Design Essay
You have to construct your own essay topic. Choose something to discuss; this should NOT be too broad a theme (e.g. NOT ‘town planning’ or ‘ornament’) but a more specific, personal elaboration/reflection on a theme from the lectures or the seminar readings. A good idea is to choose something that puzzled you in the first place; something you want to understand better or to resolve. See lectures’ outlines and descriptions and PDFs to get some ideas about possible starting points. Choose some works/examples through which to discuss that idea/theory. They can be from the lectures or related to the lectures’ themes. They can be buildings, but also works of town planning, drawings, manifestos, theories or any other related works. Find relevant readings, which will aid you in your study and discussion, read them and quote them where appropriate.
Length: 3000 words
Rules and guidelines
— You should introduce your main points/arguments right from the beginning and then proceed to analyze them throughout the essay. Do NOT wait until the conclusion to discuss them.
— The argument should provide the thread in your essay. Works/examples have to be discussed with respect to the ideas you are tackling, not introduced generally. Discuss structure with your seminar tutor.
— If you are referring to buildings in London or nearby, take the opportunity to visit them. Experiencing architecture directly can help you in writing.
— Avoid generalizations and clichés. Make sure you question your statements. Statements such as ‘History repeats itself’ or ‘since man first walked on the earth he created architecture’ are not only clichés, but also probably wrong (e.g. architecture appeared millions of years after the first humans), so avoid using ready-mades as such.
— Avoid ‘uncritical celebration’; i.e. avoid words such as ‘great’, ‘amazing’, ‘beautiful’, ‘masterpiece’, etc., which are vague and fail to communicate what is important about the work. Your admiration for buildings and ideas should be communicated through accurate and specific information and by the depth of your research.
— Be precise with names, dates and historical styles.
— Avoid filling space with irrelevant information; e.g. biographical information about architects that is unrelated to the topic, awards that a work/an architect has received, or whether a work/site is declared a UNESCO heritage site, etc.—these do NOT inform a critical study and will be seen as ‘padding’.
