Summary: Otto Wagner’s Modern Architecture
Read the brief chapters on “The Architect” (pp. 61-72) and “Style” (pp. 73-80) from: Otto Wagner, Modern Architecture: A Guidebook for His Students to This Field of Art, third edition of 1902, translated by Harry Francis Mallgrave (Santa Monica, CA: The Getty Center, 1988).
These excerpted chapters are posted in a single .pdf file on the course Blackboard website in the Assignments folder,
just under the Assignment 1 brief.
Then, in three to four typed pages provide a summary of both chapters, commenting and explaining key points Wagner makes. In Modern Architecture, Wagner comments on many contemporary architectural conditions in Vienna; look past some of these localized details and focus on his larger arguments concerning modernism.
Your summary should include discussion about Wagner’s assertions on:
1. the special role that architects have in modern society and in bringing about “modern architecture” (found in “The Architect”)
2. what constitutes a “modern” style and the role of the architect in facilitating it (found in “Style”). Engage with the reading yourself. Do not get bogged down in the little details, but identify and consider Wagner’s major points (which are often CAPITALIZED in the text). Additional research is not required nor expected on this exercise.
Do not include researched background information on the book, the author, the context, etc. Just deal with the specific reading and its ideas, as you understand them. This is not a group exercise. All work must be one’s own.
Direct quotations should be kept to a minimum, if used at all. Your job is to process and synthesize Wagner’s ideas, and to present your own. However, whether using a direct quotation or paraphrasing an idea of the author, you must cite the quote/idea.
Format:
Submissions must be typed. Use 12-point Times (or Times New Roman) typeface. At the top upper-left corner of the first page,in single-spaced lines, provide your full name, the course number (ARCH 3313.D05), state that this is “Assignment 1: Otto
Wagner’s Modern Architecture,” and provide the date of submission. The body of your summary must be double-spaced.
Upload your completed summary to Blackboard as a .pdf file.
