From Las Vegas to Abu Dhabi: Topics in Contemporary Architecture and Urbanism

Level: Undergraduate

Division: The New School for Public Engagement

School: School of Undergraduate Studies

Department: Humanities

Course Number: NARH 3880

Course Format: Lecture

Location: Online

Permission Required: No

Topics:

• Architectural History, Theory & Criticism
• Urban Studies

Description:
This course explores the major issues informing architecture and urban planning from the 1960s to the present. The course begins with the emergence of challenges to the modernist approach to design, as the signs and signifiers of Las Vegas replaced the steamship as design model. Architecture becomes brutal, then nomadic, and eventually deconstructed. In addition to sessions on postmodernism and deconstruction, the class explores major themes in urban sprawl, historic preservation, the architect as a star, and altered visions of the cityscape following 9-11 and Hurricane Katrina. These topics take us around the globe, from the United States to Europe, Latin America, and the Middle East. The works and words of architects Rem Koolhaas, Frank Gehry, and Zaha Hadid inform the lectures and class discussions.