BA (Hons) Architecture History + Theory

BA (HONS) ARCHITECTURE

HISTORY + THEORY

CAROLINE RABOURDIN + SIMON WITHERS

TEACHING IN history and theory of architecture is conceived as a complete journey over three years through the ideas, politics, art, buildings and landscapes of human civilisation. This journey brings students through a process of gaining skills and knowledge in research and writing, whilst building knowledge and context.

Cultural Contexts of Architecture

The first term of Year 1 introduces students to London, Greenwich and the broad range of research undertaken by Greenwich staff. Site visits and workshops balance the content between research, lectures and first-hand experiences of architecture and landscape. The module examines the cultural contexts of the built environment and investigates the relationships between design and society, introducing the premise that architectural ideas are culturally constructed, allied to prevailing ideologies and value systems. It provides a general background for current issues in the built environment, from housing and education to infrastructure and incarceration.

History of Architecture and Landscape 1 + 2

A broader overview of architecture, landscape and art history follows in the second term of Year 1 and the first term of Year 2. Students develop their skills in writing and research, beginning to frame a set of interests that will inform their future studies. The modules address the history of architecture and landscape as the common human quest of designing and constructing a specific relation with nature. They offer a survey of major global architectural traditions and place special emphasis on those that contributed to the rise to modernity. We provide tools to analyse examples and recognise patterns in design solutions, stressing the social and technological contexts that define architectures and landscapes of the past, while highlighting their relevance today.

Contemporary Theories of Architecture

In the second term of Year 2, students are introduced to a range of architectural theories that emerged in the 1960’s and continue to form the basis of architectural discourse today. Bringing awareness to the relationship between architecture and other disciplines such as philosophy, art, sociology and anthropology, students are introduced to postmodernist theories, deconstructivism, metabolism, phenomenology and relational ecology. These theories enable students to critically engage with architectural design and articulate clear and informed positions as they reflect on their own design practice.

Undergraduate Dissertation

In the Year 3 dissertation, each student develops research interests both as individuals and in small, themed and tightly guided groups with a dedicated supervisor whose interests and research are complementary to the theme. A high level of research quality and critical evaluation is expected, and the students are encouraged to pursue themes that they are passionate about and forge connections with their design work. Many students undertake daring studies that are arresting in terms of their written and visual quality, as well as the connections made between sites, projects, and the cutting edge of architectural theory.

Abstracts from Year 3 dissertations can be found on the following pages.

Year 3 Dissertation Tutors: Miranda Critchley, Andrew Higgott, Felipe Lanuza Rilling, Laura Mark, Simon Withers.

Ana Rose Layosa Delmo

The Meaning of the Filipino Home: Overcoming Post-Colonial Mentality

The identity of Philippine architecture stems from vernacular architecture with Austronesian roots and developed with the arrival of the Spanish in the 1500s. The hybridity between these two cultures brought new building materials and technologies, improving resistance to natural disasters. Despite introducing foreign ideas, its architectural values have remained largely in keeping with its material and ecological origins. With the arrival of Americans who established US territory in the country, Filipinos and Americans, developed a stable relationship that lead to Filipinos ‘idolising' the west. One of the most concerning consequences that developed from this relationship is that Filipino architectural education is suffering from a lack of regional and cultural context. This dissertation aims to investigate the roots of this issue, which lie in political and financial intervention, the international condition of architectural education and what Filipino designers now value. Focusing on the shift of the common floorplan that embodies the identity of a Filipino household, this dissertation explores how Orientalism, as understood by Edward Said, created an impact on how the floorplan is perceived today and how designers, through the values of regionalism, can resist the eradication of the traditional Filipino home.

Yasmina Eishlmani

Narratives of Brutalism: The Depiction of Brutalism in Dystopian Film

With its radical aesthetic, Brutalist architecture has divided opinion since its emergence. Its history tells a story of rise and fall, of an attempt at change and of “failure” and destruction. For many years, Brutalist buildings are often seen as the setting for dystopian films, depicting run-down societies, oppressed communities and worlds where unsettling and inhumane events unfold. What has contributed to this default of Brutalism becoming the preferred background to dystopia? Has this 'inhumane’ architectural style earned its bad reputation, or has it been the victim of sabotage and stigmatisation? This dissertation attempts to answer these questions by exploring case studies from the dystopian genre and investigating Brutalism’s past in order to examine how its history has fed into its depiction.

Mara Fetche

A Fictional Tokyo: The Portrayal of the Fictional Metropolis in Ghost in the Shell

This dissertation explores the visual identities of architectural and urban spaces presented in the anime film Ghost in the Shell by Mamoru Oshii (1995). It interprets Newport City in the film as a vision for a future Tokyo of 2029, a model constructed on the collective, ad-hoc characteristics of the Japanese city, alongside the Hong Kong skyline of 1995 with its dense, chaotic district, Kowloon Walled City, as neo-noir depictions of an imagined dynamic future city. The dissertation presents the spaces of the film as a shared public understanding of a 2029 future city, as expected in 1995. This dissertation argues that the visual representation of this future metropolis is portrayed as a collective outcome of constant, evolutionary motivated changes. It suggests that the films futuristic imaginary is presented by illustrating a city of spontaneous, unplanned, additive design, constructed alongside, or above the slowly-evolving architectural elements of the city’s older spaces. The dissertation unpacks the films spatial layering through its filmic sequences, its production and discusses how notions of the 1995 ‘future city’ emerged in current day Tokyo.

Daniel Heijink

An Analysis of the Terms and Ideas of Peter Eisenman’s Rhetorical Architecture, from Cannaregio Town Square to La Villette

Peter Eisenman's projects can be seen to operate as a rhetorical device for his theoretical writings on architecture. A rhetorical device is a means of persuading the reader of a meaning that the author is trying to convey. The Cannaregio project and La Villette are two examples of this rhetorical architecture, undertaken within a decade of each other. This dissertation analyses and categorise the main ideas of Eisenman’s work through key aspects of each of these projects and his writings surrounding them. The representation of time and palimpsests, memory and history, absence and presence, as well as rhetoric and experience are explored through graphical analysis of the drawings and models for these projects. The writings by Eisenman carried out in the decade between Cannaregio and La Villette are considered alongside the architectural output of the projects examined. In addition, critical writings surrounding this period of Eisenman’s work are examined as a means to form a taxonomy of his key concepts. A taxonomy is defined as a scheme for classification, in this instance used to separate Eisenman’s terms for analysis. By creating this graphical and textual taxonomy, this dissertation aims to operate as a tool for architects to understand Eisenman’s particular approach to deconstruction and offer a critique of architecture as a rhetorical device.

This dissertation investigates the architectural, psychological, sociological and poetic aspects of the home. Since the concept of home is an abstract one, it starts by attempting to define home and clarify some of its meanings as a physical structure as well as an idea. Notions of privacy and publicity are considered to be at the core of the way we relate to the home. The dwelling is a microcosmos that reflects our identity as much as our society: it is a reproduction of the outside world. Therefore the dissertation explores what constitutes our external reality, within the context of domestic space. Represented in the home is our relationship with work, family and leisure, our negotiations regarding gender roles, the introduction of new technologies, and our changing perceptions of privacy. In order to illustrate current attitudes, the dissertation looks back to the recent past of the twentieth century to draw comparisons to the issues mentioned, as well as discussing new concepts to have arisen contemporaneously. Lastly, the dissertation outlines indicators of what the future might hold for the home, given its current trajectory.

Henna Kuolima

Are Our New Homes Good Enough? A Representative Case Study on the Quality of an Average London New Build

As we build across London to satisfy the growing demand for more housing, public opinion on moving into a new build is showing notable signs of dissatisfaction. Post-Grenfell, society is traumatised due to the design and construction failures that have cost lives. Now the evidence of poor quality construction is emerging as a broader issue and is problematic, not just for the life quality of occupants, but also for the reputation of the construction and design industries. The use of poor quality materials or neglecting building maintenance may affect the user experience in the home and produce unnecessary repair costs. More importantly, the failure to meet standards can affect the occupant’s comfort, and even safety. It is therefore crucial to revisit building standards in order to address this issue. This dissertation critically analyses the design standards of a new build studio apartment in London.

Architecture is often a city’s business card. People will travel to visit architecture, but mostly to photograph it. Architecture and photography together play an essential role in documenting how a society evolves. It serves as a mean to register the 'built world’ and, at the same time, reveal certain truths about society. This dissertation explores the differences between a clean and sterile architecture photograph in contrast with an untidy and habitable one. The primary focus is on Iwan Baan, a contemporary photographer who revolutionized photography with his highly informal style. His work as a documentary photographer offers a new perspective to architectural photography by breaking the tradition of exhibiting architecture as an object rather than an inhabitable structure.

Marcello Maioli

Prefabricated Micro-Living: The Future of Affordable Housing in London

This dissertation provides an insight into the housing crisis that currently affects London, and the lack of government participation and policies regarding the matter. The way we inhabit space and the economic reality of many is not reflected in the approach that developers have when undertaking residential projects. London is under constant construction: however affordability and house purchases are at an all-time low. Younger demographics are unable to enter the housing market. The government sits idly by as the crisis unfurls. Pocket Living schemes of micro accommodations have become a trending solution for many in an increasingly dense city where land availability and affordable housing is on the decline. Outdated construction methods and profit driven developers further aggravate the lack of housing.

Maria-Alexandra Mățăoanu

The Lost Voice of Spirituality: Medieval Inscriptions and Architecture

This dissertation surveys and studies medieval inscriptions. It questions if these inscriptions are a destructive act, a form of medieval ‘graffiti’. Through first hand analysis in Anglican cathedrals across the UK, this dissertation embraces the variety of subjects that were inscribed into stone, revealing the secrets behind many medieval walls and columns. This raises the question as to why graffiti has declined in social value from the medieval period to the present? Today, graffiti equates to vandalism, whereas in the medieval period it was perceived as a spiritual manifestation. Contemporary graffiti and medieval inscriptions are very much connected: the spiritual manifestation that they represent define of the emotions and often the spatial experiences of the inscriber.

Alexandra Nell

Alt-Erlaa: ‘The Best Council Estate in the World’

The UK seems to be in a continual housing crisis, ricocheting from one initiative to another. This dissertation asks why Britain does not look to our continental neighbours for potential solutions to large scale state funded housing schemes, where the creation and maintenance of vibrant and sustainable communities are central to the architectural design. The focus in Britain appears to be on providing housing stock rather than building communities. Has the time come to reverse this and use place shaping and community engagement as the prime motivation to leave a legacy for future generations? This dissertation examines Alt-Erlaa in Vienna, where the city started building social housing 100 years ago, around the same time as London. About 7,000 social houses are built in both cities every year, however as this dissertation explores, the approaches to this are very different.

Saman Sabz’abadian

Understanding the Formal and Informal Growth of Venezuela’s Communal Slums

According to the UN, at least one third of the global urban population suffers from a lack of proper infrastructure, water, electricity and safety of tenure. These places go by the name of slums, shanty towns and/or favelas but are all categorised as ‘informal settlements’. With such a high percentage of the global population living in these conditions, they can hardly be ignored. There is no clear distinction between an informal and a formal development of a slum, but they are increasingly becoming formal. Caracas, the capital of Venezuela, is the focus of this dissertation, and it is argued that its slums are the by-product of diverse political, economic and social strategies. Each slum is unique to its own topographical location and habitual practices, and this dissertation explores the more elaborative roles played within the slum communities that have resulted in their evolution from informal to formal urban spaces.

Charlie Read

Revealing the Palimpsest in Soane’s Pitzhanger Manor and Levete’s V&A Intervention: A Study

This dissertation discusses selected redevelopment and restoration projects on buildings that involve the retaining and re-use of historical fragments or sections that have been incorporated into the design; Sir John Soane’s Pitzhanger Manor in Ealing—an example of a building extensively altered over time, and the V&A Museum courtyard and extension by Amanda Levete Architects (AL_A)—a project that focuses on three aims: revealing hidden space, reusing old space, and creating new space. This dissertation examines how each project intertwines the old with the new, and to what extent these projects are perceived to respond to the site’s context and surroundings. The two projects discussed uphold ideas of preservation, restoration, and architectural intervention. The success of these projects can be understood as how history has been preserved and retained, and how a contrast with the contemporary has been portrayed to elevate user experience. The idea of palimpsest—in architectural terms a richly layered site that retains traces and elements of previous configurations—is utilised as an underlying concept.

Tia-Angelie Vijh

The Politics of Housing... Is Social Housing Undergoing a Renaissance?

This dissertation explores the various components playing a part in London’s Renaissance of Social Housing and its recent return to the architectural and political arena. It focuses on how new projects can be seen to emulate once highly regarded social housing schemes. The dissertation analyses examples of social housing from history in comparison with recent inspirational projects, and identify the positives and negatives to this current day ‘Renaissance’. Innovative companies are currently working alongside London councils to aid in the implementation of a much needed change in the ethos towards the design requirements for today’s social housing, whilst encouraging a much needed sense of community spirit and providing a sense of a ‘bygone age’. Is this being achieved? If so, is it sustainable and can it be beautiful again?

Florence Wright

Cinderella City. To What Extent is Lisbon’s Ruination Compelling?

The grand yet crumbling facades of Lisbon hide empty and derelict spaces. 4,600 empty buildings lay vacant in the centre of the city, with the historic centre being home to fewer than 10 residents (Chamberlain, 2011). The city has had a long history of reoccurring ruination. This dissertation discusses a range of different attitudes to ruination in Lisbon, from the eighteenth century through to the present. It focuses on two catastrophic events—the first being the 1755 earthquake: destruction by natural cause, and the second being the demolition of the lower Mouraria by the Estado Novo: destruction by human cause. The dissertation focuses on two very different Lisbon neighbourhoods—the Baixa Pombalina and the Mouraria; one modernised, symmetrical, clean, and one old, chaotic, and dirty. These settings are used to examine notions of progress and ruination, of cleanliness, dirtiness, calm and chaos. Ultimately, the dissertation explores the links between progress, ruination and our psychological and societal reactions, whether it be a positive feeling of intrigue, fascination, awe, or a negative feeling of anxiety, fear or trauma.