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The role of history in architectural education*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 April 2016

Mark Swenarton
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Extract

My treatment of this subject falls into two parts. In the first (and longer) part I shall look at the three major theories of the role of history in architectural education that have held sway in English architectural education this century: what I term the ‘realist’ (derived from Lethaby), the classicist and the modernist. In the second I shall criticize all three, discuss the ideas that have guided the teaching of history at the Bartlett School in the past ten years and make some broader proposals for the development of architectural history as a discipline.

Type
Research Article
Information
Architectural History , Volume 30 , 1987 , pp. 201 - 215
Copyright
Copyright © Society of Architectural Historians of Great Britain 1987

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Footnotes

*

A paper delivered to the Sixteenth Annual Symposium of the Society of Architectural Historians of Great Britain, held at the Royal Institute of British Architects, 7 March 1987, on ‘The Relevance of Architectural History’.

References

Notes

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2 Architectural Design, 52, nos 5/6 (1982), ‘Classicism is not a style’.

3 Macleod, R., Style and Society. Architectural ideology in Britain 1835-1914 (1971), p. 7 Google Scholar; Saint, A., ‘The architect and the architectural historian’, RIBA Transactions, 4 (1982-83), 17 Google Scholar.

4 Swenarton, M., The Ruskinian tradition in architectural thought (forthcoming, 1988), ch. 4 Google Scholar.

5 Lethaby, W. R., ‘Architectural Education. A Discussion. 1. Aims and Principles’, Architectural Review, 16 (1904), 158 Google Scholar.

6 Ibid., 161.

7 Ibid., 161.

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9 Ibid., 113.

10 Ibid., 113. See also Lethaby, W. R., Architecture, Mysticism and Myth (1892), p. XX Google Scholar.

11 London County Council School of Building, Prospectus and Time Table of Evening Classes for the Third Session 1905-6 (1905), p. 11.

12 London County Council School of Building, Prospectus and Time Table of Evening Classes for the Fourth Session 1906-7 (1906), p. 24.

13 Viollet-le-Duc, E. E. (trans Bucknall, B.), Lectures on Architecture (2 vols, 1877 and 1881), 1, 184 Google Scholar.

14 Ibid., 139.

15 Lethaby, ‘Architectural Education’, p. 161.

16 Fellows, R. A., Sir Reginald Blomfield. An Edwardian Architect (1985), pp. 72–73 Google Scholar.

17 Blomfield, R., The Mistress Art (1908), p. V Google Scholar (author’s translation).

18 Ibid., p. 9.

19 Ibid., p. 10.

20 Ibid., p. 34.

21 Ibid., p. 9.

22 Fellows, Blomfield, pp. 72-75.

23 Reilly, C. H., Representative British Architects of the Present Day (1931), p. 61 Google Scholar.

24 Reilly, C. H., ‘The Training of Architects’, University Review(July 1905), p. 245 Google Scholar; Reilly, C. H., Scaffolding in the Sky. A semi-architectural autobiography (1938), pp. 214-15Google Scholar.

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29 Ibid., p. 7.

30 Cornato, H., Evolution in Architecture (1948), p. 3 Google Scholar.

31 Collins, P., ‘The Interrelated Roles of History, Theory and Criticism in the Process of Architectural Design’, in Whiffen, M. (ed), The History, Theory and Criticism of Architecture (Cambridge, Mass. 1965), p. 1 Google Scholar; Sturges, W. Knight, ‘Jacques-Francois Blondel’, Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians, 11 (1952), 19 CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

32 Blomfield, R., A History of French Architecture from the Death of Mazarin till the Death of Louis XV 1661-1774 (2 vols, 1921), II, 149 Google Scholar.

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35 Pevsner, N., ‘Post-War Tendencies in German Art Schools’, Journal of the Royal Society of Arts, 84 (17 January 1936), 249 Google Scholar.

36 Gropius, ‘Theory and Organisation’, p. 26. See also Gelernter, M., ‘The Subject-Object Problem in Design Theory and Education’ (University of London unpubl. Ph.D. 1981)Google Scholar.

37 Gropius, ‘Theory and Organisation’, p. 24.

38 Gropius, W., ‘In Search of Better Architectural Education’, in Congrès Internationaux d’Architecture Moderne (ed. Giedion, S.), A Decade of Contemporary Architecture (Zurich 1951; 2nd edn 1954), p. 50 Google Scholar.

39 Ibid., p. 47.

40 Ibid., p. 48.

41 Ibid., p. 51.

42 Ibid., p. 51.

43 Ibid., p. 52.

44 Gropius, ‘Theory and Organisation’, p. 20.

45 Gropius, ‘Better Architectural Education’, p. 52.

46 Congrès Internationaux d’Architecture Moderne, S, 1951: Report of the Hoddesdon Conference (1951). np.

47 Davies, R. Llewelyn, The Education of an Architect (1961), p. 6 Google Scholar.

48 Ibid., p. 14.

49 Ibid., p. 4.

50 Ibid., p. 9.

51 Martin, L., ‘An Overall View of the Architect’s Training’, Architect’s Journal, 132 (3 November 1960), 659 Google Scholar.

52 Llewelyn Davies, Education of an Architect, p. 11.

53 Ibid., p. 11.

54 Ibid., p. 11.

55 Ibid., p. 11.

56 Ibid., p. 11.

57 Banham, R., Theory and Design in the First Machine Age (1960), p. 330 Google Scholar.

58 R. Banham, ‘School of Environmental Studies Course Guide: History’ (unpubl. 1973), p. 1.

59 Ricardo, ‘Architecture’, p. 113.

60 Gropius, ‘Better Architectural Education’, p. 52.

61 Construction History, 1-3 (1985-87).

62 Dunster, D., ‘An Attempt to Teach a History of the Built Environment: A Report on a Course for First Year Students at the Bartlett’, The Production of the Built Environment. Proceedings of the 7th Bartlett International Summer School, Vaulx-en-Velin 1985 (1986), pp. 89–93 Google Scholar.

63 Stern, ‘Architecture, History and Historiography’, pp. 40-41; Cornato, ‘Evolution in Architecture’, p. 3.

64 Architectural Design, 51, nos 10/11 (1982), ‘The Anglo-American Suburb’.

65 R. Venturi, Complexity and Contradiction in Architecture (1966).

66 Stern, ‘Architecture, History and Historiography’, p. 40.

67 Forty, A., Objects of Desire. Design and Society 1750-1980 (1986), especially chs 3, 6 and 10 Google Scholar; Swenarton, M., ‘Rationality and Rationalism: the theory and practice of site planning in modern architecture 1905-1930’, AA Files, 4 (1983), 49–59 Google Scholar.

68 Architectural History. Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians of Great Britain, 1-29 (1958-86).