W01 - Introduction To Theories of Architecture

Architectural Theories \ AREQ 415 \ 1st Sem.
2019-2020
Al-Nahrain University. College of engineering.

Architectural engineering.
Course Title: Architectural Theories (2020-2021).
Course Code: AREQ 415.
Course Staff: Dr. Alyaa Ahmed (Lecturer).
Wk1/Lecture #1 :
What is Architecture ?
What is Theory ?
•Architecture is :
• The art of building, and it’s also
a concept, meaning and
discourse.
• Designers need theory to carve
out a position for themselves
and to establish a foundation
for design, that expands the
range of possible outcomes in
the future.
• This course is designed to:
• Introduce the fundamental theoretical issues and ideas in
architecture. It provides an overview of the principal theories that
have informed, animated, or destabilized the architectural
discourse, focusing on key shifts in architectural thoughts and
debates over the last five decades.
• It’s also focuses on the philosophical, ideological, and formal bases of
architectural theory and criticism.
• introduce architectural theory with emphasis on significant developments in the
modern and postmodern periods, focusing on the contribution of architectural
theory in understanding the phenomenon of architecture, of architectural design
practice and of the problems that architecture must solve in the early twenty-first
century.
• The topics include:
• a reviewing of theories & major concepts running through architectural discourse
from Modernism to the most contemporary theories.
Course Objectives & Outcomes:
• This course is designed to:
• Consider the changing role of theory with respect to practice over the
past fifty years.
• Demonstrate a basic understanding of the key concepts of
architectural history and theory.
• To understanding and appreciate how the key concepts in
architecture are apply to, and have serious implications for, the
current practice of architecture.
• Furnish students with a set of questions, techniques, and tools for
criticism and self-critique.
• By the end of this course, students will have the ability to research
and critically assess, discuss, and document theoretical concepts
Course Objectives & Outcomes:
• Develop their own personal approach towards architectural design
theory.
• Construct critical techniques to provide tools for the analysis and
reinterpretation of buildings.
• Carve out a position for themselves and to establish a foundation for
design.
• Be able to understand historical-theoretical writings at a high level.
• Have learned to structure written arguments and critiques about
architecture that draw on the concepts and critical arguments
discussed and studied in the course.
Course Schedule:
W Date Lec #. Topics Notes
Introduction to the course:

1 #1
What is Theory? What is Architecture?
2 #2 Modernism-Early 20th century
3 #3 Modernism- After 2nd world war to 1960s
4 #4 Linguistic turn -1 :Post-Modernism: Type vs. Style
5 #5 Post-Modernism: Semiotics
6 #6
Linguistic turn -2: Deconstructivism: Theory & works
7 #7
8 #8 Digital Turn In Architecture – 1: Folding in Architecture: Theory
9 #9 &works
10 #10 Digital Turn In Architecture -2: Digital Organic Archi.
11 #11 Mid - Exam
12 #12
13 #13
Course Paper- Final Seminars
14 #14
15 #15
Course Requirements:
Activities Percentages
Mid Exam 15%
Course Paper 10%
Weekly Homework or Quizzes 10%
Regular Attendance 5%
Discourse on Architecture
History – Criticism - Theory
History – Criticism - Theory
• History is describes architectural facts , and deals with buildings and

the various styles of architecture which have arisen throughout time.
It also specifies the factors that may have influenced these
characteristics.
• Criticism is the art of analyzing a work, including writings expressing
those analyses. It’s the act of writing or speaking about a building ,
usually of historical importance or novel design or built in a notable
public space.
Theory is :
• A set of assumptions, propositions, or accepted facts that attempts to
provide a plausible or rational explanation of cause-and-effect
(causal) relationships among a group of observed phenomenon. The
word's origin (from the Greek thorós, a spectator), stresses the fact
that all theories are mental models of the perceived reality.
• a supposition or a system of ideas intended to explain something,
especially one based on general principles independent of the thing
to be explained.
• a set of principles on which the practice of an activity is based.
• an idea used to account for a situation or justify a course of action.
Architectural Theory is:
• Architectural theory is the act of thinking, discussing, and writing
about architecture.
• Architecture like art is communicative in that it expresses the generative
concepts and underlying intentions of the designer.
• Theory exists in this context as a force or set of forces that influence
design actions or output. It is a system of thought behind design
conceptualization or form generation in architecture.
• theory of architecture is “a collection of disparate contributions that
combine the ideas, missions, and approaches of many individuals.
• the definition culled from Peter Collins (1965) that an architect thinks of
forms intuitively, and then tries to justify them rationally; a dialectical
process governed by what we may call his theory of architecture, which
can only be studied in philosophical and ethical terms.
Architectural Theory is:
• Tzonis defines the theory of design as reasons that explain, dictate or prove
a design decision, such as the adoption or the creation of a shape in
architectural work”.
• Heath (1991) in seeking to clearly distinguish theory from other related spheres
describes theory by what it is and what it does. He states that “theory seeks to
discover by critical inquiry what actually happens, to show how things work”.
• Psarra (2009) describes architectural theory as the study of the evolution and
recurrence of thought systems not just the evolution of forms.
Nick axel - An ideological and hermeneutic map of architecture
• the art of building according to principles which are determined, not
merely by the ends the edifice is intended to serve, but by
considerations of beauty and harmony___1892
• the art of designing sculpture for a particular place, and placing it
there on the best principle of building___1857
• Architecture is nothing more or less than the art of ornamental and
ornamented construction___
• the art of construction according to the principles of the beautiful___
• Architecture is to be regarded by us with the most serious thought.
We may live without her, and worship without her, but we cannot
remember without her.___1857
• Architecture is a thing of art (an artistic fact), a phenomenon of the
emotions, lying outside questions of construction and beyond
them.___1931
• Architecture is plastic invention, is intellectual speculation, is higher
mathematics. Architecture is an art of great dignity___1923
• Architecture is the use of raw materials to establish stirring
relationships___1923
• Architecture is form and substance – abstract and concrete – and its
meaning derives from its interior characteristics and particular
context.___1966
• Architecture is evolutionary as well as revolutionary___1966
• Architecture is :
• architecture is a social language___2002
• architecture is a social craft, not a creative art___2002
• architecture is to “disloacate the knowing subject”___2002
• architecture is a verb, an action, not just a set of correct theories or
prescriptions___2002
• architecture is a language, and one for which the architect is explicitly
responsible___2002
• architecture is to give form to the transgressive and formless desires of the
subject, often reduced in modern architecture to voids within rationalized
frames or thin membranes___2005
• Architecture is a social project full of rhetorical symbolism___2008
• Architecture is not all a matter of walls and wall patterns. It is primarily organized
space___2008
• architecture, is a symbol of functional existence___2008
• architecture is now breaking scale, and style, everywhere___2008
• architecture is about vision and ideas___2008
• architecture is a process before it is a plastic art___2005
• architecture is not what is done … but how it is done___1996
• architecture is the use of geometry to generate form___2006
• architecture is a discipline seeking self-definition, and for that self-
definition it looks outside of itself, to see what others say about
it___2001
• architecture is a kind of sign system___2001
Wk-2 Homework :
• What are the Key Concepts of architecture ?

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Architectural Theories \ AREQ 415 \ 1st Sem.

Al-Nahrain University. College of engineering.

Introduction to the course:

• History is describes architectural facts , and deals with buildings and

• What are the Key Concepts of architecture ?

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