HISTORY OF ARCHITECTURE
Beyond being a design and/or technical skill, the production of architecture is defining a historical and social practice. Therefore History of Architecture has been one of the most important elements of the professional education. Today historicity, perhaps more than ever, stands as the main means of thinking on architecture, while history of architecture courses play a vital role on recognizing the development of the profession, awareness on theoretical know-how and development of a critical perspective by the students of architecture. In this context, the HİSTORY OF Architecture curriculum aims to develop, beside architectural products, the discursiv3e and theoretical knowledge which shape this production and the historical consciousness about the change in political, artistic, economic and technological conditions.
The unit stands within the undergraduate program with four basic/compulsory courses. These courses provide information about the historical accumulation of architecture with chronological narration from antiquity to the present. These basic courses in which the construction examples, architectural text and architects from different periods and geographies are being discussed are supported with twelve elective courses while each one of them include architectural problems regarding these different periods, geographies and building types.
The academic staff of the unit has given lectures among the History of Architecture and Restoration Unit from its foundation in 1973 until 1997. In 1998 the graduate program of history and theory of architecture was founded upon request. The unit which contributes to the department’s program on the field of history and theory of architecture from undergraduate to PhD levels aims to develop new researches and perspectives on the current problems of architecture parallel to historical/critical readings about historical periods.
The academic staff of the history of Architecture unit consists of four professors, three assistant professors and four research assistants specialized on different periods and fields of history of architecture.