Prague Architecture: Reading the City

Art Fee: The Art Fee of 2000 CZK will be used for entry fees to museums, galleries, sites, guided tours by experts, and other course-related expenses.

1.   1. Course Description

This course introduces students to Prague through its architecture, urban spaces, historical layers, and cultural memory. Rather than treating architecture as a sequence of isolated styles, the course approaches the city as a layered environment in which political power, religion, community, literature, modernization, ideology, and everyday life have left visible traces. Through field trips, exhibitions, site-based discussion, and student-led inquiry, students will encounter Prague from the medieval city and the Baroque transformation of Lesser Town through Jewish Prague, Kafka's urban world, nineteenth-century modernization, Czech Cubism and Functionalism, socialist architecture, and the contemporary city. The course is deliberately experiential: students will learn to look closely at buildings and urban spaces, understand their historical contexts, and consider how their meanings change over time.

2.   2. Student Learning Outcomes

·       Identify and distinguish major architectural and urban developments represented in Prague.

·       Analyse buildings, streets, neighbourhoods, and public spaces in relation to their historical, social, political, and cultural contexts.

·       Read architecture through form, materials, spatial organization, ornament, function, and use.

·       Understand Prague as a layered city shaped by successive communities, regimes, and cultural traditions.

·       Connect architecture with questions of political power, religious identity, cultural memory, literature, and everyday life.

·       Conduct independent visual and contextual research and communicate architectural observations clearly.

·       Reflect critically on preservation, redevelopment, public space, and the changing contemporary city.

Credits / course information

3.   3. Course Materials

There is no required reading or watching list for this course. Short contextual materials, maps, visual sources, and information relevant to individual visits will be provided or discussed in class as needed. Students are expected to take notes during field trips and to use appropriate sources when completing their research assignments.

4.   4. Teaching Methodology

The course will frequently take place outside the classroom, encouraging students to experience Prague firsthand and to engage with the city as a historical, architectural, and cultural landscape. Teaching combines short contextual introductions, site-based learning, guided observation, discussion, exhibition visits, and student-led inquiry. Students will learn to move between close observation of individual buildings and broader questions concerning urban development, memory, identity, power, and social change. Active participation, field-trip notes, collaborative discussion, and independent observation form the core of the learning process.

5.   5. Course Schedule

Field trips are subject to change and may be adjusted ahead of time because of weather, access, exhibition schedules, or other last-minute reasons. Students should check course announcements before each visit.

Week 1
September 1

Topic: Introduction: Reading Prague through Architecture

Description: Introduction to the course, its assignments, field trips, and requirements. We will establish basic concepts for reading architecture and the city, including space, place, monument, public and private space, urban memory, architectural style, and the relationship between architecture and social and political change.

Visit / format: Classroom

Assignments/deadlines: Course orientation; field-trip journal begins.

Week 2
September 8

Topic: Lesser Town: Prague as a Baroque City

Description: Our first field trip explores the neighbourhood immediately surrounding the school. Malá Strana offers a concentrated encounter with medieval, Renaissance, and especially Baroque Prague. We will examine how churches, palaces, gardens, streets, and public spaces form a coherent urban environment and how architecture expresses religious and political power.

Visit / format: Field trip: Malá Strana – Lesser Town Square – St Nicholas Church – Wallenstein Palace and Garden – Nerudova Street – selected palaces and churches

Week 3
September 15

Topic: The Přemyslid Dynasty: The Origins of Prague

Description: This week takes us back to the medieval origins of Prague through an exhibition devoted to the Přemyslid dynasty at the National Museum. We will explore the formation of the medieval Czech state, the emergence of Prague as a political and cultural centre, and the relationship between dynastic power, religion, architecture, and urban development.

Visit / format: Off-site class / exhibition: National Museum – Přemyslid Dynasty exhibition

Week 4
September 22

Topic: Prague Castle: Architecture and Political Power

Description: Prague Castle provides a concentrated history of architecture and political authority, from the medieval period through the Habsburg monarchy and the establishment of Czechoslovakia. We will examine how architecture constructs political identity and how successive regimes transformed the meaning of the same architectural complex.

Visit / format: Field trip: Prague Castle and Hradčany

Week 5
September 29

Topic: The Medieval City: Prague before Modernity

Description: We will examine the medieval foundations of Prague through the Old Town and its urban fabric. The class focuses on the relationship between streets, squares, religious and civic architecture, commerce, and everyday life, and on the ways in which the medieval city continues to shape contemporary Prague.

Visit / format: Field trip: Old Town Square – Týn Church – Old Town Hall – Charles Bridge – selected medieval urban spaces

Assignments/deadlines: Reading/observation response due.

Week 6
October 6

Topic: Jewish Prague: A City within the City

Description: This field trip explores Prague's Jewish Quarter as a space shaped by religious identity, community, memory, persecution, and cultural exchange. We will examine synagogues, the Old Jewish Cemetery, and the changing urban fabric of Josefov, including the radical redevelopment of the neighbourhood at the end of the nineteenth century.

Visit / format: Field trip / museum: Josefov and the Jewish Museum in Prague

Week 7
October 13

Topic: The Nineteenth-Century City: Nationalism and Modernization

Description: The nineteenth century transformed Prague into a modern European metropolis. We will examine the emergence of national architecture, bourgeois culture, new public institutions, and the modernization and expansion of the city.

Visit / format: Field trip: National Theatre – Národní třída – Wenceslas Square – National Museum

Assignments/deadlines: Research project topic selection / proposal due.

Week 8
October 20

Topic: Architecture, Literature, and Cultural Memory

Description: This off-site class explores the relationship between literary culture, architecture, and cultural memory. Through a visit to the Museum of Literature, we will consider how cultural institutions preserve, organize, and reinterpret the history of a city and how exhibitions transform literary and architectural heritage into a contemporary experience.

Visit / format: Off-site class: Museum of Literature

October 27 – Mid-term break

Week 9
November 3

Topic: Kafka's Prague: The City as Labyrinth

Description: How does a city become a literary space? We will explore Prague through Franz Kafka's urban world, focusing on the Old Town, multilingualism, bureaucracy, alienation, and the experience of the modern city. Architecture will be approached not simply as physical space but as something remembered, imagined, narrated, and psychologically experienced.

Visit / format: Field trip: Kafka-related sites in the Old Town and Josefov

Week 10
November 10

Topic: Art Nouveau and Czech Cubism: Architecture as Gesamtkunstwerk

Description: Prague's early twentieth-century architecture brought architecture into close dialogue with painting, sculpture, graphic design, furniture, and the decorative arts. We will move from Art Nouveau's ornamental Gesamtkunstwerk to the radically geometric language of Czech Cubism.

Visit / format: Field trip / exhibition: Municipal House – selected Art Nouveau buildings – House at the Black Madonna – Museum of Decorative Arts

Assignments/deadlines: Research project due.

Week 11
November 17

Topic: Functionalism and Adolf Loos: The Modern Home

Description: This week examines two approaches to modern domestic architecture. We will consider Functionalism's vision of rational, healthy, and socially progressive housing alongside Adolf Loos's radical approach to interior space, privacy, materials, and the Raumplan. The visit will contrast collective modern housing with the modernist private interior.

Visit / format: Field trip: Baba Housing Estate and Müller Villa or Winternitz Villa

Week 12
November 24

Topic: Socialist Prague: Architecture, Power, and Ideology

Description: After 1945, architecture became deeply entangled with the political and ideological transformation of Czechoslovakia. We will examine socialist architecture, monumental public buildings, state-sponsored modernism, and the emergence of Brutalism. We will also consider changing attitudes toward the architectural heritage of the socialist period.

Visit / format: Off-site class / exhibition: National Gallery Prague, 1956–1989: Architecture for All; selected socialist and Brutalist buildings

Assignments/deadlines: Field-trip journal portfolio due.

Week 13
December 1

Topic: Student Presentations: Reading Prague

Description: Students will work in small groups to present one architectural building, neighbourhood, urban phenomenon, or thematic problem discussed during the semester. Presentations should connect architectural form with historical, cultural, political, and social contexts and should draw on the students' own observations from the field trips.

Visit / format: Classroom

Assignments/deadlines: Final group presentation.

Week 14
December 8

Topic: Conclusion: Reading Prague as a Layered City

Description: In our final class, we will return to the central questions of the course and consider Prague as a city shaped by successive layers of history, architecture, politics, religion, literature, and everyday life. We will reflect on how the meaning of buildings and urban spaces changes over time and how different communities and historical periods have left their traces on the contemporary city. Students will discuss their field-trip observations and consider which sites and themes have most significantly shaped their understanding of Prague.

Visit / format: Classroom discussion and course synthesis

Assignments/deadlines: Final individual course reflection due.

6.   6. Course Requirements and Assessment

Assessment is designed around the experiential nature of the course. Students are expected to attend field trips, participate actively in site-based discussions, document their observations, and develop an independent research project based on Prague architecture or urban space.

TOTAL: 100%

7.   7. Detailed Description of the Assignments

Assignment 1: Attendance, Participation and Field-trip Activity – 15%

Participation means actively taking part in classes and field trips. Students are expected to arrive on time, pay attention, take notes, ask questions, and contribute to discussions. Participation is assessed through preparedness, engagement with the sites visited, quality of observations, and constructive interaction with classmates.

Assignment 2: Field-trip Journal Portfolio – 25%

Students will maintain a field-trip journal throughout the semester. Each entry should document the site visited and record significant architectural and urban observations. Entries may include sketches, photographs, diagrams, brief descriptions, questions, comparisons with earlier visits, and reflections on how the site relates to the broader themes of the course. The final portfolio should demonstrate development in the student's ability to observe and interpret Prague's architecture.

·       Regular and timely entries for the principal field trips and exhibitions.

·       Specific architectural and spatial observations rather than general impressions.

·       Evidence of comparison between different periods, buildings, and neighbourhoods.

·       Clear organization and readable presentation.

Assignment 3: Architectural Research Project – 30%

Students will select one building, group of buildings, neighbourhood, urban space, or architectural phenomenon in Prague and investigate its historical and cultural context. The project should combine independent research with the student's own observations from the field. The final paper should demonstrate clear organization, critical thinking, appropriate use of sources, and an ability to connect architectural form with broader historical and social questions.

·       Approximately 1,500–2,000 words.

·       At least four appropriately cited sources, including at least two academically respectable sources.

·       Clear introduction, analytical body, and conclusion.

·       In-text references and bibliography using a consistent academic citation style.

·       Visual material may be included where it contributes to the analysis.

Assignment 4: Final Group Presentation – 20%

Students will work in small groups to prepare a presentation based on one building, neighbourhood, urban phenomenon, or thematic problem encountered during the semester. The presentation should demonstrate the group's ability to synthesize field observations and contextual research. Each member must contribute substantively to the project and presentation.

Assignment 5: Final Individual Course Reflection – 10%

The final reflection asks students to reconsider Prague after completing the course. Rather than summarizing the weekly topics, students should identify and discuss the architectural and urban ideas that most changed or deepened their understanding of the city. The reflection should draw on specific sites encountered during the semester.

Length: Approximately 800–1,000 words.

8.   8. General Requirements and School Policies

All coursework is governed by AAU's academic rules. Students are expected to be familiar with the Academic Codex and Student Handbook and to maintain the highest standards of honesty and academic integrity in their work. Please see the AAU intranet for a summary of key policies regarding coursework.

Course-specific requirements

Because a substantial part of the course takes place outside the classroom, punctuality is particularly important. Students must arrive at the announced meeting point on time. Field trips cannot be delayed for late arrivals. If a student is going to be late, they should contact a classmate or the instructor as soon as possible and make arrangements to join the group without disrupting the visit.

Students are expected to behave respectfully at museums, historic sites, churches, memorials, and other public or private locations. Photography is permitted only where the rules of the individual institution allow it. Students should follow all instructions given by museum staff, guides, and the instructor.

Field trips may be adjusted because of weather, access restrictions, exhibition schedules, or other unforeseen circumstances. Any changes will be announced ahead of time whenever possible.

There are no special requirements or deviations from AAU policies for this course.