DIDACTIC UNIT OF ARCHITECTURE
Master's Degree in Architecture
Academic Year 2019/2020 - 1° Year

STORIA DELL'ARCHITETTURA CONTEMPORANEA E STORIA DELL'ARTE CONTEMPORANEA

Teaching Staff

Learning Objectives

• STORIA DELL'ARCHITETTURA CONTEMPORANEA
  

  The course aims to provide students enrolled in the first year of the degree course with the basic information and tools essential to understanding the history of the most recent architecture.The course investigates the main issues of nineteenth and twentieth century architecture through an overview and some monographic approaches: themes, places, architectures, debates, theories and protagonists are intertwined and constitute a fresco full of questions about the meaning and role of architecture in contemporary society.The integration with the course of History of Contemporary Art is aimed at presenting the most important art movements of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries and to emphasize the relationships between the artistic avant-garde of the '900 and the development of contemporary architectural language.

  At the end of the course, the students

  - will achieve an adequate knowledge of the history of architecture of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries (themes, protagonists, theories and works).

  - will develop their own method of study that, on the basis of the knowledge acquired, will allow them to independently undertake more specific research in subsequent years.

  - will learn to critically read an architecture (of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries) both in its constructive and material aspects and in its functional and linguistic aspects.

  - will learn to use a language that allows them to expose their knowledge in an appropriate manner both to an audience of specialists and non-specialists.

• STORIA DELL’ARTE CONTEMPORANEA
  

  The course aims to provide students enrolled in the first year of the degree course with the basic information and tools essential to understanding the history of the most recent architecture.The course investigates the main issues of nineteenth and twentieth century architecture through an overview and some monographic approaches: themes, places, architectures, debates, theories and protagonists are intertwined and constitute a fresco full of questions about the meaning and role of architecture in contemporary society.The integration with the course of History of Contemporary Art is aimed at presenting the most important art movements of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries and to emphasize the relationships between the artistic avant-garde of the '900 and the development of contemporary architectural language.

  At the end of the course, the students

  - will achieve an adequate knowledge of the history of arth of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries (themes, protagonists, theories and works).

  - will develop their own method of study that, on the basis of the knowledge acquired, will allow them to independently undertake more specific research in subsequent years.

  - will learn to critically read the relationships and links between the arts and architecture, with reference also to the world of applied arts and design.

  - will learn to use a language that allows them to expose their knowledge in an appropriate manner both to an audience of specialists and non-specialists.

  Learn how to "read" criticcally connection between art and architecture.

Course Structure

• STORIA DELL'ARCHITETTURA CONTEMPORANEA
  

  The lessons of the module on the history of contemporary architecture will be carried out in close relation with the lessons of the module on the history of contemporary art.

  The teaching includes lectures and some seminar meetings.

  Learning process check tests (optional) will be scheduled, through written exercises with open-ended questions and oral interviews.

  The final exam consists of an interview on the different topics covered by the lessons.

• STORIA DELL’ARTE CONTEMPORANEA
  

  The lessons of the module on the history of contemporary art will be carried out in close relation with the lessons of the module on the history of contemporary architecture.

  The teaching includes lectures and some seminar meetings.

  Learning process check tests (optional) will be scheduled, through written exercises with open-ended questions and oral interviews.

  The final exam consists of an interview on the different topics covered by the lessons.

Detailed Course Content

• STORIA DELL'ARCHITETTURA CONTEMPORANEA
  

  The main topics covered by the course are: "Modern" and "contemporary", problems of periodization and hints on historiography. Architectural culture between the second half of the 18^th and the 19^th centuries: the crisis of classical culture; the role of travellers; the theme of "ruins" and "picturesque". Eclecticism and its derivation from the archaeological research of the 18^th century. The 19^thcentury and the debate on "national styles". The industrial revolution and new materials; the industrial revolution and the cities: urban transformations and utopias; the political and social changes of the 19^th century: the bourgeoisie as a new client. Between the 19^thand 20^th centuries: Art Nouveau and the artistic avant-gardes. Between 19^thand 20^th centuries: the theme of "ornament" (Sullivan, Loos) and that of "structural sincerity" (Viollet le Duc,Perret). Towards the "modern movement". German architecture in the European context of the early twentieth century between utopias and profession. The American context and F. Lloyd Wright. The Bauhaus: the foundation, the protagonists, the changes, the post-1933 diaspora. De Stijl and Dutch architecture. The generation of "masters" between the two World Wars: profiles by W. Gropius, Le Corbusier, L. Mies van der Rohe. The Scandinavian context E.G. Asplund and A. Aalto. Italy between the two World Wars and the years of reconstruction. The alternative ways between tradition and modernity; the generation of "masters" after the Second World War; the profile of Louis Kahn; the spread of the language of contemporary architecture. Themes and protagonists: the debate 1970-2000.

• STORIA DELL’ARTE CONTEMPORANEA
  

  The course aims to introduce the first year students to the basic information about art in the 19th and 20th century, providing them with essential tools to understand different issues. The course faces the fundamental topics of 19th and 20th century, by means of both general frameworks and monographic approaches. It will explore a range of aesthetic, cultural and social issues through the work of major artist.

  Essential topics:
  “Modern” and contemporary”, historiographical issues. Methodological tools: analysis of essential books and dictionaries. Artistic culture between the second half of the 18^th century and the 19^th century: classicism and romanticism. Realism. Impressinism. Art Nouveau. The Avant-Gardes at the beginning of the 20th century. The birth of Abstract art. Expressionism: art and architecture. The Bauhaus. Le Corbusier and the artists. Movements and theories after the Second World War. The Avant-Gardes in the Sixties. Artists between 1970 and 2000: case-studies. Artists, spectators and art market.

Textbook Information

• STORIA DELL'ARCHITETTURA CONTEMPORANEA
  

  1. K. Frampton, Modern Architecture: a Critical History, Thames and Hudson, London 1980 (fourth edition London 2007).

  2. W.J.R. Curtis, Modern Architecture since 1900, Phaidon, Oxdord 1982 (third edition London1996).

  3. D. Watkin, A History of Western architecture, Barrie & Jenkins, London1986 (capthers on XVIII and XIX century).

  4. K. Frampton, Studies in tectonic culture : the poetics of construction in nineteenth and twentieth century architecture, Cambridge, Mass.; MIT Press,London 1995.

• STORIA DELL’ARTE CONTEMPORANEA
  

  1) Students are allowed to use their own school text of Modern Art Hisotry, after teacher agreement.

  2) About art of XIX century: Robert Rosenblum, H. W. Janson, 19th Century Art, (I ed. New York 1984) Pearson College Div., New York 2004 (part III e IV).

  3) Hal Foster, Rosalind Krauss, Yve Alain Bois, Benjamin Buchloh, David Joselit, Art Since 1900: Modernism Antimodernism Postmodernism (I ed. London 2004) Thames & Hudson, New York 2016.

  4) Denys Riout, Qu'est-ce que l'art moderne?, (english), Folio-Gallimard, Paris 2000.

  See also:
  5) Francesco Poli, Il sistema dell'arte contemporanea, (I ed. 1999) Laterza, Bari Roma 2011 (chapter 1).