the contested place of history and tradition within modern architectural practice
• Demonstrate an understanding of the stylistic and national varieties of architectural modernism(s)
• Relate the urban history of the Veneto or the English Midlands in the twentieth century to wider trends and ideas in international architectural culture.
• Command a working knowledge of the architectural history of the period.
• Read and interpret maps and architectural plans.
• Demonstrate knowledge of relationships between architectural form and function.
• Situate buildings and urban developments within their historical, social and political contexts.
• initiate and sustain group discussion through intelligent questioning and debate at an appropriate level
• ability to undertake research and to write up the results in the form of a well-structured argument at an appropriate level
• familiarity with essential ICT skills
• ability to collaborate effectively with others
• show understanding of diverse viewpoints
• ability to find, select, organize and synthesize evidence
• ability to formulate a sustained argument
• think conceptually and independently at an appropriate level
• Demonstrate bibliographical skills at an appropriate level
• Produce critical analysis of cultural artefacts in their context

Indicative reading list

Nicholas Bullock, Building the Post-War World Modern Architecture and Reconstruction in Britain (London and New York, 2002).

Louise Campbell, Coventry Cathedral

Forty, Adrian, Concrete and Culture: A Material History (London, 2012).

Diane Yvonne Ghirardo, Italy: Modern Architectures in History

Miles Glendinning, The Conservation Movement: a History of Architectural Preservation (2013)

Caroline and Jeremy Gould, Coventry: The Making of a Modern City, 1939-1973 (London, 2016)

Goldhagen, Sarah, ‘Something to Talk About: Modernism, Discourse, Style’, The Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians, 64.2 (2005), pp. 144-167

Peter Hall, Cities of Tomorrow – an Intellectual History of Urban Planning and Design since 1880

Stefan Muthesius, The Postwar University: Utopianist Campus and College (Yale University Press, 2000)

Aldo Rossi, Architecture of the City (1966)

Colin Rowe and Fred Koester, Collage City (1978)

Colin St John Wilson, Other tradition of modern architecture: The uncompleted project (2007)

View reading list on Talis Aspire

Subject specific skills

By the end of the module students should be able to

• Demonstrate an understanding of the contested place of history and tradition within modern architectural practice
• Demonstrate an understanding of the stylistic and national varieties of architectural modernism(s)
• Relate the urban history of the Veneto or the English Midlands in the twentieth century to wider trends and ideas in international architectural culture.
• Command a working knowledge of the architectural history of the period.
• Read and interpret maps and architectural plans.
• Demonstrate knowledge of relationships between architectural form and function.
• Situate buildings and urban developments within their historical, social and political contexts.

Transferable skills

By the end of the module students should be able to

• initiate and sustain group discussion through intelligent questioning and debate at an appropriate level
• ability to undertake research and to write up the results in the form of a well-structured argument at an appropriate level
• familiarity with essential ICT skills
• ability to collaborate effectively with others
• show understanding of diverse viewpoints
• ability to find, select, organize and synthesize evidence
• ability to formulate a sustained argument
• think conceptually and independently at an appropriate level
• Employ sophisticated conceptual and visual analysis
• Demonstrate bibliographical skills at an appropriate level
• Produce critical analysis of cultural artefacts in their context