Architecture Program Report Tulane University New Orleans ...

PRST 651-01-01) and other preservation design courses.
8. Western Traditions
Understanding of Western architectural canons and traditions in
architecture, landscape and urban design, as well as the climatic,
technological, socioeconomic and other cultural factors that have shaped
and sustained them.
The understanding of Western canons and traditions in architecture is a
hallmark of the History and Theory (AHST) sequence. This is supplemented
by a more limited concern for Western traditions in the Design (DSGN)
studio sequence, where the precedent research is partial to Western
canons. ATCS (technologies, structures) courses look primarily, though not
solely, at Western traditions in building and climate studies.
Of course, Western Traditions—essentially the response to American and
European developments in architecture—is implicit in any School of
Architecture in the United States, as it is at Tulane. But with increasing
globalization, this preoccupation with Western ideas, thought and design
has shifted to an assertion of ‘alternative traditions.’
This is not to say, however, that Western Traditions are not in and of
themselves the subject of critique; in the promotion of diversity and cultural
difference these traditions are always presented as contingent on the
peculiar and specific cultural conditions associated with the West and, over
the course of their educational career, students are reminded of the
hegemonic nature of architectural design, history, and theory through
introduction of to different voices. Professor Owen’s coursework, in
particular the professional concerns elective on “Ethics, Efficacy, and
Architecture in the Globalized Economy (APFC 610), looks at the critique
of Western traditions in light of burgeoning globalization and the
reconfiguration of the socioeconomic and cultural maps of the West. In
addition, URBANbuild (DSGN 420), as detailed immediately below, uses
Urban Precedents from across the globe.
Additional opportunities for understanding Western traditions occur in
numerous elective courses, including those on Frank Lloyd Wright (AHST
340), American Urbanism (AHST 341), Northern Romanticism (AHST 450)
and the RBST series of courses.
9. Non-Western Traditions
Understanding of parallel and divergent canons and traditions of
architecture and urban design in the non-Western world.
In the development of the curriculum over the past several years, more and
more precedent research is being given over the non-Western traditions, in
particular those for Latin America, Eurasian and Asian precedents. The
Introductory History course (AHST 101 in the Summer course and AHST