Please note: Due to alternative arrangements for teaching and
assessment in place from 18 March 2020 to mitigate against the restrictions in
place due to COVID-19, information shown for 2019/20 may not always be accurate.
Please note: you are viewing unit and programme information
for a past academic year. Please see the current academic year for up to date information.
| Unit name |
Architecture and Space |
| Unit code |
CLAS20063 |
| Credit points |
20 |
| Level of study |
I/5
|
| Teaching block(s) |
Teaching Block 1 (weeks 1 - 12)
|
| Unit director |
Dr. Hales |
| Open unit status |
Not open |
| Pre-requisites |
None
|
| Co-requisites |
None
|
| School/department |
Department of Classics & Ancient History |
| Faculty |
Faculty of Arts |
Description including Unit Aims
The built environment is not only an indication of a community’s aesthetic inclinations and technological ambitions. It also reflects and affects the activities taking place inside and around it. This unit considers architectural forms and styles adopted in ancient communities (the types of buildings and the way they are built and decorated) and the space enclosed by and between them. How do architecture and space help us understand a society and culture and what insight do they offer into how communities thought about themselves and their place in the world? The unit will explore these ideas through a case study of a particular ancient location. This year, the case study will be the city of Rome. We will tour the leisurely lands of the Campus Martius, the wealth of the Palatine, and the Suburan slums, visiting sewers and backstreet warehouses alongside the city's most famous monuments, the Pantheon and the Colosseum.
Aims:
- To enable students to recognise the major architectural forms and styles, and the topography of the unit’s case study.
- To offer students a basic understanding of the relationship between architectural form and the use of space.
- To explore the ways in which ancient communities’ perception of themselves and their cityscape related to and was inscribed in or contradicted by the physical form of their built environment.
- To develop students’ skills to use the knowledge acquired in class and through their own reading to construct coherent, relevant and persuasive arguments on the built environment.
Intended Learning Outcomes
ILOs
On successful completion of this unit students will be able to:
- demonstrate an in-depth understanding of the relationship between architectural form and the use of space;
- demonstrate an ability to recognise the major architectural forms and the topography of the unit’s case study;
- use the knowledge acquired in class and through their own reading to construct coherent, relevant and persuasive arguments on the built environment;
- demonstrate communication skills in class discussion and in the composition of written work at a standard appropriate to level I.
Teaching Information
2 weekly lecture hours and 1 weekly seminar hour
KIS: 33 contact hours, 167 hours of independent study
Assessment Information
- 3000 word essay (70%)
- 60-minute exam (30%)
Both assessments relate to ILOs 1-4
Reading and References
- Claridge, Amanda. Rome (Oxford Archaeological Guides) (Oxford) 1998
- Coulston, Jon & Hazel Dodge eds, Ancient Rome: The Archaeology of the Eternal City (Oxford) 2000
- Edwards, Catherine & Greg Wolf, eds, Rome. The Cosmopolis (Cambridge) 2003
- Erdkamp, Paul ed. The Cambridge Companion to Ancient Rome (Cambridge) 2013
- Jacobs, Paul W. & Diane A. Conlin, Campus Martius. The Field of Mars in the Life of Ancient Rome (Cambridge) 2015
