74803 - History of Architecture

Learning outcomes

The aim of the course is to provide students with general knowledge related to the main themes and protagonists of the history of architecture, understood in its specific developments and broader relationship with the visual arts. In addition to the historical study we will be offered the appropriate critical tools useful to place the results of architectural research in the proper historical and cultural context.

Course contents

Module 1

(There aren’t differences in program between students attending and not attending)

Subtitle: ornament, structure and space, between 1815 and 2016

Content

The course aims to introduce students to the knowledge of architecture, from the nineteenth century to nowadays. The analysis of some issues, such as pattern and ornament, the polychromy and cladding, the questions of truth and nature of the materials, the role and form of the structure, and the space configuration, will be privileged in the discussion of the architectures. Works by artists whose creative process has helped to focus concepts often decisive for architecture will be analyzed.

Keywords: contemporary architecture, ornament, pattern, structure, space, construction, art.

Learning Objectives

The course will provide the student with a vision of architecture through the analysis of works and significant issues. Take stock of contemporary architecture, focusing also on the technical and material aspects of different works, and then analyze, in this context, experiences such as those of Labrouste, Sullivan, Wagner, Le Corbusier, Kahn or Herzog & De Meuron, it may be useful for the student who will have the tools to evaluate the architecture from the point of view of the relationship between idea, conception, form and matter, and to understand the cultural, technical and artistic issues related to their implementation. The study of the various architectural experiences will allow the student to face a series of problems that could suggest any personal research projects.

After completing the course the student will be able to:

• Know the features of the architectural history of the period considered

• Explain and interpret the various phenomena

• Identify and analyze the works

• Develop personal reflections on the relationship between idea, form and matter

• Demonstrate a critical understanding of the discussed issues

• Discuss the relationship between art and architecture

• Use proper terminology

Readings/Bibliography

(There aren’t differences in program between students attending and not attending)

• Tests in progress:

- G. Semper, Origine tecnica delle principali forme-base, tipi e simboli dell’architettura, in Id., Lo stile, Laterza, Roma-Bari, 1992, pp. 39-49 (1a ed., Der Stil in den technischen und tektonischen Künsten oder praktische Ästhetik. Ein Handbuch für Techniker, Künstler und Kunstfreunde, vol. I, Frankfurt am Main, 1860)

- G. Semper, Il sostegno, in Id., Lo stile, Laterza, Roma-Bari, 1992, pp. 219-229 (1a ed., Der Stil in den technischen und tektonischen Künsten oder praktische Ästhetik. Ein Handbuch für Techniker, Künstler und Kunstfreunde, vol. II, Frankfurt am Main, 1863)

- Le Corbusier, Trois rappels à MM. les architectes. Premier rappel: le volume, in “L’Esprit Nouveau”, 1920, n. 1, trad. it., Tre avvertenze agli architetti I. ll volume, in Id., Verso una Architettura, Longanesi, Milano, 2003, pp. 11-20

- Le Corbusier, Trois rappels à MM. les architectes. Second rappel: la surface, in “L’Esprit Nouveau”, 1920, n. 2, trad. it.,Tre avvertenze agli architetti II. La Superficie, in Id., Verso una Architettura, Longanesi, Milano, 2003, pp. 21-29

- Le Corbusier, Trois rappels à MM. les architectes. Troisième rappel: le plan, in “L’Esprit Nouveau”, 1921, n. 4, trad. it.,Tre avvertenze agli architetti III. La Pianta, in Id., Verso una Architettura, Longanesi, Milano, 2003, pp. 31-48

• Oral exam

Basic texts (required):

- G. Fanelli, R. Gargiani, Storia dell'architettura contemporanea. Spazio, struttura, involucro, Laterza, Roma-Bari, 2006

- William J. Curtis, L'architettura moderna dal 1900, Phaidon, London, 2006

Articles (required)

(Articles available in the course website)

Michele Cometa, L’architettura italiana tra policromia estoricismo, in Id., IlRomanzo dell’Architettura. La Sicilia e ilGrand Tour nell’età di Goethe, Roma-Bari, Laterza, 1999, pp. 299-325

Roberto Gargiani, Le Style de Gottfried Semper: vers la constructionincorporelle, in “eaV”, 1997, n. 3, pp. 71-81

Roberto Gargiani, Henri Labrouste. Ornamento e costruzione nella bibliotecaSainte Geneviève, Parigi 1839-1850, in “Casabella”, 1997 n. 645, pp. 60-73

Giles Phillips, Framing what we see: the role of ornament instructuring. Louis Sullivan's design logic, in Environment andPlanning B: Planning and Design, 2008, volume 35, pp. 772-793

Anna Rosellini, Oltre il « béton brut »: Le Corbusier e la « nouvellestéréotomie », in Arte e Architettura. Le cornici della Storia, Milano, Bruno Mondadori Editore, 2007, pp. 231 – 258

Anna Rosellini, Joint, growth and ornament of Kahn’s cast-in-place concrete, in Studies in the History of Consctruction. Proceedings of the Second Conference of the Construction History Society, Cambridge, Construction History Society, 2015, pp. 297 - 307

The bibliography will be completed by the student that shall prepare, in agreement with the teacher, the list of essays required for the final report to be presented during the final exam (required)

Recommended reading (optional):

M. Bressani, Architecture and the Historical Imagination: Eugène-Emmanuel Viollet-le-Duc, 1814–1879, Ashgate Pub Co, London 2014

W. De Wit, a cura di, Louis Sullivan. The Function of Ornament, Norton & Company, New York, London, 1986

R. Dubbini, a cura di, Henri Labrouste, Electa, Milano, 2002

G. Fanelli, De Stijl, Laterza, Roma-Bari, 2006

G. Fanelli, R. Gargiani, Auguste Perret, Laterza, Roma-Bari, 2002

G. Fanelli, E. Godoli, La Vienna di Hoffmann architetto della qualità, Laterza, Roma-Bari, 1981

R. Gargiani, Louis I. Kahn, Exposed Concrete and Hollow Stones, 1949-1959, EPFL Press, Lausanne, 2014

R. Gargiani, A. Rosellini, Le Corbusier. Béton Brut and Ineffable Space, 1940-1965. Surface Materials and Psychophysiology of Vision, EPFL Press, Lausanne, 2011

E. H. Gombrich, The Sense of Order. A Study in the Psychology of Decorative Art, Phaidon, Oxford, 1984, trad. it. Il senso dell'ordine. Studio sulla psicologia dell'arte decorativa, Einaudi, Torino, 1984

S. Giedion, Space, Time and Architecture: The Growth of a New Tradition, Cambridge, Mass., 1941, trad. it., Spazio, tempo ed architettura. Lo sviluppo di una nuova tradizione, Hoepli, Milano, 1984

W. Herrmann, Gottfried Semper: Theoretischer Nachlass an der ETH Zürich, Katalog und Kommentare, Basel-Boston-Stuttgart, 1981, trad. it., Gottfried Semper. Architettura e teoria, Electa, Milano, 1990

R. McCarter, Frank Lloyd Wright, Phaidon, London, 2005

A. Picon, Ornament. The Politics of Architecture and Subjectivity, John Wiley & Sons Ltd, Chichester, 2013

M. Pogacnik, Adolf Loos e Vienna. La casa sulla Michaelerplatz , Quodlibet, Macerata, 2012

A. Rosellini, Le Corbusier e la superficie, dal rivestimento d'intonaco al béton brut, Aracne, Roma, 2013

A. Rosellini, Louis Kahn, Toward the zero degree of concrete, 1960-1974, EPFL Press, Lausanne, 2014

J. M. Siry, Unity Temple: Frank Lloyd Wright and Architecture for Liberal Religion, Cambridge University Press, London, New York, 1998

R. Trevisiol, Otto Wagner, Laterza, Roma-Bari, 1990

P. Ursprung, a cura di, Herzog & de Meuron: Natural History, Centre Canadien d'Architecture, Lars Müller, Montreal, Zürich, 2002

S. von Moos, Le Corbusier. Elements of a Synthesis, nai010 publishers, Rotterdam, 2013 (1a ed., Le Corbusier. Elemente einer Synthese, Frauenfeld, 1968)

Teaching methods

Lectures, seminars

Assessment methods

(There aren’t differences in program between students attending and not attending)

1. Tests in progress

2. Delivery of a written report

3. Oral Exam (on the topics discussed in the course and held in the bibliography)

1. Tests in progress

The tests include: oral presentations made by the students during the course seminars. Evaluations of these works will be taken into account for the final exam.

Extracts of essays on subjects covered in the course will be provided to the students. The students must develop personal arguments that will be presented at seminars. It is required to develop a reflection on the essays and to find illustrations necessary to comment the works. With this material the student must prepare a presentation (PowerPoint, Keynote, PDF) and expose the results of its research.

The student must:

• Knowing the author of the essay
• Knowing the content of the essay
• Knowing the context in which the essay was written
• Develop a personal reflection
• Collect iconographic need to expose their reflections
• Participate actively in class seminars

2. Delivery of a written report

After completing the course, each student will deliver a written report, complete with images, on a subject treated in class. The subject must be agreed with the professor (text length: minimum 10000 characters, including spaces; each image must be accompanied by the caption).

The relationship between text and image, and the layout will be evaluated.

The structure of the report will be divided into:

· Introduction (brief description of the work and its aims, presentation of the chosen topic)

· Central body (development of the subject), divided into paragraphs, if necessary

· Conclusion (that clarify the reflections and summarize the work done)

· Bibliography (guidelines for drafting the bibliography will be provided during the course)

3. Oral exam

During the oral exam, students must demonstrate to have acquired a critical understanding of the topics discussed during the course and a critical knowledge of the recommended bibliography. The student will develop a reflection on the architecture of the period covered in the course. The analysis should not be limited to the disquisition of the formal aspects of the individual works; the student will be able to break down the architecture showing an understanding of all aspects related to the central themes of the course (geometric patterns, structure, ornament and genesis of the space) and the formal and aesthetic reasons that have led certain technical choices.

Teaching tools

The course images will be provided to the students 

Office hours

See the website of Anna Rosellini

See the website of Francesco Benelli