Architecture, Money and the City: 1500, 1800, 2000
Seminar Kunst und Architektur II (056-0002)
Organizer: MAS
Lecturers: Dr. Anne Kockelkorn, Dr. Susanne Schindler, Marie-Anne Lerjen, Sabine Sträuli
Time: Fridays, 14.00–17.15
Location: HCI H 2.1
In the seminar “Architecture, Money and the City: 1500, 1800, 2000” we explore the relationships between the political economy and architectural production of a particular historical context. In doing so, we take into account that money flows and political power do not necessarily go hand in hand, and that architecture often emerges in the grey zones where money and power overlap. We also posit that built form and financial models are mutually dependent: on the one hand, architecture materialises political and economic power relations; on the other, it is only through architecture – its siting, organisation and materiality – that certain property relations and forms of investment become real. The seminar thus asks: how do economics, trade and financing shape the built environment? And conversely: how do the production and use of the built environment condition forms of finance? What can we learn about techniques of governmentality and representation by analysing the built environment through the lens of money?
In order to identify the continuities and discontinuities between economics and architecture, the semester is structured around three historical turning points in the history of globalisation and capitalism: 1500 (the end of Middle Ages and the beginning of the Renaissance and European colonisation); 1800 (the end of the Enlightenment and the beginning of industrial capitalism); and 2000 (the neoliberal turn including post-Fordism, financialisation and digitisation). In juxtaposing texts from architectural and economic theory with key buildings from these three periods, we will test new ways of conceptualising the relationships between architecture, money and the city.
This approach is based on three convictions: first, that reading economic and architectural history in tandem and across different epochs, places and building tasks increases our understanding of the history of globalisation; second, that this reading articulates in a particularly efficient manner the relationships between architecture and the city, concept and use; and third, that it evinces the a-cyclical relationship between past and present.
Syllabus Architecture, Money and the City: 1500, 1800, 2000
Organizer: MAS
Lecturers: Dr. Anne Kockelkorn, Dr. Susanne Schindler, Marie-Anne Lerjen, Sabine Sträuli
Time: Fridays, 14.00–17.15
Location: HCI H 2.1
In the seminar “Architecture, Money and the City: 1500, 1800, 2000” we explore the relationships between the political economy and architectural production of a particular historical context. In doing so, we take into account that money flows and political power do not necessarily go hand in hand, and that architecture often emerges in the grey zones where money and power overlap. We also posit that built form and financial models are mutually dependent: on the one hand, architecture materialises political and economic power relations; on the other, it is only through architecture – its siting, organisation and materiality – that certain property relations and forms of investment become real. The seminar thus asks: how do economics, trade and financing shape the built environment? And conversely: how do the production and use of the built environment condition forms of finance? What can we learn about techniques of governmentality and representation by analysing the built environment through the lens of money?
In order to identify the continuities and discontinuities between economics and architecture, the semester is structured around three historical turning points in the history of globalisation and capitalism: 1500 (the end of Middle Ages and the beginning of the Renaissance and European colonisation); 1800 (the end of the Enlightenment and the beginning of industrial capitalism); and 2000 (the neoliberal turn including post-Fordism, financialisation and digitisation). In juxtaposing texts from architectural and economic theory with key buildings from these three periods, we will test new ways of conceptualising the relationships between architecture, money and the city.
This approach is based on three convictions: first, that reading economic and architectural history in tandem and across different epochs, places and building tasks increases our understanding of the history of globalisation; second, that this reading articulates in a particularly efficient manner the relationships between architecture and the city, concept and use; and third, that it evinces the a-cyclical relationship between past and present.
Syllabus Architecture, Money and the City: 1500, 1800, 2000
