Talia Cannistra | Assignment 2a

Talia Cannistra

ARCH 926: Thesis Prep I

Fall 2011

Assignment 2a

Rhetorical Précis

Mark Jarzombek and Alfred Hwangbo’s article, “Global in a Not-so-Global World” (2011), argues that the lesson of becoming a global citizen is misconstrued due to three major outside forces that are caused by the distribution of outdated information that is misunderstood to be true. Jarzombek and Hwangbo back this claim by explaining the aforementioned major forces by which the lesson is being misinterpreted, pointing out specific examples from the past that directly correlate to the subject, as well as providing suggestions as to how the dilemma can be rectified. The authors’ purpose is to open the eyes of the people involved in the subject matter to the realities of what they are learning in order to establish a new wave of educated individuals that fully grasp the idea of a global understanding and use that knowledge for their designs in the future. The authors are writing to a group of highly cultured students that are, or have been, immersed in the subject of architecture that use critical thinking and creative values to better their field in a global way.

Rhetorical Précis

Carla Keyvenian’s article, “Teaching History to Architects” (2011), declares that despite the differences and separation of history and design, the working collaboration of the two and the knowledge of how the present relates back to the past, is crucial to the success of architectural projects today and in the future. Keyvenian supports this claim by referencing precedent works of architects that evidently relate back to the ideas and concept that past projects have exemplified, but have created them in their own style. The author’s purpose is to explain the notion that by knowing, understanding, and referencing the past and its developments, architecture students can better their own designs with their own take on those developments. The article is intended for the part of the architecture community that is skeptical or questioning of the purpose of the inclusion of history courses into the architecture curriculum, along with answering the question of why it is pertinent to the program of study.