YALE UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF ARCHITECTURE FALL 2020

Alexander Purves, Architecture 150a

Architecture 150a: Introduction to Architecture Fall 2020

Instructor: Alexander Purves

Teaching Fellows: Natalie Broton, Ruchi Dattani, Kate Fritz, Liang Hu, Luka Pajovic, Nicole Ratajczak

This course is an introduction to the language of architecture, both graphic and verbal. It does not look at buildings in a
historical sequence, but rather through a number of different lenses, each one of which focuses on a different aspect of
architecture – from the immediate and tactile to the contextual and theoretical. Primarily it is an opportunity to train your
eyes to see – to observe the built world around you with greater precision and understanding.

Course Organization:

Lectures will be scheduled on Monday and Wednesday of each week. These lectures will be recorded and accessible though
Canvas at the students’ discretion during that week. The class will be divided into six discussion sections which will meet
once each week. They will be led by Teaching Fellows drawn from students in the last year of the graduate program.
Weekly assignments will be reviewed and discussed at these meetings. The section meetings will be held virtually, but their
specific format has yet to be determined.

Requirements:

Because the best way to see something is to draw it, drawing assignments are given weekly. These drawings will be made
in a sketchbook which is maintained throughout the semester. Although the lectures will remain available on-line, students
are also strongly encouraged to take lecture notes in the sketchbook. Completed assignments will be reviewed weekly.
One design problem and one paper are also assigned. Additionally, it is anticipated that the final project will be a choice
between a design problem and a paper. It will be due during the week of November 30, the last week of classes. There is
no final examination.

Weekly reading assignments are to be completed during the week in which they are assigned. Required readings are
supplemented by a list of recommended texts. Most of the required readings are on Canvas Course Reserve, and most of
the texts that are assigned with greatest frequency are available for purchase or rental at the Yale Bookstore, which will
ship these texts to the students.

Grading:

It is important to note that drawing experience is not required. Throughout the semester, emphasis will be placed on
application, effort and improvement. Grading will take into account the sketchbooks, the paper, design assignments with
emphasis on the final design problem. Participation in discussion sections is also stressed.

Viewing all lectures and attending all discussion sections is mandatory. Late assignments will not be accepted without a
Dean’s excuse, and unexcused absences will affect your grade.

Materials:

Sketchbook: plain white paper (not lined or gridded), bound. 11”x14” is a good size, but not smaller than 8.5”x11”. This
book will be used for the sketchbook assignments, and it is strongly recommended that it be used for lecture notes as well.
A variety of drawings instruments (pencils, pens, charcoal, etc.) will be discussed at your first section meeting.
Schedule: (tentative) Lectures normally 9:25 – 10:15 AM
Section meetings TBD

1. Aug. 31 M Introduction (Purves) Lecture

Sep. 2 W Boundaries (Purves) Lecture
4 F (TBA)

2. Sep. 7 M Surface (Purves) Lecture

9 W Natural Light (Purves) Lecture
Section Meetings: Sketchbook Assignment #1 (Sketching from literature) due

3. Sep. 14 M Materials & Structure l Purves) Lecture

16 W Materials & Structure ll (Purves) Lecture
Section Meetings: Sketchbook Assignment #2 (Natural Light) due

4. Sep. 21 M Drawing Architecture l (Purves) Lecture

23 W Drawing Architecture Il (Purves) Lecture
Section Meetings: Sketchbook Assignment #3 (Material and Structure) due

5. Sep. 28 M Spatial Organization l (Purves) Lecture

30 W Spatial Organization Il (Purves) Lecture
Section Meetings: Sketchbook Assignment #4 (Architectural Drawing) due

6. Oct. 5 M Function l (Purves) Lecture

7 W Function Il (Purves) Lecture
Section Meetings: Sketchbook Assignment #5 (Room Drawing) due

7. Oct. 12 M Climate (Purves) Lecture

14 W Gardens (Purves) Lecture
Section Meetings: Design Problem One due

8. Oct. 19 M Building on the Land (Purves) Lecture

21 W Building Groups (Purves) Lecture
. 23 F Combined Section Meeting: Sketchbook Review

9. Oct. 26 M Urban Patterns l (Purves) Lecture

28 W Urban Patterns ll (Purves) Lecture
Section Meetings: Sketchbook Assignment #6 (Collaborative Drawing) due

10. Nov. 2 M Planning the Public Realm (Garvin) Lecture

4 W Suburbs (Purves) Lecture
Section Meetings: Sketchbook Assignment #7 (Urban Journey) due

11. Nov. 9 M Architectural Theory l (Plattus) Lecture

11 W Architectural Theory ll (Plattus) Lecture
Section Meetings: Paper due

12. Nov. 16 M Architects and Clients (Purves) Lecture

18 W TBA (Easterling) Lecture (TBC)
Section Meetings

Thanksgiving Recess

13. Nov. 30 M The Nature of Ornament (Bloomer) Lecture (TBC)

Dec. 2 W Continuity (Purves) Lecture
Design Problem Two or Paper due
Reading List: Fall Term 2020 (8/4/20)

“e”= electronic reserve

Week One: August 31 – September 4; Lectures: “Introduction – Yale Center for British Art”; “Boundaries”

Required:

e Bloomer/Moore: Body, Memory, and Architecture, pp. 31-44

Res: Arts ; Res: Bass NA2542.4/+B57 (LC)

e Kahn, Louis I.: "Silence and Light" pp. 228 - 235

"The Room, the Street and Human Agreement" pp. 252 -
260 in Louis Kahn: Essential Texts
Res: Arts

e Pallasmaa, Juhani: “The Lived Metaphor” in Primary Architectural Images

Res: Arts (Xerox copy)

e Zumthor, Peter: “A Way of Looking at Things”, “The Hard Core of Beauty” in

Thinking Architecture pp. 9-34

Recommended:

Bachelard, Gaston: The Poetics of Space

Bass B2430/253/p613

Cadwell, Michael Strange Details

Res (Brooks): Arts NA680/C25X/2007 (LC)

Colomina, Beatriz Privacy and Publicity

Res: Arts NA2543/M37/C56X/1994 (LC)

Hildebrand, Grant Origins of Architectural Pleasure

Arts NA2500/H54X/1999 (LC)

Langer, Susanne: Feeling and Form esp. pp. 92-103

Arts J25/953L; Bass BF458/L345

Norberg-Schulz, C.: Existence, Space and Architecture

Arts NA2765/N67 (LC); Bass NA2765/N67 (LC)

O’Gorman, James: ABC of Architecture

Res: Arts NA2530/036X/1998 (LC)

e Rasmussen, S.E.: +Experiencing Architecture Ch. 1-4,

Res: Arts; Bass NA2550/R313/1964 (LC)

Thiis-Evensen, T.: Archetypes in Architecture

SML NA2840/T47/1989
Week Two: September 7 - 11; Lectures: “Surface”; “Natural Light”

Required:

e Le Corbusier: "Techniques are the Very Basis of Poetry" pp.35-56 in

Precisions on the Present State of Architecture and City Planning
Res: Arts ; Res: Bass NA680/L3613/1991(LC)

e Le Corbusier Towards a New Architecture: “Three Reminders to Architects:

(Jeanneret-Gris, C.E.) I Mass, II Surface; Regulating Lines; Architecture:III Pure Creation of
the Mind”
Res: Arts ; Res: Bass NA2520/J4313/1976 (LC)

e Ruskin, John: "The Nature of Gothic" in The Stones of Venice

Res: Arts; Res: Bass NA1121/V4/R87/1981 (LC)

e Scott, Geoffrey “The Romantic Fallacy: Naturalism and the

Picturesque” pp.66-70 in The Architecture of Humanism
Res: Arts NA2500/S36/1980

Recommended:

Le Corbusier “Architecture in Everything, City Planning in Everything” pp. 67 – 83 in

Precisions on the Present State of Architecture and City Planning
(op.cit)

e Scott, Geoffrey +The Architecture of Humanism

Res: Arts

e Rasmussen, S.E.: +Experiencing Architecture, Ch. 7, 9

Res: Arts; Bass NA2550/R313/1964 (LC)

Tanizaki: In Praise of Shadows

Arts and Bass PL839/A75/I513 (LC)

Week Three: September 7 - 11; Lectures: “Materials & Structure I & ll”

Required:

e Aalto, Alvar “The Relationship between Architecture, Painting and

Sculpture” in Synopsis pp.24-26 Res: Arts

e Kahn, Louis “Monumentality” pp. 21 – 31 in Louis Kahn: Essential

Texts Res: Arts

e O’Gorman, James: “B is for Firmitas” from ABC of Architecture: pp.31 - 63

Res: Arts

e Seckler, Eduard F. “Structure, Construction, Tectonics”

Res: Arts (Xerox copy)

e Wright, F.L.: Autobiography: "Book Four: Freedom: Youth" through“ The New
Integrity”
Res: Arts; Res: Bass NJ18/W94/A3/1943,1977
 e Wright, F.L.: Writings and Buildings pp. 222 - 227
Res: Arts J18/W94/960K

e Zumthor, Peter: “Teaching Architecture, Learning Architecture” in Thinking Architecture

pp. 57-59

Recommended:

Allen, Edward: How Buildings Work (2nd Ed.) esp. pp. 153-183
Res: Arts

Mainstone, Rowland: Developments in Structural Form

Arts TH145/M2796 /1975+ (LC)

Mainstone, Rowland: "Intuition and the Springs of Structural Invention,"

in VIA II, Bryan, Editor; Res: Arts;
Res: Bass NA2500/+B79 (LC)

Mainstone, Rowland: Structure in Architecture: History, Design and Innovation

Arts TA658/M35X/1999

Salvadori, Mario: +Structure in Architecture: the Building of Buildings

Res: Arts

Week Four: September 14 - 18; Lectures: “Drawing Architecture I & ll”

Required:

e Ackerman, James “The Conventions and Rhetoric of Architectural Drawing” in

Origins, Imitation, Conventions: Representation in the Visual
Arts. Res: Arts (Xerox copy)

e Ching, Frank: Architectural Graphics (esp. pp 24-53 in the 2nd ed.1985)

Res: Arts (esp. pp.49-90 in the 6 th ed.)

e Crowe/Laseau: Visual Notes for Architects and Designers

Res: Arts; Res: Bass NA2750/C76/1984 (LC)

e Kahn, Louis I.: "The Value and Aim in Sketching" in Louis I. Kahn: Writings, Lectures,
Interviews op.cit. pp. 10 - 12
Res: Arts

Recommended:

Cooper, Douglas Drawing and Perceiving

Arts NA2708/C66/2001+ (LC)

e Fraser/Henmi: +Envisioning Architecture:an analysis of drawing esp.pp. 23-79

Arts NA2700/F73X/1994(LC)

Klee, Paul: +Pedagogical Sketchbook

 Arts Jc40/925Kgb

Silvetti, Jorge: "Representation and Creativity in Architecture: The

Pregnant Moment" in Representation and Architecture,
Eds: Akin and Weinel, pp. 159 - 184
Arts NA2750/R46 (LC)

Week Five: September 28 – October 2; Lectures: “Spatial Organization l & ll”

Required:

e Le Corbusier Towards a New Architecture: “Architecture: II The Illusion

(Jeanneret-Gris, C.E.) of Plans”; “Three Reminders to Architects: III Plan”
Res: Arts; Res: Bass NA2520/J4313/1976 (LC)

e Wright, F.L.: Autobiography: "Book Four: Freedom: Taste, the Travesty” through
“The Enemy”
Res: Arts; Res: Bass NJ18/W94/A3/1943,1977

e Wright, F.L.: "The Logic of the Plan," in Architectural Record,

January 1928; Res: Arts (Xerox copy)

e Zevi, Bruno: Architecture as Space, Chapters II and lll, plates 1-4 pp.22-68
Res: Arts Jaf 40/948 Zg; Res: Bass NA2500/Z413 (LC)

Recommended:

Beeby, Thomas: "The Grammar of Ornament/Ornament as Grammar,"

in VIA III; Arts NA3450/+.073 (LC)

Bragdon, Claude: "The Language of Form," in Roots of Contemporary

American Architecture, Mumford, Editor
Arts and Bass NA710/M85/1972

Browlee/DeLong, eds: Louis I. Kahn: In the Realm of Architecture

Res: Arts

Ching, Frank Architecture: Form, Space, Order

Arts NA2760/+C48

Doczi, Gyorgy: The Power of Limits

Arts NA1995/L45/1985 (LC)

e Purves, Alexander “The Persistence of Formal Patterns” in Perspecta 19

Res: Arts (Xerox copy)

e Rasmussen: op.cit., Ch. 5-6, 8

Stevens, Peter S.: Patterns In Nature

Arts QH81/.S859 (LC()

Zevi, Bruno +Architecture as Space: Chapter lV, plates 5-16

op.cit.
Week Six: October 5 – 9; Lectures: “Function I & ll”

Required:

e Colomina, Beatriz “Interior” (part) pp. 232-260 in Privacy and Publicity

Re: Arts NA2543/M37/C56X/1994 (LC)

e Evans, Robin “Figures, Doors, Passages” pp. 55 - 91 in Translations from

Drawing to Building Res: Arts

e Kahn, Louis: “Form and Design” pp. 62 - 74 in Louis Kahn:

Essential Texts op. cit.

e Le Corbusier: "The Plan of the Modern House" pp.126 -139 in Precisions…

op.cit.

e Le Corbusier: Towards a New Architecture: “Eyes which do not see: Liners,

Airplanes, Automobiles”

Venturi, Robert: Complexity and Contradiction in Architecture

Res: Arts; Res: Bass NA2760/+V46/1977(LC)

Recommended:

Greenough, Horatio: Form and Function

Arts J18/G75/947 3; Bass NB237/G8/S5 (LC)

Le Corbusier: “A Dwelling at Human Scale” pp. 85-103 in Precisions…

op.cit.

Moore/Allen/Lyndon: The Place of Houses, pp. 70-187

Arts and Bass NA7125/M66 (LC)

O’Gorman, James: ABC of Architecture esp. pp. 17 - 28

Res: Arts

e Summerson, John: "The Case for a Theory of Modern Architecture,"

in R.I.B.A. Journal
Res: Arts (Xerox copy)

Summerson, John: +The Classical Language of Architecture

Arts and Bass NA31/+S96/1971 (LC)

Wilson, Colin St. J.: The Other Tradition of Modern Architecture

Arts NA680/S25/1995 (LC)

deZurko, Edward R.: +Origins of Functionalist Theory

Arts Jaf40/957D
Week Seven: October 12 - 16; Lectures: “Climate”; “Gardens”

Required:

e Allen, Edward: How Buildings Work (2nd Ed.) pp. 43-63

Res: Arts

e Hawkes, Dean “The poetics of “served” and “servant”: Louis I. Kahn

in The Environmental Imagination pp. 87-109 Res: Arts

e Marx, Leo: "The American Ideology of Space" in Denatured Visions

(Wrede and Adams, Ed.) Res: Arts

e Rapaport, Amos: House Form and Culture pp. 83-103

Res: Arts; Res: Bass GN414/A1/R33 (LC)

e Wright, F.L.: Autobiography:"Book Three: Work, Taliesin" op. cit.

Recommended:

Baird, George The Architectural Expression of Environmental Control Systems Res:

Banham, Reyner: +The Architecture of the Well-tempered Environment

Arts TH7011/B35/1969 (LC); Bass TH7011/B35 (LC)

Fitch, James M.: American Building: The Environmental Forces That Shape
It Arts Jad12 948 Fb; Bass NA705/F57/1966 (LC)

Heschong, Lisa Thermal Delight in Architecture

Arts NA2541/H47

Jackson, J.B.: "The Order of a Landscape" in The Interpretation of

Ordinary Landscapes
Arts and Bass GF90/I57 (LC)

Jellicoe, G.&S.: The Landscape of Man

Arts and Bass SB470.5/+J45/1975 (LC)

Moore/Mitchell/Turnbull: The Poetics of Gardens

Bass SB472/M64/1988+

Morrish, W.R.: Civilizing Terrains

Stilgoe, John: The Common Landscape of America

Bass E1691/S85

Weeks Eight and Nine: October 19 – 30; Lectures: “Building on the Land”; “Building Groups”;

“Urban Patterns l & ll”

Required:

e Bacon, Edmund: Design of Cities pp. 13-27

Res: Arts; Res: Bass NA9050/+B33 (LC)

e Kostof, Spiro: City Shaped pp. 8 - 41

Res: Arts

e Le Corbusier: "The Voisin Plan for Paris" pp. 169 -177 in Precisions...
op.cit.

e Lynch, Kevin: The Image of the City Ch. 1-3

Res: Arts; Res: Bass NA1098/L95/1965

e Wright, F.L. Autobiography:"Book Four: Freedom: Traffic” through “Distribution”

op. cit.

Recommended:

Bacon, Edmund: Design of Cities (balance) op. cit.

Easterling, Keller Enduring Innocence

Arts NA2543.S6/E18X/2005

Hall, Peter: Cities of Tomorrow

Arts HT166/H349/1996 (LC)

Le Corbusier: “Man: a Dwelling, Dwelling: a City” pp.141 – 157 in Precisions…

op.cit.

Jacobs, Jane +The Death and Life of Great American Cities

Arts Jax12/AB/961J; Bass NA9108/J33

Kostof, Spiro: +The City Shaped

Res: Arts

Kostof, Spiro: +The City Assembled

Arts HT111/K625X/1992 (LC)

Morris, A.E.J.: The History of Urban Form

Res: Bass HT166/M66 (LC)

e Purves, Alexander: +“This Goodly Frame, the Earth” in Perspecta 25 pp.178-201

Reps, John W.: Town Planning in America

Arts Jax12/965Rb; Bass NA9105/+R47 (LC)

Rowe/Koetter: Collage City

Arts and Bass 9050/+R68 (LC)

Rossi, Aldo: The Architecture of the City

Arts and Bass NA9031/+R6713 (LC)

Sitte, Camillo: +City Planning According to Artistic Principals

Intro - Ch. VIIA; Arts Jav35/889Sgb;
 Bass NA9030/s5713/1964

Zucker, Paul: Town and Square

Arts Jav45/959z; Bass NA9070/Z83

Week Ten: November 2 – 6; Lectures: (Planning the Public Realm”); “Suburbs”

Required:

e Garvin, Alexander: The American City

Res: Arts; Res: Bass

e Hayden, Dolores Building Suburbia

Res: Arts; Res: Bass

e Kostof, Spiro “The American House” pp.3-68 in America by Design

Res: Arts NA705/K64/1987

Recommended:

Isenstadt, Sandy The Modern American House

Arts: NA7208/I84/2006

Kostof, Spiro America by Design (balance)

Res: Arts

Stern, Robert A.M. The Anglo-American Suburb esp. pp. 4 – 12

“La Ville Bourgeoise”
Arts NA 7571/S84

Week Eleven: November 9 – 13; Lectures: (“Architectural Theory l & ll”)

e Vitruvius: The Ten Books of Architecture, Book I, Preface and Ch. I-

III; Book II, Preface and Ch. I; Book III, Chap. I;
Book IV, Preface and Ch. I-II
Res: Arts; Res: Bass NA2515/V5713/1960 (LC)

e Alberti: On the Art of Building in Ten Books , Book I, Ch. 9;

Book VI, Ch. 1-3; Book IX, Ch. 1-11
Res: Arts

e Venturi, Robert and

Scott Brown, Denise: "Diversity, Relevance and Representation in Historicism, or
Plus ca change", in A View from the Campidoglio
Bass N2540/+V4/1984 LC

Recommended:

Wiseman, Carter: Writing Architecture

Res: Arts NA2540/W67/2014 (LC)

Wittkower, Rudolf: Architectural Principles in the Age of Humanism

 Hersey, George: The Lost Meaning of Classical Architecture

Perez-Gomez, A.: Architecture and the Crisis of Modern Science

Arts and Bass NA 956/P413/1983 (LC)

Rykwert, Joseph: On Adam's House in Paradise

Banham, Reyner: Theory and Design in the First Machine Age

Arts and Bass NA680/B34/1967 (LC)

Tafuri, Manfredo: Architecture and Utopia

Arts and Bass NA2543/S6/T3413 (LC)

Hearn, M. F. Ideas That Shaped Buildings

Arts and Bass NA2500/H379X/2003

Week Twelve: November 16 – 20; Lectures: “Architects and Clients”; (TBC) Easterling

Required:

e Allen, Edward: How Buildings Work (2nd Ed.) pp. 207-216

Res: Arts

e Boyle, B.M.: "Architectural Practice in America, 1865-1965 --

Ideal and Reality," in The Architect - Chapters in the
History of the Profession, ( S.Kostof, Ed.)
pp. 309-345, esp. 309-319; 330-33
Res; Arts; Res: Bass NA1995/A73/1986 (LC)

e Kahn, Louis: Kahn, Louis: “Lecture at Yale University” pp. 162 – 168 in
Louis Kahn: Essential Texts

Recommended:

Briggs, Martin S.: The Architect in History

Arts Jab12/927B

Cuff, Dana: Architecture, The Story of Practice

Arts NA1996/C84X/1991(LC)

Gutman, Robert: Architectural Practice: A Critical View

Arts NA1996/G86/1988 (LC)

Kostof, S., Ed.: +The Architect - Chapters in the History of the Profession
Res: Arts

Lewis, Roger K.: Architect?, A Candid Guide to the Profession

Res: Arts

Rand, Ayn: The Fountainhead

Bass PS3535/A52/F6
Thanksgiving Break

Week Thirteen: November 30 – December 2; Lectures: (TBC) Bloomer; “Continuity”

Recommended:

Bloomer, Kent: The Nature of Ornament

Arts NK1530/B58/2000

Dozci, Gyorgy: The Power of Limits op. cit.

Olsen, Scott: The Golden Section

Res: Arts

Stevens. Peter: Patterns in Nature op. cit.

Zeier, Franz: Paper Constructions

Res: Arts

Background

Fletcher, Banister: A History of Architecture on the Comparative Method

Kostof, Spiro: A History of Architecture: Settings and Rituals

O’Gorman, James: ABC of Architecture

e Scully, Vincent: American Architecture and Urbanism

e Architecture: The Natural and the Manmade

Reading List: Fall Term 2020

The following texts are available for purchase or rental at the Yale Bookstore:

Bacon, Edmund: Design of Cities

* Ching, Frank: Architectural Graphics

Hayden, Dolores: Building Suburbia

* Kahn, Louis I.: Louis Kahn: Essential Texts

* Le Corbusier: Towards a New Architecture

Lynch, Kevin: The Image of the City

O’Gorman, James: ABC of Architecture

Rasmussen, S.E.: Experiencing Architecture

 Ruskin, John: The Stones of Venice

* Venturi, Robert: Complexity and Contradiction in Architecture

(* Recommended purchase)