Lecture Crn 6522

CRN 6522

ARCHITECTURE AND RACE IN DESIGN

THE NEW SCHOOL/ Department of ArchitectureInstructor: Charles Davis; Tel: (215) 207-1770; email: cdavisii@newschool.edu; Class Time: (T) 3:00-5:30pm; Office hours: by appointment

Description: The purpose of this course is to introduce students to the ways that architecture and race have been formulated in architectural history, architectural theory and architectural form. Towards that end, the class will survey the following oppositional discourses in architecture:

(1) SOCIAL HISTORIES OF ARCHITECTURE analyze architecture for its role in visualizing the social dynamics of race and class. As the city develops over time, architecture provides a public record of social conditions that normally resist formalization. Segregation, gentrification, social housing and place theory are key terms in this research.

(2) POLITICAL METAPHORS IN ARCHITECTURE locate the ways that architecture operates within political frameworks. Because radical black politics and civil rights are symptomatic of broader democratic ideals, they have systematically been translated in ‘liberal’ and ‘neo-liberal’ architectural processes of representation.

(3) BIOLOGICAL AND LINGUISTIC CONSTRUCTIONS OF RACE reflect a contemporary interest in the roots of architectural formalism. This research analyzes architectural theory for its ‘structural’ conceptions of race, presenting these frameworks as inherent elements of formalist discourse.

1

2

3

PHYSIOGNOMY, TAXONOMY, AND

CHARACTER

AESTHETICS, PRIMITIVISM, AND

ORGANICISM

NEOLIBERALISM AND ADVOCACY

PLANNING

RACE AS STRUCTURAL,

BIOLOGICAL PRINCIPLE

Fig. 1. An original countenance that will speak sensibility,

timidity, perspicuity, wit, and imagination. Not to be

numbered among the strong, bold, unshaken, and

enterprising; but very considerate, cautious to timidity.

Fig. 2. A man of business. Undoubtedly possessed of

talents, punctual honest, love of order, and deliberation.

An acute inspector of men; a calm, dry, determined

judge. To the middle of the mouth is an advancing trait,

which speaks superiority in common affairs.

Fig. 3. A good head-Cannot be mistaken, not even in

shade. Conceal the under part and Leave only the nose

and forehead visible and signs of attention, love of order

and certainty are apparent. The forehead, altogether, is

too perpendicular for a productive, mind.

Fig. 4. The forehead is not so entirely exact and pure as

to discover the whole capacity of his understanding. The

harmony of the whole, especially the nose, mouth, and

chin, denote a mind of extraordinary observation,

research, and analysis.

Fig. 5. A noble forehead, a miracle of purity, the love of

order, I might say, the love of light. Such the nose, such

is all.

Fig. 6. Much is to be learnt from this shade. Takes little,

gives much; this is particularly conspicuous in the too

round outline of the lips, which is most defective. The

most delicate lines have either not been remarked, or cut

away. The upper part of the forehead is, also, something

curtailed; otherwise this countenance is refined, discreet,

capable of talents, taste, wit, and morals".