Architecture of the House Through Space and Time, led by Professor Itohan Osayimwese in the Fall of 2021, studied the building type of the house throughout history in Mesopotamia, China, Japan, the Islamic world, the African diaspora, India, and beyond. By focusing on houses, this lecture course simultaneously bypassed and interrogated architectural history’s biases, regarding what does and doesn’t count as architecture in academia. 

For their final projects, students turned to Brown’s campus, assessing buildings — such as the Orwig Music Library, Nightingale-Brown House, and Maddock Alumni Center — that were originally constructed as residences. They synthesized their historical research and their interior and exterior architectural analyses into posters that will be on display this Spring either in the buildings themselves, or in the Lower Lobby Art Gallery at the Stephen Robert ‘62 Campus Center. The Department applauds these students for their excellent projects, and celebrates the innovative leadership of Professor Osayimwese and graduate TAs, Pamudu Tennakoon and Dandan Xu. 

HIAA offers several architectural courses this semester. Consider Professor Kinias’ HIAA 0432: Pilgrimage Art and Architecture in the Middle Ages, Professor Osayimwese’s HIAA 0770: African Architecture and Urbanism, or one of our several architectural design studios. Full class listings available at Courses @ Brown.