Al al-Bayt University Architectural Criticism and Analysis

Faculty of Engineering 703441

Department of Architecture Credit Hours: 3

“A doctor can bury his mistakes, but an architect can only advise his clients
to plant vines.”
Frank Lloyd Wright

Course Description:
This course will explore Architectural criticism. Every one of us architects or non architects have
the potential to be architecture critics. The course adopts a framework that enables students to
critique the built environment using a variety of means beyond the written form. The goal of the
course is to make students more critical to the built world and encourage them to articulate an
architectural point of view, a philosophy of critique, which they can then use as a lens to assess
architecture- their own and that of others. Architectural criticism origins, definitions and methods
will be discussed, also some issues related to academic juries will be covered, and building
performance evaluation as a scientific form of criticism.

Course Objectives:
1. Appreciate the value of architectural criticism
2. Distinguish between the various approaches of criticism
3. Conduct successful critiques following the framework and approaches explained
4. Become a better critic of own work and others work
5. Use criticism as a tool to examine the built environment

Evaluation:
The final grade is based on the following:
1. Term Work (60%):
First exam 20% (Fifth Week)
Second exam 20% (Tenth Week)
Building critique presentation 15%
Attendance and participation 5%
2. Final Work (40%):
Final exam 40%

Course Schedule:

1
Week Date Topic Notes
1 8/2/2015-12/2/2015 Syllabus

2 15/2/2015-19/2/2015 Definition and origin of Criticism

3 22/2/2015-26/2/2015 History of criticism

Building
4 1/3/2015-5/3/2015 Perception and its relationship to criticism critique group
formation

First Exam
5 8/3/2015-12/3/2015 Aesthetics and criticism
(Mon.9/3)

6 15/3/2015-19/3/2015 Architectural criticism framework

Building
7 22/3/2015-26/3/2015 Examples of criticism
selection

8 29/3/2015-2/4/2015 Overview of design juries

9 5/4/2015-9/4/2015 What students can do

Evolution of Building Performance Second Exam

10 12/4/2015-16/4/2015
Evaluation (Mon.13/4)
A conceptual frame work of building
11 19/4/2015-23/4/2015
performance evaluation

Case studies of building performance

12 26/4/2015-30/4/2015
evaluation

13 3/5/2015-7/5/2015 Building critique presentation Power point

14 10/5/2015-14/5/2015 Building critique presentation Power point

15 17/5/2015-21/5/2015 Final Exam (to be determined by department)

2
Class Regulations
1. Students should attend all classes, in case of absence it is a student’s duty to catch up with the
class
2. Cheating in any form will not be tolerated
3. Mobiles are to be turned off or muted during class, when receiving a necessary call the student
should leave the class before using the device.

Text Book and References:

1. Architecture and Critical Imagination by Wayne Attoe (Text book)
2. Design Juries on Trial by Kathryn H. Anthony
3. Assessing Building Performance by Wolfgang FE. Preiser & Jacqueline C. Vischer
4. Writing About Architecture by Alexandra Lange
5. The Crit by Rosie Parnell & Rachel Sara
6. Introducing architectural theory by Korydon Smith
7. Criticizing Art by Terry Barrett