The course views architecture as a mediated discourse and examines the social, economic, political, philosophical and technological givens that form architectural theories and inform architectural design. Texts by architects, philosophers and literary critics, that cover the period from the second half of the 19th centuy to the present, are analyzed and discussed. Texts by: W. Benjamin, G. Simmel, A. Loos, Le Corbusier, Mies van der Rohe, R. Venturi, C. Rowe, A. Rossi, F. Jameson, G. Debord, R. Koolhaas, B. Tschumi, P. Virilio and J. Baudrillard are examined.