73059 - History of Design and Contemporary Architecture

Academic Year 2021/2022

  • Docente: Ines Tolic
  • Credits: 12
  • SSD: ICAR/18
  • Language: Italian
  • Teaching Mode: Traditional lectures
  • Campus: Rimini
  • Corso: First cycle degree programme (L) in Fashion Cultures and Practices (cod. 9064)

Learning outcomes

At the end of the course students are able to identify all the key issues of both production and realization processes; have understood the deep relationship between objects, spaces and lifestyles; are able to describe historically and evaluate critically the most important artifacts of the contemporary age.

Course contents

The main objective of this course is to provide students with basic knowledge about the history of architecture and design from the second half of the 19th century up to today. Each lecture will be dedicated to a different subject, following a chronological order, and will address designers, works, events or themes of particular importance to the history of the two disciplines.

In addition to historical knowledge, the course will provide students with tools to understand the meanings intrinsic in architectural culture, investigating the relationship between society and contemporary cultural production. Overall, the course is a sampling of lifestyles, design tendencies and spatial models, which allow us to trace how tastes have changed over the last centuries.

 

Readings/Bibliography

M. Vitta, Il progetto della bellezza. Il design fra arte e tecnica dal 1851 a oggi, Einaudi, Turin 2011.

I. Tolic, Il negozio all'italiana. Spazi, architetture e città, Bruno Mondadori, Milano 2018.

Supplementary readings will be outlined at the end of each lecture.

Slides prepared by the instructor - available on the Virtuale platform - and all the information contained in them are an essential part of the course bibliography.

Teaching methods

The course is divided in lectures dedicated to individual topics and case study analyses. We will address these in chronological order, highlighting moments of continuity and disruption.

Course attendance is not required. However, it is strongly encouraged, especially for those students without prior exposure to the study of architecture and design.

Students will perform a self-evaluation midcourse to verify how much they have learned up to that point.

Visiting experts will deliver special lectures that will enrich what we have learned throughout the course with new points of view.


Assessment methods

The final exam will have a written, multiple-choice format. There will be 31 questions. In order to pass, students must earn at least 18 points.

Students who pass the exam can accept the grade and register it on the same day; they can refuse the grade and retake the exam at a later date; or they may ask to take an oral exam covering the same course material. In this last case, the written exam grade may be raised or lowered, depending upon the student’s preparation. Students will be notified of the date of the oral on the day of the written exam.

Concerning the optional oral exam, students able to communicate an organic vision of the topics discussed in lectures, and apply them critically, will receive excellent grades. Students who memorise course material but are unable to provide a clear synthesis and analysis of them, as well as those who employ correct but at times inappropriate language, will receive passing grades. Finally, students who have not learned the course contents or who use incorrect language (in the context of an introductory course) will not pass the exam. Gaps in knowledge, inappropriate language, and lack of familiarity with the recommended readings will all lead to failing grades.


Teaching tools

Powerpoint and video. The slides we illustrate and comment on during lectures integrate the bibliography of readings with useful information and iconographic material. Students can download slides on the Virtuale platform.

Office hours

See the website of Ines Tolic

SDGs

Quality education Sustainable cities

This teaching activity contributes to the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals of the UN 2030 Agenda.