ARTH 320 - Classical Architecture from Antiquity to Now

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SP, alternate years. In what style shall we build, and how might classical architecture inform this question? This course traces ancient Greek and Roman architecture from antiquity to its revival in the fifteenth century, its foundational role in the creation of professional schools of architecture in the nineteenth century, and its influence on new construction today. Attending to questions of cultural meaning, including the racial significance of classicism’s troubling histories—whether on American plantations or in Nazi Germany—the course asks how the classical tradition might still productively inform contemporary architecture.