CRITICAL READINGS OF MODERNISM: SPATIAL AND CULTURAL PLURALITIES IN ARCHITECTURE

MİM517

Course Code: MİM517
Semester: -
Theory+Practice: 3 + 0
ECTS: 10

Course Type

Elective Course

Course Level

Master's Degree With Thesis

Year of Study

Semester

ECTS

Name of Lecturer(s)

Assistant Professor Seçil Özcan Geylani

Learning Outcomes

At the end of this course, the students;

Evaluate modern architecture not as a single, Western-centric narrative but as a series of plural modernities produced and reproduced in diverse cultural, geographic, and historical contexts.
Analyze how the history of modern architecture is constructed; discuss the ideological, colonial, and social assumptions embedded in historiography and propose alternative narrative approaches.
Interpret concepts from theoretical texts in relation to architectural case studies, the built environment, and visual archives.
Construct a global ?map? of modernity by comparing modernisms in Europe, the Middle East, Asia, Africa, and Latin America within their historical, political, and aesthetic conditions.
Articulate critiques of modernism in both written and oral forms, grounded in analytical, comparative, and theoretical references.

Mode of Delivery

Face to face

Prerequisites

Recommended Optional Programme Components

Course Description

This course reconsiders the historiography of modern architecture through critical readings of its cultural translations, regional adaptations, and local reinterpretations. It explores the ideological, political, and aesthetic underpinnings of modernism?s universalist narrative while engaging with plural modernities that emerged across different geographies. Through close readings of theoretical texts and architectural cases, students will examine how notions of modernity, such as progress, rationality, and universality, were challenged, redefined, or re-appropriated in diverse contexts. The course situates architectural modernism within broader debates on nation-building, postcoloniality, identity, ecology, and gender, encouraging a global yet critical understanding of modern architecture.

Course Contents

WEEK	TOPICS
1^st Week	Rethinking Modernism: Narratives, Ruptures, Beginnings
2^nd Week	Universal Modernism: The Myth of Progress and Disciplinary Formation
3^rd Week	Translation, Circulation, and Encounter: The Global Travels of Modernism
4^th Week	National Forms: Identity, Representation, and Architecture
5^th Week	Modernity Beyond the Center: Postcolonial Geographies and Forms of Resistance
6^th Week	Independence Modernisms: Architecture, Freedom, Nationhood
7^th Week	Tropical Modernisms: Between Climate, Emotion, and Revolution
8^th Week	Geopolitical Lines: The Architecture of the Cold War
9^th Week	Midterm Review and Discussion
10^th Week	Technological Aesthetics, Tradition and Modernity
11^th Week	Ecological and Indigenous Modernities
12^th Week	Rewriting Modernism: Historiography, Memory, and Plurality
13^th Week	Cartographies of Modernity: Student Presentations I
14^th Week	Cartographies of Modernity: Student Presentations II Closing Session: Reflections on Global Critical Historiography

Recommended or Required Reading

Akcan, E. (2018). Open Architecture: Migration, Citizenship, and the Urban Renewal of Berlin-Kreuzberg. Basel: Birkhauser.
Baek, J. (2016). Architecture as the Ethics of Climate: Design for Human Ecology in the East Asian Context. London: Routledge.
Berman, M. (1994). Katı Olan Her Şey Buharlaşıyor: Modernite Deneyimi. İstanbul: İletişim Yayınları.
Bozdoğan, S. (2001). Modernism and Nation Building: Turkish Architectural Culture in the Early Republic. Seattle: University of Washington Press.
Carranza, L. E., & Lara, F. L. (2014). Modern Architecture in Latin America: Art, Technology, and Utopia. Austin: University of Texas Press.
Chakrabarty, D. (2000). Provincializing Europe: Postcolonial Thought and Historical Difference. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Cohen, J.-L. (2012). The Future of Architecture Since 1889: A Worldwide History. London: Phaidon Press.
Colomina, B. (1994). Privacy and Publicity: Modern Architecture as Mass Media. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Escobar, A. (2018). Designs for the Pluriverse: Radical Interdependence, Autonomy, and the Making of Worlds. Durham: Duke University Press.
Frampton, K. (1980). Modern Architecture: Critical History. London: Thames & Hudson.
Frampton, K. (1983). ?Towards a Critical Regionalism: Six Points for an Architecture of Resistance.? In H. Foster (Ed.), The Anti-Aesthetic: Essays on Postmodern Culture (pp. 16?30). Seattle: Bay Press.
Ingold, T. (2000). The Perception of the Environment: Essays on Livelihood, Dwelling and Skill. London: Routledge.
Jacobs, J. (1961). The Death and Life of Great American Cities. New York: Random House.
James-Chakraborty, K. (2014). Architecture since 1400. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
King, A. D. (1976). Colonial Urban Development: Culture, Social Power, and Environment. London: Routledge.
Le Roux, H. (2003). ?Modern Architecture in Postcolonial Africa.? DOCOMOMO Journal, 28, 20-26.
Mumford, E. (2000). The CIAM Discourse on Urbanism, 1928?1960. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Rapoport, A. (1969). House Form and Culture. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.
Rendell, J., Penner, B., & Borden, I. (Eds.). (2000). Gender Space Architecture: An Interdisciplinary Introduction. London: Routledge.
Scott, F. D. (2007). Architecture or Techno-Utopia: Politics After Modernism. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Tafuri, M. (1976). Architecture and Utopia: Design and Capitalist Development. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

Planned Learning Activities and Teaching Methods

Lecture
Discussion
Presentation
Case Study
Report Preparation

Assessment Methods and Criteria

	Quantity	Percentage (%)
Mid-term	1	15
Attendance	1	5
Presentation of Case Study	1	20
Other	1	15
Total(%)		55
Contribution of In-term Studies to Overall Grade(%)		55
Contribution of Final Examination to Overall Grade(%)		45
Total(%)		100

ECTS Allocated Based on Student Workload

Activities	Quantity	Duration (Hour)	Total Workload (Hour)
Midterm exam	1	2	2
Preparation for Quiz
Individual or group work
Preparation for Final exam
Course hours	13	3	39
Preparation for Midterm exam	1	30	30
Laboratory (including preparation)
Final exam
Homework
Presentation (including preperation)	1	80	80
Take-home
Term Project Research	1	90	90
Article	4	12	48
Total Work Load			289
Total Work Load / 30 (h)			9.63
ECTS Credit of the Course			10

Language of Instruction

Turkish

Work Placement(s)

Programme Qualifications / Learning Outcomes

	LO1	LO2	LO3	LO4	LO5
K1	X	X		X
K2	X	X	X	X
K3		X	X
K4				X	X
K5	X			X	X
K6
K7
K8
K9
K10