Architecture

This course introduces the rationale for, and process of, the emergence and growth of Singapore's built environment from a third world country to a world class city. It enables students to have an understanding and appreciation of the economic and social aspects and implications of how properties and infrastructure are developed and managed, given the constraints that Singapore faces. It also encourages them to develop alternative views on how the built environment can help Singapore continue to prosper and remain relevant in the region. 

The course covers architectural appreciation, architectural criticism, and creative thinking in architectural design. By interpreting the development history of ancient and modern Chinese and foreign architectural and environmental landscape aesthetic creation, and important achievements and creative thinking of designers in architectural creation, the course cultivates students' independent thinking ability and creative thinking, and opens up creative imagination and enlightenment.

This course is part of the LM degree program and is intended for advanced level students. Enrolment is by consent of the instructor. The course provides a historical overview of the major figures of Italian Renaissance architecture from 1400 to 1600—including Brunelleschi, Alberti, Bramante, Raphael, Antonio da Sangallo the Younger, Michelangelo, Peruzzi, Giulio Romano, Sanmicheli, Sansovino, and Palladio, as well as an outlook on a selection of European Renaissance architects. The architects are analyzed within the cities or countries they operated and are compared with the cultural, social, and political local context. The second part of the course is an overview on a selection of European courts and on the role of humanistic architecture at the dawn of colonialism. Issues such as local antiquities, revival and survival, rules and license, theory of architecture, drawings, and graphic conventions are addressed throughout the course.