ARCH 631Housing Seminar IIProfessor Robert MellinSchool of ArchitectureMcGill UniversityWinter Term 2007robert.mellin@mcgill.ca

from Maira Kalman, The Principles of Uncertainty, Penguin, 2007.

Course webpage:

http://www.arch.mcgill.ca/prof/mellin/hseminar2/index.html

Note that the course outline and schedule will be updated as necessary on the web page.Please remember to check this site weekly for clarifications, for schedule changes,readings (articles available online), and for supplementary references.

Pedagogical objectives:

The purpose of this graduate reading seminar is to build context around the topic of“housing” through the investigation of current issues in architecture, cultural landscapes,and material culture.

Meetings:

Wednesdays from 11:00-1:00 in room 207. Attendance and full participation aremandatory. No cell phones or laptops permitted (unless a presentation is being givenwith a laptop).

Assignments:

Web page:

The major assignment of the course is the preparation of a research paper presented in theform of a web page (text, drawings, photographs, bibliography, hyperlinks etc.) on asubject of your choice related to housing. This web page will be archived on the McGillserver (School of Architecture). You are encouraged to take advantage of the non-linearpossibilities inherent in web pages, but at the same time your paper must demonstrate therigour and clarity of a research paper. Ideally, the subject you select will contribute toyour post-professional M.Arch. research paper topic. More information will be given onweb page requirements later in the term. The EMF network features the suite of Adobesoftware products (Dreamweaver, Illustrator, Photoshop, Acrobat, etc.). Robert Mellinwill provide assistance with basic web page template mechanics/image preparation.Carrie Henzie in the School of Architecture is also available to answer questions on webpage development. Full citations required for all references, links, etc.! (use thecurrent manual of style required by McGill Graduate Studies).

Graphic short story:

Write and illustrate a short story in the tradition of the graphic novel on a subject relatingto housing. You are encouraged to draw upon your personal experience, research,imagination, perceptions, curiosity, emotions, and any literary/graphic novel precedentsyou feel are important. You should study recent graphic novels and cartoons of authorsinterested in dwelling, architecture and planning issues. Many of these authors address atheme often addressed in Henry Glassie’s writings, the “evolution of alienation.” Yourgraphic short story will be presented and archived on a separate web page.

Grading:

Web page (research paper):

Intermediate web page presentation: 20%

Final web page: 40%

Graphic short story:

Intermediate presentation: 10%

Final story: 20%

Participation: 10%

From Laugh Parade by Bunny Hoest and John Reiner

McGILL UNIVERSITY VALUES ACADEMIC INTEGRITY. THEREFORE ALLSTUDENTS MUST UNDERSTAND THE MEANING AND CONSEQUENCES OFCHEATING, PLAGIARISM AND OTHER ACADEMIC OFFENCES UNDER THECODE OF STUDENT CONDUCT AND DISCIPLINARY PROCEDURES (seewww.mcgill.ca/integrity for more information).

Schedule:

January 9: Introduction: discuss course outline, requirements, web pages. Film: Born intoBrothels (suggestion- rent the film and view the special features).

January 16: Presentation by Robert Mellin on housing in Ahmedabad, India (site andservices, informal settlements, and The Pols).

January 23: Presentation by Robert Mellin: research methodology, rural housing inCanada part one (Tilting, Fogo Island, Newfoundland). Written proposal (description,outline, preliminary bibliography of your proposed readings) for your short story and webpage research paper due Jan. 23 (printed hard copy).

January 30: Presentation by Robert Mellin on rural housing in Canada, part two. (Tilting,Fogo Island, Newfoundland).

February 6: Graphic short story presentations (all students will make a brief presentationusing a web page).

February 13: Presentation by Oliver Schanz on Atelier Big City’s Unity II project inMontreal.

February 20: Presentation by Professor Ricardo Castro on Pattern Language and housingby Salmona in Bogota, Colombia.

February 27: No seminar (reading week)

March 5: Web page (research paper) intermediate presentations (all students will make abrief presentation providing an overview of the subject and web page format/references).

March 12: Presentation by R. Mellin on housing in and near Bogota (custom design,public housing, the old city, plantations, and “the unseen.” Presentation by Ricardo Veraon his research on the Kogi in Colombia.

March 19: Presentation by Robert Mellin on urban housing in Canada (St. John’s,Newfoundland), RM’s research for CMHC on housing.

March 26: Presentation by Pieter Sijpkes on housing in Amsterdam (hour one).Presentation by Robert Mellin on housing in Havana (hour two).

April 2: Final web page and short story presentations (part one): CD’s for all web pagesand short stories are due April 2 (all students!).

April 9: Final web page and short story presentations (part two).

Books on reserve in the library for ARCH 631: theory

Busch, Akiko, Geography of Home NK2113 B87 1999

Colomina, Beatriz, Domesticity at War NA7208 C589 2007

Hayden, Dolores, The Grand Domestic Revolution HQ1426 H33

Hayden, Dolores, Redesigning the American Dream HD7293 H39 2002

Rybczynski, Witold, Last Harvest HT169.57 U62 N497 2007

Weisman, Alan, The world without us GF75 W455 2007

Kunstler, James Howard, The Geography of Nowhere HT119 K86 2001

Berke, Deborah The Architecture of the Everyday NA2543 S6 A633 1997

de Certeau, Michel, with Luce Giard and Pierre Mayol, The Practice of Everyday LifeHN8 C4313 1984 (try to find the U. of Minnesota 1998 edition if you decide to purchasethis book)

Henry Glassie, Vernacular Architecture: Glassie (transition from village, to house, tocommodity) NA208 G59 2000

Books on reserve in the library for ARCH 631: possible references

Peter Katz, The New Urbanism NA2542.4 K38 1994

Stang, Andrea and Christopher Hawthorne, The Green House: New Directions inSustainable Architecture NA2542.36 S73 2005

Dean, Andrea Oppenheimer, Rural Studio NA2300 A9 D43 2002

In Detail Series: High Density Housing NA7860 V4713 2004

In Detail Series: Building Simply NA682 M55 B85 2005

In Detail Series: Housing for People of All Ages NA2545 P5 H5713 2007

In Detail Series: Japan : architecture, constructions, ambiances NA1555 J353 2002

In Detail Series: Semi-detached and terraced houses NA7520 S46 2006

In Detail Series: Solar architecture: strategies, visions, concepts NA2542 S6 S662 2003

Mellin, Robert Tilting NA7243 T55 M45 2003

Other Books available in the library:

Glassie, Henry. Passing the Time in Ballymenone DA995 B15 G57 1995

Bachelard, Gaston, The Poetics of Space B2430 B253 P63 1994

Christopher Alexander, A Pattern Language NA9050 A49x

Creates, Marlene, Signs of Our Time TR647 C733 2006

Lippard, Lucy The Lure of the Local GF503 L56 1997 

Lippard, Lucy On the Beaten Track: Tourism, Art, and Place G155 A1 L57 1999

Hines, Thomas S., Richard Neutra and the Search for Modern Architecture NA737N4 H5 2005 

Mackay-Lyons, Brian, Plain Modern NA749 M317 A4 2005

Polyzoides, Stefanos, Courtyard Housing in Los Angeles NA7238 L6 P6 1982

Riley, Terence The Unprivate House NA7126 R55 1999

Herman, Bernard, Town House NA7206 H47 2005

Pocius, Gerald L. Living in a Material World HC117 N4 N47 no.19

Duany, Andres, Towns and Town Making Principles NA9015 C35 G86 1991

McCoy, Esther, Case Study Houses, 1945-1962 NA7235 C2 M2 1977

Moore, Charles The Place of Houses NA7125 M66

Rossi, Aldo The Architecture of the City NA9031 R6713

Rossi, Aldo A Scientific Autobiography NA1123 R616 A2 1981 (note: this book may behelpful for the graphic short story).

Some books in Robert Mellin’s office:

Glassie, Henry. Folk Housing in Middle Virginia

Kunstler, James Howard. The Long Emergency (New York, Grove Press, 2005).Calvino, Italo. Invisible Cities (New York: Harcourt/HBJ, 1974).

Elsewhere: Mapping

School of Urban Planning, McGill University: A Topographical Atlas of Montreal.

Dolores Hayden: Building Suburbia

Rick Joy. Desert Works (New York: Princeton Architectural Press, 2002). See the RubioAvenue Project.

Sheine, Judith. R.M. Schindler (New York: Phaidon Press Inc., 2001)

James Corner, Editor; Recovering Landscape: Essays in Contemporary LandscapeArchitecture (New York: Princeton Architectural Press, 1999).

Diller and Scofidio, Scanning (bad ironing, housing designs, and more!)

Pollock, Naomi, Modern Japanese house

Dolores Hayden, The Power of Place

Duo Dickinson, Small houses for the next century

Steven Holl Pamphlet architecture #9 (vernacular architecture N. America)

Reisley, Usonia New York (Frank Lloyd Wright)

Yutaka, Saito, Louis I Kahn Houses

Creates, Marlene, Places of Presence

Kleinman, Kent, Mies van der Rohe: The Krefeld Villas (New York: PrincetonArchitectural Press, 2005).

Pfeiffer, Bruce Brooks, Frank Lloyd Wright: Usonian Houses (Tokyo, GA, 2002).

Ebong, Ima Kit Homes Modern (New York: Harper Collins, 2005).

The Landscape Urbanism Reader (on order for the library)

Hayden, Dolores, A Field Guide to Sprawl (New York: Norton, 2004).

Lukez, Paul. Suburban Transformations, (New York, Princeton Architectural Press,2007).

MVRDV Files, Projects 002-209, Architecture and Urbanism, Nov. 2002 Special Issue(interesting housing projects).

Graphic novel / cartoon references:

Kalman, Maira, The Principles of Uncertainty (New York, Penguin Press, 2007).

Chris Ware, Jimmy Corrigan (New York: Random House, 2000).

Weiner, Stephen The 101 Best Graphic Novels (NBM, 2005).

http://nowordsnoaction.files.wordpress.com/2007/03/proposal.pdf

http://www.drawnandquarterly.com/imagesPreview/a4436af6cd9f46.pdf

http://www.drawnandquarterly.com/artStudio.php?artist=a41e32dcb62910

http://welcome.to/jochen.gerner

http://www.olivierkugler.com/

http://www.fantagraphics.com/artist/sacco/sacco.html

http://www.randomhouse.com/pantheon/graphicnovels/spiegelman.html

http://www.drawnandquarterly.com/artStudio.php?artist=a41e32e169aff2

http://www.katchor.com/weeklystrips.html

and many others…

http://www.drawnandquarterly.com/artHome.php

and my hero, Julius Knipl, Real Estate Photographer…

http://www.katchor.com/Kniplpage.html

Further Readings from Professor Annmarie Adams:

Adams, Annmarie. Architecture in the Family Way

Adams, Annmarie and Peta Tancred. Designing Women

Attfield, Judy and Pat Kirkham eds., A View from the Interior

Bauer, Catherine. Modern Housing

Carruthers, Annette, ed. The Scottish Home

Clark, Clifford. The American Family Home

Cromley, Elizabeth. Alone Together

Cummings, Abbott Lowell. The Framed Houses of Massachusetts Bay

Friedman, Alice. Women and the Making of the Modern House

Green, Harvey. The Light of the Home

Gowans, Alan. The Comfortable House

Grier, Katherine. Culture & Comfort

Grover, Kathryn, ed. Dining in America

Handlin, David. The American Home

Hayden, Dolores. The Grand Domestic Revolution

Herman, Bernard. The Stolen House

Jackson, Kenneth. Crabgrass Frontier

Kidder, Tracy. House

McDannell, Colleen. The Christian Home in Victorian America

McMurry, Sally. Families & Farmhouses in 19th Century America

Ogle, Maureen. All the Modern Conveniences

Oliver, Paul. Dwellings

Parr, Joy. Domestic Goods

Peterson, Fred W. Homes in the Heartland

Pocius, Gerald. A Place to Belong

Rybczynski, Witold. Home

Scully, Vincent. The Shingle Style and the Stick Style

Simpson, Pamela, Cheap, Quick and Easy

Upton, Dell. America’s Architectural Roots

Upton, Dell and John Michael Vlach, eds. Common Places

Ward, Peter, A History of Domestic Space

Warner, Sam Bass. Streetcar Suburbs

Wright, Gwendolyn. Building the Dream

Wright, Gwendolyn. Moralism and the Model Home

References from Professor Adams on specific topics:

Approaching the House Busch 15-27JB Jackson, “Westward Moving House” in Landscapes, ed. Ervin H. Zube, 1-42.Strongly recommended for background information:Upton, Dell. "Outside the Academy: A Century of Vernacular Architecture Studies,

1890-1990" Studies in the History of Art 35 (1990), 199-213.

The Kitchen, Bathroom and Laundry Busch 39-50, 61-70, 135-142Christine Rosen, “Are We Worthy of Our Kitchens?” The New Atlantis11 (Winter 2006): 

75-86.http://thenewatlantis.com/archive/11/rosen.htmElizabeth Cromley, “Transforming the Food Axis,” Material History Review 44 (Fall

1996), 8-22.Abigail Van Slyck, “Kitchen Technologies and Mealtime Rituals: Interpreting the Food

Axis at American Summer Camps, 1890-1950," Technology and Culture 43(Winter 2002), 668-92.

http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/technology_and_culture/v043/43.4vanslyck.pdfEllen Lupton, Mechanical Brides, 15-27Annmarie Adams, "'The House and All That Goes On In It': The Notebook of Frederica

Shanks," Winterthur Portfolio 31 (Summer/Autumn 1996), 165-172.

Front door/Front Porch Busch 29-38, 103-114Francois Dufaux, “A new world from two old ones…,” Urban Morphology, 4, no. 1

(2000), 9-19.James Rojas, “The Enacted Environment,” in Everyday America, ed. Chris Wilson and

Paul Groth, 275-92.Annmarie Adams and Pieter Sijpkes, "Wartime Housing and Architectural Change,

1942-92," Canadian Folklore Canadien 17, No. 2 (1995), 13-29.

Living/dining rooms Busch 51-60, 151-160

Lizabeth Cohen, “Embellishing a Life of Labor” in Common Places, ed. Dell Upton andJohn Michael Vlach, 261-78.

Bernard Herman, “The Embedded Landscapes of the Charleston Single House, 1780-1820, Perspectives in Vernacular Architecture VII, 41-57.

Lynn Spigel, “The Suburban Home Companion: Television and the Neighborhood Idealin Postwar America,” Sexuality and Space, ed. Beatriz Colomina, 185-217.

Annmarie Adams, “The Eichler Home,” Perspectives in Vernacular Architecture V, 236-58.

Bedroom/Dressing Room Busch 115-134Annmarie Adams, Architecture in the Family Way, 103-128.Annmarie Adams and Peter Gossage, "Chez Fadette: Girlhood, Family, and Private

Space in Late-Nineteenth-Century Sainte-Hyacinthe," Urban History Review 26,No. 2 (March 1998), 56-68.

Alice Friedman, Chapter 4, Women and the Making of the Modern HouseRebecca Ginsburg, “’Come in the Dark’,” Perspectives in Vernacular Architecture VIII,

83-100.

Library/Home-office Busch 81-92, 93-102Carolyn Torma, “The Spatial Order of Work,” Perspectives in Vernacular Architecture

VII, 183-95.Dell Upton, “White and Black Landscapes in Eighteenth-century Virginia,” Material Life

in America, ed. Robert Blair St. George, 357-69.