This course seeks to question modern architecture and historiography through the lenses of both colonialism and decoloniality. Colonialism and the power structures that sustained it have deeply affected architecture across the globe and left a pervasive mark on the histories of architecture in use to this day. At the same time, forceful and resilient counter-cultures emerged throughout colonized, and later postcolonial, nations which engendered extraordinary architecture and critically aware historiographies that continually challenge the universalist pretensions of western modernity. Our agenda is a historiography that does not speak from the center alone but from the “margins” as well—a diverse, inclusive account that rejects hegemonic narratives and practices. Deconstructing binaries, it engages in self-reflexive critique, works to pluralize authorship, and brings analytical rigor to bear on its main task: to uncover the persistence of Euro-centered modes in the production of architectural knowledge even in the supposedly postcolonial present; and to suggest other interpretive models.

All Sections and Semesters

3011
Fall 2024
Architecture and Modernity: Theories and Projects
David Sadighian
3011
Fall 2022
Architecture and Modernity: Theories and Projects
Marta Caldeira