Introductory description

This module is designed to introduce students to the study of architecture and to the issues involved in its interpretation.

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.

Building and architecture
Terms and terminology of architecture
Coventry's first two cathedrals
Major civic churches, Coventry Holy Trinity and Warwick St Mary
Lichfield cathedral
The 19th-century cathedral: St Chad’s Birmingham and Liverpool Anglican
The 20th-century response: Coventry Cathedral and Liverpool Metropolitan
The impact of new materials.

Learning outcomes

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

• Demonstrate a broad knowledge of the history and materials of ecclesiastical architecture
• Demonstrate knowledge of relationships between architectural form and function
• Read and interpret architectural plans
• Present an argument, 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 sophisticated visual analysis
• Demonstrate bibliographical skills at an appropriate level
• Demonstrate critical analysis of cultural artefacts in their context

Indicative reading list

C.Cunningham, Stones of witness: church architecture and function (Alan Sutton, 1999)
W. Curtis, Modern architecture since 1900 (Phaidon, rev.ed. 2000)
N.Pevsner, An Outline of European architecture (Penguin, 1980)
N.Pevsner, A history of building types (Princeton UP, 1979)
R. Dixon and S. Muthesius, Victorian Architecture, (London 1985)
J. Curl, Book of Victorian Churches, (London 1995)
A.W.N Pugin, Contrasts, and The True Principles of Pointed or Christian Architecture, new edn (Reading 2004), other edns available
R. Hill, God’s Architect: Pugin and the Building of Romantic Britain, (Harmondsworth 2007)
Nicola Coldstream, Medieval Architecture (Oxford 2002)
Alec Clifton Taylor, The Cathedrals of England (London 1989)

View reading list on Talis Aspire

Subject specific skills

• Demonstrate a broad knowledge of the history and materials of ecclesiastical architecture
• demonstrate knowledge of relationships between architectural form and function
• Read and interpret architectural plans
• Demonstrate sophisticated visual analysis
• Demonstrate critical analysis of cultural artefacts in their context

Transferable skills

• present an argument, 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