Theory of Architecture 2: Theories

Teacher(s)

Nizet Francois;

Language

French

Prerequisites

The prerequisite(s) for this Teaching Unit (Unité d’enseignement – UE) for the programmes/courses that offer this Teaching Unit are specified at the end of this sheet.

Main themes

The course involves a systematic but not exhaustive review of the major theories of architecture. It situates them chronologically, from Antiquity to the present. The course identifies recurring theoretical questions and possible causes for their recurrence. It also identifies more ephemeral questions and looks at their conditions of emergence and disappearance. The course puts theoretical elements into confrontation with concrete examples. Notions like the Vitruvian triad and its interpretations, the myth of the primitive hut, rules and the classical orders, models, the human body and proportion, objectivity and subjectivity of architecture, the "tabula rasa", technology and poetics, will be raised and discussed.

Aims

At the end of this learning unit, the student is able to :
1	By the end of this course, students will be able to: develop an overall view of the major theories of architecture within Western cultural tradition, distinguish the themes and recurrent questions, situate the "origins", the major stages of development, and the moments of rupture within the field of architecural theory, take a personal position within a theoretical debate.

The contribution of this Teaching Unit to the development and command of the skills and learning outcomes of the programme(s) can be accessed at the end of this sheet, in the section entitled “Programmes/courses offering this Teaching Unit”.

Content

1. Numbers and proportions
2. Myths and history
3. Patterns and types
4. Modern movement and the Avant-gardes until 1945
5. Modern movement crisis after 1945
6. Theories and technologies
7. Architecture and nature

Teaching methods

Lecture course

Evaluation methods

Written examination during exam session

Bibliography

Aa. Vv.
Théorie de l'architecture de la Renaissance à nos jours.
Cologne, Taschen, 2003.
ALBERTI L. B.
L'art d'édifier.
Traduit du latin, présenté et annoté par Pierre Caye et Françoise Choay.
Paris, Seuil, 2004.
CONRADS U.
Programmes et manifestes de l'architecture du XXe siècle.
Paris, Les éditions de La Villette, 1991.
DELORME P.
Architecture.
Edition intégrale de 1648.
Bruxelles-Liège, Mardaga, 1981.
DENES M.
Form follows fiction. Ecrits d'architecture fin de siècle.
Paris, Les éditions de La Villette, 1996.
FICHET F.
La théorie architecturale à l'âge classique. Essai d'anthologie critique.
Bruxelles-Liège, Mardaga, 1979.
NIZET F.
Le voyage d'Italie et l'architecture européenne (1675-1825).
Bruxelles-Rome, Institut historique belge de Rome, 1988.
NORBERG-SCHULZ C.
Système logique de l'architecture.
Bruxelles, Dessart et Mardaga, 1974.
PALLADIO A.
Les quatre livres de l'architecture.
Traduit par Roland Fréart de Chambray.
Paris, Flammarion, 1997. 
RIEGL A.
Le culte moderne des monuments. Sa nature, son origine.
Ecole d'architecture Paris-Villemin, 1984.
ROSSI A.
Autobiographie scientifique.
Marseille, Parenthèses, 1988.
RUSKIN J.
Les sept lampes de l'architecture.
Paris, Les presses d'aujourd'hui, 1980.
RYKWERT J.
La maison d'Adam au paradis.
Paris, Seuil, 1976.
VAN DE VELDE H.
Formules de la beauté architectonique moderne.
Bruxelles, Archives d'Architecture Moderne, 1978.
VENTURI R.
De l'ambigüité en architecture.
Paris, Dunod, 1976.
VITRUVE
Les dix livres d'architecture.
Corrigés et traduits en 1684 par Claude Perrault.
Bruxelles-Liège, Mardaga, 1979

Faculty or entity

LOCI