COURSE: Divergence in Design: From Modernism to Postmodern Architecture and Sustainability

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Divergence in Design: From Modernism to Postmodern Architecture and Sustainability

AIA CES program ID: GMGG.004

Approved LUs: 0.5 LU|HSW

Prerequisites: None

Program level: Entry

Advance learner preparation: None

When “form follows function” stopped being enough, what replaced it, and how did that argument quietly set the stage for the way we talk about cities, meaning, and environmental performance now?

This course follows the split in architectural thinking from early modernism and the international style into postmodernism and the first waves of green architecture, using the major voices and factions as a map of what the profession was trying to solve in each era. You move from Bauhaus influence and the authority of Gropius, Mies, and Le Corbusier into the critiques that reframed urban life and architectural meaning through Jane Jacobs and Robert Venturi, then through the competing schools and groups that pushed the discipline in different directions as culture shifted and the profession diversified. Alongside that design debate, the course introduces early sustainability precedents and “living lightly” experiments, including arcology, Paolo Soleri’s vision, and Arcosanti, set against the growing visibility of climate science and the environmental crisis. By the end, participants can connect these historical movements to current decisions about urban form, density, resilience, and environmental responsiveness, with a clearer sense of what survives, what fails, and what cities require in a warming world.

Program Description:

This course traces the divergence of architectural thought from early modernism and the international style to the rise of postmodernism and early green architecture, set against growing awareness of the environmental crisis. Learners will explore how Bauhaus ideas, the work of leaders such as Gropius, Mies, and Le Corbusier, and later critics like Jane Jacobs and Robert Venturi reshaped the built environment and challenged the mantra of pure functionalism. The course examines influential groups including the New York Five, the Grays, the Chicago Seven, the third bay tradition, and the emerging L A school, and connects their experiments to broader cultural shifts, civil rights, and diversification of the profession. It then introduces early sustainability concepts, from the first global conversations on the human environment to Paolo Soleri’s arcology and the experimental community of Arcosanti, along with evolving climate science and its implications for design. Throughout, participants will connect historical movements to contemporary concerns about urban form, environmental performance, and the survival of cities in a warming world.

Learning Objectives