Rebecca Leclerc: #1a

Assignment #1a:

1. Dell Upton, “Architectural History or Landscape History?” Journal of Architectural Education (1984-), Vo. 44, No. 4. (Aug., 1991), pp. 195-199.

2. Upton argues that architectural history should accept the entire cultural landscape as its unit of analysis because it currently attempts to be universal, canonized, and unified from a normative point-of-view. Upton then explains that a cultural landscape would emphasize the fusion of the physical with the imagination of the inhabitants that construes and constructs the landscape.

3. Dell Upton

a. Education:

i. Ph.D. American Civilization, Brown University

ii. M.A. American Civilization, Brown University

iii. B.A. History, English, Colgate University

b. Awards & Prizes:

i. Louisiana Literary Award

ii. Alice Davis Hitchcock Award

iii. Abbott Lowell Cummings Prize

iv. John Hope Franklin Publication Prize

v. Guggenheim Fellow

vi. Getty Senior Research Grant in Art History

c. Major Publications:

i. Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography. Editorial Board

ii. Traditional Dwellings and Settlements Review. Editorial Board

iii. Material History Review. Editorial Board

iv. Architecture in the United States, Holy Things and Profane: Anglican Parish Churches in Colonial Virginia (1998)

v. Common Places: Readings in American Vernacular Architecture. With John Michael Viach (1986)

vi. America’s Architectural Roots: Ethnic Groups That Built America (1986)

d. Philosophy:

i. “Architecture is one subcategory of material culture, which encompasses the entire range of things people make and use, from the smallest, most ephemeral personal object to the largest, most complex landscape. As such, it is a rich avenue for exploring the complexity and variety of human existence and expression. I see architecture primarily a means for shaping society and culture and for annotating social action by creating appropriate settings for it, and the kinds of questions I ask have to do with the ways role of architecture in the social and intellectual evolution of societies and in the formation of the sense of self.” – Dell Upton (http://www.ced.berkeley.edu/ced/people/query_content2.php?id=224)

4. Upton begins his essay by discussing the difficulties for architectural historians and professions to express the relationships among history, architecture, and design. He begins to break down the historical eras of varying architectural views and that era’s influence on the history of architecture. He states that historians often evaluate and celebrate architecture that is identifiable with traditions. After the synopsis, Upton then points out the view of vernacular scholars and their argument that architect-centered studies focus too little on the human-made environment and that they are too formalistic. Even with the combination of both of these views, Upton clarifies that there is still conflict because it clashes with the analyses of the creation of both expressive works as well as artifacts. It is at this point that there is a break, and Upton begins his own views and ideas towards a more cultural landscape and begins to build on his idea through a series of very direct points.

a. Sources: Dell Upton uses sources that both support and oppose his own ideas. The sources range from his own books and essays to books and articles that date back from 1827. He utilizes these sources for quotations, and as external references for further examination. These sources also seem to share a common theme in typology, with titles such as, “Historical Perspectives on Modern Popular/Commercial Art”, “Changing Ideals in Modern Architecture”, “The Culture of Professionalism”, “Material Culture, World View, and Culture Change”, and “On Deconstruction: Theory and Criticism After Structuralism”.

5. Key Terms

a. Cultural Landscape

b. Normative Perception

c. Vernacular

6. See attached Map.

7. See attached Resources.

8. Rationale:

a. Cultural Landscape: The two pieces of writing I found relating to cultural landscape touch upon the importance of the ordinary, everyday landscapes that we see on a daily basis but fail to give importance to. The writing by Bret Wallach speaks from the point of view of a geographer and touches upon how geography focuses on the primitive and the ordinary while history focuses on the exceptions of human culture such as the Eskimos, and the Great Pyramids of Giza. These relate to Upton’s own scrutiny of architectural history due to the fact that it has been built upon these exceptions, whether or not they were grand, or a universal image of something vernacular.

b. Normative Perception: In the book titled “Culture and Human Nature”, it refers to universal human nature as something intangible and impossible. The authors believe that there are biological and cultural constants in human behavior, but to categorize them would be bias and untrue to humans’ significant differences. This touches upon the idea that normative perception cannot be true because of the amount of differences and social aspects it would be not be accounting for. The “Moral Geographies” book dives into the ideas that certain experiences of heightened feelings and consciousness involving others are transcultural, but that the meaning of a good life varies among cultures. It quotes Yi-Fu Tuan as he says that when people shift their attention to artifacts such as paintings, sculptures, and buildings that it is no longer easy to repress moral questions. This view twists the argument about a normative perception of architecture towards a question of architecture creating a normative perception.

c. Vernacular: John R. Stilgoe writes in “Common Landscapes in America, 1580-1845) “ how America reacts to its vernacular architecture. He explains how landscapes of orchards, main streets, and barns are popular architecture, which can be seen among postcards and greeting cards. This article could serve as grounds for discussion in Upton’s writings as it relates to the idea that even though these pieces of architecture as vernacular, only the most universal, picturesque, or the most different type of these vernacular categories will show as the base for architectural history. This type of universal acknowledgement towards the built environment is also discussed in “The Interpretation of Ordinary Landscapes”. It speaks more about a national identity and how these reflect the ideals and hopes of our current culture. In “Vernacular Architecture” by Henry Glassie, he acknowledges that this vernacular comes from your surroundings from the moment one can be burdened by the laws of architecture. This book speaks to Upton’s ideas on constructing and construing of cultural landscape. It agrees that architecture has created a strict set of rules, but also talks about how the human perceives and reacts to this as something that is completely their own, and cannot be fully categorized because it relates directly towards the viewers own powerful imaginations.