Flipping Time and Space

Three methods of contextualizing architecture history in the classroom

Abstract

This paper explores an attempt to provide more deep learning experiences by making three fundamental shifts in a lecture-based modern architecture history course. The history of modern architecture, like all of history, is complex. For the beginner, it is easy become lost in the plethora of dates and images to memorize and miss important connections between individual architects, buildings, movements, technological advances, and changes in the social, cultural, and political context in which they existed. For architecture students to develop an understanding of architectural history beyond the surface-level, it is important to connect to context, to see the big picture as well as the details.