2026-2027 Catalog

ARCH 10336. Researching Chicago's Historic Parks and Neighborhoods. 100 Units.

Often described as a "City of Neighborhoods," Chicago has a fascinating network of community areas that were shaped by historical events and developments. Many of the city's neighborhoods include parks that have their own significant architectural, landscape and social histories. The class will introduce students to some of Chicago's most interesting historic neighborhoods and parks; expose them to key regional digital and on-site archives; and instruct them in appropriate methodologies for conducting deep research on sites and landscapes, with a special focus on Chicago's historic park system. Students will utilize an array of resources including Sanborn maps, US Census records, historic plans, photographs, and archival newspapers to provide in-depth studies of unpreserved sites. The course will also expose students to historic preservation policies, methodologies, and guidelines to provide practical strategies for preserving lesser-known places and sites. As a Chicago Studies class, its pedagogy will also include excursions into the city, engagement with local guest speakers, and research in relevant Chicago-area archives/special collections.

Instructor(s): Bachrach, Julia     Terms Offered: Winter
Note(s): This special class is offered in conjunction with the University’s ongoing commemoration of the 200th anniversary of the birth of Frederick Law Olmsted, the father of American landscape architecture. Olmsted and his sons, the Olmsted Brothers, had a substantial influence on the city’s South Side, including the University’s campus and the development of small parks that provided services to dense immigrant neighborhoods in the early 20th century. The class will include field trips during some Friday class sessions.
Equivalent Course(s): HIST 27312, ARTH 20336, CEGU 20336, CHST 20336

ARCH 11000. Architecture, Drawing, and Design. 100 Units.

Drawing has shaped architecture for centuries. This course introduces students to architecture through the practice and critical discussion of drawing. Studio exercises will introduce media ranging from hand-sketching to digital modeling; representational conventions such as plans, sections, and diagrams; and the roles of drawings as creative tools and conveyors of ideas, visions, and technical information. Students will engage with historical and contemporary precedents, with fundamental texts about architecture and drawing, and with the built environment on campus and in Chicago.

Instructor(s): A. Lui     Terms Offered: Autumn Spring Winter
Prerequisite(s): This course meets the general education requirement in the arts.

ARCH 11800. Physics and Contemporary Architecture. 100 Units.

Architectural structures form the built environment around us and in many ways create the backbone of our civilization. They push the limits of form and function on the largest human scales, often leading to iconic masterpieces that symbolize the aesthetics as well as the technical achievements of a period. Many architectural advances have been made possible by breakthroughs in the science of materials, which then led to innovation in construction and fabrication techniques. This course will introduce the physics principles that have enabled some of the most innovative architecture of our time. This course will take key ideas and tools from physics and demonstrate their power and relevance in a broader context familiar from everyday experience. The course will challenge students to recognize physics concepts in the built structures that make up the urban environment we live in. Chicago is a most appropriate place for this study; it was the birthplace of the first skyscraper, and ever since it has played an internationally celebrated role in pushing the limits of the architectural state of the art. A long succession of renowned Chicago architects and structural engineers has turned this city into a premier laboratory for architectural innovation. Against this backdrop, the course will show how science, and physics in particular, delivers the conceptual foundations that drive current directions in architecture and open up new opportunities.

Instructor(s): Heinrich M. Jaeger; Sidney Nagel     Terms Offered: Spring
Prerequisite(s): Some exposure to high-school physics is recommended
Note(s): The course will consist of two lectures per week plus a weekly hands-on workshop (lab) component. The Monday lectures will introduce the physics principles to be explored that week. The Thursday lectures will be delivered by distinguished guest speakers, including renowned architects and engineers. These lectures will be public lectures. They will relate to the physics principle introduced that Monday and explore its ramification within the broader context of contemporary architectural practice. The Thursday afternoon workshop component will involve team-based, hands-on construction projects to develop a better understanding and intuition of the physics principles introduced in the lectures and to obtain a sense of their real-life implications. The workshops will also provide an opportunity to interact with the guest lecturers. Attendance at Thursday lectures is required. This course meets the general education requirement in the physical sciences and may be paired with PHSC 11600, 11700, 12600, or 13400 in order to complete the requirement. This course can be taken for credit towards either the general education requirement in the physical sciences or the Architectural Studies minor, but not both. Students intending to receive physical sciences general education credit should register for PHSC 11800; students intending to receive credit towards the Architectural Studies Minor should register for ARCH 11800.
Equivalent Course(s): CHST 11800, PHSC 11800

ARCH 15631. Intro South Asian Art and Architecture I. 100 Units.

This core class introduces students to the visual arts of early South Asia (Paleolithic period to circa first millennium CE). During this time period, South Asia gave birth to three major world religions-Hinduism, Jainism, and Buddhism. Christianity and Islam too made it to South Asia and the arts of these religious traditions flourished in various pockets of the Indian subcontinent. In the class, we will look at paintings, buildings, and other objects that continue to beguile researchers, such as the paintings of Bhimbetka Caves (ca. 10,000 BCE); the enigmatic seals from Indus Valley (ca. 2000 BCE), and the high polish of Mauryan sculptures. The latter-half of the course is devoted to specific studies on "masterpieces" of early Indian art, such as the Buddhist stupas at Sanchi (ca. third to first cent. BCE), the extraordinary rock-cut temples of Ajanta and Ellora (fifth to thirteenth centuries), and the sizeable and distinctive temple complex of Bodh Gaya, Khajuraho, Mamallapuram, and Brihadeshwara (seventh to eleventh centuries). The course will explore many themes in the study of early South Asian art; some prominent ones are the role of politics, nature, and religion in shaping artistic practices. Conversely, we will also look at how artistic practices impacted civic institutions and religious organizations, while exploring what art can reveal about how natural resources were viewed, extracted, and preserved in early South Asia.

Instructor(s): M. Manohar     Terms Offered: Autumn
Prerequisite(s): This course fulfills the following requirements in the ARTH major and minor: Asian, premodern (pre-1800)
Equivalent Course(s): ARTH 15631

ARCH 17512. Modern Architecture in Algeria, France, French Algeria, and Algerian France. 100 Units.

This course invites students to consider the intertwined architectural histories of France and Algeria in the colonial and postcolonial eras. From colonial designs in French Algeria to counterhegemonic spaces of Algerian communities in postcolonial France, students will examine how architecture engages with fraught historical episodes and contested cultural landscapes. Case studies include Paris as a Eurocentric paradigm for the modern city, dialectics of construction and destruction in Algiers under colonial rule, and urban multiplicity in Marseille. Protagonists include Le Corbusier, arguably the most canonical architect of the 20th century, and underexamined figures like Abderrahmane Bouchama, who declared being the sole Muslim Algerian architect at the independence. By the end of the quarter, students will have gained substantial knowledge of the history of these two countries, their architecture, and the historiographical stakes of connective architectural history.

Instructor(s): J. Huet     Terms Offered: Winter
Prerequisite(s): Fulfills the following categories in the ARTH major and minor: African, European and American, modern (post-1800) and is an Art in Context Seminar
Equivalent Course(s): ARTH 17512

ARCH 17761. Introduction to Modern Architecture: Modernity and Its Other. 100 Units.

This course invites students to reflect on the idea of modernity in architecture as it developed from the 15th century to the late 20th century. Its aims are twofold: first, to introduce students to selected architectural episodes across time and space; second, to demonstrate that modernity is a concept deeply charged with power dynamics. Historically, the idea of modernity has defined its margins by systematically portraying certain people, cultures, and places as deficient in the modern mind, techniques, or aesthetics. In this respect, modernity and its antonyms are inseparable, like two sides of the same coin. Over the quarter, we will examine exclusionary visions of modernity, challenge their claims to universality, and amplify the voices of those who proposed alternative models for modernity in architecture.

Instructor(s): J. Huet     Terms Offered: Autumn
Prerequisite(s): Fulfills the following requirements in the ARTH major and minor: African, Asian, modern (post-1800), European and American, modern (post-1800), Latin American, Theory and Historiography
Equivalent Course(s): ARTH 17761, CEGU 27761

ARCH 17781. Women in 20th-Century Architecture. 100 Units.

From the Renaissance to the present day, architecture has been a blatantly male-centric field. This course invites students to consider women who overcame systemic barriers to become figures of agency in 20th-century architecture. We will examine the lives and works of women who have managed to attend architecture schools, despite historical gender-based exclusion or restriction on enrollment, as well as those who found impactful ways to play architectural roles without academic training. We will pay particular attention to how these protagonists add necessary complexity to the modernist canon. The course will start with a first module on positionality (women as architects, women as clients, and women as residents) followed by a second module with a biographical scope (Minnette De Silva, Eileen Gray, bell hooks, and Sibyl Moholy-Nagy).

Instructor(s): J. Huet     Terms Offered: Winter
Note(s): This course fulfills the Art In Context Core Requirement: European and American, modern (post-1800), Theory and Historiography
Equivalent Course(s): GNSE 20145, ARTH 17781

ARCH 17904. Chinatown, the Japanese Garden, the Period Room: Diasporic Architecture from East Asia. 100 Units.

The built environment serves as a powerful connection to its time, place, and cultural origins. This course examines East Asian architecture and landscapes that have transcended their native contexts, as well as East Asian-style buildings designed for cultural others. From the bustling streets of Chinatown to the serene Japanese gardens and the meticulously curated period rooms showcasing East Asia's arts and cultures, the course explores a wide range of architectural forms, urban designs, and landscapes spanning two centuries. These structures are studied not as static artifacts but as dynamic platforms for social events, cultural debates, and political opportunities, shaped by historical and ongoing negotiations between their home and host contexts. Central to the course is the concept of diaspora, through which we investigate how the experience of living outside one's home country-sometimes in foreign or even unwelcoming environments-can be understood through the lens of the built environment. In this framework, architecture becomes a reflection of the dynamic experiences of immigration, racialization, cultural exchange, and confrontation. It is also subject to processes of representation, appropriation, modification, and reinvention. Through immersive field trips in the Chicago metropolitan area, students will critically analyze the formal language, spatial experiences, cultural symbolism, and social dynamics embedded in East Asian-style architecture and landscapes.

Instructor(s): Z. Yang     Terms Offered: Spring
Prerequisite(s): Fulfills the following categories in the ARTH major and minor: Asian, modern (post-1800), European and American, modern (post-1800). This course is an Art in Context seminar
Equivalent Course(s): CHST 17904, RDIN 17904, ARTH 17904

ARCH 20104. Urban Structure and Process. 100 Units.

This course reviews competing theories of urban development, especially their ability to explain the changing nature of cities under the impact of advanced industrialism. Analysis includes a consideration of emerging metropolitan regions, the microstructure of local neighborhoods, and the limitations of the past American experience as a way of developing urban policy both in this country and elsewhere.

Instructor(s): R. Vargas     Terms Offered: Spring. Cancelled - Not offered in 2026/2027
Equivalent Course(s): GEOG 22700, SOSC 25100, CHST 20104, CEGU 20104, SOCI 20104

ARCH 20150. Sustainable Urban Development. 100 Units.

The course covers concepts and methods of sustainable urbanism, livable cities, resiliency, and smart growth principles from a social, environmental and economic perspective. In this course we examine how the development in and of cities - in the US and around the world - can be sustainable, especially given predictions of a future characterized by increasing environmental and social volatility. We begin by critiquing definitions of sustainability. The fundamental orientation of the course will be understanding cities as complex socio-natural systems, and so we will look at approaches to sustainability grouped around several of the most important component systems: climate, energy, transportation, and water. With the understanding that sustainability has no meaning if it excludes human life, perspectives from both the social sciences and humanities are woven throughout: stewardship and environmental ethics are as important as technological solutions and policy measures.

Instructor(s): Evan Carver     Terms Offered: Autumn Spring
Equivalent Course(s): GLST 20150, CEGU 20150, PBPL 20150

ARCH 20160. Cities on Screen. 100 Units.

How do the movies shape our collective imagination about cities? Why do we so often turn to them for visions of disaster and dystopia, on the one hand, or a futuristic utopia on the other? How has film responded to cities in the past, and how can it help investigate our present urban condition? How can film be understood as a tool for exploring what a city is? In this seminar, we will watch and discuss feature films in which the built environment or urban issues play important roles. Students will improve their film literacy -- learning not just what a film does but how it does it -- and understand applications for film in the analysis of social, spatial, temporal, and immersive phenomena, as well as how it can help inspire and communicate design more effectively.

Instructor(s): Evan Carver     Terms Offered: Spring
Equivalent Course(s): CEGU 20160, GLST 20160

ARCH 20180. Writing the City. 100 Units.

How do great writers convey sense-of-place in their writing? What are the best ways to communicate scientific and social complexity in an engaging, accessible way? How can we combine academic rigor with journalistic verve and literary creativity to drive the public conversation about urgent environmental and urban issues? These are just some of the questions explored in WRITING THE CITY, an intensive course dedicated to honing our skills of verbal communication about issues related to the built and natural environments. Students will research, outline, draft, revise, and ultimately produce a well-crafted piece of journalistic writing for publication in the program's new annual magazine, Expositions. Throughout the quarter we will engage intensely with a range of authors of place-based writing exploring various literary and journalistic techniques, narrative devices, rhetorical ​approaches, and stylistic strategies.

Instructor(s): Evan Carver     Terms Offered: Autumn
Prerequisite(s): At least one CEGU or ARCH course; or one PBPL, ARTH, ANTH, or SOCI course with an urban focus; or instructor permission. Please contact ehc@uchicago.edu with questions.
Note(s): Restricted to 3rd and 4th years.
Equivalent Course(s): CEGU 20180, CEGU 30180

ARCH 20200. Urban Dramas: Theater, Performance and the City. 100 Units.

How do urban landscapes, economies, collectives and communities influence the ecology of artistic practice? How does art - and theatre in particular - represent and reflect the eccentricities, anxieties and exultations of urban experience? In this course, we will examine the mutually constitutive relationship between theatre and the city through different perspectives, methodologies and approaches. We will consider how the city is represented in a range of dramatic works including Aristophanes' The Birds, Lorraine Hansberry's A Raisin in the Sun, Ramu Ramanathan's Cotton 56, Polyester 84, and Anne Deavere Smith's Twilight: Los Angeles 1992. We will read these plays in conjunction with critical writings that illustrate the ways in which changing urban landscapes reshape the contours of theatre practice along economic, demographic and infrastructural lines. These include the scholarship of Marvin Carlson, Loren Kruger, Michael McKinnie, and Stanton B. Garner, among others. The course requires students to engage with the course themes both intellectually and experientially, through a dedicated set of readings and assignments that probe the entanglements between theatre and city life within the specific Chicago context. Students will have the opportunity to familiarize themselves with the theatre culture of Chicago, and conduct ethnographic research on existing theatre spaces in the city.

Instructor(s): S. Sastry     Terms Offered: Spring
Equivalent Course(s): TAPS 20200

ARCH 20521. Sociology of urban planning: cities, territories, environments. 100 Units.

This course provides a high-intensity introduction to the sociology of urban planning practice under modern capitalism. Building upon urban sociology, planning theory and history as well as urban social science and environmental studies, we explore the emergence, development and continual transformation of urban planning in relation to changing configurations of capitalist urbanization, modern state power, sociopolitical insurgency and environmental crisis. Following an initial exploration of divergent conceptualizations of "planning" and "urbanization," we investigate the changing sites and targets of planning; struggles regarding the instruments, goals and constituencies of planning; the contradictory connections between planning and diverse configurations of power in modern society (including class, race, gender and sexuality); and the possibility that new forms of planning might help produce more socially just and environmentally sane forms of urbanization in the future.

Instructor(s): N. Brenner     Terms Offered: Winter
Equivalent Course(s): PLSC 20521, KNOW 30521, GEOG 20521, SOCI 30521, PBPL 20521, CHST 20521, CEGU 20521, PLSC 30521, SOCI 20521, PPHA 30521

ARCH 20692. Armenian History through Art and Culture. 100 Units.

Who are the Armenians and where do they come from? What is the cultural contribution of Armenians to their neighbors and overall world heritage? This crash-course will try to answer these and many other similar questions while surveying Armenian history and elements of culture (mythology, religion, manuscript illumination, art, architecture, etc.). It also will discuss transformations of Armenian identity and symbols of 'Armenianness' through time, based on such elements of national identity as language, religion, art, or shared history. Due to the greatest artistic quality and the transcultural nature of its monuments and artifacts, Armenia has much to offer in the field of Art History, especially when we think about global transculturation and appropriation among cultures as a result of peoples' movements and contacts. The course is recommended for students with interest in Armenian Studies or related fields, in Area or Civilizations Studies, Art and Cultural Studies, etc.

Instructor(s): Hripsime Haroutunian     Terms Offered: Autumn
Equivalent Course(s): ARTH 20692, HIST 25711, NEHC 20692, NEHC 30692

ARCH 20705. City Imagined... 100 Units.

This urban design studio course, split across two quarters, takes two distinct notions of the city as its starting point: grand, imaginative plans - utopian, unbuilt, semi-realized, real... both as aesthetic objects, and as ideas - and how the minute flows of day-to-day life, up from the smallest scale, enter into dialogue with built and lived details, intended or not. Drawing on both Chicago and other places chosen by students, we will dream small and big, search past and present, and tap precisely into what we dream and what we experience... seeking not to dictate what the city will be, but to use these different modes of understanding to expand our sense of what a city can be. Necessarily, through studio work, reading and seminar conversation, we'll grapple with difficult contradictions cities pose, our most central assumptions about spaces and places, and ways that cities change. We take as given the inevitable gap between how places actually evolve and how, perhaps, they could, and use that gap as a site for the imagination to step in, while also confronting the hubris of imagining cities real. Studio work will proceed in three stages: individually developing an alternate vision for a place you know well (winter), breaking each others' plans (winter into spring)... and finally, using real observations and spontaneity to complicate and rebuild your vision into something lovelier (spring). (Starting Nov 18, visit arthistory.uchicago.edu/archconsent to request consent.)

Instructor(s): L. Joyner     Terms Offered: Winter
Prerequisite(s): Starting November 17, please visit arthistory.uchicago.edu/archconsent to request instructor consent for this class or other ARCH studios. (Please do not send consent requests by email. Prior completion of at least one ARCH studio course is strongly recommended for enrollment in this class, as many of its themes and conversations will build on familiarity with at least one approach to courses like these. Fulfills the following categories in the ARTH major and minor: European and American, modern (post-1800)
Note(s): Note: this is the first course of a two-course sequence. You do not have to commit to enrolling in "...City Observed" in spring to take this course in winter, but it is strongly recommended. You must, however, take this course to enroll in "...City Observed" in the spring.
Equivalent Course(s): ARTH 20705

ARCH 20706. ...City Observed. 100 Units.

TBD

Instructor(s): L. Joyner      Terms Offered: Spring
Prerequisite(s): While this class does not require prior experience, all ARCH studio courses require consent. Starting February 24, please visit arthistory.uchicago.edu/archconsent to request instructor consent for this class or other ARCH studios. (Please do not send consent requests by email.)
Note(s): Note: this is the second course of a two-course sequence. You must take "City Imagined..." in Winter 2026 to enroll in this spring course.)
Equivalent Course(s): ARTH 20706

ARCH 21014. Medieval Indian Cities. 100 Units.

This seminar examines the fascinating, surprising, and confounding ways in which cities developed in "medieval" South Asia-a millennium long period comprising roughly ca. 500 to 1500 CE. Some of these cities, such as Delhi, have grown to become modern metropolises. Some others, such as Hampi (one of the largest cities on earth at the height of their fame), have become abandoned archaeological towns. What social, political, religious, and mercantile networks shaped their development? How did people-the elites and the so-called subalterns-live in these cities? And what can a serious study of this distant period tell us about the pressures that shaped medieval built environments and that continue to affect cities today? Among the cities to be discussed are Delhi, Surat, Thanjavur, Hampi (Vijayanagara), Warangal, Daulatabad, and Gwalior. Final assignment could take the shape of an academic paper, or, in consultation with the instructor, a creative assignment that imagines an aspect of urban life in a medieval Indian city. Seminar is directed towards students with interests in medieval history, religious history, South Asian history, urban history, and architectural history.

Instructor(s): M. Manohar     Terms Offered: Spring
Prerequisite(s): This course fulfills the following requirements in the ARTH major and minor: Asian pre-1800
Equivalent Course(s): ARTH 21014, CEGU 31114, MDVL 21014, SALC 31014, CEGU 21114, ARTH 31014, SALC 21014

ARCH 21300. (Re)Branding the Balkan City: Comtemp. Belgrade/Sarajevo/Zagreb. 100 Units.

The freedom to make and remake our cities (and ourselves) is one of the most precious yet most neglected of the human rights," argues David Harvey. In this course, we use an urban studies lens to explore the complex history, social fabric, architecture, infrastructure, and cultural transformation of the former Yugoslav capitals. Since their inception, these cities have relied on multifaceted exchanges of peoples and political projects, forms of knowledge, financial and cultural capital, means of production, and innovative ideas. Among others, these exchanges produced two phenomena, Yugoslav architecture, embodying one of the great political experiments of the modern era, and the Non-Aligned Movement, as explored in recent documentary films (Turajlić 2023), museum exhibits (MoMA 2018, "Toward a Concrete Utopia: Architecture in Yugoslavia 1948-1980"), and monographs (Tito in Africa: Picturing Solidarity). Drawing on anthropological theory and ethnography of the city, we consider processes of urban destruction and renewal, practices of branding spaces and identities, metropolitan citizenship, arts and design, architectural histories and styles, and the broader politics of space. The course is complemented by cultural and historical media, guest speakers, and virtual tours. Classes are conducted in English.

Instructor(s): Nada Petkovic     Terms Offered: Spring
Equivalent Course(s): ARTH 21333, REES 31303, BCSN 21300, REES 21300, HIST 24008, GLST 21301, BCSN 31303, ARTH 31333

ARCH 22103. Architektur. 100 Units.

This course develops advanced German skills through the study of architecture. The theme, readings, and architectural era for the course change on a yearly basis. For this year's course description, see the German language program's website. All advanced German courses serve to prepare students for seminar-style classes conducted entirely in German, both those offered in the Germanic Studies department at UChicago (see undergraduate courses) and those included in study abroad opportunities (see https://study-abroad.uchicago.edu/). Students will learn to participate and present in instructor- and student-led discussions. Assignments specifically related to grammar, structure, and vocabulary move students toward more idiomatic use of German. Writing paragraph-length responses and short research papers are also part of these courses.

Instructor(s): Bryson Tedford     Terms Offered: Spring
Prerequisite(s): Prerequisite(s): GRMN 20300 or placement using UChicago’s online exam Note(s): No auditors permitted. Must be taken for a quality grade.
Equivalent Course(s): GRMN 22103, CHST 22103

ARCH 22211. Riding about the South Side. 100 Units.

This course is based on bicycling through the South Side neighborhoods surrounding the University of Chicago. There will be some readings, but the primary input will be from riding-from seeing things at street level and speaking with people who are committed to living in places that often have been abandoned by others. We can read and theorize about the community surrounding us, but the premise in this class is that our work should begin with experience in that world, with direct contact and in conversation. My approach in this class is less to teach than to lead you to where things are waiting to be learned and to people who can teach you about their world better than I. Some of the themes we will cover include land rights and exploitation, architecture, town planning, placemaking, urban farming and ecology, sustainability, grass roots organization, labor rights and exploitation, immigration, social work, and street art. Each ride is organized around a set of key concerns and includes a conversation with a local insider who can help us better understand them.

Instructor(s): William Nickell
Note(s): This course includes weekend morning bicycle rides 2.5-3 hours in length. Weekend flexibility is required, rides happen on either Saturday or Sunday dependent on weather conditions.
Equivalent Course(s): KNOW 22211, CHST 22211, CEGU 32211, CEGU 22211

ARCH 22302. Living with Animals: Urban Wildlife, People, and the City of Chicago. 100 Units.

Did you know that Chicago is home to one of the largest urban coyote populations in North America? Or that millions of migratory birds stop by the city's lakefront each year? Urban centers, like Chicago, are increasingly vital in their ability to support biodiversity as it declines in other habitats across the globe. Through site visits to centers that research and rehabilitate urban wildlife, discussions with wildlife biologists and urban planners, and firsthand observations of our wild neighbors, this course will explore what it means to live alongside animals in an urban setting. Readings and discussions will evaluate the environmental history of Chicago and the many species which call it home to understand how city parks, boulevards, and cemeteries have become thriving ecosystems. This historical background will serve as a foundation for students to think critically about the ways in which cities plan for their wild inhabitants. Using methods from the environmental humanities and animal studies, we will ask questions not only about the ways in which urban structures have impacted wildlife in Chicago, but also about how wild animals have shaped Chicago and its human inhabitants. The course will include site visits to and guest speakers from institutions like the Max McGraw Wildlife Foundation, US Army Corps of Engineers, DuPage County Conservation Center at Willowbrook Forest Preserve, the City of Chicago, Lincoln Park Zoo, and the Field Museum.

Instructor(s): Jessica Landau     Terms Offered: September Term
Note(s): September Term course
Equivalent Course(s): CEGU 22302, CHST 22302

ARCH 22410. Architecture Studio: Bodies, Objects, Spaces. 100 Units.

How do we experience the world beyond what we simply see? Architecture Studio: Bodies, Objects, Spaces is a hands-on, multisensory introduction to architecture that centers the human body as a starting point for design. Open to students with no prior experience in architecture or drawing, the studio begins with close observation of an everyday interior space, mapping its sensory landscape through measurement, drawing, and annotation that attends to sight, sound, smell, and touch. Students then engage in a series of design investigations, including the fabrication of a body-scale object that amplifies or alters a chosen sense. In the final phase of the course, students play with scale, transforming a bodily object into an architectural proposition by designing a room that frames, houses, or activates it for others to experience. Through making, drawing, and iteration, students explore how architectural ideas can emerge from the relationship between bodies, objects, and spaces, developing conceptual clarity while gaining foundational skills in architectural representation and spatial thinking.

Instructor(s): C. Haouzi     Terms Offered: Spring
Prerequisite(s): Architecture Studios: Architecture Studios introduce students to technical skills and creative approaches for designing the built environment. While exploring different themes, the cumulative design exercises of these studios prepare students for Advanced Architecture Studios. No prior studio or art experience is required. This course fulfills the following requirements in the ARTH major and minor: European and American post-1800
Equivalent Course(s): ARTH 22410, CEGU 32410, CHST 22410, CEGU 22410, ARTH 32410, ARTV 22410, ARTV 32410

ARCH 22611. Paris from Victor Hugo to the Liberation, c. 1830-1950. 100 Units.

Starting with the grim and dysfunctional city described in Victor Hugo's "Les Misérables," the course will examine the history of Paris over the period in which it became viewed as the city par excellence of urban modernity through to the testing times of Nazi occupation and then liberation (c. 1830-1950). As well as focussing on architecture and the built environment, we will examine the political, social, and especially cultural history of the city. A particular feature of the course will be representations of the city-literary (Victor Hugo, Baudelaire, Zola, etc.) and artistic (impressionism and postimpressionism, cubism, surrealism). We will also examine the city's own view of itself through the prism of successive world fairs (expositions universelles).

Instructor(s): C. Jones     Terms Offered: Spring
Prerequisite(s): Students taking FREN 22620/32620 must read texts in French.
Equivalent Course(s): FREN 32620, HIST 22611, FREN 22620, HIST 32611

ARCH 23401. Revision, Expression & Portfolio Design. 100 Units.

This studio course, similar to a "senior seminar" in other disciplines, serves five purposes: (1) to allow students to pick up a few elements (drawings, models, collages, visual and place-based research, etc.) they've produced in other ARCH studio courses and spend more time refining them, outside the broader demands of a thematic studio class, (2) to acquaint students with advanced skills in expression and representation related to the revision and refinement of these elements, based on student interest and needs, (3) to assist students in the development of a portfolio of studio work, either toward application for graduate school or simply to have for themselves, and in systems to organize projects and revisions, (4) to add to students' typographic and graphic design skillsets, primarily using the Adobe Creative Suite, as part of the portfolio process, and (5) to practice and hone communication and writing skills related to discussing architectural projects. While there will be a modest set of skills-based exercises each week, to help structure the studio, most of the work for this class will be students' own project revisions and portfolios, and most of class time will be spent sharing and refining both. Priority for this "senior studio" course will be given to 3rd and 4th years who've taken at least two other ARCH studio classes already. Starting July 14, please visit arthistory.uchicago.edu/archconsent to request instructor consent for this class or other ARCH studios

Instructor(s): L. Joyner     Terms Offered: Autumn
Prerequisite(s): Priority for this "senior studio" course will be given to third and fourth years who've taken at least two other ARCH studio classes already. Starting July 14, please visit arthistory.uchicago.edu/archconsent to request instructor consent for this class or other ARCH studios. (Please do not send consent requests by email.) Fulfills the following categories in the ARTH major and minor: European and American, modern (post-1800)
Note(s): This course counts towards the ENST 4th year Capstone requirement.
Equivalent Course(s): CEGU 23401, ARTH 23401

ARCH 23517. Pixels, Planet, Power: Visualizing Urban & Environmental Change. 100 Units.

This hands-on methods course trains students how to turn streams of satellite imagery into persuasive, narrative visualizations of urban, environmental, and planetary change. Using Google Earth Engine and other open-source tools, you will learn how to acquire, preprocess, analyze, and map earth-observation data, from spectral indices and machine-learning classification methods to time-series composites and cartographic design. Short lectures frame the technical labs within larger questions of power, representation, and justice, encouraging you to critique the assumptions that shape geospatial workflows even as you master them. Each year, the class grounds these skills in a fresh, high-stakes theme, ensuring that evolving geospatial methods confront the most pressing environmental and urban challenges. No prior coding or mapping experience is required; curiosity and a willingness to experiment are essential. The course fulfills the CEGU methods requirement and may also be eligible to meet methods requirements in other social sciences, sciences, and humanities majors.

Instructor(s): Grga Basic     Terms Offered: Winter
Equivalent Course(s): MADD 13517, CEGU 23517, CEGU 33517, ARTV 20665, MACS 23517, CCSG 22707

ARCH 23617. Identities Decolonized: Eastern European Architecture and Art. 100 Units.

This course re-examines the cultural heritage of Eastern Europe. This goal is driven by recognition that the region has been deeply influenced by historical and political forces, often resulting in the suppression or distortion of diverse cultural identities. The course explores architecture and art through the concept of decolonization of identities after the long-standing influence of the Soviet Union. This influence led to the suppression of local traditions and the imposition of a monolithic cultural identity, architectural style, and art in the region. The topics will cover the cases of artists forced into exile by the socialist regime and working worldwide. "Identities Decolonized" will investigate the post-1991 era, analyzing how artists and architects have competed with inherited legacies, reasserted national identities, and navigated global artistic trends. The course examines architecture as a decolonizing tool. The course also explores arts and crafts in the Soviet Union, the appropriation of ethnic crafts and symbols by Soviet design and mass production, and the revival of arts and crafts in the post-Soviet period. This course is designed to foster critical thinking about identity, representation, and the power dynamics through the lens of art and architectural history.

Instructor(s): O. Chabanyuk     Terms Offered: Spring
Equivalent Course(s): HIST 33617, HIST 23617, REES 33617, REES 23617

ARCH 23701. Soviet-Era Architecture in Ukraine. 100 Units.

This course discusses architecture in Ukraine during the 20th century with a focus on Architecture of Ukraine in Soviet Era. The course explores various influences that shaped Soviet Ukrainian architecture. The course highlights foreign expertise and the flow of technologies from the US and Europe during early Soviet industrialization in eastern Ukraine. Soviet politics and economy shaped the conceptualization of planning, standardization, and the urban environment. The course will analyze the architecture of the 1930s in Kharkiv, Zaporizhzhya, and Dnipro that marked the development of constructivism in the region. The course covers the architecture of eastern and western Ukraine from constructivism and Ukrainian modern to Stalinist architecture to post-modernism and post-Soviet architecture. We will emphasize the value of architectural monuments in Ukraine as UNESCO heritage sites. This study of architecture in Soviet Ukraine will convey an understanding of the current situation in architecture in this region. The course comprises the workshops History of Architecture Beyond the Classroom: Archival materials study; Special Collections materials study; Talks with invited speakers - mainly online with Ukrainian historians and architects.

Instructor(s): O. Chabanyuk     Terms Offered: Winter
Note(s): This course requires students to plan three Fridays for museum/library visits: Ukrainian National Museum of Chicago, Newberry Library and UChicago Library.
Equivalent Course(s): HIST 33701, HIST 23701, REES 23701, REES 33701

ARCH 24181. Introductory Architecture Studio: House, Housing. 100 Units.

This course positions the architect as an advocate, engaging the building and zoning code as a critical site of design practice in addressing the housing crisis. Rather than treating regulation as a constraint, students will examine how architects can shape policy to expand housing supply, affordability, and typological breadth. Focusing on "missing middle" housing, the course investigates how provisions-such as egress requirements, parking requirements, and unit standards-shape the production of housing, inclusive design, alongside emerging nation-wide movements such as the expansion of ADUs. Through readings, case studies, and conversations with policymakers, attorneys, and designers, students will develop strategies for advocacy as a form of design work. Working in groups and individually, they will produce targeted code reform proposals that connect spatial thinking and design with regulatory change. The course culminates in three-minute public comment presentations at a City Council committee, where students test their arguments in a live civic forum, positioning architectural practice as an active agent in shaping housing policy.

Instructor(s): A. Lui     Terms Offered: Winter
Prerequisite(s): Architecture Studios introduce students to technical skills and creative approaches for designing the built environment. While exploring different themes, the cumulative design exercises of these studios prepare students for Advanced Architecture Studios. No prior studio or art experience is required.
Equivalent Course(s): ARTH 24181, ARTH 34181, CEGU 34181, CEGU 24181

ARCH 24190. Imagining Chicago's Common Buildings. 100 Units.

This course is an architectural studio based in the common residential buildings of Chicago and the city's built environment. While design projects and architectural skills will be the focus of the course, it will also incorporate readings, a small amount of writing, some social and geographical history, and several explorations around Chicago. The studio will: (1) give students interested in pursuing architecture or the study of cities experience with a studio course and some skills related to architectural thinking, (2) acquaint students intimately with Chicago's common residential buildings and built fabric, and (3) situate all this within a context of social thought about residential architecture, common buildings, housing, and the city. While this class does not require prior experience, all ARCH studio courses require consent. Starting July 31, please visit arthistory.uchicago.edu/archconsent to request instructor consent for this class or other ARCH studios. (Please do not send consent requests by email.) Please also note that this course will include several field trips around Chicago during class time; if you have any questions or concerns about that, please share them in the consent form when you complete it.

Instructor(s): L. Joyner     Terms Offered: Autumn
Note(s): While this class does not require prior experience, all ARCH studio courses require consent. Starting July 31, please visit arthistory.uchicago.edu/archconsent to request instructor consent for this class or other ARCH studios. (Please do not send consent requests by email.) Please also note that this course will include several field trips around Chicago during class time; if you have any questions or concerns about that, please share them in the consent form when you complete it.
Equivalent Course(s): CEGU 24190, CHST 24190, ARTV 20210, AMER 24190, GEOG 24190, ARTH 24190

ARCH 24199. The Life of Buildings. 100 Units.

This course will examine the life of buildings-- how they perform, evolve, and adapt over time. How do particular design decisions influence human experience and behavior? Which parts of the building align with its intended use and what are surprising outcomes or changes? These questions aim to provide students with a deeper understanding of the built environment and the series of decisions that shaped them. Through readings, surveys, site visits, and conversations with architects and building users, we will measure and examine the spaces around us. Students will begin with a series of short analysis and design exercises and create short films, projective collages and diagrams, and architectural concept models. Building on our collective observations, research, and analysis, we will then finish with a final project where we respond to an existing building and propose an alternate life path. The format of the course is part-seminar, part-studio that aims to equip students with practical tools and strategies needed to shape our world and account for the long-term impact of design. While this class does not require prior experience, all ARCH studio courses require consent. Starting July 14, please visit arthistory.uchicago.edu/archconsent to request instructor consent for this class or other ARCH studios. (Please do not send consent requests by email.

Instructor(s): C. Haouzi     Terms Offered: Autumn
Prerequisite(s): While this class does not require prior experience, all ARCH studio courses require consent. Starting July 14, please visit arthistory.uchicago.edu/archconsent to request instructor consent for this class or other ARCH studios. (Please do not send consent requests by email. This course fulfills the following requirements in the ARTH major and minor: European and American post-1800
Equivalent Course(s): ARTH 24199, CHST 24199, CEGU 24199

ARCH 24220. Anxious Spaces. 100 Units.

This course explores built (architectural), filmic, and narrative spaces that disturb our bearings, un-situate us, and defy neurotypical cognition. In the sense that "angst" is a mode that can be understood as both stalling and generative, we analyze spaces and representations of spaces such as corridors, attics, basements, canals, viaducts, labyrinths, forests, ruins, etc., spaces that are 'felt' as estranging, foreboding, in short, anxiety-provoking, in order to understand why-despite or because these topoi are hostile-they are produced, reproduced, and craved. We will pay special attention to abject spaces of racial and sexual exclusivity, sites of spoliation, and of memory and erasure. Among our primary texts are films by Kubrick, Tarkovksy, and Antonioni, and Chytilová, short fiction by Borges, Kafka, Nabokov, and selections from the philosophical/theoretical writings of Bachelard, Deleuze & Guattari, Debord, Foucault, Kracauer, and the edited volume, Mapping Desire, Geographies of Sexuality.

Instructor(s): Malynne Sternstein     Terms Offered: Spring Winter
Equivalent Course(s): GNSE 24220, REES 24220, REES 34220, GNSE 34220

ARCH 24267. Architecture of Memory. 100 Units.

This architecture studio course asks students to design a memorial. By imagining spaces that evoke emotion and incite action, and examining relationships and meaning between architecture and place, students will explore concepts for spaces created for the purpose of holding, preserving or honoring aspects of culture and history. The South Side of Chicago will be the primary focus. Students will reflect on readings about the South Side and 2020 events. Guest presentations and Arts + Public Life media and archives will be key resources. To form a basis for understanding and analyzing space and form, students will research and critique precedents. The class will visit spaces around the city either in-person or via virtual tours. As a beginning point for inquiry about space and emotions, students will reflect on readings about phenomenology in architecture. Seminars and discussions about architecture practice today will also be presented. Students will generate an analog portfolio of drawings and models throughout the quarter. For final design projects, students will choose real sites and will create a design for a memorial for an aspect of social history of the South Side of Chicago.

Instructor(s): N. Bharani     Terms Offered: Spring
Prerequisite(s): This course fulfills the following requirements in the ARTH major and minor: European and American post-1800
Equivalent Course(s): CHST 24267, ARTH 34267, RDIN 24267, CEGU 24267, ARTV 24267, ARTH 24267, ARTV 34267, RDIN 34267

ARCH 24614. Public Art, Land Art in Europe-Gold Gorvy Traveling Seminar. 100 Units.

This class examines the intersections of two categories of sculpture traditionally understood separately: land art and public art. If the former term typically captures artworks made in remote locations, the latter concept is associated with objects conceived in relation to architecture for dense urban contexts. Land Art usually features ephemeral earthen or other natural ingredients, whereas public art tends to be made from durable industrial and other man-made materials. In the context of postwar Europe and in the wake of the continent's reconstruction, however, artists often worked across these categories, problematizing dichotomies of nature and civilization, landscape and urbanism, artwork and context, figure and ground. We will read foundational texts on postwar sculpture; test the relevance of theories of the public; consider the roles of context, site-specificity, commemoration, architecture, and photography; and examine questions of materials and conservation. This is a Gold-Gorvy Traveling Seminar and students will travel to relevant artworks, sites, and exhibitions, including the 2027 iteration of Skulptur Projekte Münster and documenta 16 in Kassel, Germany. Students must be available for two weeks of department-sponsored travel following June 5 convocation and prepare guided reading and research during spring quarter leading up to the traveling seminar itself.

Instructor(s): C. Mehring     Terms Offered: Spring
Prerequisite(s): Consent note: Students should email instructor explaining relevant background and interest by January 10, 2027. This course fulfills the following requirements in the ARTH major and minor: European and American post-1800
Equivalent Course(s): CEGU 24614, GRMN 24614, GRMN 34614, ARTH 24614, ARTV 30461, ARTV 20461, ARTH 34614, CEGU 34614

ARCH 24651. Latest Experiments in Architectural History. 100 Units.

This seminar invites students to examine recent scholarly experiments in architectural history. Participants will read and discuss a corpus of books published in the last five years. Each week, we will take a deep dive into a single publication by synthesizing its argument, unpacking its structure, and demonstrating its potential limits. In-class activities will catalyze dialogue and debate on the readings as well as highlight resonances across assigned books. By the end of the quarter, students will have developed transversal views of contemporary practices in architectural history and heightened their senses of methodological self-awareness.

Instructor(s): J. Huet     Terms Offered: Autumn
Prerequisite(s): Fulfills the following requirements in the ARTH major and minor: Theory and Historiography
Equivalent Course(s): ARTH 34651, CEGU 24651, ARTH 24651, CEGU 34561

ARCH 24660. Urban Geography. 100 Units.

This course examines the spatial organization and current restructuring of modern cities in light of the economic, social, cultural, and political forces that shape them. It explores the systematic interactions between social process and physical system. We cover basic concepts of urbanism and urbanization, systems of cities urban growth, migration, centralization and decentralization, land-use dynamics, physical geography, urban morphology, and planning. Field trip in Chicago region required. This course is part of the College Course Cluster, Urban Design.

Instructor(s): M. Conzen     Terms Offered: Winter
Note(s): This course counts towards the ENST 4th year Capstone requirement. This course offered in even years.
Equivalent Course(s): CEGU 24660, CEGU 34660

ARCH 25027. Infrastructure Histories. 100 Units.

Dams, sewers, container ships, water pipes, power lines, air conditioning, and garbage dumps: the critical infrastructures that enable modern life are so often invisible, except when they fail. This course explores the historical role of infrastructure as a set of planet-spanning systems of resource extraction and crucial conduits of social and political power. Looking at cases from apartheid South Africa and the Suez Canal to Mumbai and Chicago itself, we will consider the relationship of infrastructure with capitalism, settler colonialism, and postcolonial development. We will see how forms of citizenship and exclusion have been shaped and negotiated via wires, leaky pipes, and improvised repairs, and we will consider perhaps the biggest question of all: In this age of ecological crisis, do energy-guzzling infrastructural systems have a strange form of more-than-human agency all of their own?

Instructor(s): E. Chatterjee     Terms Offered: Winter
Equivalent Course(s): CEGU 35027, HIST 25027, CHSS 35270, CEGU 25027, HIPS 25270, HIST 35027

ARCH 25119. Architecture and Colonialism in Algeria, Morocco, and Tunisia. 100 Units.

This seminar invites students to examine the intersections of colonialism with architecture in Algeria, Morocco, and Tunisia. Throughout the semester, we will discuss the designs of architects working in the region (Le Corbusier, Fernand Pouillon, Shadrach Woods, etc.) and concepts defining colonialism as a design project (segregation, repression, primitivism, etc.). We will also pay particular attention to modes of opposition pursued by residents and their historical impact toward the region's decolonization. Moments of heightened historical consequence, such as the strategic use of selected architectural spaces by independentist guerrillas, will be thoroughly discussed. The class will progress through a chronological scope, from Orientalism as a 19th century phenomenon to the enmeshment of modernism with colonialism in the 20th century. We will conclude with the emergence of postcolonial modernities.

Instructor(s): Jacobé Huet      Terms Offered: Autumn
Equivalent Course(s): ARTH 25119, ARTH 35119, RDIN 35119, RDIN 25119

ARCH 25120. Design with A Mission. 100 Units.

This studio course invites students to explore architecture's potential to serve mission-driven organizations and address pressing social, cultural, and environmental issues. Through research, fieldwork, and iterative design exercises, students will investigate how architecture can function as a tool for advocacy, empowerment, and meaningful change. By examining case studies and crafting design manifestos, students will develop a personal approach to mission-driven practice. The course culminates in a design project that explores how architecture can embody personal and collective values. Starting November 17, please visit arthistory.uchicago.edu/archconsent to request instructor consent for this class or other ARCH studios. (Please do not send consent requests by email.)

Instructor(s): C. Haouzi     Terms Offered: Winter
Prerequisite(s): This course fulfills the following requirements in the ARTH major and minor: European and American post-1800.
Equivalent Course(s): ARTH 25120, CHST 25120, ARTH 35121

ARCH 25121. Architecture Studio: Drawing, Visualization & Modeling:Architectural Skills in Depth. 100 Units.

This hands-on studio introduces students to how architects visualize and communicate their design work. Architectural drawings can do so much more than represent physical form--they can convey atmosphere, emotion, and meaning, sometimes taking on a life of their own. Through a series of workshops and design projects, students will develop skills in mixed-media drawing, digital modeling and rendering, post-processing, and physical model-making. No prior studio or art experience is required. This course is highly recommended for students interested in taking studios, want to expand their creative skill set, or are planning to pursue careers in any design related field. Starting November 18, please visit arthistory.uchicago.edu/archconsent to request instructor consent for this class or other ARCH studios. (Please do not send consent requests by email.

Instructor(s): S. Park     Terms Offered: Spring
Prerequisite(s): Architecture Studios: Architecture Studios introduce students to technical skills and creative approaches for designing the built environment. While exploring different themes, the cumulative design exercises of these studios prepare students for Advanced Architecture Studios. No prior studio or art experience is required. This course fulfills the following requirements in the ARTH major and minor: European and American post-1800
Equivalent Course(s): ARTH 35122, ARTV 22512, ARTH 25121, ARTV 32512, CEGU 25121

ARCH 25402. Sound & Environment. 100 Units.

Huge sections of the Earth's crust resonate across hundreds of miles: seismology, infrasound. Fish larvae differentiate tiny vibrations in ocean water produced by diverse coral ecosystems: hydroacoustics, ultrasound. Humans gather in large numbers to watch each other carefully manipulate air pressure: music, architecture, psychoacoustics. Each of these phenomena can be understood to fit within the field of sound studies, and each among many further examples has an effect upon each other, contributing to a delicately interlinked planetary system of pressure, vibration, and resonance within air, water, land, and body. This system is now in crisis. From the most densely populated cities to the remotest nature preserves and industrial hinterlands, the extraction, processing, transportation, and consumption of natural resources by humans interferes with delicate systems of sounding and listening essential to almost all forms of life on Earth. How can sound studies and audio technology help us navigate this moment? This course takes students through a survey of sound studies and audio technology, from physics, electronics, hearing, and psychoacoustics to the aesthetics, politics, and poetics of musical and non-musical sound production. Students will also learn the basics of acoustic recording, audio processing, and data sonification through hands-on workshops and collaborative projects.

Instructor(s): Carlo Diaz     Terms Offered: Spring
Equivalent Course(s): MUSI 24502, CHST 24502, MADD 20502, CEGU 24502

ARCH 26008. Reading the Historic City. 100 Units.

This course presents a method for interpreting historic built environments. The aim is to provide an accessible framework for identifying, interpreting, and using material evidence to understand urban life as it was once lived-and, in turn, to better understand our own urban existence. Historically, urban form shaped everyday experience. Streets, storefronts, buildings, and lot patterns record how people moved through the city, where social interaction occurred, how commerce functioned, how neighborhoods evolved, and how daily life was spatially organized. This evidence survives unevenly, altered by shifting social and economic priorities, but it remains visible and legible to those who know how to read it. Using the neighborhoods of Chicago as material evidence, we will rely primarily on the built environment itself-the surviving historic buildings, street networks, public spaces, and urban patterns-to tell the story. Urban form will be used as evidence of urban lives once lived, supplemented with archival resources-census records, Sanborn maps, photographs, digital materials-to deepen and contextualize that reading of the city.

Instructor(s): Talen, Emily
Equivalent Course(s): MAPS 26009, CHST 26008, MAPS 36009, PBPL 26008

ARCH 26075. South Asian Sensoriums. 100 Units.

What is a 'sense'? How do we attune, coordinate, and interpret our senses and the information that we receive through them? How do we structure and shape the world around us for and through the senses? We will address these questions by diving into the multi-sensory worlds of South Asia-a region that includes the present states of India, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Nepal, Tibet, Bhutan, and Sri Lanka-and learning how peoples of the region have theorized and employed the senses to understand and shape their aesthetic, social, and religious worlds. We will taste spices, smell fragrances, listen to music and street sounds, 'visit' temples, mosques, and museums, read literary, philosophical, and religious texts, and view works of visual and sculptural art in order to better understand which aspects of sensory experience are indeed 'universal' and which are conditioned by history and culture.

Instructor(s): Tyler Williams     Terms Offered: Spring
Equivalent Course(s): SIGN 26075, SALC 26075

ARCH 26100. Roots of the Modern American City. 100 Units.

This course traces the economic, social, and physical development of the city in North America from pre-European times to the mid-twentieth century. We emphasize evolving regional urban systems, the changing spatial organization of people and land use in urban areas, and the developing distinctiveness of American urban landscapes. All-day Illinois field trip required. This course is part of the College Course Cluster, Urban Design.

Instructor(s): M. Conzen     Terms Offered: Autumn. Offered 2021-22
Note(s): This course counts towards the ENST 4th year Capstone requirement. This course offered in odd years.
Equivalent Course(s): CHST 26100, HIST 38900, CEGU 36100, CEGU 26100, HIST 28900

ARCH 26280. Site-Based Practice: Choreographing The Smart Museum. 100 Units.

This course gives students the unique opportunity to create a collaborative, site-based work that culminates in a final performance at UChicago's Smart Museum of Art. Using embodied research methods that respond to site through moving, sensing, and listening, we'll explore the relationship between the ephemerality of movement and the materiality of bodies and place, and consider how the site-based contexts for dance shift how it is perceived, experienced, and valued. Our quarter-long creation process will begin with a tour of the Smart Museum, guided by curators and members of the Public Practice team, that will provide context to the museum's exhibitions, programming, and its relationship to geography and community. Assigned readings, viewings, and conversations with guest artists will delve into the relationship between dance and the sites where it happens, including museums-from the material relationship between bodies, objects, and architecture to the digital flows of choreography online.

Instructor(s): J. Rhoads     Terms Offered: Spring
Equivalent Course(s): ARTV 20027, ARTV 30027, TAPS 36280, TAPS 26280, CHST 26280

ARCH 26285. Site-based Practice: Choreographing the Logan Center. 100 Units.

Students will be given a unique opportunity to create a collaborative, site-based work that culminates in a final performance at UChicago's Logan Center for the Arts. Using embodied research methods that respond to site through moving, sensing, and listening, we'll explore the relationship between the ephemerality of movement and the materiality of bodies and place, and consider how the site-based contexts for dance shift how it is perceived, experienced, and valued. Our quarter-long creation process will begin with a tour of the Logan Center that will provide context to the building's departments, exhibitions, programming, and its relationship to geography and community. Assigned readings, viewings, and conversations with guest artists will delve into the relationship between embodied performance and the sites where it happens-including multidisciplinary community-oriented spaces such as the Logan Center-and will consider the material relationship between bodies, objects, and architecture as well as the digital flows of choreography projected on buildings and exchanged online.

Instructor(s): J. Rhoads     Terms Offered: Spring
Equivalent Course(s): TAPS 36285, TAPS 26285, ARTV 20628, CHST 26285, ARTV 30628

ARCH 26322. A History of Public Spaces in Mexico, 1520-2020. 100 Units.

Streets and plazas have been sites in which much of Mexican history has been fought, forged, and even performed. This course examines the history of public spaces in Mexico since the Spanish Conquest. By gauging the degree to which these sites were truly open to the public, it addresses questions of social exclusion, resistance, and adaptability. The course traces more than the role and evolution of built sites. It also considers the individuals and groups that helped to define these places. This allows us to read street vendors, prostitutes, students, rioters, and the "prole" as central historical actors. Through case studies and primary sources, we will examine palpable examples of how European colonization, various forms of state building, and more recent neoliberal reforms have transformed ordinary Mexicans and their public spaces.

Instructor(s): C. Rocha     Terms Offered: Spring
Equivalent Course(s): HIST 26322, LACS 25322

ARCH 26510. Advanced Studio: Complex Curves/Plastic Shapes. 100 Units.

This course examines the design and construction of "plastic shapes" in 20th century art and architecture. Investigation begins by study of several mid-20th century artists, including Gabo, Albers, Moholy-Nagy, Arp, and Hepworth, all of whom had deep architectural interests. Investigation is done of their spatial organization of three-dimensional forms, and these studies inform your own drawings and models. Throughout the quarter, work grows in both control and complexity, and is done in both orthogonal and curvilinear geometries. Issues studied include regulatory lines, boundary conditions, transparency, and shallow and deep space. Modeling is done with software, ending in the making of three-dimensional objects. The formal discipline learned has wide application, for intimate spaces as well as larger architectural landscapes. Recommended: familiarity with any design processes and active engagement in class.

Instructor(s): G. Goldberg     Terms Offered: Winter
Prerequisite(s): Experience with the arts or design is recommended. Advanced Architecture Studios: Advanced Architecture Studios engage deeply with specific topics in the built environment, architectural and design practice, or representation. Students should have completed at least one introductory Architecture Studio before enrolling
Equivalent Course(s): ARTH 34210, ARTV 20020

ARCH 26511. Cities from Scratch: The History of Urban Latin America. 100 Units.

Latin America is one of the world's most urbanized regions and its urban heritage long predates European conquest. Yet the region's urban experience has generally been understood through North Atlantic models, which often treat Latin American cities as disjunctive, distorted knockoffs of idealized US or European cities. This class interrogates and expands those North Atlantic visions by emphasizing the history of vital urban issues such as informality, inequality, intimacy, race, gender, violence, plural regulatory regimes, the urban environment, and rights to the city. Interdisciplinary course materials include anthropology, sociology, history, fiction, film, photography, and journalism produced from the late nineteenth to the early twenty-first centuries.

Instructor(s): B. Fischer     Terms Offered: Autumn
Prerequisite(s): Some coursework in Latin American studies, urban studies, and/or history
Equivalent Course(s): HIST 26511, LACS 26510, CEGU 26511, LACS 36510, CEGU 36511, HIST 36511

ARCH 26616. Tracing Time. 100 Units.

Tracing Time is a hybrid seminar and studio. The first portion of the course will invite students to engage with a curated selection of techniques for representing time as a broad category of concerns, containing a wide range of nuanced conceptual frameworks and constructs: subjective time, objective time, proper time, coordinate time, sidereal time, emergent time, encoding time, relativistic time, time dilation, reaction time, spacetime, etc. The second portion of the course will invite students to develop their own models, visualizations, and representations of time or temporal phenomenon as a support for considering time as a factor of change in relation to their own research or interest in a particular concern or context, or where time is bound to physical, psychological, ecological, climatic, biological, geological, economic, historical, geographic, or other entangled processes. This course requires no preparation and is therefore open to students from any discipline who share a general interest in urban design, architecture and the arts or who specifically wish to develop a deeper understanding of drawings, models, photographs, video and other graphic mediums as material supports for inquiry. While this class does not require prior experience, all ARCH studio courses require consent. Starting November 18, please visit arthistory.uchicago.edu/archconsent to request instructor consent for this class or other ARCH studios. (Please do not send consent requests by email.

Instructor(s): A. Schachman     Terms Offered: Winter
Prerequisite(s): While this class does not require prior experience, all ARCH studio courses require consent. Starting November 17, please visit arthistory.uchicago.edu/archconsent to request instructor consent for this class or other ARCH studios. (Please do not send consent requests by email. This course fulfills the following requirements in the ARTH major and minor: European and American post-1800
Equivalent Course(s): CHST 26616, ARTH 36616, ARTH 26616

ARCH 26900. Communicating Science: For Peers and the Public. 100 Units.

This architectural studio course explores strategies for effectively communicating and presenting science to the public in a campus setting. Students will discover a compelling science story generated by UC scholars and present it as a multimedia exhibit proposal. Student groups also will collaborate on the development of a plan for a campus science exhibition space and science quad involving design charettes led by architects and landscapers. The class emphasizes verbal, visual, and spatial communication methods and incorporates scholarly writing, podcasts, websites, social media communication, design charettes, and 3D model-making. Students will hone their skills to effectively communicate breaking science in an engaging manner in a new campus setting.

Instructor(s): Paul Sereno, Chana Haouzi, Jeremy Manier     Terms Offered: Not offered in 2026-2027
Prerequisite(s): PQ: Third or fourth-year standing. This course does not require prior experience, and all are welcome. If you would like to join the class, please complete this consent form at arthistory.uchicago.edu/archconsent so we can learn more about you.
Equivalent Course(s): CHST 26900, SCPD 26900, ARTH 26809, BPRO 26900, MADD 26900

ARCH 27155. Urban Design with Nature. 100 Units.

This course will use the Chicago region as the setting to evaluate the social, environmental, and economic effects of alternative forms of human settlement. Students will examine the history, theory and practice of designing cities in sustainable ways - i.e., human settlements that are socially just, economically viable, and environmentally sound. Students will explore the literature on sustainable urban design from a variety of perspectives, and then focus on how sustainability theories play out in the Chicago region using a range of social science approaches and urban design tools. In Autumn 2026, the class will focus on how various tenets of sustainable urbanism-affordable housing, mobility justice, and equitable green space planning, amidst myriad pressures and risks associated with climate change. Students enrolled in Autumn 2026 must be willing to spend time outdoors, moving about campus and its surroundings, and on occasional field trips.

Instructor(s): Sabina Shaikh and Emily Talen     Terms Offered: Autumn
Prerequisite(s): Third or fourth-year standing, or MA enrolled.
Equivalent Course(s): BPRO 27155, CEGU 37155, CHST 27155, CEGU 27155, GISC 27155, PBPL 27156, CCSG 22502

ARCH 27202. Advanced Architecture Studio: The Next Chicago School. 100 Units.

TBA

Instructor(s): A. Schachman     Terms Offered: Spring
Prerequisite(s): Advanced Architecture Studios engage deeply with specific topics in the built environment, architectural and design practice, or representation. Students should have completed at least one introductory Architecture Studio before enrolling. This course fulfills the following requirements in the ARTH major and minor: European and American post-1800
Equivalent Course(s): ARTH 27205, ARTH 37205

ARCH 27308. Advanced Architecture Studio: Future City, Chicago Year 2137. 100 Units.

This studio imagines the future city of Chicago two centuries after its founding, to create visions of how climate change, migration, shifting mobility patterns, and economic and demographic transformations have the potential to literally reshape urban life. Students will engage in speculative design by asking "What if: X?"-using hypothetical scenarios to test the limits of architecture and urbanism. The course takes a multi-scalar design approach, from imagining transformations in everyday objects like a cup of coffee to re-visioning infrastructure, public space, or cultural institutions, connecting personal experience with city- and region-wide systems. The studio will combine data-driven analysis, including introducing students to GIS mapping to present geospatial information, with speculative approaches inspired by science fiction in novels and films, translated into digital image making. Students will develop visual narratives that catalyze conversations about future urban conditions, with areas of focus of their choosing. The studio is complemented by a lecture series featuring future-oriented architects and designers in adjacent disciplines, introducing ways that speculative thinking can produce new conversations on modes of climate adaptation, social resilience, and emerging technologies at the city-scale.

Instructor(s): A. Lui     Terms Offered: Spring
Prerequisite(s): Advanced Architecture Studios: Advanced Architecture Studios engage deeply with specific topics in the built environment, architectural and design practice, or representation. Students should have completed at least one introductory Architecture Studio before enrolling
Equivalent Course(s): ARTH 37308, CEGU 37308, CEGU 27308

ARCH 27314. Writing Art Criticism. 100 Units.

This course is a practicum in writing art criticism. Unlike art historians, art critics primarily respond to the art of their time and to developments in the contemporary art world. They write reviews of Chicago exhibitions that may be on view in galleries or museums and that may focus on single artists or broad themes. Importantly, art critics often produce the very first discourse on a given art, shaping subsequent thinking and historiography. Accordingly, art criticism is a genre that requires particular skills, for example, identifying why and how artworks matter, taking a fresh look at something familiar or developing a set of ideas even if unfamiliar with a subject, expressing strong yet sound opinions, and writing in impeccable and engaging ways. Students will develop these skills by reading and writing art criticism. We will examine the work of modern art critics ranging from Denis Diderot to Peter Schjeldahl and of artists active as critics ranging from Donald Judd to Barbara Kruger. Class discussions will be as much about the craft of writing as about the art reviewed. We will deliberate the style and rhetoric of exhibition reviews, including details such as first and last sentences, order of paragraphs, word choices, and the like. This seminar is writing intensive with a total of six exhibition reviews, four of which will be rewritten substantially based on instructor, visitor, and peer feedback and general class discussion. Off-campus field trips also required.

Instructor(s): C. Mehring     Terms Offered: Autumn
Prerequisite(s): Permission of instructor required. Preference given to students with background in visual arts or architectural practice or writing. Please email mehring@uchicago.edu explaining relevant background. Fulfills the following requirements in the ARTH major and minor: European and American, modern (post-1800), Theory and Historiography
Equivalent Course(s): ARTH 27314, CHST 27314, ARTV 27314, ARTH 37314, ARTV 37314

ARCH 27412. Design as Advocacy: Housing. 100 Units.

This course positions the architect as an advocate, engaging the building and zoning code as a critical site of design practice in addressing the housing crisis. Rather than treating regulation as a constraint, students will examine how architects can shape policy to expand housing supply, affordability, and typological breadth. Focusing on "missing middle" housing, the course investigates how provisions-such as egress requirements, parking requirements, and unit standards-shape the production of housing, inclusive design, alongside emerging nation-wide movements such as the expansion of ADUs.

Instructor(s): A. Lui     Terms Offered: Autumn
Prerequisite(s): This course fulfills the following requirements in the ARTH major and minor: Theory and Historiography
Equivalent Course(s): ARTH 37412, ARTH 27412

ARCH 27421. Advanced Architecture Studio: Room for Art. 100 Units.

By investigating how we encounter art in space, this architecture studio asks how furniture and display can be used to create better rooms for art. The course begins with an exploration of galleries and exhibition spaces, examining how art is framed, supported, and experienced. While we often think of museums as empty containers, the way we experience art is shaped by smaller elements: the height of a pedestal, the weight of a frame, and the way a bench invites us to linger. Through an iterative process of drawing, modeling, and prototyping, students will design and build their own exhibition displays. The studio is in partnership with the Art History Department's Visual Resources Center, whose team will share their collection, past exhibitions, and needs for future displays. Working both individually and collaboratively, students will produce architectural drawing sets and fabricate physical works for the VRC's collection, gaining hands-on experience in construction, material assembly, and craft. The studio emphasizes the full arc of architectural practice: engaging a client, designing for real-world conditions, and testing ideas through making. Final built pieces will be publicly installed alongside drawings and process work and will be made available to future curators.

Instructor(s): C. Haouzi     Terms Offered: Autumn
Prerequisite(s): Advanced Architecture Studios engage deeply with specific topics in the built environment, architectural and design practice, or representation. Students should have completed at least one introductory Architecture Studio before enrolling
Equivalent Course(s): ARTH 37421, ARTV 27421

ARCH 27451. Advanced Architecture Studio: Ancestral Wisdoms for Climate Futures. 100 Units.

What can ancestral building wisdom teach us about living with climate change today? If many traditional buildings were already climate-responsive, what have contemporary building practices forgotten? In this architecture research studio, we explore how Indigenous structures from around the world embody long-standing relationships between climate, materials, landscape, and cultural practice; and consider how this knowledge can inform living environments today. Through case studies and drawing as our primary mode of inquiry and communication, we will examine global architectural traditions alongside the ecological and cultural contexts that shaped them. While the course centers architectural systems that support human comfort, we will also engage the cultural frameworks, recognizing that climate knowledge is embedded within broader social worlds. Students will analyze passive strategies for thermal comfort and represent their findings through analytical drawings. Over the course of the quarter, the studies form a collective visual compendium, documenting environmental systems across diverse Indigenous building traditions. The shared research becomes a lens for reviewing contemporary conditions in the latter part of the quarter. Students will consider climate change and explore how ancestral building knowledge might inform adaptations to everyday structures in the city.

Instructor(s): N. Bharani     Terms Offered: Winter
Prerequisite(s): Advanced Architecture Studios engage deeply with specific topics in the built environment, architectural and design practice, or representation. Students should have completed at least one introductory Architecture Studio before enrolling
Equivalent Course(s): ARTH 37451, CEGU 27451

ARCH 27522. Experimental Futures: Re-figurations of Human/Environment Relationships. 100 Units.

The naming of the current era after the human-Anthropocene-is widely criticized. Scholars such as Donna Haraway bemoan the emphasis on the human being and its control over earthly matters at a moment when non-human entanglements with the world are simultaneously overlooked. Other thinkers point out that the planetary changes of the Anthropocene have occurred mainly due to capitalism and industrialization. In the course of these debates, the role of the human and the understanding of the human as part of the Earth's ecosystem is discussed again and again. Especially in the arts and design, new figurations of the human and a future outside anthropocentrism are being developed. This course follows fundamental questions around the emergence of this discourse: Which tropes, materials, and concepts do we collectively use to imagine our future? Who gets to participate in these imaginaries and who is thereby excluded? What role do the arts and design play in this process? In this class, students will gain understanding of an emerging area of interdisciplinary research that reframes the category of the "human" in face of contemporary environmental challenges such as climate change and resource scarcity. Students will become familiar with concepts and theories associated with post-humanism, new materialisms, and environmental humanities and use them to reflect on examples from architecture, design, and the arts.

Instructor(s): Desiree Foerster     Terms Offered: Winter
Equivalent Course(s): CMST 37522, CMST 27522, MADD 27522

ARCH 27708. Black in the City. 100 Units.

From the art and science of the Great Migration to hip hop's contemporary renderings of cities now , this course will look at the ways Black artists and thinkers have staged encounters with urban life. From W.E.B Du Bois' sociological surveys and Gwendolyn Brooks' mid-century experiments in urban sight, to Spike Lee's staged urban explosions and Kendrick Lamar's Compton soundscapes, this course explores both the dreams and the despairs yoked to being Black in the city. ((Fiction, 20th/21st, Theory)

Instructor(s): Adrienne Brown     Terms Offered: Autumn
Equivalent Course(s): CHST 27008, ENGL 27008, RDIN 27008, SIGN 26077, AMER 27008

ARCH 28050. Model Making: Sustainable and Creative Environments. 100 Units.

Explore how physical model making can be a tool for artists to envision, test, and manifest built environments. Students will create scale models using industry-standard scenic design tools, materials, and hands-on techniques as well as experiment with more environmentally responsible alternatives. Projects will be designed and built in response to theatrical texts and to changes we would like to see in our own homes and communities. Conversations and readings will highlight the role of artists in climate change discourse, which includes storytelling to inspire awareness, optimism, and change, and conceiving an ecologically conscious reality that can sustain future generations. The course will culminate in students presenting a complete physical scale model of an imagined space followed by peer critique.

Instructor(s): A. Mohn     Terms Offered: Winter
Equivalent Course(s): TAPS 28050, ARTV 20850

ARCH 28202. Introduction to Geocomputation. 100 Units.

This course investigates the theory and practice of computational approaches in Geographic Information Science. Geocomputation is introduced as a multidisciplinary systems paradigm necessary for solving complex spatial problems and facilitating new understandings. Students will learn about the elements of spatial algorithms and data structures, geospatial topologies, spatial data queries, the basics of geodatabase architecture and design, and their implementation in Python.

Instructor(s): Yue Lin     Terms Offered: Autumn. Offered 2024–25
Equivalent Course(s): GISC 28100, GISC 38100, CEGU 28100

ARCH 28402. Spatial Analysis Methods in Geographic Information Systems. 100 Units.

This course provides an overview of methods of spatial analysis and their implementation in geographic information systems. These methods deal with the retrieval, storage, manipulation and transformation of spatial data to create new knowledge. Examples are spatial join operations, spatial overlay, buffering, measuring accessibility, network analysis and raster operations. The fundamental principles behind the methods are covered as well as their application to real-life problems using open source software such as QGIS.

Instructor(s): Crystal Bae     Terms Offered: Autumn. Offered 2024–25
Equivalent Course(s): CEGU 28200, GISC 28200, GISC 38200

ARCH 28602. Topics in Geographic Information Science. 100 Units.

This advanced course extends and connects both foundational and functional concepts in Geographic Information Science. Students will gain a comprehensive understanding of key areas, including web GIS as well as advanced geospatial visualization techniques. In addition, the course emphasizes the utilization of the R programming language, exposing students to its application within open source software environments through advanced programming and scripting languages.

Instructor(s): Yue Lin     Terms Offered: Winter. Offered 2024-25
Equivalent Course(s): GISC 38300, CEGU 28300, GISC 28300

ARCH 28800. History of Cartography. 100 Units.

This course offers a grand overview of the key developments in mapmaking throughout history worldwide, from pre-literate cartography to the modern interactive digital environment. It looks at the producers, their audience, the technologies and artistic systems used, and the human and global contexts in which they developed. The course also features experiential learning components with field trips to map collections at Regenstein Library and Newberry Library.

Instructor(s): Yue Lin     Terms Offered: Autumn 2024–25
Equivalent Course(s): CEGU 28800, CHST 28800, GISC 28800, GISC 38800, HIST 35121, HIST 25121

ARCH 28925. Health Impacts of Transportation Policies. 100 Units.

Governments invest in transport infrastructure because it encourages economic growth and mobility of people and goods, which have direct and indirect benefits to health. Yet, an excessive reliance on motorized modes of transport harms population health, the environment and social well-being. The impact on population health is substantial: Globally, road traffic crashes kill over 1.3 million annually. Air pollution, to which transport is an important contributor, kills another 3.2 million people. Motorized modes of transport are also an important contributor to sedentary lifestyles. Physical inactivity is estimated to cause 3.2 million deaths every year, globally. This course will introduce students to thinking about transportation as a technological system that affects human health and well-being through intended and unintended mechanisms. The course will examine the complex relationship between transportation, land use, urban form, and geography, and explore how decisions in other sectors affect transportation systems, and how these in turn affect human health. Students will learn to recognize how the system level properties of a range of transportation systems (such as limited-access highways, urban mass transit, inter-city rail) affect human health.

Instructor(s): Bhalla, K     Terms Offered: Spring
Equivalent Course(s): CEGU 28925, PBPL 28925, PPHA 41021, HLTH 28925, ENST 28925

ARCH 29600. Doing Art History. 100 Units.

This course has two main objectives: to explore major texts and methodological approaches within the discipline of art history and to develop art historical research and argumentation skills. The course aims to deepen your understanding of art history as a discipline and the range of analytic strategies it affords. We read a mix of classic and more recent essays that have shaped and represent the discipline, and test their wider applicability and limitations. Through this process, participants are encouraged to discover the kinds of questions that most interest them.

Instructor(s): M. Ward     Terms Offered: Winter
Prerequisite(s): Consent Only.Required of third-year students who are majoring in art history. Consent is required for registration. This course does not meet the general education requirement in the arts. Fulfills the following requirements in the ARTH major and minor: Theory and Methodology
Equivalent Course(s): ARTH 29600

ARCH 29634. African Cities and Urbanism. 100 Units.

This course looks at urbanism and urbanization in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries through a focus on selected cities in East, Southern, and West Africa. Beginning with existing trade routes and economic centers onto which some colonial cities were mapped, the course explores waves of migration over different historical periods, infrastructural imaginaries and the policies that shaped them, informal and formal economies, and cultural expressions and representations of life and living in the city. We will draw from a diversity of sources including fiction, non-fiction, architecture, town planning, photography, and the arts to examine political, social, economic, and topographical features and forces that drove the growth and development of each city studied, and also to reflect on commonalities that emerged between cities across different regions of the continent.

Instructor(s): T. Thipe     Terms Offered: Spring
Equivalent Course(s): HIST 29634, RDIN 29634, CEGU 29634

ARCH 29919. Urban and Architecture History: Industry, Construction, Modernity, Domesticity. 100 Units.

This course explores the historical development of Western cities, examining how industry, construction, modernity, and domesticity shaped the built environment in the 19th and 20th centuries from a global perspective. The course deals primarily with North American and European cities. The course examines the impact of politics, society, and technological transfer on urban development and architecture. Politics and the economy have shaped concepts of planning, standardization, and urban environment. We will explore the industry through detail, standardization, prefabrication, and style. The course will analyze the history of construction, technologies, and global vs local architecture. Students will gain an understanding of the development of modernity by considering the theory of modernism and the works of modernist architects, the ideology of a new socialist modernity, and post-modernist cityscapes. Finally, the course explores the built environment and the creation of domesticity at the interplay of home, neighborhood, community, social housing, and the collective, emphasizing the value of global habitat through the lens of industrial production and construction. The course comprises the workshops History of Architecture Beyond the Classroom: Archival materials study; Special Collections materials study; Talks with invited speakers.

Instructor(s): O. Chabanyuk     Terms Offered: Winter
Note(s): This course requires students to plan two Fridays for museum/library visits: Newberry Library and UChicago Library.
Equivalent Course(s): HIST 39919, HIST 29919