Architecture

A survey of architectural history in the West, from ancient Egypt to 20th-century America, stressing a critical approach to architectural form through the analysis of context, expressive content, function, structure, style, and theory. Discussion will focus on key monuments and readings that have shaped the history of architecture. Two lectures, one preceptorial.

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 completed at the end of the term. Two studio classes, five hours total per week.

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 completed at the end of the term. Two studio classes, five hours total per week.

A broad overview of the discipline of architecture: its history, theories, methodologies, and 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, precepts, and studio sessions, students will acquire a working knowledge of key texts, buildings, and architectural concepts. Two lectures, one preceptorial.

The first in a series of design studios offered to students interested in majoring in architecture. The course will introduce architecture as an "impure'' plastic art, inseparable from a network of forces acting upon it. The student will be confronted with progressively complex exercises involving spatial relations in two dimensions, three dimensions, and time. The course will stress experimentation while providing an analytical and creative framework to develop an understanding of structure and materials as well as necessary skills in drawing and model making. Two three-hour studios with lectures included.

The course focuses on the social forces that shape design thinking. Its objective is to introduce architectural and urban design issues to build design and critical thinking skills from a multidisciplinary perspective. The studio is team-taught from faculty across disciplines to expose students to the multiple forces within which design operates.

This course sets out two goals: the first is to understand the theories and techniques of geometry in architectural representation; the second is to develop the student's drawing sensibilities through 5 thematic drawing projects engaging both digital and manual techniques. Each new theme will be introduced through a lecture, tutorial, and discussion including a number of specific readings related to the topic at hand. The second class will be an individual desk crit to discuss the development of each drawing project. The third class will consist of a group pin-up review of each drawing experiment.

This course will examine different crises confronting cities in the 21st century. Topics will range from immigration, to terrorism, shrinking population, traffic congestion, pollution, energy crisis, housing needs, water wars, race riots, extreme weather conditions, war and urban operations. The range of cities will include Los Angles, New Orleans, Paris, Logos, Caracas, Havana, New York, Hong Kong, and Baghdad among others.

The course presents global anthropogenic impacts on the environment and their relationship to sustainable design. It focuses on understanding principles of applied sciences, and how IoT and Digital Fabrication facilitates rapid and deployable sensors and systems to make and analyze designs. Part 1) Global Change and Environmental Impacts: studying influences on basic natural systems and cycles and how we can evaluate them to rethink building design. Part 2) Designing Sustainable Systems: address learned synergies between making buildings more efficient and less prone to disease transmission through alternative heating cooling and ventilation.

This course will examine the architecture of the Romans, from its mythic beginnings (as recounted, for example, by Vitruvius) to the era of the high empire. Topics will include: city planning; the transformation of the building trades; civic infrastructure; and the full breadth of Roman structures, both public and private. For department majors, this course satisfies the Group 1 distribution requirement.

What was the Renaissance? This class explores the major artistic currents that swept northern and southern Europe from the fourteenth through the sixteenth centuries in an attempt to answer that question. In addition to considering key themes such as the revival of antiquity, imitation and license, religious devotion, artistic style, and the art market, we will survey significant works by artists and architects including Donatello, Raphael, Leonardo, Jan van Eyck, Dürer, and Michelangelo. Precepts will focus on direct study of original objects, with visits to Princeton's collections of paintings, sculpture, prints, drawings, books and maps.

Known as "Bridges", this course focuses on structural engineering as a new art form begun during the Industrial Revolution and flourishing today in long-span bridges, thin shell concrete vaults and tall buildings. Through critical analysis of major works, students are introduced to the methods of evaluating engineered structures as an art form. Students study the works and ideas of individual engineers through their basic calculations, their builder's mentality and their aesthetic imagination. Illustrations are taken from various cities and countries, demonstrating the influence of culture on our built environment. Two lectures, one precept.

Known as "Bridges", this course focuses on structural engineering as a new art form begun during the Industrial Revolution and flourishing today in long-span bridges, thin shell concrete vaults, and tall buildings. Through laboratory experiments students study the scientific basis for structural performance and thereby connect external forms to the internal forces in the major works of structural engineers. Illustrations are taken from various cities and countries thus demonstrating the influence of culture on our built environment. Two lectures, one three-hour laboratory.

Architectural theory, criticism, and historiography from the Renaissance to the present, emphasizing the transformations of the classical Vitruvian tradition and theories of modern architecture from the end of the 17th century to the 1930s. Architectural thought in its institutional and cultural context and as it relates to design method and practice. Two lectures, one preceptorial.

An introduction to the nature of building. Emphasis will be placed on understanding construction methods, materials, and evaluating the processes by which architects formulate strategies to execute their design ideas. A continuing theme will be to evaluate the relationship between architectural design and building systems and technology. Two lectures, one two-hour laboratory.

Focusing on the mutual reception of Italian and American architecture 1920-2018, we take into account divergences of urban form and architectural tradition that separate the two cultures alongside convergences of theory and practice. Starting with the impact of Wright on Mollino and Moretti, we move to the critical fortune of Organic Architecture in the postwar work of Scarpa and to the diverse roles of Ponti and BBPR in the USA, culminating with the dialogue between the New York Five and Italy in the 1970s. The course ends with an overview of contemporary dialogues between Italian and American architects, theoreticians and critics.

The 18th century saw the emergence of the first architectural and engineering schools. Architects and engineers started to compete all over Europe in a time when technical knowledge and efficiency were becoming as important as experience and learnedness. This course provides students with a survey of 18th-century European architecture in the light of the rivalry between two trades on the verge of professionalization. The first weeks will be devoted to the actors of the building world before focusing on the fields of contest between architects and engineers and how this battle defined the nature of each profession, between art and science.

An introduction to the materials and methods of painting. The areas to be covered are color and its interaction, the use of form and scale, painting from a model, painting objects with a concern for their mass, and interaction with light. Two three-hour studio classes, five hours a week.

An introduction to the materials and methods of painting. The areas to be covered are color and its interaction, the use of form and scale, painting from a model, painting objects with a concern for their mass, and interaction with light. Two studio classes, five hours total per week.

European architecture from 1420 to the mid-18th century with particular emphasis on its historical and social background. The various architectural movements--Renaissance, baroque, and rococo--are studied in terms of important architects and buildings especially of Italy, France, and England. For department majors, this course satisfies the Group 2 distribution requirement. Two lectures, one preceptorial.

This junior studio will focus on a number of specific design techniques in a highly regimented manner. We will continue to sharpen our skills in model-building, with emphasis placed on the value of accurate representation both by fostering craft and by exploring novel techniqueso f fashioning and representing precise geometries.

An introductory course on materials used civil and environmental engineering. Lectures on structure and properties of construction materials including concrete, steel, glass and timber; fracture mechanics; strength testing; mechanisms of deterioration; impact of material manufacturing on the environment. Labs on brittle fracture, heat treatment of steel, strength of concrete, mechanical properties of wood. One lecture, one three-hour laboratory. Prerequisites: CEE 205 or MAE223.

This course will examine the possibilities of representation and information in the virtual realm. Through a series of modeling/rendering/compositing exercises, presentations, and in-class discussions, students will investigate the evolving relationship between architecture and its means of representation, as well as broader issues of technology and culture. The course will provide a firm understanding of current computer software. One three-hour seminar.

This course introduces students to the ways that policy, design, and citizen activism shaped affordable housing in the United States from the early 20th century to the present. We explore privately-developed tenements and row houses, government-built housing, publicly-subsidized suburban homes and cooperatives, as well as housing developed through incentives and subsidies. Students will analyze the balance between public and private, free market and subsidy, and preservation and renewal. Close attention will be paid to the role of race in structuring the relationship between policymakers, property owners, renters, and homeowners.

Housing ideas and urban projects of architects and social scientists since the mid-19th century as a response to industrialization, the development of the welfare state, the rise of professionalism, and the dispersion of democratic culture. Material drawn from architecture, urban planning, political theory, sociology, and social psychology. One three-hour seminar.

Selected issues in relationship to the development of architectural history and theory as critical disciplines, emphasizing the historiography and methodology of these disciplines. Course focuses on particular critics through a close reading and analysis of selected texts. One three-hour seminar.

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.

What kind of public architecture is appropriate for a democracy? Should public spaces and buildings reflect democratic values - such as transparency and accessibility - or is the crucial requirement for democratic architecture that the process of arriving at decisions about the built environment is as participatory as possible? The course will introduce students to different theories of democracy, to different approaches to architecture, and to many examples of government architecture from around the world (the U.S., Germany, and China in particular), via images and films. Might include one or two field trips.

VR/AR can enable engineers, scientists, and architects to plan and conduct their work in fundamentally new ways, visualize and communicate their findings more effectively, and work in environments that are otherwise difficult, impossible, or too costly to experience in person. This course explores the basic concepts of effective VR/AR experiences, builds skills needed to develop and support innovative science, engineering, or architecture projects. In the second half of the semester, working in small teams, students develop, implement VR/AR projects of their choice.

Topics will focus on major figures, such as Palladio, Wren, and Piranesi; centers, such as Rome and Venice; or themes, such as architectural theory, the legacy of classical antiquity, and the villa. For department majors, this course satisfies the Group 2 distribution requirement. One three-hour seminar.

In 19- and 20-c. debates that crossed borders among disciplines including psychology, sociology, anthropology, art history, philosophy, and political theory, empathy and alienation emerged as key terms to describe relations among human beings, works of art, and commodities. This seminar addresses the dynamics of empathy and alienation across a range of discourses and artifacts in European culture. Our explorations of how relationships between empathy and alienation were variously conceptualized in psychological aesthetics, psychoanalysis, and critical theory will aim to open up new perspectives on recent debates about identity and affect.

The Western city, American and European, has undergone a number of mutations since the Renaissance. This course will explore the complex relationships between different cities and architecture, between "real" cities and "fictional" architectural cities. Possible topics might include: urbanization as it affects contemporary life; the American vs. European city; the state of New Jersey, the exurban state "par excellence." One three-hour seminar.

The senior thesis (498-499) is a year-long project in which students complete a substantial piece of research and scholarship under the supervision and advisement of a Princeton faculty member. While a year-long thesis is due in the student's final semester of study, the work requires sustained investment and attention throughout the academic year.

The senior thesis (498-499) is a year-long project in which students complete a substantial piece of research and scholarship under the supervision and advisement of a Princeton faculty member. While a year-long thesis is due in the student's final semester of study, the work requires sustained investment and attention throughout the academic year.