This class explores the history of modern architecture and urbanism, focusing on the late nineteenth century through the 1970s. The course critically interrogates the idea of “modernity” as it appeared in a wide range of global contexts, from north to south and east to west. We will treat modernity as something that is contested, uncertain, and uneven, rather than as a triumphal evolution as it has sometimes been depicted in the past. Special attention will be paid to the relationship of aesthetic and formal developments to historical forces such as capitalism, imperialism, colonialism, industrialization, and globalization. The impact of modernity on practices and ideas of gender, domesticity, and the delineation of private and public spaces, will also be a critical piece of our discussions. Finally, we will explore architecture as both a discourse and discipline, as something that encompasses both the built and the unbuilt, the concrete and the speculative. A major component of the course will take place “in the field” -- that is, through experiencing and learning about architecture on site and grappling with its complexity through different scales: local, regional/national, and the global. Using San Francisco as an experiential learning laboratory, we will investigate some of the ways Bay Area architecture, monuments, and historical landscapes are in conversation with broader geopolitical, socio-economic, technological, geographical, and ecological developments.

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