This course focuses on the emergence of a formal profession of architecture in the 18th and 19th century and its increasing complexity over the last hundred years in Europe and the United States.  Issues include architectural education and training, the persistence of pre-professional conventions, ideas and theories, and competition with rival professions such as engineering. The image and self-image of the architect in society will be a prevailing theme, as will the way changes in technology shape practice and professional identity, culminating with questions surrounding the computer as a form-giver.  Students will read a combination of
secondary literature on the profession and on professionalization in general, as well as primary texts and treatises by architects aimed at explaining architecture to other architects.