ARCH-532 Origins of Mod

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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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