ARCH-532 Origins of Mod. Architecture
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McGill University
Dr. Alberto Pérez-Gómez
School of Architecture
ARCH 532
Origins of Modern Architecture
3 credits
Prerequisite:
General knowledge of architectural history; ARCH 531 preferable.
I
NTRODUCTION
This course will examine architectural intentions (the world of
the works and the world in front
of the works, i.e.,
theory and practice) in the European context (especially France, Italy and England), during a crucial period (1600-
1850) that marks the beginning of the modern era. The discussion illuminates the most crucial contemporary
problems in architectural practice. A project or a paper, depending on the students’ professional program
(Undergraduate, M.Arch 1 or DRS) ,as well as constant preparation, participation and interest are expected. Class
time is mostly devoted to lectures and visual material, but time for discussion is also allocated in some sessions. The
themes of research for papers are flexible, but should relate to one of the specific topics outlined below.
The bibliography of selected recommended readings is self-explanatory. Students should also try to read the relevant
essays in Alberto Pérez-Gómez, Timely Meditations, Selected Essays on Architecture,
vols. 1 and 2, (RightAngle Intl.
Publishing, 2016; available on-line through amazon.ca) as indicated in the list. The seven published volumes of
CHORA: Intervals in the Philosophy of Architecture
(ed. Perez-Gomez and Parcell) also contain much useful
material, as well as the collection of Master’s and Doctoral dissertations of the History and Theory program in our
school.
T
HEMES
OF
S
ESSIONS
1.
Introduction: A history of intentions not a history of forms. Phenomenological continuity between "thinking" and
"doing." Importance of the "world-view" as a basis for historical interpretation: Hermeneutics. Importance of
history to understand contemporary problems. Precedents: The Renaissance "world-view" emerging from the
Medieval world. Architectural theory and practice. The breakdown of the traditional cosmos during the second
half of the 16th century. The implications of Vignola's ars fabricandi
. The Galilean scientific revolution
.
Transformations of epistemology Incipient positivism and tradition. The Baroque synthesis. The Rome of Sixtus
V: Moving the obelisks: Fontana. Bernini and the end of tradition. Borromini: His theory and practice. 2.
The theory and practice of Guarino Guarini
. Malebranche’s Occasionalism. The theory of Juan Caramuel de
Lobkowitz.
3.
Baroque space
. Rhetorics and "propaganda fide." The Jesuit contribution: Villalpando and Kircher
. The
Catholic German context. Central and Eastern European Baroque. B. Neumann and K.I. Dienzenhofer. J.B.
Fischer von Erlach, the first historian of architecture
. The temple of Solomon as archetype and its influence on
free-masonry and 18th century architecture. Leibniz: The last cosmological synthesis.
4.
France in the late 17th century. The geometry and eroticism of Versailles. Fréart de Chambray. François
Blondel. Claude Perrault
: A "progressive" architecture. Writings and scientific interests. The implications of his
design for the Louvre. The "Dispute of the Ancients and the Moderns.”
5.
A history of intentions in military architecture from 1580 to 1750. Background. The order of architecture and war.
Palissy's fortified town. 17th century treatises on fortification: Architecture and fireworks. Vauban
and the
inception of military engineering toward the beginning of the 18th century. The first engineering treatise: Forest
de Bélidor
.
6.
A history of intentions in perspective theory from 1570 to 1750. Differences between Renaissance and Baroque
perspective. Mathematical theories of perspective ca. 1600. Perspective as magic
: Anamorphosis and
"quadrattura." A. Kircher. Niceron and De Caus. A. Pozzo's frescoes. Architecture reduced to perspective and
stage-set: F. Galli- Bibiena. Pozzo's treatise and Ozanam. Perspectivism and the transformation of urban
space
. G. Desargues
, the first modern architect: His projective geometry "avant la lettre." Saccheri, Lambert and
Piranesi. Arresting of the geometrization of the world during the 18th century
7.
Epistemological transformations after Leibniz: from transcendental reality to immanent Nature. The transition
from the French garden to the English garden. Fontenelle's infinity. Newton's cosmological system
. Newton's
influence on 18th century thought: Deism and free-masonry. J. Boehme’s sensualistic speech. Nature as source
of principles in Neoclassical theory and Rococo. Freedom. Pattern books. Meissonier's and Servandoni's
projects for St. Sulpice. Origins of Neoclassical theory. Archaeology and precedents. Cordemoy. A. Fremin.
Greco-Gothic Churches.
8.
Mythistoire
. Laugier
. His "taste" and its precedents. Architectural theory in France 1750-1770. Soufflot's Ste.
Geneviève as the embodiment of Neoclassical principles: The polemic with Patte about the piers.
Transformations in statics between Galileo and Coulomb. Statics in the Academy and Perronet's empirical
science. The ambivalent nature of 18th century architectural theory and its relation to scientific thought. France.
Batteux's theory of art. Reaction against Perrault
: Frézier, Briseux
, Patte. Encyclopedism. The issue of type
and distribution from Pierre Le Muet (1623) to J.F. Blondel (1770). Caractère
. The beginnings of the linguistic
analogy as a source of principles: conventions and architecture as a product of civil society. England: from
Christopher Wren to Palladianism. R. Morris and B. Langley
. 9.
Theory and practice in 18th century Italy. Traditional attitudes: Vittone and Milizia. The New Science of G.B.
Vico. Lodoli
, Algarotti and Memmo. Piranesi
and the possibility of theoretical architecture.
10.
Late 18th century French Architecture. Roman precedents. Ribart de Chamoust. Peyre Free-masonry. Le
Camus de Mézières
and the "problem" of meaning. C.N. Ledoux. Viel de Saint-Maux. E.L. Boullée
. The period
of transition between traditional practice and positivistic thinking.
11.
Epistemological transformations during the French Revolution
. Architecture as politics. J.N.L. Durand
.
Rondelet. Navier. The final instrumentalizing of architectural theory in design, building and structural analysis.
Education at the Ecole polytechnique and reactions by C.F. Viel.. The transformation of practice into a
technological process. The continuity between Durand, Guadet's "academicism" and the Bauhaus. The modern
split between fine arts and construction. The beginning of functionalism and architecture as formal
combinations. Style as "problem." "Perspectivism" as a model of knowledge. Panopticism and its alternatives in
artistic practice. Theoretical projects and the continuity between painting and architecture. 12.
Architectural representation in the 19
th
. and 20
th
. centuries. G. Monge and the Ecole polytechnique
. Descriptive
and projective geometries. New methods of perspective. Isometry and axonometry. Choisy. Depth and
temporality. Lissitsky and Le Corbusier. Axonometry and its reversibility.
13. The issue of Romanticism
. Consequences and affinities with phenomenology. From romantic to surrealist
praxis.
Lequeu’s manuscripts and drawings.
Other romantic architects. Architecture as “work.” Modern
architecture “in between” techné
and poiesis
: a non-instrumental relationship between theory and practice
motivated by ethics and articulated through narrative.
2
R
EADINGS
Students must prepare at least one for each session
(* indicates key sources)
1.
*Pérez-Gómez, Alberto, "Hermeneutics as Architectural Theory," in Timely Meditations, Selected Essays on
Architecture
, vol. 2, ch.2.
-----------------------------, "Introduction to 'The Crisis of Modern Science,' in Timely Meditations
, vol. 2, ch.1.
Husserl E., Phenomenology and the Crisis of Philosophy
.
Rossi P., Philosophy, Technology and the Arts in the Early Modern Era
.
*Koyre A., Metaphysics and Measurement
, chs.1-3.
*Wittkower R., Architectural Principles in the Age of Humanism
.
Portoghesi P., The Rome of Borromini
(reference).
Blunt A. and Villaverde F. Borromini (reference).
Dibner B., Moving the Obelisks.
*Pérez-Gómez A., "
Chora
: The Communicative Space of Architecture," in Timely Meditations
, vol. 1,
ch.3. 2.
Meek H.A., Guarino Guarini and his Architecture (reference).
Wittkower R., Studies in the Italian Baroque
, chs.8, 9 & 11.
Various authors, Guarino Guarini e l'Internazionalita del Barocco
(essays in various languages).
Tatarkiewicz W., History of Aesthetics
, vol.3, pp.222-230.
Navarro M.E., “History as Storytelling in… Caramuel de Lobkowitz
,
” in CHORA 6.
*Pérez-Gómez A., Architecture and the Crisis of Modern Science
, ch.3.
Pérez-Gómez A., “Architecture as Science: Analogy or Disjunction,” in Timely Meditations
, vol. 2, 2016.
3.
Wittkower R., Baroque Art: The Jesuit Contribution
, ch.5.
*Aurenhammer H., J.B. Fischer von Erlach
.
Norberg-Schultz C., Baroque Architecture
(reference).
Dotson E.G. and Ashton M.R., J.B. Fischer von Erlach : Architecture as Theater in the Baroque Era
(reference).
Wittkower R., Essays in the History of Architecture presented to R. Wittkower
, Herrmann W., "Unknown
designs for the Temple of Jerusalem by Claude Perrault."
Tymieniecka A.T., Leibniz's Cosmological Synthesis
.
De Nicolas A., Powers of Imagining, Ignatius de Loyola (introduction).
4.
*Herrmann W., The Theory of Perrault
. *Pérez-Gómez A., “Claude Perrault and the Early Modern Instrumentalization of Architectural Theory,” in Timely
Meditations
, vol. 1, ch.8.
Rykwert J., The First Moderns
, chs.1 & 2.
Weiss, Allen, Mirrors of Infinity. The French Formal Garden and 17
th
C. Metaphysics
.
Pérez-Gómez A., Architecture and the Crisis of Modern Science
, ch.1. Pérez-Gómez A., ed., Ordonnance for the Five Kinds of Columns after the Method of the Ancients
,
English tr. of Perrault C.'s Ordonnance des cinq espèces de colonnes
.
5.
Hale J.R., Renaissance Fortification
.
3
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Blomfield R., Sébastien le Prestre de Vauban
.
Griffith P., The Vauban Fortifications of France
(reference).
Falker J., Marshal Vauban and the Defence of Louis XIV’s France.
*Pérez-Gómez A., Architecture and the Crisis of Modern Science
, ch.6.
Straub H., A History of Civil Engineering
(reference).
Timoshenko S.P., History of Strength of Materials
(reference).
Thompson W.I., The Time Falling Bodies Take to Light.
6.
*Pérez-Gómez A., “The Historical Context of Contemporary Architectural Representation,” in
Timely
Meditations
, vol. 2, ch. 12.
*Pérez-Gómez A. and Pelletier L., Architectural Representation and the Perspective Hinge
, "Prelude" and "Variation One."
Kemp M., The Science of Art: Optical Themes in Western Art (reference).
Baltrusaitis J., Anamorphic Art
.
*Sennet R., The Fall of Public Man
, chs.1-6.
*Ivins W., Art and Geometry
.
Daidalos
11 "Perspectives on Perspective" (for modern implications of perspective).
Hunt J.D., The Genius of the Place
, "Roger de Piles," pp.112-118; "John Vanbrugh," pp.119-121; "A.
Ashley Cooper," pp.122-124; "Joseph Addison," pp.138-147; "Batty Langley," pp.178-186; "James
Thomson," pp.191-203; "Alexander Pope," pp.204-214; "Robert Morris," pp.233-236; "William
Chambers," pp.283-288 & pp.318-325; "Thomas Whately," pp.301- 307; "William Gilpin," pp.337-341;
"Richard Payne Knight," pp.342-350.
Thacker C., "That Long Labyrinth of Darkness - The Landscape Garden and the Maze," Daidalos
3,
1982.
Oechslin W., "The Labyrinth as the Apotheosis of Garden Architecture," Daidalos
3, 1982.
*Le Dantée D. and J.P., Reading the French Garden
.
Thacker C., The History of Gardens
(reference).
7.
Blunt A., Art and Architecture in France 1500-1700
(reference).
Hazard P., The European Mind 1680-1715
.
*Becker B., The Heavenly City of the 18th Century Philosophers
. *Burtt E., The Metaphysical Foundations of Modern Physical Science
, chs.1, 7. *Koyre A., Newtonian Studies
, chs.3 & 4.
*Pérez-Gómez A., Architecture and the Crisis of Modern Science
, chs.6, 7. Middleton R., "The Abbé de Cordemoy," Journal of the Warburg and Cortauld Institutes
, XXV (1962) &
XXVI (1963).
Rykwert J., The First Moderns
, chs.3-5.
*Harries K., The Bavarian Rococo Church
, chs.1, 2, 4, 8 & 9.
8.
*Herrmann W., Laugier and 18th Century French Theory
.
Kaufmann E., Architecture in the Age of Reason
, part 3. Laugier, Essay on Architecture
.
Braham A., The Architecture of the French Enlightenment
(reference).
Herrmann W., The Theory of Perrault
, ch.5.
*Wittkower R., Palladio and English Palladianism
, chs.6 & 7. Rykwert J., The First Moderns
, ch.6.
Pelletier L., Architecture in Words
.
4
Morris R., In Defence of Ancient Architecture
, preface.
Summerson J., Architecture in Britain 1530-1830
, chs.20-28 (reference).
*Pérez-Gómez A., Architecture and the Crisis of Modern Science
, ch.2. 9. *Feldman B. and Richardson R., The Rise of Modern Mythology
, pp.50-61. Tatarkiewicz W., History of Aesthetics
, vol.3, pp.444-447 & 449-451.
*Vico G.B., The New Science
, esp. Book I, sections 2-4; Book II, Prolegomena,
sections 1, 2, 7; Book III, section 2. Also the Intro. in Cornell U.P. ed.
Rykwert J., The First Moderns
, chs.8 & 9.
Kunze D., Thought and Place
.
Kaufmann E., Architecture in the Age of Reason
, part 2.
Scott J., Piranesi
, (reference).
Piranesi G.B., The Polemical Works
.
Neveu M., “Prato della Valle, Reconsidered,” in CHORA 6.
Vico e Venezia
, papers on Lodoli and Piranesi (in Italian). *Ely J.W., The Mind and Art of Giovanni Battista Piranesi
.
Vico G.B., On the Study Methods of our Time
.
10.
Pérouse de Montclos J.M., Etienne-Louis Boullée
.
*Rosenblum R., Transformations in Late 18th Century Art
. Holt E., Documentary History of Art
, vol.3, pp.227ff., 264ff., 311ff., 418ff.
Vidler A., "The Architecture of the Lodges", Oppositions
5, 1976. *Pérez-Gómez A., Architecture and the Crisis of Modern Science
, ch.4.
*Pérez-Gómez A., “Place and Architectural Space,” in
Timely Meditations
, vol. 2, ch. 9.
11.
*Pérez-Gómez A., “Early Debates in Modern Architectural Education,” in
Timely Meditations
, vol. 2,
ch..
*Hayek F.A., The Counter-Revolution of Science
.
*Ellul J., The Technological Society
, chs.I, II, V & VI. Durand N.L., Précis of the Lessons on Architecture.
*Middleton R., ed., The Beaux-Arts
, I, VI, VIII.
*Pérez-Gómez A., Architecture and the Crisis of Modern Science
, chs.8, 9. 12.
*Pérez-Gómez A., “The Historical Context of Contemporary Architectural Representation,” in
Timely Meditations
, vol. 2, ch. 12.
Pérez-Gómez A. and Pelletier L., Architectural Representation and the Perspective Hinge
, "Variation Two," "Variation Three" and “Coda.”
Parcell, S., “The Momentary Modern Magic of the Panorama,” in CHORA
1.
Drexler A., The Architecture of the Ecole des Beaux-Arts
.
Pevsner N., "Gottfried Semper," in Some Architectural Writers of the 19th century
.
Frampton K., Modern Architecture
(reference).
13.
*Pérez-Gómez A., “Mind. Mood and Architectural Meaning,” in Timely Meditations
, vol. 2, ch. 14.
Dubois P., Lequeu: An Architectural Enigma
.
Kaufman E., "Jean Jacques Lequeu," in Art Bulletin
, vol.31, pp.130-135, June 1949.
Rosneau H., "Architecture and the French Revolution: Jean-Jacques Lequeu," in The Architectural
5
Review
, vol.106, pp.111-116, August 1949.
Rosneau H., "Postcript on Lequeu," in The Architectural Review
, vol.108, pp.264-265, October 1950.
Trubiano F., "Origins and Ornaments… J.J. Lequeu, " in CHORA 3. Pérez-Gómez A., "Abstraction in Modern Architecture," in Timely Meditations
, vol. 2, ch. 3.
* Pérez-Gómez A., Attunement: Architectural Meaning after the Crisis of Modern Science.
A
SSESSMENT
OF
C
ANDIDATES
The class meets once a week for a 2 hour lecture. No examination will be given in this course. The mark will be
based on a project (or paper) and participation. The relative weight of the different components is specified in the
specific section outlines.
For graduate students the paper (or project) will have particular specifications with regards to length and quality. M.Arch HT and Ph.D students audit this course as a requirement to obtain credit in History and Theory Seminar 4.
McGill University values academic integrity.
Therefore all students must understand the meaning and consequences of cheating, plagiarism and other academic offences under the Code of Student Conduct and Disciplinary Procedures (see http://www.mcgill.ca/integrity
for more information).
L'université McGill attache une haute importance à l’honnêteté académique.
Il incombe par conséquent à tous les étudiants de comprendre ce que l'on entend par tricherie, plagiat et autres infractions académiques, ainsi que les conséquences que peuvent avoir de telles actions, selon le Code de conduite de l'étudiant et des procédures disciplinaires (pour de plus amples renseignements, veuillez consulter le site http://www.mcgill.ca/integrity
).
Dr. A. Pérez-Gómez
2018-19
6
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