Description

UNDERGRADUATE

Module content 

If we shape our buildings, how do our buildings shape us? In this module, we will analyse diverse ethnographic studies of the built environment in order to explore questions such as: What is a building? How do people appropriate it through practices of consumption? What are the sensorial experiences of those inside a building? What are the properties of its materials and how do they change over time? What is the history of a building? What are the ethics of preservation and heritage? What politics are played out in the repair and maintenance of a building? What are the environmental challenges of present-day buildings, and how do digital practices allow us to visualise them?

Weekly topics include:

Anthropology and architecture: a brief history
	Consuming buildings: material culture and the home
	Politicising buildings: housing, communities and the state
	Experiencing buildings: materials and sensorial engagements with architecture
	Preserving buildings: heritage and anthropological theories of value
	Destroying buildings: iconoclasm, decay and the destruction of architectural forms
	Connecting buildings: infrastructure and the built environment
Together, we will critically examine these themes through presentations, collective reading exercises, film screenings, podcasts, field visits and guest lectures. You will be assigned to a small study group, within which you can discuss the readings, collaborate on creative projects and prepare for tutorials.

This course will equip students across disciplines to engage critically with a wide range of social, cultural and political issues that surround the built environment. It provides anthropology students with a novel way of thinking about the fundamental relationship between people and buildings, while inviting architecture students to consider how buildings are transformed in time by their human and environmental factors.

Learning Outcomes 

Having completed the course, students will:

Develop an excellent understanding of the history of the key debates in the anthropology of the built environment
	Become familiar with the key theoretical approaches to understanding the built environment
	Have a comprehensive understanding of the wide range of research methods that can be used to analyse the relationship between people and the built environment
	Be able to write a critical and creative essay on the built environment, bringing together sources from a wide range of disciplines
Delivery Method:

This course is lecture-based, with weekly tutorials that will be used for a detailed analysis of the weekly readings. The two-hour lectures will vary in content – while the lecture will take up some of the time, there will also be opportunities for group activities and creative engagements with the week’s materials.

Additional Information

This is the website of our module: www.anthropologyofarchitecture.com. Here, you can read some of the best papers from previous years. Because the course is assessed through an essay, you will submit an essay proposal in the first reading week and be part of a peer-review process. The module ends with an essay writing workshop, which will ensure that you are best equipped to write a thoughtful and creative essay.

The course is complemented by a film screening series, often accompanied by Q&As with directors, researchers and/ or practitioners.

POSTGRADUATE 

Module content 

If we shape our buildings, how do our buildings shape us? In this module, we will explore anthropological approaches to the study of architectural forms, starting with the early encounters with built forms, up to the present day within anthropology. Linking the anthropology of the home and urban anthropology to cutting-edge developments from the anthropology of infrastructure and STS, this module will explore what makes up buildings by taking into account the diverse fields of relations that hold them together over time and in space, including pipes and cables, administrators and residents, documents and the natural environment.

Weekly topics include:

Anthropology and architecture: a brief history
	Consuming buildings: material culture and the home
	Politicising buildings: housing, communities and the state
	Experiencing buildings: materials and sensorial engagements with architecture
	Preserving buildings: heritage and anthropological theories of value
	Destroying buildings: iconoclasm, decay and the destruction of architectural forms
	Connecting buildings: infrastructure and the built environment
 

Together, we will critically examine these themes through seminar-based presentations, collective reading exercises, film screenings, podcasts, field visits and guest appearances from anthropologists and/ or architects. You will be assigned to a small study group, within which you can discuss the readings, collaborate on creative projects and prepare for seminars.

This course will equip students across disciplines to engage critically with a wide range of social, cultural and political issues that surround the built environment. It provides anthropology students with a novel way of thinking about the fundamental relationship between people and buildings, while inviting architecture students to consider how buildings are transformed in time by their human and environmental factors.

Learning Outcomes 

Having completed the course, students will:

Develop a good understanding of the history of the key debates in the anthropology of the built environment, and the philosophical, historical and social context of these debates
	Become familiar with the key theoretical approaches to understanding the built environment, such as marxism, structuralism, practice theory, the ethnography of consumption, actor-network theory and material politics
	Have a comprehensive understanding of the wide range of research methods that can be used to unpack the relationship between people and the built environment (visual methods, urban mapping, etc.)
	Critically engage with current developments in architectural practice, applying the knowledge they’ve acquired in this course in related fields such as architecture, design, climate studies, policy and social justice
Delivery Method 

This course is seminar-based, involving detailed analysis of the readings in groups, class discussions and debates and creative engagements with the week’s topic.

Additional Information

This is the website of our module: www.anthropologyofarchitecture.com. Here, you can read some of the best papers from previous years. Because the course is assessed through an essay, you will submit an essay proposal in the first reading week and be part of a peer-review process. You will receive extensive support in the development of your essay topic and structure.

The course is complemented by a film screening series, often accompanied by Q&As with directors, researchers and/ or practitioners.