+1 862 207 3288 < ASSIGNMENT 2 >
Assignment 2 is structured in 2x (two) parts;
• (A) 300 word Essay Abstract
• (B) 2x (two) Analytical Diagrams of your chosen case study
The aim of this assignment is to develop a structure for your essay through the writing of an abstract and through the completion of a series of
analytical diagrams that investigate the concepts and themes underpinning the contemporary architectural project that will become the focus of your
essay. In other History/Theory courses you have completed to date, you have generally been asked to demonstrate an understanding of a
period/style/movement and illustrated its themes through architectural examples. For example, to discuss Renaissance Humanism’s affect on approaches
to concepts of ‘body’ and ornamentation in design, a close reading of Leon Battista Alberti’s writings and buildings is required. This is possible
when the focus of your analysis and discussion is primarily historical; i.e., ideas and things that happened long ago, and that are widely agreed to
be factual by a number of authoritative sources. However, in contrast to this History/Theory-centred focus, you are asked to consider a different
approach as you develop your essay in Assignments 2 & 3; anartifact-centred focus. In this instance, you are asked to consider the artifact as a real
built thing in the world: In other words, the physical manifestation of historical and theoretical debates that have obsessed architects and cultural
thinkers for a millennia. In Contemporary Design Theory we are asking you to therefore consider the affect of History/Theory in the making of
architectural buildings. A structured analysis of contemporary architectural buildings can thus provide us with insights into their associated
cultural value.
Assignments 2 & 3 should be considered as one assignment. However, in order to commence Assignment 2, a brief overview of Assignment 3 is required so
that you know where this assignment is taking you. Your task in Assignment 3 is to write a 3,000 word paper that critiques an exemplary contemporary
architectural project in relation to one of the theoretical positions presented/discussed during the semester. The essay will be scaffolded initially
by this theoretical position, and then later by the Manifesto that will be drafted by you and your group members in Week 6. Do not randomly apply any
old theory to your case study just because it seemed interesting or immediately at hand. The theoretical framework you are applying must be selected
and applied in order to discuss a specific aspect of the case study that could not be revealed otherwise. In other words, you are being asked to use
Theory as an instrument through which to expose something new about the architecture you are analysing – by examining the past in order to better
understand the future.
> Step 1: Identify broad cultural & theoretical thematic that you are interested in >
In the first week’s tutorials, together with your tutors, you will analyse, critique, and expand upon the broad thematics identified by Charles
Jencks in his “Theory of Evolution: An Overview of Twentieth-Century Architecture” (2000). Jencks identfies a series of inter-related areas of
thematic focus that were of interest to theorists and architects across the twentieth-century (1900–2000). What does it include, and what does it not
include? What are the gaps? Are there emerging and/or emergent themes post-2000 that are absent from Jenck’s diagram?
> Step 2: Selecting your contemporary architectural case study project >
Select and research a contemporary architectural case study around which your semester’s research activity and analysis will be framed. The case
study must be from outside Australia, and must be of international exemplary worth. The project must be an award winning project and must be from
within the last 10 years (2004+). All case studies must be approved by the Course Coordinator before they can be used to frame your abstracts and
essays. It must be emailed to Chris Brisbin <chris.brisbin@unisa.edu.au> no later than 5pm on Friday the 8th August 14′ for approval.
> Step 3: Generating the research question >
This is a crude initial step, but it will assist you in framing your hypothesis. You can expand and massage the research question as the research
progresses, and your subsequent understanding of the literature expands, but initially, use this formulaic structure to get you started;
• How can <insert contemporary case study you have selected> be understood in relation to <insert appropriate theoretical framework> and its
application of <insert specific thematic here identified in Jameson’s; e.g. politics, language, form, representation>?
For example, your essay question could therefore be initially written drafted as;
• How can Donovan Hill’s D House (2000) be phenomenologically understood in relation to its celebration of the urban activation in the liminal
in-between space of inside/outside?
• How can Minfie Nixon’s Australian Wildlife Health Centre (2005) be understood in as a morpho-ecology that draws upon Nature in generating
wholly new architectural forms and languages that are not bound to cultural tradition?
• How can studio505’s Pixel (2011) project be understood in relation to the politics of environmental sustainability?
This will form the basic question. This might seem very formulaic and prescriptive, but its just intended as a first step. It is expected that it
will evolve as you work through the essay and refine its argument. In other words, this is an iterative exercise through which a parametric
relationship will be generated between the research question > abstract > essay — or the rule of threes, as i like to call it. You should always aim
to capture your argument in 3-30 words (title), 300 words (abstract), and 3000 words (essay), and there should be constant dialogue between each of
those scales.
(A) 300 word Essay Abstract
All essays in the Humanities generally follow the IMRaD (Introduction, Method, Results and Discussion) structure. The abstract is a smaller version
of your essay that summaries the essay’s main structural elements and content as a form of mini-argument. The abstract is one of the first discursive
stages a writer uses to both frame what they are arguing, but also to identify (or discount) what they are explicitly not arguing. At its most basic,
the Abstract, understood as a phase of research structuring, is an excellent tool in assisting you in identifying early in the research phase a
structured account of what you’re going to be researching, why its important, how you are going to research it, who is going to assist you in
mounting your argument, what examples you are going to use, and finally, what your conclusions are. In general, your abstract will;
• Introduce the topic and/or problem that is at the core of the essay;
• Provide background information supporting why this topic is important. This should include citing 2x (two) key sources that you will use as a
guide in your essay. The sources should be formatted appropriately indicating the full name of the author, the full title of the article, and its
date of publication;
• Clearly identify the contemporary architectural case study project that will be the focus of your analysis, including its designer, name of
the project, and dates of construction-completion
• Include an explicit statement that identifies the hypothesis/research question your essay will answer;
• What are the aims or the object of your essay – what is it explicitly setting out to achieve in simple terms?
• Identify the method that is used in scaffolding the argument. Typically for a Humanities essay, such as you are being asked to write, this
method will be a theoretical framework borrowed from other sources in order to allow you to argue your hypothesis in new ways—to examine the past in
order to better understand the future;
• Outline key points and secondary supporting topics to be covered including examples that will be discussed;
• Identify key findings and/or major conclusions.
(B) 2x (two) Analytical Diagrams of your chosen case study
The second part this assignment asks you to graphically analyse the contemporary architectural case study as a form of diagrammatic argument. This
should be approached by representing the theoretical scaffolding of your argument through the case study. In other words, if you are exploring the
trompe l’oeil effects of the facade of the Avondale Heights Library and Learning Centre (2008-10), then your task is to represent how the facade’s
composition can be understood as a trompe l’oeil. Note: it is not appropriate and/or acceptable for students to simply submit photographs, existing
plans and sections, or existing diagrams already in the public domain. The fundamental aim of this exercise is to apply the extensive analytical and
representational skills you have already been introduced to and applied throughout the previous five terms of your study in graphically analysing
architectural projects in/through studio. The graphic analysis will be both analytical and critical, rather than purely descriptive. In other words,
your challenge is draw out and represent something new and undisclosed about the contemporary case study.
Format:
Student must use the Assignment 2 Essay Draft Template Word document for the writing of their Essay Draft, which you can download from the course
Learnonline web site. The Essay Draft can only be submitted in Word or pdf formats. The diagrams can only be submitted as jgp, tiff, or pdf files.
Assessment #3 – Essay (Graded)
< ASSIGNMENT 3 >
The Assignment 2 and Assignment 3 should be considered one assignment.
In Assignment 3 each student will write a 3,000 word architectural criticism paper (2,900 minimum — 3,100 maximum) that critiques an exemplary
contemporary architectural project; specifically in relation to one of the theoretical positions discussed throughout the semester in the weekly
lecture content and readings/essays. Now that you have completed your abstract, your question can be critiqued and re-framed through the manifesto
drafted by your group members in Week 6.
In this assignment we aim to teach you how to:
• Develop an ability in reaching an understanding of complex theoretical argument/s, and to engage in such argument/s on the basis of original
analysis of architectural works;
• Develop competence in undertaking self-directed research;
• Develop competence in written communication
Essay Requirements:
• Abstract > Your essay will be prefaced by an updated 300x word (approx.) abstract. This abstract is not included in your 3000 word count;
• Sources > You are expected to research up to date materials for your essay from the library and periodicals index. Preparation for your essay
should involve detailed readings of at least ten articles or book chapters, and further essays for reference. The majority of these sources must be
from the Course Reader, or be sources identified in footnotes/endnotes in essays sourced in the Course Reader. The essay should demonstrate your
breadth of comprehension: merely précis-ing a couple of sources one after the other will not be sufficient. The general rule of thumb used in
academic writing when basing your argument upon the foundations of other authorities, is one citation per one-hundred words. You should therefore be
citing in your essay around thirty times. They do not need to be thirty different sources, but must be from a minimum of ten different sources;
• Graphic Analysis > diagrams of your case studies should be included from Assignment 2 and/or added to for this assignment. You may also
include photographs and basic orthographic drawings where necessary in order to orientate your reader to the contemporary architectural case study
being critiqued;
• Word Count > Your essay is to be no greater than 2,900—3,100 words in length. Abstract, figure titles, direct quotations, footnotes/endnotes,
and bibliographic information are not included in your word count.
References:
Students are required to use the Chicago 15A (Note & Bibliography) footnote citation style in identifying the sources of their ideas. Your argument,
and the concepts, themes and issues that you will borrow to underpin it, must be borrowed from key authors and seminal thinkers of the day. It is
important therefore to acknowledge where the ideas that you are using to mount your argument came from. Identifying your sources is a form of
copyright acknowledgement. If you were to download a film off the internet, re-badge it as your own creation and then ask people to pay to watch it,
you would be sued. The original ideas, cinematographic effects and story telling techniques demonstrated by the film are the intellectual property of
someone else. To appropriate them without acknowledging the source is piracy and illegal. So it is too in academia—to not acknowledge where your the
bricks and idea structure that you have used to support your argument has come from is tantamount to piracy.
Focus primarily on the sources that have been provided to you in the reading lists. Any additional sources must be peer-reviewed/refereed and can
include articles from academic journals (online or paper) and/or key ‘relevant’ books (not textbooks, dictionaries or encyclopedias—this includes
wikipedia). Don’t just read and annotate books that are ‘easily’ at hand: they must be useful or instrumental in adding to your argument. Online
blogs, wikis and commentary is not an acceptable source as there is no way to gauge the authority or merit of the arguments that are proffered in
these online forums. Finally, it is not appropriate to reference any of the tutorial discussions or lectures. If you cannot identify who wrote
something, or their status/expertise in the field, then it is simply inappropriate to reference them as a source. You would not attempt to build an
argument about the effects of microwave inter–oscillation by referencing a layperson off the street? Provide a bibliography of all references cited
in your essay. Not ones you have read, but ones that have actually been cited in the essay in order to build your argument.
Use the EndNote software provided by the library together with Microsoft Word to achieve seamless citation formatting. Don’t work hard, work smart.
There is no excuse not to format your citations correctly when the university provides you with the resources to effectively use EndNote on all its
computers, and on your own computer at home. For assistance downloading, installing and using the EndNote citation management software, refer here;
http://unisa.libguides.com/endnote
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