81574 - Contemporary Architecture (1) (LM)

Learning outcomes

After completing the course, the student acquires necessary knowledge to critically interpret contemporary architecture, in its various aspects: from space and structure to its programmatic and symbolic function, also in relation to the cultural, artistic and environmental context. In particular, the student has the methodological tools for the historical and critical understanding of the city and its major architectures.

Course contents

Attending students

The course aims to examine the transformations of domestic space in the transition between the 20th and 21st century, from the experiments of the first half of the 20th century, to radical research, to contemporary realisations. At the end of the course, students will have a global image of the reflections on architecture and its habitat developed in the European and Western context and in other world traditions.

The following themes will be analysed:

Prologue - Ecological conflicts, biodiversity, collective habitat and human rights: the architecture biennial How will we live togheter?

1 - Projects for the Dom-Kommuny: from Moisei Ginzburg to Ivan Leonidov

2 - Le Corbusier: from serial houses, to the Unité d'Habitation, to the Houses of 110 square metres

3 - Free access and counterculture in Brazil: Vilanova Artigas, Arquitetura Nova, Lina Bo Bardi

4 - Metabolist Visions of Cities: from Kenzo Tange, to Kiyonori Kikutake, Arata Isozaki and Kisho Kurokawa

5 - Social Revolution and Radical Collectives: Constant, Yona Friedman, Archigram, Archizoom and Superstudio

6 - Rooms, Metropolises and Feminisms: Louise Bourgeois, Frida Kahlo, Niki De Saint Phalle, Madelon Vriesendorp, Doris Salcedo

7 - Contemporary Ruins and Permanent Sites: from Pierre Huyghe to Elemental

8 - Protocols for the collective habitat, from Lacaton & Vassal to Aristide Anthonas, Dogma, Sophie Delhay

 

Non-attending students
The syllabus is that given in the reference bibliography

Readings/Bibliography

Attending students

Before the start of the course, a collection of articles on the topics covered will be uploaded in Virtual.

Bibliography

Gargiani Roberto, Archizoom Associati 1966-1974. Dall'onda pop alla superficie neutra, Milano, Electa, 2007

Gargiani Roberto, Rosellini Anna, Le Corbusier. Béton Brut and Ineffable Space, 1940-1965. Surface Materials and Psychophysiology of Vision, Lausanne, EPFL Press, London, Routledge, 2011 (chapters 1, 4)

Rosellini Anna, Gargiani Roberto, Valori primordiali e ideologici della materia, da Uncini a LeWitt, Roma, Aracne editrice, 2018 (chapters 4, 5)

Rosellini Anna, Calchi di spazio, mnemosine e rovine, Roma, Aracne editrice, 2019 (chapters 4, 5, 6, 7)

Rosellini Anna, Isa Genzken. Per una continuità critica dell'architettura moderna, Milano, Postmedia, 2020

Recommended readings

Cohen Jean-Louis, The future of architecture since 1889. A worldwide history, London, Phaidon, 2016

Rouillard Dominique, Superarchitecture - Le futur de l'architecture 1950-1970, Paris, Editions de La Villette, 2004

Sarkis Hashim, Biennale Architettura 2021. How will we live together?, Venezia, La Biennale di Venezia, 2021

 

Non-attending students

Rosellini Anna, Gargiani Roberto, Valori primordiali e ideologici della materia, da Uncini a LeWitt, Roma, Aracne, 2018

Rosellini Anna, Calchi di spazio, mnemosine e rovine, Roma, Aracne, 2019

Rosellini Anna, Il était une fois… La statue de la Liberté et les gratte-ciel de New York. Nouvelles freudiennes de Madelon Vriesendorp, in “Matières”, 2019, n. 15, pp. 90-109

Rosellini Anna, Isa Genzken. Per una continuità critica dell'architettura moderna, Milano, Postmedia, 2020

Teaching methods

Lectures

The course structure will follow a chronological orientation. The course will be divided into lectures that will historically reconstruct the various works and theories developed during the 20th and 21st centuries. Some lectures will deal with significant themes of a specific historical period, others will be monographic and will retrace the experiences of great figures of architecture, placing them in their historical context.

LESSON TIMETABLE
Tuesday, 21 March 2023
Wednesday, 22 March 2023
Friday, 24 March 2023
Tuesday, 28 March 2023
Wednesday, 29 March 2023
Friday, 31 March 2023
Tuesday, 4 April 2023
Wednesday, 5 April 2023
Wednesday, 12 April 2023
Friday, 14 April 2023
Tuesday, 18 April 2023
Wednesday, 19 April 2023 NO LESSON
Friday, 21 April 2023
Wednesday, 26 April 2023 NO LESSON
Friday, 28 April 2023 NO LESSON
Tuesday, 2 May 2023
Wednesday, 3 May 2023
Friday, 5 May 2023

Assessment methods

Attending students

There are no differences between attending and non-attending students.

Oral examination of the topics discussed in the course and the contents of the bibliography

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

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 art and 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.

 

Non-attending students

Oral examination on the contents of the bibliography

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

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 art and 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 are provided with the course images and part of the bibliography.

Office hours

See the website of Anna Rosellini