Lesson topics

Lesson 01 : Space, architectural culture, architects, institutions, clients, society in history. Different methodological and interpretative approaches. Historicisms and national identities. Pugin, Barry, Viollet-le-Duc. Neo-medievalism in Italy. Boito. Orientalism and Eclecticism in Europe. The Industrial Revolution: iron architecture. Bridges, stations, tunnels. The Universal Exhibitions: Paxton, Eiffel, Labrouste. The Industrial Revolution: the transformation of the city. The ideal city: Owen, Fourier, Buckingham, Howard. The city and the working-class districts; Crespi d'Adda. The expansion plans of the great European cities: Paris, Vienna, Barcelona. City and architecture in post-unification Rome: Rome. Canevari, Calderini, Koch, P. Piacentini.

Lesson 02 : Art Nouveau: architecture, industry, applied arts. Belgium and France: Horta. Van De Velde, Guimard. Scotland: Mackintosh. Art Nouveau in Italy: Cambellotti, Basile. Catalan Modernism: Gaudi. The Viennese Secession: Klimt, Schiele, Moser, Olbrich, Hoffmann. Wiener Werkstâtte. Presentation of the structure of the in-depth work on the themes of Industrial Archaeology chosen by the students.

Lesson 03 : Overcoming Art Nouveau: Wagner, Loos, Berlage, Behrens (AEG Turbine) and the Deutscher Werkbund. The role of the avant-gardes and the destruction of the language of tradition: Expressionism; Neoplasticism; Suprematism and Constructivism; Purism; the architecture of Futurism. Overseas research. The Chicago School. Sullivan & Adler. Wright's beginnings. The Prairie Myth and the debut of Frank Lloyd Wright. Students' choice of Industrial Archaeology topics.


Lesson 04 : Factory architecture (Behrens, AEG Turbine; Gropius, Fagus Factory). Taylorism and Fordism. The new materials: Steel and Cement (Perret, Garnier). Students' choice of Industrial Archaeology themes.The season of the Masters, the spread of the "modern movement": Walter Gropius and the Bauhaus; Expressionist architecture in Europe: Taut, Poelzig, Mendelsohn; Le Corbusier and Esprit Nouveau. Le Corbusier, Mies van der Rohe between construction and abstraction; the work of Frank Lloyd Wright after the crisis of '29; Alvar Aalto and Northern European naturalism.

Lesson 05: tours (Eur, Villagio Olimpico).

Lesson 06: Italian Rationalism, protagonists and places of Italian architectural culture between the two wars: The "group 7" and the MIAR, Terragni, Persico, Pagano, Cattaneo, Michelucci, Ponti, De Renzi, Nervi, Libera, Figini, Pollini, Albini, Gardella, B.B.P.R., Ridolfi, Vaccaro, Moretti; Piacentini.

Lesson 07 : Architecture competitions. Post-war Italy. Italian architecture in the 1950s and 1960s and the dialogue with tradition. The works for the 1960 Rome Olympics.

Lesson 08 : The themes of post-war reconstruction: the city and residences in Europe and America; Le Corbusier, Wright, Alvar Aalto, Mies van der Rohe, Scharoun.

Lesson 09: The neo-avant-gardes of the 1960s, The challenge of the great dimension; metropolitan utopianism; New-Brutalism; Kahn; Neo-rationalism; Robert Venturi; Postmodernism; High-technology; Minimalism; Deconstructivism; ecological architecture; the global metropolis; the computer revolution.Turn-of-the-century trends. The 1980 Biennale. Rossi, Venturi, Portoghesi, Piano, Pei, Nouvel, Koolhaas, Libeskind, Gehry, Hadid, Tschumi, Meyer. The Biennale in the 21st century, the Vatican Pavilion: the 10 chapels on the Island of San Giorgio

Lesson 10 : Guided tours (Centrale Montemartini, Ex-Mattatoio Testaccio).

The following bibliographical references will be further specified and integrated during the course of the lectures. Non-attending students must discuss a specific bibliography with the professor (arianna.carannante@unitus.it).
W.J.R. CURTIS, L’architettura moderna dal 1900, Phaidon Press Limited, Londra 2006.
K. FRAMPTON, Storia dell’architettura moderna, Zanichelli, Bologna 2008.
A. BRUSCHI, Introduzione alla storia dell’architettura. Considerazioni sul metodo e sulla storia degli studi, Mondadori Sapienza, Roma 2009.