HISTORY OF ARCHITECTURE AND DESIGN

Unit A (5 credits). Institutional methodological section

Using a problem-based approach, the first part of the course will reconstruct the history of architecture and design from Modernism to contemporary trends. Starting from an analysis of the role of certain key figures in the European Art Nouveau movement involved in the design of objects, architecture and the city, the central aspects of rationalist culture will be examined from WWI to the post-WWII period, analysing the spread of this design approach outside Europe. Architecture and design in the 1960s and 1970s will be examined: including the international style, neo-Rationalism, radical avant-garde movements and the relationship with artistic experimentation, moving towards post-modernism.

Unit B (5 credits)

Title: Serial design
The 1851 London exhibition is often considered as the moment marking the beginning of thought regarding serial production, both in architecture and in object manufacture. The second part of the course will look at the various occasions on which this approach was adopted or rejected, analysing progress in thought in the design arena from 1850 up until the present.