Over the course of 78 years, an aesthetic ideal which embodies architectural values has been collectively cultivated through Visual Training... Show moreOver the course of 78 years, an aesthetic ideal which embodies architectural values has been collectively cultivated through Visual Training at the Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT) school of architecture in Chicago. This dissertation provides a comprehensive explanation of Visual Training as it has been conducted at IIT. It promotes a better understanding of the background of Visual Training, the pedagogical practice of the Visual Training exercises, and the ongoing value of the course. The dissertation traces the underpinnings of Visual Training through the writings of Walter Peterhans, founder and Professor of Visual Training at IIT from 1938-1960, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, Professor and Director of Architecture at IIT from 1938-1958 and other key figures. The thesis shows how the Visual Training program at IIT was influenced by movements in philosophy and mathematics in early 20th century Germany and how existing pedagogy at the Bauhaus was adapted to serve its aim. The dissertation includes an explanation of each exercise in the Visual Training program. It makes explicit the point of each exercise, how each one is conducted and why. Original detailed descriptions, illustrated with examples, show what a student gains from each exercise and how the process of performing the exercise achieves that end. The dissertation compares the way in which the Visual Training program originally developed in relation to other courses in the architecture curriculum to disclose the meaning of architecture, and what has happened in Visual Training as the architecture program at IIT has continued to evolve. The thesis brings to light enduring epistemological tensions underlying architectural education. Ph.D. in Architecture, May 2016 Show less
Alfred Caldwell was among the first full- time American professors Mies van der Rohe hired at the Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT). Many... Show moreAlfred Caldwell was among the first full- time American professors Mies van der Rohe hired at the Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT). Many have admired Mies’s architecture since the 1920s, and know that his ideas were also transmitted as a professor, first at the Bauhaus in Europe and then as Director of the Department of Architecture at IIT. Caldwell, a practicing landscape architect and protégé of Jens Jensen, is perhaps less widely known, but was a major influence on IIT’s program especially in the areas of construction, landscape, and architectural history. Caldwell completed a Master of Science in City Planning with a thesis entitled The City in the Landscape: A Preface for Planning, which can be considered a manifesto of both his professional ideas and IIT’s planning pedagogy. In addition to his own works, Caldwell collaborated with Mies and architect Ludwig Hilberseimer, Director of City and Regional Planning at IIT and former Head of Building Theory at the Bauhaus, on the design of built works which left behind artifacts representing the ideal of “the city in the landscape.” This communication examines the broader perspective on urban design influenced by the symbiotic disciplines of architecture, city-regional planning and landscape as manifested in the individual and collaborative built work and pedagogy of Caldwell, Hilberseimer, and Mies. Show less
