Events! 

A car bomb explodes outside an exhibition venue raining glass on a display; a raging party takes place during a paused building demolition; a group of illustrious architects toast champagne as they celebrate the end of constructivism; a galvanized public protests the destruction of a contested monument. Resounding applause, scandalized gasps, widened eyes, awe, shock, excitement! 

Architecture is more than static structures. Its development hinges on events – brief or long moments in time when people meet, decisions are made, and buildings are designed, erected, or demolished. An event is singular and unpredictable in its own present, but typically demarcated as history is written. Similarly, its significance is unclear until post-conceptualization, when meaning is extracted. Often canonized, these narratives can result in feedback loops and derivative takes. We are interested in how the same piece of evidence can be used to tell different versions of “what really happened,” coloring our perception of the event in question. 

Events are ephemeral and uncollectable. The missing subject poses challenges for historical research but opportunities for novel forms of writing architectural history. This course aims to explore creative ways of reporting architecture and its constituent events. Absent of the thing itself, our research must rely on fragments of evidence found elsewhere – in advertisements, archives, radio tapes, popular magazines, and others. Working with specific and temporally delineated events, ranging from minutes to years in length, students will unpack and document lost moments. We encourage experimentation with research methods, storytelling, and representation techniques in the crafting of factual, compelling and exciting architectural histories.