Informal Architecture
Topics
Architectural Production and Power: Is the architect dependent on serving a particular power structure such as a government, industry, or oligarchy?
Who is left out of the design discourse? This is a broad and important topic. It is best to narrow it down in
some way so it can be manageable within the scope of this project. For example, narrow your focus to one
particular group, place, type of design, or time period.
Historic Preservation and adaptive reuse
Compare the positions of 2 or more practitioners and discuss if their work and their theory are closely related to each other.
Is Architecture an Art or a Science? Reflections on Charles W. Moore’s article for the Journal of Architectural
Education, June 1965, using contemporary theories that agree or refute his position. JSTOR:
https://www.jstor.org/stable/1424258
Recent Experimental Architecture:
The relationship of Theory and Design /Design as Research
Architecture for a crowded world: compare strategies from the recent past to present strategies
One approach can be to look at the psychological impacts of overcrowding.
See, for example: Darling,
Elizabeth, “Overcrowding and Oversprawl” Architectural Review, August 2014 as a jumping off point.
https://www.architectural-review.com/essays/overcrowding-and-oversprawl/8666884.article
Informal architecture
Is Jane Jacobs’s urban theory relevant for contemporary urban issues?
A
rchitecture and the aftermath of war (see Charlesworth, Esther, Architects Without Frontiers : War,
Reconstruction and Design Responsibility, Routledge:
2006 available from our library online:
https://ebookcentral-proquest-com.ezproxy.lib.ryerson.ca/lib/ryerson/detail.action?docID=281968
and in the library: NA2543.S6 C468 2006, 7th Floor
