HISTORY OF ARCHITECTURE

Frontal lessons, with in-class PowerPoint presentations

The course aims to provide a basic knowledge of the history of ancient and modern architecture. The lectures will suggest the correct methodological approach to the study of the discipline and will promote understanding and the appropriate use of specific terminology. At the end of the course students will be able to recognize, describe and critically comment on architectural artifacts and be able to interpret architectural achievements in relation to particular historical, cultural, geographical, social and artistic context. .Some monographic lectures will analyze in depth, while also focusing on its exemplary outcomes, Byzantine architectural culture from the age of Constantine the Great to the age of Justinian (IV-VI centuries).

A. Introduction to the history of architecture: methodological and interpretive approaches.

B. Outline of architectural history from its origins to the twentieth century.

C. Byzantine architecture from the age of Constantine to the age of Justinian.

A: Methodological tools and approaches

• B. Zevi, Saper vedere l’architettura. Saggio sull’interpretazione spaziale dell’architettura, Einaudi, Torino 2009 (ultima ed.), pp. 49-99.

B: Outline of architectural history from its origins to the twentieth century

• L. Bartolini Salimbeni, C. Bozzoni et al., Lineamenti di storia dell’architettura per i corsi di storia dell’architettura, Sovera, Roma 2013 (e successive edizioni).
• P. Nuttgens, La storia dell’architettura, Phaidon, New York 2006, pp. 240-283.

C: Byzantine architecture from the age of Constantine to the age of Justinian

• M. Della Valle, Costantinopoli e il suo impero. Arte, architettura, urbanistica nel millennio bizantino, Milano, Jaca Book, 2007, pp. 13-47.
• Mango, Architettura bizantina, Electa, Milano 2009 (settima ed.), capp. 1-5 (pp. 5-86).