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Decorum in Architecture - BENV2253 |
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DescriptionDecorum refers to the suitability of a design. In the past, designers had to articulate the significance of a building, defined in terms of use, social status, and physical location. In many respects, such an approach implied an analogy between built form and oratory. Architectural decorum insisted that a design should agree with its purpose and be appropriately adapted to its audience, namely other buildings and the public at large. Decorum was therefore a central feature of a broader idea of civic eloquence. Decorum pervaded architectural and urban theory before the nineteenth century. The beginnings of modernism, however, saw its decline, and it soon all but disappeared from design theory. Indeed, until the 1950s when designers addressed topics of monumentality and civic identity, modernist thought was informed by an antagonism to the rhetorical traditions that underpinned decorum. Nevertheless, aspects of the idea have persisted in continuing debates regarding the social and representational dimension of the built environment. This course explores the historical development of decorum, and its partial eclipse in the modern era. The course will interest students who wish to pursue the historical basis of design. In a more general sense, the theoretical facets of the built environment (including planning, development impact, and heritage conservation) derive from a tradition informed by decorum. The subject is inter-disciplinary, involving ethics, poetic theory, and the history of the visual arts.
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