HISTORY OF ARCHITECTURE AND DESIGN
Learning outcomes of the course unit
The course will provide students with basic knowledge of the history of twentieth-century architecture and design and in the second part will examine design developments in the nineteen-seventies in greater detail.
Course contents summary
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.
Recommended readings
5-credit programme:
A. Muntoni, Lineamenti di storia dell'architettura contemporanea, Rome, Bari, Laterza 1997
M.Vitta, Il progetto della bellezza, Turin, Einaudi 2001
Notes, illustrations, principal essays
10-credit programme:
A. Muntoni, Lineamenti di storia dell'architettura contemporanea, Rome, Bari, Laterza 1997
M.Vitta, Il progetto della bellezza, Turin, Einaudi 2001
Storia del disegno industriale, Milan, Electa.
Vol. I 1750-1850. L’età della rivoluzione industriale, 1989, pp. 166-181.
Vol. II: 1851-1918. Il grande emporio del mondo, 1990, pp. pp.52-67;124-141;162-181;275-284; 298-303; 317-322
Vol. III: 1919-1990. Il dominio del design, 1991, pp. 294-300; 320-327;328-335.
Notes, illustrations, principal essays
Teaching methods
The course will consist of classroom lectures with tests consisting of the analysis of architectural and design projects, as well as research projects on topics covered in class, with field trips to points of architectural interest or exhibitions.
