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HIAA 0030 S01

Theories of Architecture from Vitruvius to Venturi Professor Vidler
anthony_vidler@brown.edu
Office: 418 List
Offfice Hours: 10:00 AM 12:00 PM Wednesdays, or by appointment
An inquiry into the various ways in which architecture has been thought, both inside
the profession and outside, since Vitruvius first defined its study and practice as an
interdisciplinary discipline. The course will study selected texts and designs in the
culture of western architecture from antiquity to the present. Drawn from works in
architectural, social, political, and aesthetic theory the course will deepen our
understanding of historical architecture and open up ways of interpreting
contemporary design culture.
Jan. 23 Introduction: Theory and Design
Primary Reading:
Kurt W. Forster, Why Buildings Need Books, Log, No. 15 (Winter 2009): 17-23
[PDF]
Jan. 26 The Greek Setup: Who was the architekton?
Primary Reading:J. A. Coulton, Ancient Greek Architects at Work. Problems of
Structure and Design (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1982): Chapter 1,
Architect, patron and project,15-29.
Jan. 30 Monuments and Machines: Vitruvius and the Emperor
Primary Reading:
Indra Kagis McEwen, Vitruvius. Writing the Body of Architecture (Cambridge,
Mass.: MIT Press, 2003): 16-88.
Mario Carpo, Architecture in the Age of Printing (Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press,
2001):16-41
Feb. 4 Symbolic Architecture: Rebuilding the Temple in the Middle Ages
Primary Reading:
Nicola Coldstream, Medieval Architecture (Oxford: Oxford University Press,
2002): 149-173
Abbot Suger, On what was done during his administration,(c.1144-48)
http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/sugar.html
Feb. 6. Medieval Building in Practice: Masons and Patrons
Primary Reading:
Nicola Coldstream, Medieval Architecture: 83-113.
Mario Carpo, The Making of the Typographical Architect, in Vaughan Hart and
Peter Hicks, eds., Paper Palaces. The Rise of the Renaissance Architectural
Treatise (New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1998): 158-169.

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No classes Feb.11-13
Feb.20 Between Family and State: Leon Battista Alberti
Primary Reading:
Leon Battista Alberti, On the Art of Building in Ten Books [De re aedificatoria],
translated by Joseph Rykwert, Neil Leach, Robert Tavernor (Cambridge, Mass.:
MIT Press, 1988): ix-xxi; 1-32.
Anthony Grafton, Alberti on the Art of Building, in Grafton, Leon Battista
Alberti. Master Builder of the Italian Renaissance (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard
University Press, 2000):261-292.
Feb.25 Drawing the Ideal City: Filarete
Primary Reading:
Antonio di Piero Averlino, Filarete, Treatise on Architecture [Libro
architettonico, c. 1461-64]: Excerpts.
Feb.27 Villas in the Veneto, Temples in Venice: Palladio
Primary Reading:
Palladio, The Four Books of Architecture (I Quattro Libri dellarchitecttura,
Venice, 1570): Excerpts.
Pier Vittorio Aureli, The Go-Politics of the Ideal Villa, AA Files 59 (2009):7685. PDF
Mar.4 Enlightenment Visions: Claude-Nicolas Ledoux
Primary Reading:
Claude-Nicolas Ledoux, Architecture considered in relation to art, mores, and
legislation (Paris: 1804): excerpts.PDF
Anthony Vidler, The Theatre of Production: Claude-Nicolas Ledoux and the
Architecture of Social Reform, AA Files (Winter 1981-82): PDF
Mar.6 Architecture and Revolution: tienne-Louis Boulle
Primary Reading:
tienne-Louis Boulle, Architecture: Essay on Art (unpublished, c. 1792):
Excerpts.
Mar.11 Romantic Histories (1): Karl Friedrich Schinkel
Primary Reading:
Kurt W. Forester, Schinkels Panoramic Planning of Central Berlin, Modulus
16 (1983): 62-77.
Hermann G. Pundt, K. F. Schinkels Environmental Planning of Central Berlin,
JSAH (May 1967):114-130, PDF
Mar.13 Romantic Histories (2): John Soanes Theoretical House
Primary Reading:
Helene Furjan, Sir John Soanes Spectacular Theare, AA Files, 47 (Summer
2002): 12-22. PDF

Mar.18 Gothic Revivals: John Ruskin

William Morris
Primary reading:
Cornelis J. Baljon, Interpreting Ruskin: The Argument of the Seven Lamps of
Architecture and the Stones of Venice, Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism
55, no. 4 (Autumn 1997): 401-414. PDF
Denis E. Cosgrove, John Ruskin and the Geographical Imagination,
Geographical Review 69, no,1 (January 1979): 43-62. PDF
Mar.20 Metropolis and Modern Life: Adolf Loos
Primary reading:
Georg Simmel, Metropolis and Modern Life, 1902. PDF
Adolf Loos, Ornament and Crime, 1908.PDF
Daniel Purdy, The Cosmopolitan Geography of Adolf Loos, New German
Critique 99 (Fall 2006): 41-62. PDF
Christopher Long, The origins and Context of Adolf Looss Ornament and
Crime, JSAH 66 no.2 (June 2009): 200-223. PDF
Mid-Semester Recess
Apr.1 Modern Manifestos: Futurism, Expressionism
Fillipo Tommaso Marinetti, Manifesto of Futurism, 1909.
Antonio SantElia, Futurist Manifesto of Architecture, 1914
Bruno Taut, The City Crown, and Alpine Architecture.

Apr 3 Machines for Living: Le Corbusier

Primary reading:
Le Corbusier, Towards an Architecture [Vers une architecture, Paris, 1923]
Introduction by Jean-Louis Cohen, Translation by John Goodman (Los Angeles:
Getty Research Center, 2007):Excerpts.

Apr.8 The Art of Steel and Glass: Mies van der Rohe in Europe and the US.
Primary reading:
Detlef Mertins, The Enticing Face of Prehistory: Walter Benjamin and the
Utopia of Glass, PDF
K. Michael Hays, Critical Architecture: Between Culture and Form, Perspecta
21 (1984): 14-29. PDF
Apr.10 1968: Counter architectures: From Guy Debord to Superstudio.
Primary Reading:
Guy Debord, and others, Situationist International (Paris 1958-68): Excerpts.

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Apr.15 Return of the Picturesque: Kevin Lynch to Robert Venturi
Primary Reading:
Robert Venturi, Complexity and Contradiction in Architecture (New York: The
Museum of Modern Art, 1966)
Apr.17 Analogous Archipelagoes: Rowe, Rossi and Ungers (Foucault, Heterotopias)
Primary Reading:
Colin Rowe and Fred Koetter, Collage City, Architectural Review, 1975.
Apr.22 Discourses of Irony: Koolhaas
Primary Reading:
Rem Koolhaas, Delirious New York (New York: Oxford University Press, 1978)
Apr.24 Class Discussion

Reading Period