ARCHITECTURE (ENGLISH, THESIS)
Master	TR-NQF-HE: Level 7	QF-EHEA: Second Cycle	EQF-LLL: Level 7

Course Introduction and Application Information

Course Code	Course Name	Semester	Theoretical	Practical	Credit	ECTS
ARC5421	Readings on Architecture	Fall Spring	3	0	3	12

This catalog is for information purposes. Course status is determined by the relevant department at the beginning of semester.

Basic information

Language of instruction:	English
Type of course:	Departmental Elective
Course Level:
Mode of Delivery:	Hybrid
Course Coordinator :	Assist. Prof. DURNEV ATILGAN YAĞAN
Recommended Optional Program Components:	None
Course Objectives:	The course aims to explore architecture as both a technocultural and sociocultural field of production, highlighting its reliance on constructed thought systems. It seeks to analyze the relationship between these thought constructions, shaped by social and historical contingencies, and architectural practice. By fostering an understanding of the interplay between "texts producing architecture" and "architectures producing texts," the course raises awareness of their mutual influence and encourages students to critically engage with the textual and conceptual foundations of architectural production.

Learning Outcomes

The students who have succeeded in this course;
I. Gain the ability to analyze and evaluate architecture in its technocultural and sociocultural dimensions within a societal context.
II. Critically assess and open for discussion the written and visual media related to architecture, including texts written about or associated with architecture.
III. Understand that textual narratives differ across cultural contexts, recognize their pluralistic nature and historicity, and relate these elements to architecture.
IV. Analyze the relationships between architecture, history, theory, and criticism, comprehend architecture as a reproducible domain, and apply this understanding in design practices.

Course Content

Texts on architecture and/or texts on architectural issues and literal and visual texts produced by architectural thought comprise the course content.

Weekly Detailed Course Contents

Week	Subject	Related Preparation
1)	Introduction: Reading texts & contexts
2)	The concepts and the phenomena workshop: reading concepts and phenomena by viewing dictionary	Metapolis Dictionary of Advanced Architecture: City, Technology and Society in the Information Age.
3)	19th century as building site and thinking constructions.	Reading 1: Marshall Berman, All That is Solid Melts into Air.
4)	19th century as building site and thinking constructions.	Reading 2: Marshall Berman, All That is Solid Melts into Air.
5)	19th century and inter-textuality	Reading 3: In what style should we build?
6)	Reading 19th century in local contexts: İstanbul case.	Reading 4.1: Montani Efendi, Usul-i Mimari-i Osmani. reading 4.2: Edmondo de Amicis, İstanbul (1874). reading 4.3: Ahmet Rasim, Şehir Mektupları. reading 4.4: J. P. A. Van Der Vin, Travellers to Greece and Constantinople: ancient monuments and old traditions in medieval travellers' tales, Nederlands Historisch-Archaeologisch Instituut, Leiden, 1980.
7)	Special and Spatial Reading: İstanbul, Balyan's and Architecture.	Reading 5.1: Hasan Kuruyazıcı, Armenian Architects of Istanbul in the Era of Westernization reading 5.2: Pars Tuğlacı, Osmanlı Mimarlığı’nda Balyan Ailesinin Rolü
8)	Discussion: 19th century, inter-textuality and architecture	Term paper topics
9)	20th century, meta-texts, city and architecture	Le Corbusier, Adolf Loos, Mies van der Rohe's texts and architectures.
10)	20th century: Meta-texts and architecture	Reading 6: Walter Benjamin, Passages
11)	20th century: Meta-texts and architecture	Reading 7: Le Corbusier, Towards A New Architecture
12)	Reading 20th century in local context: textuality in İstanbul	Sedad Hakkı Eldem
13)	Reading 20th century in local context: textuality in İstanbul	Sedat Hakkı Eldem, Turgut Cansever
14)	Final critics on term papers	Writing term paper

Sources

Course Notes / Textbooks:

Manuel Gausa, (2003) The Metapolis dictionary of advanced architecture : city, technology and society in the information age/ authors, Manuel Gausa ... [et al.] ; coordinación, Susanna Cros. Actar. Available at: https://research.ebsco.com/linkprocessor/plink?id=55abe9dc-203e-3851-a081-9dc3f90633d3 (Accessed: 19 December 2024).
Berman, Marshall. (1988) All that is solid melts into air : the experience of modernity/ Marshall Berman. Viking Penguin. Available at: https://research.ebsco.com/linkprocessor/plink?id=9e9ff110-1fd2-31ce-b986-679ed9d1281b (Accessed: 19 December 2024).
Hermann, Wolfgang (ed) (1992). In what style should we build?. The Getty Center for the History of Art and the Humanities.
Montani, P., Sebah, P. (1873) Usul-i Mi'mari-i Osmani / L'architectureottomane / Die ottomanische Baukunst, Imprimerie et lithographie centrales, İstanbul.
Edmondo de Amicis, İstanbul (1874), (Çev. Sevinç Tezcan Yanar), Pegasus Yayınları
Ahmet Rasim (2009) Şehir mektupları/ Ahmet Rasim. Alkım Yayınevi.
J. P. A. Van Der Vin, Travellers to Greece and Constantinople: ancient monuments and old traditions in medieval travellers' tales, Nederlands Historisch-Archaeologisch Instituut, Leiden, 1980.
Kuruyazıcı, haz. H. (2010) Batılılaşan İstanbul’un Ermeni Mimarları = Armenian Architects of Istanbul in the Era of Westernization/ haz. Hasan Kuruyazıcı. Uluslararası Hrant Dink Vakfı.
Tuğlacı, P. (1993) Osmanlı mimarlığında Balyan Ailesi’nin rolü/ Pars Tuğlacı. Yeni Çığır Kitabevi.
Michel Guérin (2000) ‘Passage Walter Benjamin’, La pensée de midi, pp. 32–35. doi:10.3917/lpm.002.0032.
Le Corbusier and Etchells, translated from the thirteenth F. edition with an introduction by F. (2014) Towards a new architecture/ Le Corbusier ; translated from the thirteenth French edition with an introduction by Frederick Etchells. Martino Publishing.

References:

Supplementary material can be added during the course.

Evaluation System

Semester Requirements	Number of Activities	Level of Contribution
Homework Assignments	10	% 20
Presentation	1	% 15
Final	1	% 40
Paper Submission	1	% 25
Total		% 100
PERCENTAGE OF SEMESTER WORK		% 60
PERCENTAGE OF FINAL WORK		% 40
Total		% 100

ECTS / Workload Table

Activities	Number of Activities	Duration (Hours)	Workload
Course Hours	12	3	36
Study Hours Out of Class	12	10	120
Presentations / Seminar	1	30	30
Paper Submission	1	50	50
Final	1	60	60
Total Workload			296

Contribution of Learning Outcomes to Programme Outcomes

No Effect	1 Lowest	2 Low	3 Average	4 High	5 Highest

	Program Outcomes	Level of Contribution
1)	Develop and deepen knowledge in the same or in a different field to the proficiency level based on Bachelor level qualifications.
2)	Be able to conduct research at the proficiency level in Architecture or related disciplines individually, as well as to lead, participate in, or take responsibility for group projects
3)	Demostrate an ability to develop new approaches and produce knowledge at proficiency level researches both in architecture and related disciplines.
4)	Make decisions and produce comprehensive solutions to poorly defined, complex design problems at different scales related to the field by using critical thinking methods.
5)	Evaluate the phenomena in architectural history and assess contemporary developments by analyzing their historical, cultural, social, and political backgrounds.
6)	Be able to conduct independent qualitative and quantitative research requiring expertise in the field of architecture and contribute to professional knowledge and practice.
7)	Be able to present and publish the results of the research or design proposal related to the field in academic dialogue, in national and international forums, using written, oral, or other information and communication technologies, at the B2 General Level of the European Language Portfolio in English.
8)	Develops the lifelong learning abilities.
9)	Engage with the social responsibilities, legal, ethical, and aesthetic values of the architecture discipline.