ARCH533

 
New  Approaches  to  Architectural  History  
Architecture  and  the  Body  
Fall  2014  
Wednesdays,  3:30-­‐5:30,  Room  207  
Prof.  A.  Adams  
 
"Architecture  and  the  Body,"  is  a  new  20th-­‐century  architectural-­‐history  seminar  on  the  
relationship  of  the  body  and  architecture.  The  main  intention  is  to  explore  a  series  of  
real  places  in  which  diverse  body/space  relationships  are  played  out.  Students  are  
introduced  to  the  growing  literature  on  body  architectures  and  learn  how  to  analyze  
space  through  primary-­‐source  documentation  and  fieldwork.  The  seminar  is  divided  into  
three  major  themes:    the  gendered  body,  the  healthy  body,  and  the  aging  body.    In  
covering  these  three  themes,  we  pay  special  attention  to  the  role  of  the  21st-­‐century  
architect  in  the  changing  relationship  of  body  and  space.  
 
The  focus  of  ten  class  meetings  is  one  real  place  or  artifact,  represented  in  plans,  video,  
virtual  reality,  or  experienced  in  person.  Our  readings  and  discussions  then  search  out  
the  relationship  of  the  readings  to  the  actual  building  or  thing.  How  do  theories  of  the  
body  play  out  in  real  architecture?    
 
The  assignment  asks  you  to  re-­‐think  assumptions  about  the  gendered,  healthy  or  aging  
body  through  a  single  artifact,  image  or  place.    Your  paper  must  be  typed,  illustrated,  
double-­‐spaced,  and  follow  standard  scholarly  conventions.    Students  undertaking  a  
Masters  thesis  related  to  this  subject  are  invited  to  produce  a  draft  of  their  booklet  text  
in  lieu  of  the  paper.  PhD  students  are  encouraged  to  produce  a  publishable  article.  
Enrollment  is  limited  to  12  students.  
 
Ways  to  reach  the  instructor:  annmarie.adams@mcgill.ca,  398  3492,  room  205.  
 
 
Requirements:  
 
Weekly  participation  (20%)  
 
250-­‐word  proposal  plus  bibliography,  due  Oct.  15  (15%)  
 
Optional  draft  of  paper  for  preview,  due  Nov.  26  
 
Research  paper,  due  Dec.  3  (50%)  
 
Presentation  in  class,  Nov.  26  and  Dec.  3  (15%)  
TENTATIVE  SCHEDULE  &  READINGS  
 
September  3:    Introduction    
 
September  10:  Gendered  body  1  [intro  to  feminism]  
 
Adams,  Annmarie.  "The  Eichler  Home:  Intention  and  Experience  in  Postwar  Suburbia,"  
Gender,  Class,  and  Shelter:  Perspectives  in  Vernacular  Architecture  V,  eds.  
Elizabeth  Collins  Cromley  and  Carter  L.  Hudgins,  164-­‐78.  
Friedman,  Alice  T.  "People  Who  Live  in  Glass  Houses:    Edith  Farnsworth,  Ludwig  Mies  
van  der  Rohe,  and  Philip  Johnson",  in  Women  and  the  Making  of  the  Modern  
House,  126-­‐59.  
Hammond,  Cynthia.  “'I  Weep  for  us  Women’:  Suburbia,  Modernism,  and  Feminism  in  
the  1953  Canadian  Home  Journal  Housing  Competition,”  in  Rethinking  
Professionalism:  Essays  on  Women  and  Art  in  Canada,  eds.  Kristina  Huneault  and  
Janice  Anderson,  194-­‐224.  
[optional]  Walker,  Lynne,  “Home  Making:  An  Architectural  Perspective,”  
Signs  27,  No.  3  (Spring  2002),  823-­‐35.  
 
 
September  17:  Gendered  body  2  [intro  to  queer  theory]  
 
Bonnevier,  Katarina.  "A  Queer  Analysis  of  Eileen  Gray's  E.1027,"  in  Negotiating  
Domesticity,  eds.  Hilde  Heynen  and  Gulsum  Baydar,  162-­‐80.  
Colomina,  Beatriz.  "Battle  Lines:  E.1027,"  in  The  Sex  of  Architecture,  ed.  Diana  
Agrest  et  al,  167-­‐82.  
Adams,  Annmarie,  “Sex  and  the  Single  Building:  The  Weston  Havens  House,  
1941—2001,”  Buildings  &  Landscapes:  Journal  of  the  Vernacular  
Architecture  Forum  17,  No.  1  (spring  2010),  82-­‐97.  
 
September  24:  Gendered  body  3  [gendered  cities]  
 
 Podmore,  Julie,  “Lesbians  in  the  crowd:  gender,  sexuality  and  visibility  along  
Montréal's  Boul.  St-­‐Laurent,”  Gender,  Place  and  Culture  8,  No.  4  (2001),  
333-­‐55.  
Adams,  A.    “Men’s  Clubs,”  Masculinities,  eds.  Peter  Gossage  and  Robert  
Rutherdale,  forthcoming.  
Crawford,  Lucas  Cassidy.  "Breaking  Ground  on  a  Theory  of  Transgender  
Architecture,"  Seattle  Journal  for  Social  Justice  (2010)  8,  2,  Article  5.  
 
October  1:  Gendered  body  [gendered  architects]  
 
Sherry  Ahrentzen  and  Kathryn  H.  Anthony.  “Sex,  Stars,  and  Studios:  A  Look  at  
Gendered  Educational  Practices  in  Architecture,”  Journal  of  Architectural  
Education  47  (September  1993),  11-­‐29.  
Hammond,  Cynthia.  “Past  the  Parapets  of  Patriarchy?  Women,  the  Star  System,  
and  the  Built  Environment,”  Atlantis:  Critical  Studies  in  Gender,  Culture  &  
Social  Justice  34,  No.  1  (June  2009),  5-­‐15.  
Willis,  Julie.  “Aptitude  and  Capacity:  Published  Views  of  the  Australian  Woman  
Architect,”  Architectural  Theory  Review  (2012)  17:  317-­‐30.    
McNeill,  Karen,  “Julia  Morgan:  Gender,  Architecture,  and  Professional  Style,”    
Pacific  Historical  Review  76,  No.  2  (May  2007),  229-­‐68.  
Heynen,  Hilde.  “Genius,  Gender  and  Architecture:  The  Star  System  as  Exemplified  
in  the  Pritzker  Prize,”  Architectural  Theory  Review  (2012)  17,  Nos.  2-­‐3,  
331-­‐45.  
Stratigakos,  Despina  “What  I  Learned  from  Architect  Barbie,  “  
http://places.designobserver.com/feature/what-­‐i-­‐learned-­‐from-­‐
architect-­‐barbie/27638/  
 
October  8:  Healthy  body  1  [hospitals]  
 
Adams,  Annmarie.  "Rooms  of  Their  Own:  The  Nurses'  Residences  at  Montreal's  
Royal  Victoria  Hospital,"  Material  History  Review  40  (Fall  1994),  29-­‐41.    
Hammond,  Cynthia  Imogen.  "Reforming  Architecture,  Defending  Empire:  
Florence  Nightingale  and  the  Pavillion  Hosptial,”  The  Journal  of  Sociology  
(July  2005),  1-­‐24.  
Penner,  Barbara.  “Researching  Female  Public  Toilets:  Gendered  Spaces,  
Disciplinary  Limits,”  Journal  of  International  Women's  Studies  (2005)  6,  
No.  2,  81-­‐98.  
 
October  15:    Aging  body  1  (children)  
 
Adams,  A.,  Theodore,  D.,  Goldenberg,  E.,  McLaren,  C.,  McKeever,  P.  “Kids  in  the  
atrium:  Comparing  architectural  intentions  and  children's  experiences  in  
a  pediatric  hospital  lobby,”  Social  Science  &  Medicine  70,  5  (March  2010),  
658-­‐67.  
Adams,  A.  “The  Power  of  Pink:    Children’s  Bedrooms  and  Gender  Identity,”  
FKW//Zeitschrift  fur  geschlechterforschung  und  visuelle  kultur  50  
(December  2010),  58-­‐69.  
Abigail  Van  Slyck,  “Connecting  with  the  Landscape:  Campfires  and  Youth  Culture  
at  American  Summer  Camps,  1890-­‐1950,”  in  Designing  Modern  
Childhoods:  History,  Space,  and  the  Material  Culture  of  Children,  eds.  
Marta  Gutman  and  Ning  de  Coninck-­‐Smith,  23-­‐41.  
 
   
October  22:  Aging  body  2  (end-­‐of-­‐life)  
 
Adams,  A.  and  Sally  Chivers,  “Home  Pages:  Domesticity  and  Duplicity  in  Images  
of  Architect  for  Aging,”  Seachange  4  (2013),  
www.seachangejournal.ca/PDF/2013_Age/Adams_Chivers_Home%20Pag
es.pdf.  
 
October  29:   Class  cancelled  for  convocation.  
 
November  5:  Aging  body  3    
 
Guest,  Ipek  Tureli  
Dorothy  May  Anderson,  "The  Cambridge  School:  An  Extraordinary  Professional  
Education,"  in  Architecture:  A  Place  for  Women,  ed.  Ellen  P.  Berkeley,  87-­‐
97.      
Lefkowitz  Horowitz,  Helen.  "Designing  for  the  Genders:  Curricula  and  
Architecture  at  Scripps  College  and  the  California  Institute  of  
Technology,"  Pacific  Historical  Review  (1985),  439-­‐61.    
Sanders,  Joel.  "Cadet  Quarters,  US  Air  Force  Academy,  Colorado  Springs"  in  
Gender  Space  Architecture,  ed  Jane  Rendell  et  al,  353-­‐7.  
 
November  12:    Healthy  body  2  
Guest,  Mary  Hunter  
 
Field  trip  to  Maude  Abbott  Medical  Museum,  Strathcona  Building.  
 
Mary  Hunter,  “’Effroyable  realisme’”  Wax,  feminity,  and  the  Madness  of  Realistic  
Fantasies,”  RACAR  XXXIII,  Nos.  1-­‐2,  (2008),  43-­‐58.  
 
November  19:  Aging  body  4  
Guest,  Cynthia  Hammond  
 
Prof.  Hammond  will  present  her  new  project  in  Bath,  England,  whose  focus  is  a  
gorgeous  Regency  building,  designed  for  aging  women,  in  operation  for  190  
years.  Reading  TBA.  
 
November  26:    Presentations.  
 
December  3:    Presentations,  papers  due.  
 
   
 Notes  on  additional  readings:  
 
For  students  who  have  no  background  in  gender/feminist/queer  theory,  there  are  
several  good  review  essays:  
 
Ahrentzen,  Sherry.  "The  Space  between  the  Studs:  Feminism  and  Architecture,  
Signs  29,  no.  1  (2003),  179-­‐206.    
 
Kwolek-­‐Folland,  Angel.  "Gender  as  a  Category  of  Analysis  in  Vernacular  
Architecture  Studies,"  Gender,  Class,  and  Shelter:  Perspectives  in  
Vernacular  Architecture  V,  eds.  Elizabeth  Collins  Cromley  and  Carter  L.  
Hudgins,  3-­‐10.  
 
Marcus,  Sharon.  "Queer  Theory  for  Everyone:  A  Review  Essay,"  Signs  31,  no.  1  
(2005),  191-­‐218.  
 
Rudy,  Kathy.  "Queer  Theory  and  Feminism"  Women's  Studies  29  (2000),  195-­‐216.  
 
A  rich  bibliography  on  women  and  architecture  is  available  at:  
http://bwaf.org/knowledge/bibliography/  
 
The  following  three  statements  must  be  included  in  all  course  outlines,  in  keeping  with  
various  Senate  resolutions:  
 
1)  “McGill  University  values  academic  integrity.  Therefore,  all  students  must  understand  
the  meaning  and  consequences  of  cheating,  plagiarism  and  other  academic  offences  
under  the  Code  of  Student  Conduct  and  Disciplinary  Procedures  (see  
http://www.mcgill.ca/students/srr/honest/  for  more  information).”  
(approved  by  Senate  on  29  January  2003)  
2)  “In  accord  with  McGill  University’s  Charter  of  Students’  Rights,  students  in  this  course  
have  the  right  to  submit  in  English  or  in  French  any  written  work  that  is  to  be  graded.”  
(approved  by  Senate  on  21  January  2009  -­‐  see  also  the  section  in  this  document  on  
Assignments  and  evaluation.)  
3)  Use  of  text-­‐matching  software:  "Instructors  who  may  adopt  the  use  of  textmatching  
software  to  verify  the  originality  of  students'  written  course  work  must  register  for  use  
of  the  software  with  Educational  Technologies  (support.ist@mcgill.ca)  and  must  inform  
their  students  before  the  drop/add  deadline,  in  writing,  of  the  use  of  text-­‐matching  
software  in  a  course."  (approved  by  Senate  on  1  December  2004).