Paper-1 Assignment—“Theorizing an Architectural Issue”
The assigned general title of paper-1 is “Theorizing an Architectural Issue.” You need to add a subtitle to further define what issue you are going to analyze in your paper. The issue should originate from your reading and thinking on the Vitruvius and Renaissance theories covered by the first-half semester. There are several ways for you to identify an architectural issue, for example:

The issue can be a theoretical concept from Vitruvius, which he called “principle,” such as the “venustas” (beauty), “symmetry,” “order,” “propriety,” “harmony,” “proportion,” “module,”
The issue can be a theoretical topic evolved from Vitruvius, such as the “education of the architect,” “theory and practice,” “healthy site,” “primitive hut,” “primordial substance of materials,” “Vitruvian man,” “ornaments of the orders,” “theater,” “foundation,” “light, wind, and water,”
The issue can come from your own interpretation of Vitruvius or Alberti, such as “assemblage,” “language in architecture,” “art of building,” “cosmology and divinity,” “knowledge of architecture,” “public and private domains,” “tropes of ornaments,” “geometrical intention,” “memory,” “cohesiveness of architectural body,” “truth and representation of architecture,” “political intentions in architecture,” etc.
The architectural issue can evolve from your understanding of philosophical discourse, such as Plato’s cosmography and his concept of primordial “Chora” (roughly, “space of space”) (Also see Pérez-Gómez).
The issue can be generated from your reading of postmodern scholars’ critical theories which are based on their hermeneutic interpretations of the Roman and Renaissance theory tradition, such as Yates (on the theater of memory), Vesely (on the embodiment), Pérez-Gómez (on the representation of Chora) and Harries (on representation).
You can observe and define an architectural issue from your design studio and theorize it into theoretical depth by drawing the argument support from listed reading sources of the first half-semester.
After identifying and researching the issue, you need to analyze it through writing in the following aspects:

Introduce why you want to discuss this
Analyze how this issue was discussed by Vitruvius and other historical theoretical sources. What are the traditional theoretical perspectives regarding this identified issue?
Refer to how this issue is developed in scholarship. What are those new theoretical perspectives regarding this issue?
Demonstrate how today’s understanding of this issue is embodied by architectural practice. You are encouraged to include your thinking in the design studio and extend your contemplation on this theoretical issue within the design
Present your historical criticism evolved from your analysis on this issue as the conclusion.
The paper of the writing part should have 3 pages in double space, font 12 with about 900 words, including minimum 3 footnotes of powerful quotes from the assigned readings of the first-half semester. You are required to add one illustration as the extra page to the 3-page written text. Use footnotes in Chicago Manual of Style, edition 15 (no bibliography or endnotes please) to clearly mark each reference source in your paper. You can check the Chicago Manual of Style online and refer to the format of “Notes” (N-type) at the website. The internet sources that are not formal publications of academic journals and scholarly books are not counted as reference sources in your paper. Besides the three mandatory footnotes quoted from the assigned readings, any other footnote must refer to a published research source (a book or a journal article). In addition, you need to add a cover page in the format as follows:

Theorizing an Architectural Issue: (your subtitle)

Name

Course Title

Date

The paper should be in Word version.