Owen Jones\u27 The Grammar of Ornament: Field Theory in the Post-Modern Studio

This article is the product of teaching a studio in the Undergraduate Program in Architecture at Yale University with Prof. Kent C. Bloomer in the fall of 1984. Blessed with a corps of wonderfully talented students, some of whose work is illustrated in the article, Prof. Bloomer and I were able to apply the lessons of the Grammar of Ornament (1856) by Owen Jones through a series of studio exercises. Theory was explored in practice, and proposition became example in the course of the semester\u27s work. The implications of field theory and its material presence in design and architecture were applied to a design sequence that resulted in the creation of an interior that fulfilled the studio requirements with a full understanding of the history of ornament from the ancient worlds to the post-Modern era