Architectural Lectures & Workshops

Architectural Lectures & Workshops is a series of educational lectures on architectural history, architectural theory, and the fundamentals of design.

Originally created and taught as a semester-long class for a private school, these courses are now offered individually or combined together as a unit as in the Introduction to Architecture Intensive course.

Each course includes a lecture plus hands-on, interactive architectural exercises which allow students to apply the knowledge they’ve learned to a well-designed application activity.

Because of the level of instruction, these courses are intended for high school and college-level students as well as adults. For more information on these educational opportunities, please use the Contact form to inquire.

  • Mythical Beginnings

    This workshop begins with reading a myth on the origins or architecture, teaches how to interpret ideas spatially, covers diagramming as an essential tool to space planning, and introduces the fundamentals of design. The workshop concludes with an open studio session during which the students make their own gathering place using cardboard and colored paper.

  • The Classical Orders

    The Classical Orders were proportioning systems devised by the Greeks and Romans to give their buildings order, proportion, symmetry and visual harmony.  This workshop gives an in-depth look at the inspiration behind each Classical Order, helps the students to identify their parts and looks at architectural examples throughout history.

  • Urban Form & Mapping

    Urban Form is the physical form that cities take as they evolve over time. In this workshop we take a survey of the development of the city square starting with Greece, and work our way through Rome. After the historical survey, we conduct a mapping exercise in which students analyze the urban form of Rome through an exercise in solid/void diagramming.

  • The Architecture of Antiquity

    Vitruvius lists the fundamental principles of good design as: order, arrangement, eurythmy, symmetry, propriety and economy. In this workshop, we define these terms and then take an in-depth look at a proportion systems using arithmetic and harmony called the Golden Section.

  • The Architecture of the Renaissance

    In this workshop, we study Palladio’s treatise on architecture, The Four Books on Architecture, which includes his own hand-drawn plans of his villas and palazzos. After a survey Palladio’s work, we discuss important architectural vocabulary terms and learn to recognize them in architecture, and conclude with an exercise in building analysis.

  • The Architecture of the Modern + Postmodern Eras

    In Francis Schaeffer’s book, How Should We Then Live, the author asserts, “A person’s worldview almost always shows thru in his creative output.”  Schaeffer is claiming that the art, architecture, music, and literature of a time period reflects the values and interests of the culture. In this lecture series we unpack this idea as we survey the great art and architecture of the modern and postmodern eras alongside the theological, philosophical, political and scientific influences of the times.