Cette unité d'enseignement bisannuelle est dispensée en 2024-2025
Langue
d'enseignement
d'enseignement
Contenu
This course aims to define contemporary architecture within a broader cultural, theoretical and historical point of view on a large European context. It will consist in an incisive analytical return to recent architectures, positioning of the contemporary with regard to the classical tradition, and to modern and post-modern postures.
The course will focus on three thematic axes:
-architecture & art
-architecture & infrastructure
-architecture & the metropolis
and how these themes have been approached in the 20th and 21st centuries. These “lessons from” will help us to take a critical position today.
The question of post-crisis management towards a (dys)(u)topian future, the rehabilitation of the heritage of the 20th century and the recognition of the already there, the question of rethinking politics in our democracies in crisis, will all be questions addressed in this course.
Content 2022-23
BEFORE/AFTER - Ruptures, repetitions and continuities in European Modernism
The 20th century was the scene of many political, social and economic revolutions and upheavals. In architecture, this has resulted in the implementation of new construction techniques, innovative materials, new ways of thinking about form, design and community. During this seminar, we will study this century of upheavals on a vast European territory, whilst zooming into specific cultural narratives, a complex history which ultimately produced a diversity of architectural productions in continuous mutation and through modernist developments.
This seminar situates itself on the edges of Modernism, that is to say, the time that led up to the self-proclaimed Modernist Style and the time after it. The suggested hypothesis of this seminar is that, rather than a revolution, might not modernism be an unfolding of ruptures and repetitions with slight changes in time that have led to iconic texts and architectures retained by history?
Indeed, Modernism is hard to circumscribe in time. It sometimes takes root in initiatives well before the emblematic buildings chosen in each of the regions of the world where it took place. These seminal elements are sometimes built, even in the form of a simple detail, sometimes they are drawn, or perhaps only written. By comparing writings and buildings from this period in Brussels, Vienna, Bucharest and Naples - places we will visit on our itineraries within the framework of the IMA - we will try to better understand the sources of this cultural (r)evolution in Europe.
For the case studies proposed, it is quite difficult to define a specific date for the beginning of the Modernist movement in the specific context. The literature tends to reveal a series of avant-garde edifices or movements before the first emblematic modernist edifices were built.
Characterized by a return to minimal decor, pure and functional geometric lines and the use of new techniques and technologies, Modernism is an attempt to break with the past (in parallel with movements in literature, music, and painting), in particular with the neo-classicism and eclecticism of the 19th century; by the use of new materials like concrete and steel, which allow high-rise construction; by the development of the "free plan" with non-structural partitions. Later, critics of Modernism pointed up a perceived lack of humanity and warmth in this arid and uncompromising geometry. Le Corbusier had described his buildings as "machines for living". Since the ’60s and ’70s, many architects had deliberately sought to escape strict modernism by various aesthetic or constructive strategies, resulting in (amongst others) brutalism or organic architecture and high-tech, deconstructivism, structuralism or regionalism.
The research that we collectively will carry out focuses on specific places and protagonists of BEFORE/AFTER MODERNISM. It will be an attempt to disentangle preconceived notions of Modernism in specific places by crtically situating the selected works and architects in their physical, temporal and philosophical ceontexts.
The course will focus on three thematic axes:
-architecture & art
-architecture & infrastructure
-architecture & the metropolis
and how these themes have been approached in the 20th and 21st centuries. These “lessons from” will help us to take a critical position today.
The question of post-crisis management towards a (dys)(u)topian future, the rehabilitation of the heritage of the 20th century and the recognition of the already there, the question of rethinking politics in our democracies in crisis, will all be questions addressed in this course.
Content 2022-23
BEFORE/AFTER - Ruptures, repetitions and continuities in European Modernism
The 20th century was the scene of many political, social and economic revolutions and upheavals. In architecture, this has resulted in the implementation of new construction techniques, innovative materials, new ways of thinking about form, design and community. During this seminar, we will study this century of upheavals on a vast European territory, whilst zooming into specific cultural narratives, a complex history which ultimately produced a diversity of architectural productions in continuous mutation and through modernist developments.
This seminar situates itself on the edges of Modernism, that is to say, the time that led up to the self-proclaimed Modernist Style and the time after it. The suggested hypothesis of this seminar is that, rather than a revolution, might not modernism be an unfolding of ruptures and repetitions with slight changes in time that have led to iconic texts and architectures retained by history?
Indeed, Modernism is hard to circumscribe in time. It sometimes takes root in initiatives well before the emblematic buildings chosen in each of the regions of the world where it took place. These seminal elements are sometimes built, even in the form of a simple detail, sometimes they are drawn, or perhaps only written. By comparing writings and buildings from this period in Brussels, Vienna, Bucharest and Naples - places we will visit on our itineraries within the framework of the IMA - we will try to better understand the sources of this cultural (r)evolution in Europe.
For the case studies proposed, it is quite difficult to define a specific date for the beginning of the Modernist movement in the specific context. The literature tends to reveal a series of avant-garde edifices or movements before the first emblematic modernist edifices were built.
Characterized by a return to minimal decor, pure and functional geometric lines and the use of new techniques and technologies, Modernism is an attempt to break with the past (in parallel with movements in literature, music, and painting), in particular with the neo-classicism and eclecticism of the 19th century; by the use of new materials like concrete and steel, which allow high-rise construction; by the development of the "free plan" with non-structural partitions. Later, critics of Modernism pointed up a perceived lack of humanity and warmth in this arid and uncompromising geometry. Le Corbusier had described his buildings as "machines for living". Since the ’60s and ’70s, many architects had deliberately sought to escape strict modernism by various aesthetic or constructive strategies, resulting in (amongst others) brutalism or organic architecture and high-tech, deconstructivism, structuralism or regionalism.
The research that we collectively will carry out focuses on specific places and protagonists of BEFORE/AFTER MODERNISM. It will be an attempt to disentangle preconceived notions of Modernism in specific places by crtically situating the selected works and architects in their physical, temporal and philosophical ceontexts.
Méthodes d'enseignement
Bi-annual teaching unit: M1-Q1 alternating with M2-Q1
Methodology
This course invites students to look at and zoom in on a few of the key figures BEFORE/AFTER modernism in four European cities, by critically engaging with selected writings and buildings. Collectively, we will explore each city through dialogue nourished by the comparisons of case studies, the presences of experts and the on-site visits of key edifices.
The work will be done by teams of two (or three) students per city. Each student will read an article, select a building. One on BEFORE, another on AFTER (and in the case of three students, a third on a more canonical Modernist edifice and writing). They will compare their readings with a critical eye and take into account the first harbingers of change, the radical thoughts, the possible consequential postures and the critical point of view collected in their reading.
Each group will produce a critical text inspired by the reading and two illustrations, one as the illustration useful to the text, the second as a prospective collage resuming the lessons learned from the text. Together, the students will write a short introduction presenting the expectations before the reading and the way they chose to explain their understanding, and a short conclusion sharing the lessons learned from this reading.
From these narratives collected in the different contexts, we will look at the continuities and ruptures, consistencies and discontinuities observed on these territories. Students will question what the constant elements are, and the evolution in time and in space. In parallel, the course Question in Architecture in History & Theory (LBARC2040) will focus on the deconstruction through drawing of some edifices representative of this written study. Students are therefore invited to make full use of the permeability between the two courses.
Methodology
This course invites students to look at and zoom in on a few of the key figures BEFORE/AFTER modernism in four European cities, by critically engaging with selected writings and buildings. Collectively, we will explore each city through dialogue nourished by the comparisons of case studies, the presences of experts and the on-site visits of key edifices.
The work will be done by teams of two (or three) students per city. Each student will read an article, select a building. One on BEFORE, another on AFTER (and in the case of three students, a third on a more canonical Modernist edifice and writing). They will compare their readings with a critical eye and take into account the first harbingers of change, the radical thoughts, the possible consequential postures and the critical point of view collected in their reading.
Each group will produce a critical text inspired by the reading and two illustrations, one as the illustration useful to the text, the second as a prospective collage resuming the lessons learned from the text. Together, the students will write a short introduction presenting the expectations before the reading and the way they chose to explain their understanding, and a short conclusion sharing the lessons learned from this reading.
From these narratives collected in the different contexts, we will look at the continuities and ruptures, consistencies and discontinuities observed on these territories. Students will question what the constant elements are, and the evolution in time and in space. In parallel, the course Question in Architecture in History & Theory (LBARC2040) will focus on the deconstruction through drawing of some edifices representative of this written study. Students are therefore invited to make full use of the permeability between the two courses.
Modes d'évaluation
des acquis des étudiants
des acquis des étudiants
The aim of the architectural history teaching unit is to build up a repository background. However, it refuses to treat history only as a reservoir of examples, but tries to analyze “historically”, that is to say to place these examples in their contexts in order to better approach their deeper meaning. The main objective of this course is to question and (attempt to) understand architecture, as a complex phenomenon, of an intellectual, physical and social nature, and its meaning, and this through an approach that is rigorously historical.
This course will be held in blended mobility with European partners, through online seminars and workshops in situ.
Contribution to the LO repository:
Build up an architectural culture
Situate its action
Mobilize other disciplines
Express an architectural approach
Make committed choices
Also, among the achievements of this EU will be the ability to work on a European territory in an international team and in English.
This course will be held in blended mobility with European partners, through online seminars and workshops in situ.
Contribution to the LO repository:
Build up an architectural culture
Situate its action
Mobilize other disciplines
Express an architectural approach
Make committed choices
Also, among the achievements of this EU will be the ability to work on a European territory in an international team and in English.
Autres infos
Calendar 2022-23
21/09 14:00 > 18:45 Presentation of the seminar
Written investigations will come in support to the comprehension.
4 territories / 4 seminars on site
05/10 14:00 > 18:15 Modernism in Brussels
02/11 14:00 > 18:15 Modernism in Vienna
23/11 14:00 > 18:15 Modernism in Bucharest
14/12 14:00 > 18:15 Modernism in Naples
23/01 > 29/01 Seminar in Naples in situ
21/09 14:00 > 18:45 Presentation of the seminar
Written investigations will come in support to the comprehension.
4 territories / 4 seminars on site
05/10 14:00 > 18:15 Modernism in Brussels
02/11 14:00 > 18:15 Modernism in Vienna
23/11 14:00 > 18:15 Modernism in Bucharest
14/12 14:00 > 18:15 Modernism in Naples
23/01 > 29/01 Seminar in Naples in situ
Faculté ou entité
en charge
en charge
