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HIAA 0030 S01 Theories of Architecture from Vitruvius to Venturi – Professor Vidler
[email protected] Office: 418 List Offfice Hours: 10:00 AM – 12:00 PM Wednesdays, or by appointment An inquiry into the various ways in which architecture has been thought, both inside the profession and outside, since Vitruvius first defined its study and practice as an “interdisciplinary discipline.” The course will study selected texts and designs in the culture of western architecture from antiquity to the present. Drawn from works in architectural, social, political, and aesthetic theory the course will deepen our understanding of historical architecture and open up ways of interpreting contemporary design culture. Jan. 23 Introduction: Theory and Design Primary Reading: Kurt W. Forster, “Why Buildings Need Books, Log, No. 15 (Winter 2009): 17-23 [PDF] Jan. 26 The Greek Setup: Who was the architekton? Primary Reading:J. A. Coulton, Ancient Greek Architects at Work. Problems of Structure and Design (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1982): Chapter 1, “Architect, patron and project,”15-29. Jan. 30 Monuments and Machines: Vitruvius and the Emperor Primary Reading: Indra Kagis McEwen, Vitruvius. Writing the Body of Architecture (Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 2003): 16-88. Mario Carpo, Architecture in the Age of Printing (Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 2001):16-41 Feb. 4 Symbolic Architecture: Rebuilding the Temple in the Middle Ages Primary Reading: Nicola Coldstream, Medieval Architecture (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002): 149-173 Abbot Suger, “On what was done during his administration,”(c.1144-48) http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/sugar.html Feb. 6. Medieval Building in Practice: Masons and Patrons Primary Reading: Nicola Coldstream, Medieval Architecture: 83-113. Mario Carpo, “The Making of the Typographical Architect,” in Vaughan Hart and Peter Hicks, eds., Paper Palaces. The Rise of the Renaissance Architectural Treatise (New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1998): 158-169.
2 No classes Feb.11-13 Feb.20 Between Family and State: Leon Battista Alberti Primary Reading: Leon Battista Alberti, On the Art of Building in Ten Books [De re aedificatoria], translated by Joseph Rykwert, Neil Leach, Robert Tavernor (Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 1988): ix-xxi; 1-32. Anthony Grafton, “Alberti on the Art of Building,” in Grafton, Leon Battista Alberti. Master Builder of the Italian Renaissance (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 2000):261-292. Feb.25 Drawing the Ideal City: Filarete Primary Reading: Antonio di Piero Averlino, Filarete, Treatise on Architecture [Libro architettonico, c. 1461-64]: Excerpts. Feb.27 Villas in the Veneto, Temples in Venice: Palladio Primary Reading: Palladio, The Four Books of Architecture (I Quattro Libri dell’architecttura, Venice, 1570): Excerpts. Pier Vittorio Aureli, “The Go-Politics of the Ideal Villa,” AA Files 59 (2009):7685. PDF Mar.4 Enlightenment Visions: Claude-Nicolas Ledoux Primary Reading: Claude-Nicolas Ledoux, Architecture considered in relation to art, mores, and legislation (Paris: 1804): excerpts.PDF Anthony Vidler, “The Theatre of Production: Claude-Nicolas Ledoux and the Architecture of Social Reform,” AA Files (Winter 1981-82): PDF Mar.6 Architecture and Revolution: Étienne-Louis Boullée Primary Reading: Étienne-Louis Boullée, Architecture: Essay on Art (unpublished, c. 1792): Excerpts. Mar.11 Romantic Histories (1): Karl Friedrich Schinkel Primary Reading: Kurt W. Forester, “Schinkel‟s Panoramic Planning of Central Berlin,” Modulus 16 (1983): 62-77. Hermann G. Pundt, “K. F. Schinkel‟s Environmental Planning of Central Berlin,” JSAH (May 1967):114-130, PDF Mar.13 Romantic Histories (2): John Soane‟s Theoretical House Primary Reading: Helene Furjan, “Sir John Soane‟s Spectacular Theare,” AA Files, 47 (Summer 2002): 12-22. PDF
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Mar.18 Gothic Revivals: John Ruskin William Morris Primary reading: Cornelis J. Baljon, “Interpreting Ruskin: The Argument of the Seven Lamps of Architecture and the Stones of Venice,” Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism 55, no. 4 (Autumn 1997): 401-414. PDF Denis E. Cosgrove, “John Ruskin and the Geographical Imagination,” Geographical Review 69, no,1 (January 1979): 43-62. PDF Mar.20 Metropolis and Modern Life: Adolf Loos Primary reading: Georg Simmel, “Metropolis and Modern Life,” 1902. PDF Adolf Loos, “Ornament and Crime,” 1908.PDF Daniel Purdy, “The Cosmopolitan Geography of Adolf Loos,” New German Critique 99 (Fall 2006): 41-62. PDF Christopher Long, “The origins and Context of Adolf Loos‟s „Ornament and Crime‟,” JSAH 66 no.2 (June 2009): 200-223. PDF Mid-Semester Recess Apr.1 Modern Manifestos: Futurism, Expressionism Fillipo Tommaso Marinetti, Manifesto of Futurism, 1909. Antonio Sant‟Elia, Futurist Manifesto of Architecture, 1914 Bruno Taut, “The City Crown,” and “Alpine Architecture.”
Apr 3 Machines for Living: Le Corbusier Primary reading: Le Corbusier, Towards an Architecture [Vers une architecture, Paris, 1923] Introduction by Jean-Louis Cohen, Translation by John Goodman (Los Angeles: Getty Research Center, 2007):Excerpts.
Apr.8 The Art of Steel and Glass: Mies van der Rohe in Europe and the US. Primary reading: Detlef Mertins, “The Enticing Face of Prehistory: Walter Benjamin and the Utopia of Glass,” PDF K. Michael Hays, “Critical Architecture: Between Culture and Form,” Perspecta 21 (1984): 14-29. PDF Apr.10 “1968:” Counter architectures: From Guy Debord to Superstudio. Primary Reading: Guy Debord, and others, Situationist International (Paris 1958-68): Excerpts.
4 Apr.15 Return of the Picturesque: Kevin Lynch to Robert Venturi Primary Reading: Robert Venturi, Complexity and Contradiction in Architecture (New York: The Museum of Modern Art, 1966) Apr.17 Analogous Archipelagoes: Rowe, Rossi and Ungers (Foucault, Heterotopias) Primary Reading: Colin Rowe and Fred Koetter, “Collage City,” Architectural Review, 1975. Apr.22 Discourses of Irony: Koolhaas Primary Reading: Rem Koolhaas, Delirious New York (New York: Oxford University Press, 1978) Apr.24 Class Discussion
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