The Architecture of Steven Holl, 1974-2014

3 units

A seminar course examining the works of Steven Holl (1947-), one of the most important architects practicing today. During his forty-year career, 1974-2014, Holl's ordering principles and designs have exercised considerable influence over contemporary developments in architecture around the world. Today Holl is rightly considered the greatest of the third generation of American modern architects, following the first generation of Louis Sullivan, and the second generation of Louis Kahn, architects whose work has served as both a source of inspiration and a standard for Holl's work. In addition to teaching continuously at Columbia University since 1981, where he developed innovative design studio projects, Holl also co-founded in 1976 the influential critical journal PAMPHLET ARCHITECTURE. The course will be structured on the five sections of the proposed book, and will examine important early works such as the Hybrid Building at Seaside, the American Library in Berlin, and the five Edge of the City proposals; mid-career works such as the Housing at Fukuoka, the Stretto House in Dallas, the Chapel of St. Ignatius in Seattle, the Kiasma Museum in Helsinki, and Higgins Hall at Pratt Institute; and later works such as the School of Art at the University of Iowa, the Nelson-Atkins Museum addition in Kansas City, the Linked Hybrid in Beijing, and the Horizontal Skyscraper at Shenzhen. Analytical methods employed in the student presentations in the course will cover the full range of contextual, cultural, material, constructive and experiential attributes of buildings, with particular emphasis on the manner in which the spaces of a building are ordered by the patterns of occupation and the poetics of use, as well as 'the poetics of construction, or the way in which a building is built, and of what materials it is made, and how all these combine to construct the experience of those who inhabit it. Students will employ the graphic analysis standards developed by the professor. Following introductory lectures by the professor, each of the subsequent ten class meetings will consist of two student presentations of building analyses, and each team of two students will be required to present two buildings: one work from early in the career to be presented in the first half of the semester, and one work from later in the career to be presented in the second half of the semester. Students will be evaluated on both the quality of their team presentations, and on the quality of their individual participation in the class discussions accompanying each presentation. Individual research papers, as well as hard copies and CD's of the two in-class presentations, will be due at the end of the semester. Students will be credited in the professor's book; STEVEN HOLL, to be published by Phaidon Press in 2015. As an integral part of the course, the professor will lead an 'optional' field trip to the School of Art at the University of Iowa; this field trip will take place on a weekend. Fulfills History/Theory elective requirement.