96405 - History of Architecture (1)

Learning outcomes

By the end of the course the student: knows the general outline of the history of architecture; recognizes, historically contextualizes and critically evaluates the major architectures of the contemporary age; knows the major formal and constructive aspects of the works considered; knows how to connect architecture with other art disciplines.

Course contents

The course is divided into two parts:

part 1

The course offers a historical reconstruction of 19th and 20th century architectural works and theories. On the basis of the proposed analysis, a series of issues at the centre of contemporary debates will be addressed: from the relationship between habitat and society to the sustainability of buildings. At the end of the course, students will have an overview of theoretical reflections on architecture developed in the European and Western context.
In the first part of the course, works and theories focusing on the relationship between architecture, nature and habitat will be presented. The evolution of architecture in reference to the development of capitalism and mass culture will then be discussed. Finally, the experiments of the 20th century that placed social and environmental issues and the sustainability of buildings at the centre of architectural thought will be analysed.

Course topics:

• Landscape and ritual: the origins of polychromy
• The house and the object in Semper's theory
• Nature and architecture: from the system of crystallisation to Viollet-le-Duc's system of structure
• The architecture of the metropolis, from Vienna to Chicago
• The American capitalist model: Wright's villa and garden
• The search for a lasting structure: the works of Perret and Mies van der Rohe
• From points for a new architecture to climate grids: the theories and works of Le Corbusier

part 2

with the participation of Andrea Capriolo and Stefano Setti

The seminars will focus on architectural exhibitions. Students will acquire the necessary knowledge to understand and interpret the creative processes of designing and realising architectural exhibitions. Through the study of significant themes, they will develop a personal research capacity and the methodology to identify, historically locate and critically evaluate the main issues related to the design of architectural exhibitions.

Starting from the analysis of specific case studies, the students will have to develop research and reflections that will be discussed during the seminars.

At the end of the course, each student will discuss her/his research at a collective meeting.

The evaluation of the research will be part of the final examination.

Readings/Bibliography

Attending Students

Bibliography

Cometa Michele, L’architettura italiana tra policromia e storicismo, in Id., Il Romanzo dell’Architettura. La Sicilia e il Grand Tour nell’etàdi Goethe, Roma-Bari, Laterza, 1999, pp. 299-325 (Virtuale)

Fanelli Giovanni, Gargiani Roberto, Il principio del rivestimento. Prolegomena a una storia dell'architettura contemporanea, Roma-Bari, Laterza, 1994

Giedion Sigfried, Spazio tempo ed architettura. Lo sviluppo di una nuova tradizione, Milano, Hoepli, 1984

Rosellini Anna, La Ville Contemporaine di Le Corbusier e Pierre Jeanneret, o del paesaggio svizzero sublimato in metropoli, in La Città Nuova. Oltre Sant’Elia. Cento anni di visioni urbane, Milano, Silvana Editoriale, 2013, pp. 67-79 (Virtuale)

Rosellini Anna, Unité d’Habitation in Marseille - Experimental Artistic Device, in Ruth Baumeister, What Moves Us? Le Corbusier and Asger Jorn in Art and Architecture, Zürich, Scheidegger & Spiess, 2015, pp. 38-45 (Virtuale)

Non-attending Students

Bibliography

Cometa Michele, L’architettura italiana tra policromia e storicismo, in Id., Il Romanzo dell’Architettura. La Sicilia e il Grand Tournell’etàdi Goethe, Roma-Bari, Laterza, 1999, pp. 299-325 (Virtuale)

Fanelli Giovanni, Gargiani Roberto, Il principio del rivestimento. Prolegomena a una storia dell'architettura contemporanea, Roma-Bari, Laterza, 1994

Giedion Sigfried, Spazio tempo ed architettura. Lo sviluppo di una nuova tradizione, Milano, Hoepli, 1984

Rosellini Anna, La Ville Contemporaine di Le Corbusier e Pierre Jeanneret, o del paesaggio svizzero sublimato in metropoli, in La Città Nuova. Oltre Sant’Elia. Cento anni di visioni urbane, Milano, Silvana Editoriale, 2013, pp. 67-79 (Virtuale)

Rosellini Anna, Unité d’Habitation in Marseille - Experimental Artistic Device, in Ruth Baumeister, What Moves Us? Le Corbusier and Asger Jorn in Art and Architecture, Zürich, Scheidegger & Spiess, 2015, pp. 38-45 (Virtuale)

Teaching methods

Lectures and seminars

Assessment methods

Attending students

Collective discussion of research topics

The class participation is also evaluated.

Oral examination on course content and bibliography

Non-attending students

Oral examination of the topics discussed in the bibliography

During the oral exam, students must demonstrate to have acquired a critical understanding of the topics discussed in the bibliography.

Attending and non-attending students

1. It will be assessed as excellent the performance of those students achieving an organic vision of the course contents, the use of a proper specific language, the originality of the reflection as well as the familiarity with the tools for analyzing the architecture works.

2. It will be assessed as average the performance of those students showing mostly mechanical or mnemonic knowledge of the subject, not articulated synthesis and analysis capabilities, a correct but not always appropriate language, as well as a scholastic study of the history of architecture.

3. It will be assessed as barely sufficient the performance of those students showing learning gaps, inappropriate language, lack of knowledge of the history of architecture.

4. It will be assessed as insufficient the performance of those students showing learning gaps, inappropriate language, no orientation within the recommended bibliography and inability to analyse the architecture.

Teaching tools

Students will be provided with the images projected in lesson and part of the bibliography.

Office hours

See the website of Anna Rosellini