Postgraduate Course: Architecture and Socialism: 1930 to the Present (ARHI11003)
Course Outline
| School | Edinburgh College of Art |
College | College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences |
| Credit level (Normal year taken) | SCQF Level 11 (Postgraduate) |
Availability | Available to all students |
| SCQF Credits | 20 |
ECTS Credits | 10 |
| Summary | This course surveys the urban and architectural legacy of socialist systems from a global perspective. |
| Course description |
This course surveys the urban and architectural legacy of socialist systems from a global perspective. Beginning in the early twentieth century with the October Revolution, it traces the development of architecture in the Soviet Union, Eastern Europe and other territories throughout the twentieth century and up to the present. The aim of the course is to explore the vast and understudied built environment produced by state socialism, thereby mapping a history of architecture in the twentieth century that complements and corrects received narratives about the relationship of socialism to the built environment. It will address topics including: the radical social mission of early socialist projects for architecture and the city; the development of an enriched, monumental approach to architecture and urbanism during the Stalin Era; the diffusion of socialist architectural paradigms throughout Eastern Europe, China, and elsewhere; collaboration and competition among socialist architectural systems and the capitalist world; and relationships between socialist architectural culture and the developing world. Through case studies drawn from Moscow, Berlin, Kiev, Havana, Aswan (Egypt), Beijing, Hanoi, Pyongyang, and others, the course asks students to consider the proposition that there were, and perhaps may still be distinct architectures of socialism.
A full schedule of lectures and tutorials will be available in the course handbook.
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Information for Visiting Students
| Pre-requisites | None |
| High Demand Course? |
Yes |
Course Delivery Information
| Not being delivered |
Learning Outcomes
On completion of this course, the student will be able to:
- Demonstrate an extensive awareness of the impact of socialist systems on the global built environment.
- Demonstrate a synthetic understanding of current scholarship on the architectures of socialism.
- Demonstrate a sophisticated knowledge of the relationship between modernization and architectural paradigms in both advanced capitalist and socialist worlds.
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Reading List
Indicative bibliography; a full bibliography will be available in the course handbook
Åman, Anders. Architecture and Ideology in Eastern Europe during the Stalin Era: An Aspect of Cold War history. New York, 1992.
Anderson, Richard. Russia: Modern Architectures in History. London, 2015.
Bocharov, Iu. P., L. V. Baldin, and N. F. Gulianitskii, eds. Arkhitektura SSSR, 1917-1987. Moscow, 1987.
Kulic, Vladimir, Maroje Mrduljaés, and Wolfgang Thaler. Modernism in-between: the mediatory architectures of Socialist Yugoslavia. Berlin, 2012.
Ritter, Katharina, Ekaterina Shapiro-Obermeir, Dietmar Steiner, and Alexandra Wachter, eds. Soviet Modernism 1955-1991: Unknown History, Architektur Zentrum Wien. Zurich: Park Books, 2012.
Zhu, Jianfei. Architecture of Modern China: A Historical Critique. London, 2009.
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Additional Information
| Graduate Attributes and Skills |
At the end of this course the student will be able, through tutorial discussions and coursework, demonstrate:
- enhanced abilities in research, critical thinking, weighing up of arguments and evidence
- understanding of complex issues and how to draw valid conclusions from the past
- production of innovative research pieces that adhere to bibliographical convention
- enhanced writing skills |
| Keywords | architecture,modern,socialism,russia |
Contacts
| Course organiser | Dr Richard Anderson
Tel: (131 6)50 8204
Email: |
Course secretary | Miss Remi Jankeviciute
Tel: (0131 6)51 5773
Email: |
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