BCYC Immersion
Architecture Track

This track has not yet been confirmed for BCYC Immersion 2021.

Architecture is described as the “Art of Building”. So, why are only some buildings called ‘architecture’? We will look at the history of architecture as an artform under the premise that ideas have consequences even unto the built environment. Great architecture begins with a wonder-filled idea, finds nourishment in the liberal arts, and begins to assume form through a process of drawing—a process distinct to the profession and one that we will explore. From the drafting boards architecture achieves fulfillment in the ‘clothing’ of materials and artistic finishes. We will look at the myriad ways in which architects dress buildings. Historically the classical canons of Decorum, Propriety, and Beauty guided the process of designing and clothing buildings. For example, our ‘fly-over’ of two thousand years of architecture will introduce us to some of the paradigmatic buildings of Western civilization as well as the foundational texts of Vitruvius, Alberti, Palladio, and Thomas Jefferson. Jefferson viewed architecture as uniquely capable of manifesting the core principles of the republic. The influence of his writing and buildings lingers in our towns and cities. The process of uncovering some of those principles will provide some essential clues for grappling with the status of the architectural profession today.

Track Instructor

Dr. Christopher C. Miller
Professor of Architecture

Dr. Miller joined the faculty at Benedictine College in the fall of 2019 as director of the Architecture Program. He is a member of an international group of academics, sustainability advocates, and urban mission leaders mobilizing for recognition by UN Habitat III of the importance of the built environment and to promote a moral dimension of the cities we build. In 2014, he was a co-author for the endowment brief on “Beauty in the Thriving Cities Project” at the Institute for Advanced Studies, University of Virginia. Just published is “Shaping the World’s Neighborhoods for Urban Shalom,” in Urban Shalom & the Cities We Need and “Coding for Community” Putting Tradition into Practice: Heritage, Place, and Design: Proceedings of the Fifth INTBAU International Annual Event (2017). Underway is a review of Murray Rae’s Architecture and Theology (Baylor 2017).