Going Back to School for a Career Change
Technology & Innovation
Individual Course
The Architectural Imagination
Course Length
10 weeks
3-5 hours a week
Featuring faculty from:
Harvard Graduate School of Design
Enroll as Individual
Certificate Price:
$ 249
Enroll as Individual
Certificate Price:
$ 249
Join Harvard Faculty to learn fundamental principles of architecture by studying some of history’s most important buildings.
Architecture engages a culture’s deepest social values and expresses them in material, aesthetic form. This course will teach you how to understand architecture as both cultural expression and technical achievement. Vivid analyses of exemplary buildings, and hands-on exercises in drawing and modeling, will bring you closer to the work of architects and historians.
The first part of the course introduces the idea of the architectural imagination. Perspective drawing and architectural typology are explored and you will be introduced to some of the challenges in writing architectural history.
Then we address technology as a component of architecture. You will discover ways that innovative technology can enable and promote new aesthetic experiences, or disrupt age-old traditions. Technological advances changed what could be built, and even what could even be thought of as architecture.
Finally, we'll confront architecture’s complex relationship to its social and historical contexts and its audiences, achievements, and aspirations. You will learn about architecture’s power of representation and see how it can produce collective meaning and memory.
Architecture is one of the most complexly negotiated and globally recognized cultural practices, both as an academic subject and a professional career. Its production involves all of the technical, aesthetic, political, and economic issues at play within a given society. Join us as we examine how architecture engages, mediates, and expresses a culture’s complex aspirations.
This course is eligible for American Institute of Architects (AIA) continuing education units (CEUs). Enroll in the course to learn more about options for earning credit.
Self-Guided
edX
Global Learning Community
- Learning Outcome
How to read, analyze, and understand different forms of architectural representation
- Learning Outcome
Social and historical contexts behind major works of architecture
- Learning Outcome
Basic principles to produce your own architectural drawings and models
- Learn from Harvard faculty
- Do it on your own time
- Get a certificate, add it to your resume
- Be part of the Harvard Community
It was a pleasure to be part of your students. My professor was an incredible instructor. I was able to learn a lot about several architects over time and it was a rewarding experience.
Maria Alexandra R.M.
I want to study to become an architect, this Harvard online course had a massive impact on my journey to becoming an architect. I have learned so much and I hope that I will be able to learn more with Harvard online.
Learner
Ways to take this course
Audit or Pursue a Verified Certificate
A Verified Certificate costs $249 and provides unlimited access to full course materials, activities, tests, and forums. At the end of the course, learners who earn a passing grade can receive a certificate.
Alternatively, learners can Audit the course for free and have access to select course material, activities, tests, and forums. Please note that this track does not offer a certificate for learners who earn a passing grade.
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- Going Back to School for a Career Change