Undergraduate
ARC 203Introduction to Architectural Thinking(LA)The objective of this course is to provide a broad overview of the discipline of architecture: its history, theories, methodologies; its manners of thinking and working. Rather than a chronological survey, the course will be organized thematically, with examples drawn from a range of historical periods as well as contemporary practice. Through lectures, readings, and discussions every student will acquire a working knowledge of key texts, buildings and architectural concepts.
ARC 308/ART 328History of Architectural Theory(HA)This course offers a history of architectural theory, criticism, and historiography from the Renaissance to the present, emphasizing the texts, media and institutions that have supported architecture's claim to modernity since the late 17th Century. Architectural thought is examined in its social and cultural context as it relates both to the Western philosophical tradition and to design method and practice.
ARC 311Building Science and Technology: Building SystemsThis course introduces students to the art and science of building. Emphasis will be placed gaining an understanding of construction materials, methods and the process of translating design ideas into built form. Specific topics are introduced each week during the two one-hour lectures. These topics are then further explored, and students gain hands on experience, each week during the two-hour laboratory component of the course.
ARC 374Computational Design(LA)This course is an introduction to computational design using a range of techniques from NURBS modeling, simple programming and parametric modeling to basic digital fabrication. Through a series of computational exercises, presentations, and in-class discussions, we will investigate the evolving relationship between models of design and generative design issues of technology and culture in architecture.
ARC 401Theories of Housing and Urbanism(SA)The seminar will explore theories of urbanism and housing by reading canonical writers who have created distinctive and influential ideas about urbanism and housing from the nineteenth century to the present. The writers are architects, planners, and social scientists. The theories are interdisciplinary. One or two major work will be discussed each week. We will critically evaluate their relevance and significance for architecture now. Topics include: modernism, functionalism and social change; technological futurism; social critiques of urban design, the New Urbanism; the networked city; and sustainable urbanism.
ARC 403Topics in the History and Theory of Architecture(LA)We will consider that a successful thesis entails the meeting of a socio-cultural problematic with a specific disciplinary issue, that the confluence and exchange between these external and internal situations can instigate an original contribution to architectural knowledge and technique. The "newness" of this contribution comes through a particular kind of repetition, a wily swerve within the established canon. The seminar will introduce disciplinary methods and themes through close readings of architectural texts and objects and will provide a workshop for the testing and elaboration of architectural polemics through directed research.
ARC 404Advanced Design StudioThe Advanced Design Studio examines architecture as cultural production, taking into account its capacity to structure both physical environments and social organizations. A specific problem or topic area will be set by each studio critic, and may include a broad range of building types, urban districts or regional landscapes, questions of sustainability, building materials or building performance. Studio work will include research and data gathering, analysis and program definition. Students are expected to master a full range of design media, including drawing, model-making and computer-aided design.
ARC 425The OrdinaryThis course examines the notion of the "ordinary," and the ways in which it has been exploited as a site of inquiry in the architectural debate, particularly from the mid-1950s to the present. Structured upon a series of projects dealing with the scrutiny of so-called existing conditions--from Alison and Peter Smithson to Aldo van Eyck, Reyner Banham to Robert Venturi and Denise Scott Brown, Rem Koolhaas to Atelier Bow-Wow--we will interrogate the ways in which architecture has dealt with emergent and seemingly irreducible urban phenomena, as well as has by the same token constructed a peculiar practice of architectural theory.
ART 320/ARC 320Rome, the Eternal City(LA)The main goal of this course is to acquaint students with the major architectural monuments of ancient and post-classical Rome, paying particular attention to creative transformations of form and meaning. The urban development of the city will be stressed and used to provide a contextual reading of individual buildings and public spaces.
ART 351/ARC 351Traditional Chinese Architecture(LA)Thematic introduction to traditional Chinese architecture, urban design and garden building, with attention to principles and symbolism of siting and design; building techniques; modularity of structures and interchangeability of palace, temple, tomb, and domestic design; regional variation.
ART 445/ARC 445Topics in the History and Theory of Architecture in Early-Modern Europe: The Rome of Giovanni Battista Piranesi(LA)The focus of the seminar will be G.B. Piranesi (1720-1778), as architect, antiquarian, polemicist, dealer, and graphic artist. We will endeavor to see Piranesi in context, to understand his accomplishment against the background of his adopted city and the learned culture that flourished there. Piranesi's publications are well represented in Princeton collections, providing opportunities for those who wish to work closely with original sources.
ART 459/ARC 459Anxious Megalopolis: Shanghai's Urban Cultures (1842-2012)(LA)From a small village and market town, Shanghai grew to become a bustling port, colonialist beachhead, hub of international commerce in the 30s, and a major testing ground for contemporary architecture today. As a crucial interface between East and West, this city was a place where national and transnational cultures fought and flourished, and stereotypes were forged and discarded. This seminar will cover the emergence of Shanghai's vibrant urban culture as it evolved into the complex megalopolis of today. There will be a trip to Shanghai over fall break funded by the department.
VIS 201/ARC 201Introductory Drawing(LA)This course approaches drawing as a way of thinking and seeing. Students will be introduced to a range of drawing issues, as well as a variety of media, including charcoal, graphite, ink and oil stick. Subject matter includes still life, the figure, landscape and architecture. Representation, abstraction and working from imagination will be explored. A structured independent project will be given at the end of the semester.
VIS 203/ARC 327Introductory Painting(LA)An introduction to the materials and methods of painting. The areas to be covered are specifically color and its interaction, the use of form and scale, painting from a model, painting objects with a concern for their mass and its interaction with light.
VIS 215/ARC 215/CWR 215Graphic Design(LA)This studio course introduces students to graphic design with a particular emphasis on typography. Students engage typographic history through readings highlighting major shifts in print technologies. The readings provide the substance of studio assignments: students begin in the typography studio with letterpress printing and metal type, proceed to photo-typsetting and mechanical paste-up, finish in the computer lab using industry-standard typesetting and page-layout softwares. This course develops a synthesis of hands-on graphic design skills with a vocabulary and critical framework for speaking about them.