MIT OpenCourseWare

Browse materialsMIT 4.605 · Spring 2012

Introduction to the History and Theory of Architecture

Art: Giovanni Battista Piranesi, Veduta di Piazza di Spagna Fontana detta la Barcaccia, architettura…, 18th century · Public domain

Instructor: Prof. Mark Jarzombek
Term: Spring 2012
Level: Undergraduate
What's inside: 20 exams · 1 reading · 1 handout · 34 other files · 5 web pages
Materials open: MIT OCW

Start here

Start course: Lecture 1: First societies (PDF)Find a topic

Progress is saved in this browser.

Export or import progress

About this course

Source: MIT OpenCourseWare 4.605 Introduction to the History and Theory of Architecture, Spring 2012, Prof. Mark Jarzombek — original course page on ocw.mit.edu ↗. License: CC BY-NC-SA 4.0. Study order: MIT's own listing order, section by section. Taken from MIT's published course files, downloaded from ocw.mit.edu on September 23, 2026. How RedLectern is built.

Materials are grouped the way MIT organized them. A verified, course-wide order has not been established here.

Before you start

Prerequisites are not listed here. Check MIT's own syllabus for this course.

How this course was organized

What's here, and what isn't

MIT's own materials here did not support a verified, course-wide order, so they are grouped by section instead.

Not included here

2 items from the source could not be safely included:

MIT's page format for this item wasn't recognized clearly enough to place it safely. (2 items)

Materials by section

Grouped by section, as MIT organized them. Not sequenced or ordered.

Lecture Handouts

29 files

Quizzes

16 files

Recitations

Study Materials

MIT OpenCourseWare, Prof. Mark Jarzombek, 4.605 Introduction to the History and Theory of Architecture, Spring 2012.

License: CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 · Edition: Spring 2012 · Open the original course on OCW ↗

Organized by RedLectern, independent of MIT and not endorsed by MIT.

Per-resource rights are recorded on each resource; All-Rights-Reserved items are link-only, never mirrored.

Introduction to the History and Theory of Architecture

Before you start

What's here, and what isn't

Not included here

Materials by section

Lecture Handouts

Quizzes

Recitations

Study Materials

Lecture 1: First societies (PDF)

Lecture 2: The Gravettians and the hunting tradition of the north (PDF)

Lecture 3: The Holocene and the agro-pastoral emergence (PDF)

Lecture 4: Grains, animals and the village world (PDF)

Lecture 5: Cities, gods and empires (PDF)

Lecture 6: Pits and granaries: the sacred section (PDF)

Lecture 7: 1500 BCE: After the Cataclysm: Knossos and Karnak (PDF) Google Earth file (KMZ)

Lecture 8: 800 BCE: Iron and the New World Order: Greeks, Etruscans, Assyrians (PDF) Google Earth file (KMZ)

Lecture 9: 500 BCE: Persia and Central Asia (PDF) Google Earth file 1 (KMZ) Google Earth file 2 (KMZ)

Lecture 10: Fire, water and chariots (PDF)

Lecture 11: Buddhism: Out of India (PDF)

Lecture 12: Chang’an (PDF)

Lecture 13: Rome (PDF)

Lecture 14: Rome (cont.) (PDF)

Lecture 15: The Americas (PDF)

Lecture 16: Early Christian transitions (PDF)

Lecture 17: Early Islam: 800 CE (PDF)

Lecture 18: From Armenia to Borobudur (PDF)

Lecture 19: Early Hindu architecture (PDF)

Lecture 20: Southeast Asia and Angkor Wat (PDF)

Lecture 21: Gothic architecture: Cistercians & cathedrals (PDF)

Lecture 22: Late medieval Europe: Renaissance in perspective (PDF)

Lecture 23: History and time; UNESCO & cultural nationalism (PDF)

Lecture 24: Colonial worlds (no handout)

Lecture 25: Review session (no handout)