Megan Yorke
September 8th, 2011
Thesis Prep 1: Research Methods
Assignment #1a: Idea Mapping
Fall 2011
#1. Citation
Dell Upton, “Architectural History or Landscape History?” Journal of Architectural Education (1984-), Vol. 44, No. 4. (Aug., 1991), pp. 195-199.
#2. Argument
The main argument of this article is that the history of architecture should focus on the relationship between the building and the landscape rather than the relationship between builder and object.
#3. Author
Dell Upton is a professor of architectural history at the University of California, Berkeley. He teaches courses on “American and world architecture and urbanism, art- and architectural-history theories and methods, material culture, theories of everyday life, public space, and issues of cross-cultural spatial formation in the post-colonial world. He has served as an advisor to Monticello and has written many books and articles with subjects ranging from pre-Revolutionary American architecture to critiques of New Urbanism and heritage tourism.” Dell Upton first attended Colgate University where he received his B.A. in History and English. After graduating from Colgate, Upton attended Brown University where he went on to graduate with an M.A. in American Civilization. After getting his Master’s, Upton continued his education at Brown University and went on to receive his Ph.D. in American Civilization. “Dell Upton continues to study the history of architecture, cities, and material culture and is interested in the ways that cultural, social, aesthetic, and cognitive theories can enrich the study of architectural history. Some major publications and books that Dell has written include “Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography. Editorial Board, Traditional Dwellings and Settlements Review. Editorial Board
Material History Review. Editorial Board
Architecture in the United States, Holy Things and Profane: Anglican Parish Churches in Colonial Virginia (1998),
America's Architectural Roots: Ethnic Groups That Built America (1986),
Common Places: Readings in American Vernacular Architecture. With John Michael Vlach (1986). Upton’s current projects include a world history of architecture and a study of civil-rights and African-American history monuments and urban politics in America.”
#4. Method
The author makes and supports the paper’s argument through the ideas of cultural landscape, contextualization, and the importance of the human experience. Upton argues that the history of architecture only takes into account the builder and the object while cultural landscape not only “takes into account builders and buildings, but is concerned with construction only on the way to construing. Its focus is the human experience of its own landscape, rather than the relations of maker and object. It attempts to encompass as many modes of perception as possible and, the mental categories through which perception is interpreted.” (Upton pp.198) The author relies on the fact that while architectural history, “like most studies of the material environment, focuses on the eye, we experience the landscape through all our senses, and the evidence of our senses, or rather the categories that we use to interpret it, is rarely internally consistent. Our ears, noses, and sometimes even our fingers and tongues make connections, associations, and interpretations that may differ drastically from those our eyes suggest. While our eyes isolate the building as a unit of analysis, the other senses organize the landscape differently.” (Upton pp.198) Upton also uses vernacular architecture to explain why it is important to consider all of our senses, other than just our sight, when designing architecture. Upton argues that vernacular architecture takes into account all of the senses because it is sensitive to sight, culture, history, local traditions, sustainable energy and is also designed to reflect the “environmental, cultural and historical context in which it exists.
#5. Keywords
A. Cultural Landscape
B. Vernacular Architecture
C. Contextualization
#6. Map
On separate sheet
#7. Evaluate
On separate sheet
#8. Rationale
I feel the resources I found in my search are of direct relevance to the Upton article. The vernacular architecture article I found makes the same argument that the study of vernacular architecture, “is built on the positivistic analysis of discrete examples and well-defined collections of buildings to illuminate the social structures, cultural values, and patterns of learning and living among relatively small groups of builders.” The vernacular architecture article I found defines vernacular architecture and focuses on the history of it and the importance of it. In his article, Upton asks, “Who makes architecture, under what conditions? How are architectural ideas created and disseminated? Who defines the meaning of architectural form? Local knowledge and of the craft tradition, including the ordinary, the regional, the humble is what we might call the vernacular.” The second article I found is of direct relevance to the Upton article because it is focused on the topic of the human experience. Upton discusses the importance of the human experience in his article and how every one experiences something different so it is important to focus on the relationship between what our senses will experience with the architecture rather than the relationship between the creator and the object. The article that I found emphasizes the same idea that human experience is far more important than who designed the building.
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