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ARCH6678-1 / Spring 2023

The Long History of Architectural Technologies

This course addresses the long history of architectural design, from the earliest known shelters to digital fabrication, and asks how technology has permeated building cultures, and how changes in the history of science and technology have motivated—or not—transformations in architecture as cultural form. In the process, the class seeks to undermine the longstanding split between technical knowledge and historical understanding in architecture.

The class is a hybrid of a history course (with lectures and seminars focusing on thick descriptions of the history of building cultures) and a technology elective (where case-studies and problem sets are used to introduce principles of building science and engineering.) The two halves are brought together by a set of historical case-studies. As a history class, we will study design processes and ask about human agency and scientific epistemology, familiarizing ourselves with critical approaches to technology from construction history, STS and the environmental humanities. As a technology elective, the course consults research in engineering, building science, and archaeology, especially of the kind that enlists calculation, experiments, and on-site reconstructions, to promote a technically-aware approach to design and invention.

Course goals include: to develop a working knowledge of architecture informed by basic science, to push against linear narratives that constrain the designer’s hand and the historian’s pen, and to undermine the dominant attitude to technology in architecture that consists of “designing to code.”

Other Semesters & Sections
Course Semester Title Student Work Instructor Syllabus Requirements & Sequence Location & Time Session & Points Call No.
ARCH6678‑1 Spring 2026
The Long History of Architectural Technologies
Lucia Allais
300 Buell South
TU 11 AM - 1 PM
Full Semester
3 Points
12263
ARCH6678‑1 Fall 2024
The Long History of Arch Technology
Lucia Allais
300 BUELL SOUTH
TU 11 AM- 1 PM
FULL SEMESTER
3 Points
10560