Learning to Look at Western Architecture

Overview

Learning outcomes

• Learning to Look at Western Architecture at University of Oxford is the quintessential ‘public’ art form. The work of architects surrounds us all, every day of our lives, shaping and conditioning our experience of the world in ways which are as subtle as they are inescapable. Yet the practice of architects does not take place - and has never taken place - in a vacuum: architects continually engage with the architectural styles and practices of the past, shaping the architectural forms of the present from the vast reservoir of forms and styles bequeathed by the western architectural tradition.

• This course aims to give students an introduction and overview of that architectural tradition – enabling students to ‘read’ the architecture of the contemporary built environment in a critically informed way. Students will learn to recognise and differentiate between the major architectural styles of the western tradition – and will thus gain a greater understanding of the way that buildings are built, and why they look the way they do.

Course aims

This course aims to introduce students to the broad stylistic history of western architecture, by:

• guiding them through selected contemporary and historical readings;
• helping them to recognise the salient features of the western architectural tradition, as manifested within the contemporary built environment.

Teaching outcomes

By the end of this course students will be able to understand:

• the overall chronological and stylistic progressions within the western architectural tradition; 
• the historical origins of the styles and forms of contemporary architecture; 
• that the architecture of any period results from a complex dialogue between the needs of the present and the styles and forms of the past.