URBS 272 - Topics in Architectural History

Semester Offered: Spring
1 unit(s)

(Same as ART 272) Topic for 2026/26b: Architecture, Land, and Labor across the Atlantic II: The Age of Empires (1851 - 1913). Who builds architecture, where, and to whom do we attribute credit for its design and realization? This course studies design and construction from the second half of the nineteenth century and the predominance of British Imperial power through U.S. Civil War, the “Scramble for Africa,” the Second Industrial Revolution and the Gilded Age, the introduction of mass-produced steel, electrification, and other new technologies, along with new ideas about labor, class conflict, manufacturing, and competition. From the scales of materials and construction assemblies to city plans, and from working-class housing to factories to lavish bourgeois mansions, we consider architecture from the perspective of its production. Our focus will be the architecture of the Atlantic World: consolidating ideas of nationalism in the developing states in the Americas, extractive colonialism in Africa, and political regimes in Europe, old and new. Through the lens of technological innovations and economic developments, we consider how concepts of the value of labor and territorial possession contributed to the built environment. Jonah Rowen.

Prerequisite(s): Permission of the instructor.

Two 75-minute periods.

Course Format: CLS