Architecture

As a discipline, history is a matter of selecting and shaping historical data. Theory is a meditation upon the discipline and its data. The course is a study of historians, theorists, and their texts. After an introduction considering the Period as the object of historical definition and as the tool of the historian, the course introduces theorists and theories of architecture from Vitruvius to Deconstruction. They are arranged chronologically so that the force of historical determinism and purposiveness of historical reflection may be gauged. The course concludes with a discussion of the proposition that cultural time moves in cycles.

This course is part of the Laurea Magistrale degree program and is intended for advanced level students. Enrollment is by permission of the instructor. In this course, students acquire necessary knowledge to read and critically interpret architecture between the fourteenth and sixteenth Centuries as well as the methodological tools to understand the territory, the city, and its major buildings. In addition, the course deals with a number of theoretical and practical issues of Renaissance architecture that are still alive nowadays.

The course provides a historical overview of the major figures of Italian Renaissance architecture from 1400 to 1600—Brunelleschi, Alberti, Bramante, Raphael, Antonio da Sangallo the Younger, Michelangelo, Peruzzi, Giulio Romano, Sanmicheli, Sansovino, Palladio as well as an outlook on a selection of European Renaissance architects. They are analyzed within the cities or countries they operated and will be compared with the cultural, social, and political local context. The second part of the course is an overview on a selection of European courts and on the role of humanistic architecture at the dawn of colonialism. Issues such as local antiquities, revival and survival, rules and license, theory of architecture, drawings and graphic conventions are addressed throughout the course. 

This course introduces key movements and individuals as well as theoretical ideas in architectural history between the World War periods and the present time diachronically and synchronically. The course covers important architects, cases, and regional issues around the world.  

Scotland has a rich tradition of architecture, from the prehistoric settlements of Skara Brae and Kilmartin, through Gothic cathedrals and Renaissance castles and palaces, to the Victorian splendour of our city centres and beyond. This course offers case studies of ten significant structures in Scotland, including the contentious Scottish Parliament building. The course discusses the buildings themselves, the people who planned them, their historic and social contexts, the uses to which they were put, and the meanings they have had over the years.

This course explores the organic connection between design and theory and builds an effective and integrated design methodology by examining how design interacts with social contexts and diverse relationships.   

The course investigates how discourses traditionally considered external to the field of architecture—such as those from the social sciences, cultural studies, and environmental theory—inform, shape, and enrich architectural practice and production. 

Students learn the design principles that appear in architecture and art, and based on this, they study how to apply them to architectural forms. 

This course has two main goals. The first goal is to introduce major trends in contemporary housing and the second is to envision future living spaces. The living spaces in this course include residential, recreational, commercial, working, educational, and healthcare spaces. Students attain a global perspective in contemporary living spaces; explore current living space trends and case studies; and examine major keywords for future living spaces. The final project consists of a short research study in which students envision future living spaces for various demographics, including but not limited to the elderly, young generation, dual-income families, office workers, K-12 students, patients and healthcare providers, and people with disabilities. 

No prerequisite required, but it is recommended to take undergraduate "Creating and Understanding Spaces (HID 1101)" for any introductory interior design courses. 

This project focuses on exploring Berlin through analog hand drawing, and then using drawing and model making methods to design and construct a small building project. The course offers participants an in-depth knowledge of the design professional's important tool of hand drawing, a skill that equips them for their studies and later professional work. It begins with the basics of hand drawing to establish a foundation and then moves on to apply drawing to observe, analyze and design the environment. Students learn drawing forms such as perspective, isometry, section, pictogram, and others. The subject of analysis is the city of Berlin, the city fabric, micro urban situations, and the Design-Build project site. The Design-Build part of the project focuses on the realization of a small building project for a special community in Berlin. The students develop an idea from the design stage to the built project. An examination of the context and discussions with the clients and users form the basis for the final design. In a competitive design workshop, the best and most feasible solution(s) are selected and developed. In collaboration with the users and under the guidance of a craftsman, the design is built and inaugurated. The community is the client for this Design-Build project. They actively participate in guiding the project from the design phase to on-site construction. This project is carried out in an academic environment, engaging in interdisciplinary collaboration between students of various disciplines and the community. Through designing and building together, the students gain insights into the world that the people they are designing for are facing, with the goal of making students more sensitive to the social, cultural and ecological implications of their work. The challenge is to integrate "low-cost" and "high efficiency" requirements with considerations for sustainability, aesthetics, appropriateness, participation, and education. In order to profit from the high potential of these small-scale projects, the focus has to be the quality of the space that is created. This course primarily takes place off campus, with the drawing sessions happening throughout Berlin and the construction activities conducted on-site.