CONTEMPORARY ARCHITECTURE I

The course aims to provide critical and methodological tools that enable students to understand the themes and issues of contemporary architecture between the French Revolution and World War I. In particular, it will address the relationship between architecture and its social and cultural context, the development and dissemination of architectural languages, and historiographical issues. This course is part of the core curriculum in Contemporary Art within the Master’s Degree in History of the Arts and Conservation of Artistic Heritage.

At the end of the course, the student should be able to:

Knowledge and understanding: Understand the connection between architectural form and its historical motivations, recognizing the cultural, symbolic, social, and economic intentions of contemporary architecture; understand the instrumental meaning of taxonomic categories such as style, eclecticism, Art Nouveau, etc.; know the formal and structural characteristics of the major architectural works of the 19th century; be familiar with the historical vocabulary of the main architectural terms, both stylistic and structural.

Ability to apply knowledge and understanding: Identify the distinctive elements of the most important design approaches and research trends in 19th-century architecture; place 19th-century architectural works within their correct historical context.

Judgment skills: Discuss a given topic or issue by demonstrating independent thinking and well-structured argumentation; formulate well-reasoned and motivated judgments about authors, works, and trends in contemporary architecture, with particular attention to the relationship between economic-productive or technological factors and aesthetic-cultural aspects.

Communication skills:Clearly express the course content using appropriate terminology; effectively discuss, including in comparative terms, the various themes of contemporary architecture addressed in the course.

Learning skills: Conduct bibliographic research on the main topics covered in the course; independently find new texts that explore in greater depth the themes of greatest personal interest covered during the course.

Basic knowledge of the political, social, and cultural history of the 19th century.

The main topics of the course are:
- the problems of periodization and geopolitics of the "modern" and "contemporary", the notion of "architectural culture", notes on history and historiography
- the tradition and language of eclecticism; the debate on "national styles"; the architecture between social changes and the industrial revolution
- the rise of the large city and of urban planning
- the architectural languages of the early twentieth century between the artistic avant-gardes and the classical tradition

Barry Bergdoll, European Architecture 1750-1890, Oxford University Press, 2000
J. L. Cohen, The Future of Architecture. Since 1889, Phaidon, London 2012.


Antologia dell'architettura moderna, eds. M. De Benedetti, A. Pracchi, Zanichelli, Bologna 1988.
Le parole dell’architettura, eds. M. Biraghi e G. Damiani, Einaudi, Torino 2009.

A more specific bibliography will be distributed at the beginning of the course.

To access the oral exam, students may choose between two options:

Option 1:
Participation in group work, specifically the preparation of a virtual exhibition that will be the subject of a group discussion. Each student will contribute with an individual research project, agreed upon at the beginning of the course, to be submitted in written form to the instructor. This written work will be part of the final evaluation process.
The exhibition text must be a maximum of 4,000 characters, including spaces (excluding bibliography and illustrations). Illustrations should be placed at the end of the text, accompanied by a list of illustrations. Final bibliography required.

Option 2:
A short paper discussing one of the fundamental texts of 19th-century architectural theory. The topic must be selected through the course's Moodle platform.
The paper should be 10,000 characters, including spaces (excluding bibliography and footnotes).Illustrations should be placed at the end of the text, accompanied by a list of illustrations. Final bibliography required.


The final oral exam will consist of three types of questions:

A set of three multiple-choice questions on topics covered during the lectures

One open-ended question on a topic discussed in class

A discussion of the student's individual research project (exhibition entry or short paper)

oral

Grading Scale for Exams:

A. Scores in the range of 18–22 will be assigned for:

Sufficient knowledge and understanding of the exam texts and related topics

Limited ability to use relevant information and formulate independent judgments

Sufficient communication skills

B. Scores in the range of 23–26 will be assigned for:

Fair knowledge of the exam texts and related topics

Fair ability to use relevant information and formulate independent judgments

Fair communication skills

C. Scores in the range of 27–30 will be assigned for:

Good to excellent knowledge and understanding of the exam texts and related topics

Good to excellent ability to use relevant information and formulate independent judgments

Fully adequate communication skills

D. “Honors” (lode) will be awarded to students who demonstrate excellent knowledge and understanding of the exam texts and related topics.

The course is organized in a seminar format and includes lectures with image projections by the instructor, as well as student presentations.
Students who choose to work on the group virtual exhibition will present it in class to enable group discussion.
The course also includes practice in writing an exhibition entry or short paper, as described above.

Given the seminar format of the course, attendance is highly recommended, also for students who do not participate in the group project.

This subject deals with topics related to the macro-area "Cities, infrastructure and social capital" and contributes to the achievement of one or more goals of U. N. Agenda for Sustainable Development