Overview

This unit provides students with foundational knowledge on the practice of history and how it provides a context for understanding and conceptualising the broader built environment. Students will learn about a range of historical contexts and look at how they shape architectural practice in the past, present and future.

Requisites

Teaching periods
Location
Start and end dates
Last self-enrolment date
Census date
Last withdraw without fail date
Results released date
Semester 1
Location
Hawthorn
Start and end dates
03-March-2025
01-June-2025
Last self-enrolment date
16-March-2025
Census date
31-March-2025
Last withdraw without fail date
24-April-2025
Results released date
08-July-2025

Learning outcomes

Students who successfully complete this unit will be able to:

  • Describe and define the notion of an historical context in relation to the production of the built environment
  • Position and understand Indigenous, non-Western and Western historical contexts
  • Identify key historical periods and their modes of architectural and technological production
  • Consider and describe how Indigenous, non-Western and Western historical contexts shape past, present and future architecture, building and technologies
  • Articulate how an understanding of Indigenous, non-Western and Western historical contexts can be applied to the solution of a wide array of design challenges

Teaching methods

Hawthorn

Activity Type Activity Total Hours Number of Weeks Hours Per Week Venue Type and Activity Detail
On-campus Studio 36 12 weeks 3  
Specified Activities Various 24 12 weeks 2 Weekly lecture blog, Site visits
Unspecified Activities Independent Learning 90 12 weeks 7.5 Group work, Field work, Independent research, Online video content
Total Hours: 150 Total Hours (per week): 12.5  

Assessment

Type Task Weighting ULO's
BlogIndividual 30% 1,2,3,4,5 
Major Research ProjectIndividual 50% 2,3,4 
Site Visit ReportGroup 20% 1,4 

Content

  • The nature and purpose of history
  • Methods and approaches to history: sequence v. continuum
  • Histories and their contexts: social, cultural, economic
  • The relationship between history, technology, and architectural production
  • History as tradition v. history as style
  • Trajectories and genealogies of history
  • Modernisms and post-modernisms
  • Graduate Attribute – Communication Skills: Verbal communication
  • Graduate Attribute – Communication Skills: Communicating using different media
  • Graduate Attribute – Teamwork Skills: Collaboration and negotiation
  • Graduate Attribute – Teamwork Skills: Teamwork roles and processes
  • Graduate Attribute – Digital Literacies: Information literacy
  • Graduate Attribute – Digital Literacies: Technical literacy

Study resources

Reading materials

A list of reading materials and/or required textbooks will be available in the Unit Outline on Canvas.