Paper, Order, or Assignment Requirements

Each student is to produce a 2800 word (+/- 10%) illustrated and fully referenced essay focussed upon
the relation between their assigned concept and the selected piece of architecture.
Checklist:
The essay will be a piece of theoretical architectural experimentation/critique centered on two key elements:
1/ an assigned philosophical concept. The concepts are drawn from the content of the lecture series.
2/ a selected piece of architecture (a building, an installation or a space). The piece of architecture should be
selected in consultation with your History/ Theory tutor and should excite you. The piece of architecture
may also provide a precedent study for your Architectural Design Studio course.
The conditions for the essays are as follows:
• The essay will carefully explore the relation between the concept and the piece of architecture.
• The essay will focus on critical analysis and interpretation, exploration and experimentation. Not description.
• The essay will be 2800 words long (+/- 10%). The word length does not include endnotes.
• The essay will be presented in A5 format.
• The essay will include a minimum of 4 original analytical images.
• The essay will be fully referenced.
• The referencing must conform with the 16th edition of The Chicago Manual of Style, endnote system:
https://www.chicagomanualofstyle.org/16/contents.htmlBDES3011
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Your essay should:
1. Introduce the key concept to be explored and name the piece of architecture to be critiqued. The
introduction should state what your key exploration will be. The introduction is where we should find an
assertion or question, as well as a clue to what comes next. The body of the essay follows this up with
evidence/exploration, taken sequentially and cumulatively, building up to the conclusion.
2. Introduce the piece of architecture being critiqued. Who designed the piece of architecture, when and
who for? Why was it chosen? What is significant or intense about it? What was the function, the program?
What are the formal and typological classifications? What did architects say about the new program in
theoretical texts or other writings? You may wish to use original analytical images to introduce the
architecture.
3. Identify and address the key conceptual idea that will provide the basis for the critique/exploration.
Where did the concept emerge? Who are the key theorists or philosophers involved? Explain and explore
the concept as clearly as possible. Explore the key characteristics of the concept. Explore other ideas related
to the concept. How is it imagined that the concept will relate to the architecture?
4. The main part of the essay should be a critique/exploration of the architecture in terms of the conceptual
idea and its key characteristics. You should articulate the relation and explore how the ideas help to frame
the architecture… either focus on the theory/concept as a force of appropriation, as a relay between
thought and practice or as a means to critique or create architecture. Remember that critique is creation
and what you are creating here is not just a perspective, but a mode of understanding/engaging/exploring.
5. Consider what the critique/exploration achieves. How does it change other people’s critiques of the
building? How do the conceptual understandings introduced change the way in which the piece of
architecture may be thought?
6. Conclusion. This reiterates your opening question/hypothesis and states what you have found. This is
not the place to open up an entirely new line of inquiry, or to propose an idea that contradicts everything
you have previously said.