Overview
Throughout ARCH 200 you will examine the principles and ideas that shaped architecture and cities in the Ancient and Medieval worlds from about 3500 BCE to about 1400 CE. You will first examine how the principles of the Ancient World were altered after ca. 600 BCE in Classical Greece, Israel, Persia, India, and the Americas, and how the climax and collapse of the Ancient world can be read in the architecture of the time. Then you will examine the principles and ideas that shaped buildings and cities both by and for world religions from ca. 300 CE to ca. 1450 CE.
By studying the course commentary, textbooks, scholarly articles, and visual and primary sources, you will learn about both this long and eventful period of the history of architecture, and how scholars study it. As you work through the six units, you will complete a series of exercises and assignments that will assist you in honing the skills necessary for future research projects.
Outline
Using A Global History of Architecture as a primary reference, the course is organized around a series of themed units designed to develop visual literacy in the history and principles of architecture. Themes will not be limited in the chronological sequence to the first evidence of their appearance; their use, transformation, and development will be tracked forward to more recent times. The units and the referenced ancillary sources should, however, be studied in the sequence that follows:
- Unit 1: Shaping Environments and Monuments, Early Antiquity to 1500 BCE
- Unit 2: Learning to See: The Rationalism of the Greeks and Sculptured Space, 1500 BCE‒100 BCE
- Unit 3: Architecture as Power Imagery: Imperial Rome, Han China, and Mesoamerica, 100 BCE‒200 CE
- Unit 4: Architecture of Persuasion: Building Images for New Ideas in a Changing World, 200 CE‒700 CE
- Unit 5: Building in the Service of Belief: Monasteries, Pilgrimage Shrines, and Heavenly Monuments, 400 CE‒1200 CE
- Unit 6: Architecture as Mystical Experience: Cathedral, Mosque, Tomb, and Temple Architecture, 800 CE‒1400 CE
Learning outcomes
By analyzing visual evidence and the accompanying literature, with specific reference to a series of monuments as case studies, you will discern
- essential details: nomenclature, locations, builders, significant dates, and chronologies.
- visual evidence: original as-built, change over time, and current state.
- reasons for original construction: the beliefs, values, and intentions that motivated the builders, and how those are revealed in as-built plans, form, or decorative details.
- manner of use: the rituals, activities, and events the buildings were intended to accommodate.
- method of construction: the contribution of evolving technologies, types of building materials, and how geography, environment, and climate influenced their form and function.
- geopolitical, chronological, or ideological contexts for these structures and how they are the same as or different from other buildings that responded to similar stimuli in different times or places.
Evaluation
Your final grade in Architecture 200 is based on the grades you achieve on 6 assignments. The chart below indicates the assignments for credit and their weighting towards your final grade.
| Activity | Weight | Complete by |
| Assignment 1 | 5% | After Unit 1 |
| Assignment 2 | 10% | After Unit 2 |
| Assignment 3 | 20% | After Unit 3 |
| Assignment 4 | 15% | After Unit 4 |
| Assignment 5 | 30% | After Unit 5 |
| Assignment 6 | 20% | After Unit 6 |
| Total | 100% | |
To learn more about assignments and examinations, please refer to Athabasca University’s online Calendar.
To receive credit for ARCH 200 you must complete all assignments and achieve a minimum composite course grade of 67 percent.
Materials
Digital course materials
Links to the following course materials will be made available in the course:
Ching, Francis D. K. (Advisory Ed.), Jarzombek, Mark M., & Prakash, Vikramaditya (2017). A Global History of Architecture. (3rd ed.) Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.
Other Materials
All other course materials are available online.