Department:

History & Theory of Architecture and Heritage Conservation

Course Leader:

lect.dr.arh. Ilinca Păun Constantinescu

Learning outcomes:

The course looks at contemporary architectural thinking, focusing on the second half of the 20th century. The adopted perspective is that of a theory in action, considered from the point of view of its effects upon practice. The aim is to offer a map of contemporary discources and practices, by understanding the resorts and historical framework that triggered them, and by offering students critical instruments for deciphering and understanding current debates.

Content:

Theoretical perspectives after World War II. Discourses and publications
Utopias and technotopias of the 1960s
From city to Metropolis: Archipelago, Grossform, Bigness
Robert Venturi and Learning from Las Vegas
Tipomorphology
Italian Neo-rationalism. Memory and Urban Form
Recovering the context: the Cornell School
Landscapes of / and memory
New urban phenomena

Teaching Method:

Lectures with slides, videos, text discussions. Students are asked to be present in class and take notes. The course reader contains selected excerpts that are thematically grouped and is intended to complement (not replace) the live lectures.

Assessment:

Final written exam. Active participation in class will be taken into consideration.

Bibliography:

Adrien Forty, On Words and Buildings. A Vocabulary of Modern Architecture
Harry Francis Mallgrave & David Goodman, An Introduction to Architectural Theory: 1968 to the Present, 2011
Kate Nesbitt, Theorizing a New Agenda for Architecture, Princeton Architectural Press,1996
Jean-Louis Cohen, L'Architecture au futur depuis 1889, Phaidon.
Kenneth Frampton, "Towards a Critical Regionalism: Six Points for an Architecture of Resistance". In Hal Foster, The Anti-Aesthetic. Essays on PostModern Culture, 1983
Colin Rowe & Fred Koetter, Collage City, MIT Press, 1978
Aldo Rossi, The Architecture of the City, MIT Press, 1982