Architectural Theory: From Vitruvius until Today

The course offers a broad overview of the main contributions to architectural theory. It covers two thousand years of thinking and writing, but concentrates in particular on the last three centuries. Within this timespan it traces changes and continuities concerning topics, ideas, notions and parameters, conceiving architectural theory as an ongoing conversation about architecture. In doing so, theoretical models are considered within wider cultural contexts. The lectures focus on particular theorists as well as on basic issues of architectural practice and the theorizations of it as discipline, beauty, origin/history/memory, space/place, and language. The course includes several lectures by Carla Mazzarelli (in Italian).