我的博士资格考试笔试题目（西方现代建筑史）

大概1年前，我们系对我进行了西方现代建筑史博士资格考试的笔试部分。前两天有人问我这个笔试大概是什么样子的，我打算在这里简要说说，大家也可以就此了解美国学校建筑史博士学习成为博士候选人（doctoral candidate）的第一关是什么样的。
这个笔试很直观，分2天考，第一天考8小时，一共有6道题，我从中选4道回答。这6道题是由所有系里所有的老师出题考我从文艺复兴到1950年左右西方建筑史的相关知识。其中第1,2题是从文艺复兴到18世纪，两题中我必须选1题回答。后面3-6题中选3题回答。
1. Nature and the Antique were two central categories of reference in Italian Renaissance theory and practice of architecture. Discuss the evolution from 1400 to 1600 of how architects and architectural theorists engaged with these two categories in the conceptualization of works of architecture and landscape architecture, or villas and gardens. Use at least six key examples in your discussion, and include St. Peter's Basilica in Rome and an example of a key villa garden. Conclude your essay by taking a historiographical view and discussing how the approach to writing about Nature and the Antique in Italian Renaissance Architecture has evolved from Ludwig von Heydenreich's and Wolfgang Lotz's Architecture in Italy 1400-1600 (1974) to Christy Anderson's Renaissance Architecture (2013).
2. Please discuss the authority of the book in architectural practice in the eighteenth century. Your response should address multiple countries/colonies.
3. How did American architects in the first half of the nineteenth century respond to the growing impact of industialization? Was their reaction different from, or similar to, their European counterparts? Is this expressed in the literature?
4. One of the dominant features of progressive architecture in America in the 1930s was the appearance of what some scholars now call the “Streamlined Moderne,” an aesthetic based on uninterrupted, flowing forms and pronounced horizontal massing. In many ways, though it borrowed from European sources, this strain of modernism represented an indigenous development—an “American Modernism.” In what sense did the arrival of Gropius, Mies van der Rohe, and others fleeing Europe put an end to this specifically American aesthetic? Did modernism in America after World War II retain a distinctive “American” identity? How is this issue dealt with in the literature?
5. From 1900 to 1950 what characterized the general attitudes of American architects towards the history of architecture? How was it relevant or irrelevant to their buildings? And if their positions changed over this time frame, what caused those changes?
6. In 1932 Philip Johnson and Henry-Russell Hitchcock organize an exhibition of Modern Architecture at the MoMA, inventing the term “International Style.” In what sense did this show a deep misunderstanding, even a ‘betrayal’ of the Modern Movement’s credo?
第二天考4小时，主要考我的研究方向，即是早期德国现代主义建筑。3道题全部由我的导师一人给出，我从中选2道回答。
1. Discuss the founding the evolution of the Bauhaus. In what ways did the Bauhaus fulfill its stated mission? In what ways did it fail to live up to its early promise?
2. What, if anything, made German modernism different from modernism in Central Europe and modernism in France? Providing a definition of “modernism” is essential to answering this question.
3. What were the most important currents or ideas influencing the development of German architecture in the period between 1890 and 1914?
第一天我选择了1,4,5,6题。第二天我选择了1和3来回答。总的感觉是第二天比较轻松，可能因为是自己的方向所以大部分内容比较熟悉，也可能是导师出题比较友善。
答题上交后的1-2周内有一个关于考试的答辩，系里所有老师都邀请来提问，虽然说是基于考试题目和我回答的内容，但是其实他们想问什么都可以，只要是从文艺复兴时期到1950年间的建筑文化。