paper: 1200 words

choose a building from the first half of the semester
(Western architecture before 1100 AD) and imagine that you are its designer and that you are writing a
letter to your patron/client which will accompany a plan and model of your building to explain how
your design meets the challenges inherent in the project. In particular you should focus on what
architectural decisions you made during the design process and why. Here are some suggestions of
topics that you might consider addressing (note that there might be others as they will vary from
building): function, response to site, form, materials, constructional techniques, precedents, style and
expression. Focus on the questions that would be of interest to a reader of the same period / culture
trying to understand why you designed it in the way that you did. This is an opportunity to think about
what issues were uppermost in the mind of the original architect. Do not write in an “old-fashioned”
language (or in Latin, Byzantine Greek, Medieval French, etc.), but in clear and expressive modern
English using your own words. You may use the first person if you wish. Quotations should not be
used and citations should not be needed; an appropriate bibliography, however, should be appended.
Length of mid-term paper: 1200 words.