Architecture in the Age of Identity: Race, Gender, Ethnicity and Their Discontents

1.5 units

Identity is both an individual and social category. It is deeply personal, woven with memories, feelings and emotions, but also collective, informed by history, society and culture. Consequently, this gap between individual self-expression and societal conformity remains one of the fundamental tensions of human existence, but also a source of inspiration and imagination in our rapidly changing world. Categories such as race, gender, class and ethnicity-as well as their intersections and overlaps-remain dynamic. They constantly evolve, responding to the changing socio-economic context and engaging an ever-expanding array of cultural production-from literature and film to philosophy and sociology. This course expands the conversation even further, examining the relationship between design and identity in architecture, with a particular emphasis on architectural education. Covering a range of case studies that emerged after World War I, the course moves freely across various divides-between North-South and East-West, between socialism and capitalism-examining the representation of identity through a variety of architectural media, including drawings, texts and buildings. The course probes architecture schools and practices as both disciplinary enterprises and as hubs of identity formation, suggesting the capacity of equity and representation to serve as agents of both political and architectural emancipation. The course content includes lectures, discussions and presentations, as well as reading and research.