07411 - History of Modern Architecture

Learning outcomes

The aim of the lecture course is to explore the development of the history of architecture from late Baroque period to the avant-garde movements of the 1920s.
The main objective is the definition of a wide framework within which the historical phenomena will be grounded in order to be able to understand their impact on the international and national debate. The focus will be given to cultural movements and those protagonists who have been able to answer through their thinking and design to new problems open by the modern society and city.
Students should be able to acquire a good knowledge in order to recognize and to describe the formal, technical and contextual components of a modern building.

Course contents

The Fall term course will focus on the study of the design models that allow the architectural discourse to evolve from Neoclassicism to the Second Industrial Revolution and the early examples of modernization. Architects, artists and theoreticians develop their thinking on the architectural principles; the aim is to break the academic categories of the ancien régime. Parallel to this development is the beginning of the work on manuals, whose objective is to birth of a "rational architecture", the modern languages springs from. One section will focus on the analysis of European town-planning history from utopies to city capitals. Pier Giorgio Massaretti will teach this section.
Th Spring term will analize the decades between the First World Exhibition (London 1851) and the MoMA show of 1932, when the label "International Style" was introduced. The objective is to study the multiplicity of components that emerge in the history of architecture and town-planning. As a matter of fact, the history of modern architecture deals with a diversity of issues: the history of buildings, of models, of ideas, let alone the history of materials and techniques. The lessons will deal with these many histories (their birth, apex and crisis moments), searching to assess modernity as a vital condition of the twentieth century.

Readings/Bibliography

First term (Fall 2010)
•    J. Summerson, Il linguaggio classico dell'architettura, Einaudi, Torino 1970
•    R. Middleton, D. Watkin, Architettura dell'Ottocento, Electa, Milano 1980
•    D. Calabi, Storia dell'urbanistica europea, Mondadori, Milano 2001
•    G. Zucconi, La città dell'Ottocento, Laterza, Roma-Bari 2001
•    A. Bruschi, Introduzione alla storia dell'architettura. Considerazioni sul metodo e sulla storia degli studi, Mondadori, Milano 2009
Second term (Spring 2011)
•    G. Ciucci, G. Muratore (a cura di), Storia dell'architettura italiana. Il primo Novecento, Electa, Milano 2004
•    R. Banham, Architettura della prima età della macchina, Marinotti, Milano 2005 (19701)
•    W. Curtis, L'architettura moderna del Novecento, Phaidon, London 20063
•    K. Frampton, Storia dell'architettura moderna, Zanichelli, Bologna 20084

Attn. During lessons specific texts might be indicated in order to expand the knowledge of the themes under focus.

Teaching methods

Lessons. Reading of reference texts. Students' short presentations. Debate.

Assessment methods

Mid-term exam at the end of the first term and a final, oral presentation. The latter will focus on the critical revision of the mid-term exam and on the knowledge in depth of the reference texts.

Teaching tools

Each lesson will be illustrate through the use of different media, such as slides, powerpoint presentations, and movie clips.

Office hours

See the website of Maristella Casciato