Architecture

With reference to the contemporary debate on the theories of the image and more generally on visual culture, the course intends to bring the study of architecture back into a border area between aesthetic, figurative reflection and media theories. The expansion of the disciplinary connotation that has affected architecture requires the acquisition of useful tools to develop a critical reflection on the impact of the production of images in the urban and social context, as well as on the role that images can have in the process of making itself architectural. The contemporary scenario requires, more than ever, a capacity for reflection on the part of the designer on the broad theme of the construction of referential links between images and reality, in order to develop a visual culture that is functional to prefiguration, narration and communication through images. of architecture, but also to the development of visual thinking capable of triggering cognitive and proactive processes. The course therefore aims to introduce an idea of ​​image understood as a 'process', that is, as a complex construction of a cognitive and narrative itinerary investigated in relation to those sets of design strategies, visual practices and theories of the gaze that substantiate it not only the meaning but also the practices of use. The aim of the course will therefore be to address in a transdisciplinary way the relationships that exist between architecture and its photographic image, between architectural and cinematographic thought, between the experience of constructed and represented space, between graphic composition and architectural, between everyday images and those of our imagination. The lessons will cover topics such as: architecture in the context of visual studies; the role of images in the design process and contemporary architecture; perception and communication; the communication of architecture through different media; the representation and communication of the architectural project; film editing and architecture; photography and architecture; graphics for architecture; artistic and architectural installations compared; architecture as an optical device; atmospherology and phenomenology. Lecture topics: Introduction to Visual Culture - Objectives, scope, and characteristics of Visual Culture - Forerunners and historical references of Visual Culture: Béla Balasz, Laszlo Moholy-Nagy, Sergei Eisenstein, Dziga Vertov, Abel Gance, Jean Epstein - Visual Culture Studies and Bildwissenschaft - Introduction to Bildarchitekturen (or Picture Architecture) - Affinity between Film Editing and Architecture - The Glasraum and the Barcelona Pavilion by Mies van der Rohe and Lily Reich - Aby Warburg and the Mnemosyne Atlas - Associative Logic and Images Bildarchitekturen: Concepts and References - Heinrich Wölfflin, Siegfried Kracauer, Adolf Behne, Alois Riegl - Haptic Visuality - Examples from Mies van der Rohe and El Lissitzky (Optical Dynamics) - Optical Aspects in the Projects of Mies van der Rohe and Lily Reich - Developments in Contemporary Experiences The Architect's Images From the Use of Images in Artistic Creation (the Example of Francis Bacon) to the Iconographic References of Architects (References: Valerio Olgiati, Enzo Mari, Smiljan Radic, Oswald Mathias Ungers, Peter Wilson - The Iconographic References of Visual Artists) - Reference to Aby Warburg's Atlas of Mnemosyne Composing Composition at the Center of Teaching at the Bauhaus - The Bauhaus Basic Course and the Teaching of Paul Klee, Wassily Kandinsky, Johannes Itten, Laszlo Moholy-Nagy, and Herbert Bayer - The Teaching of Iakov Chernykhov at the Soviet Vkhutemas - Examples of Continuity in Contemporary Graphic Design, Art, Design, and Architecture. Mixed Media The Role of Images in Different Media Used by Architecture: From Printed Publications to Videos, to Architecture itself Transformed into a Media Tool - OMA and AMO: World Images - Photo Stories and Comic Books - Social Media - Cartoons Learning from Las Vegas Venturi, Scott-Brown, and Izenour's experience studying Las Vegas as a fundamental reference in the study of visual culture in architecture - Venturi's references: Gordon Cullen's Townscape, K. Lynch's The View from the Road, Ed Ruscha's Every Building on the Sunset Strip - Continuity of Learning from Las Vegas in the development of contemporary architecture Editing: Visual Arts and Architecture From the Formulation of Editing in Film to Its Repercussions in Architecture - Laszlo Moholy-Nagy - Reading Auguste Choisy's Acropolis of Athens - S. Eisenstein and Le Corbusier - Purpose of Editing: Analogies Between Film and Architecture - The Temporal Factor: From the Use of the Storyboard to the Architectural Sketch - Examples (OMA, Herzog & de Meuron, Carlo Mollino, Mies van der Rohe, El Lissitzky, Jean Nouvel) - Editing in the Research of Bernard Tschumi - Film Editing, Assembly, and the Architectural Palimpsest - Temporal and Spatial Editing: Examples - Use of Photomontage (Photocollage): Examples and References - Photocollage as a Compositional Practice (Palimpsest) Writings and Transcriptions Bernard Tschumi's Iconographic References and Graphic Notations - The Experience of the Manhattan Transcripts Architecture and Photography Architecture at the Origins of Photography - Protagonists and New Subjects (E. Atget, B. Abbott, L. Moholy-Nagy, W. Evans, E. Ruscha) - Photography in the Creation of Architectural Icons (E. Stoller, C. Gerard, J. Schulman, B. Hedrik, L. Hervé, B. Korab) - Architecture and Photography: A Mediated Knowledge - Contemporary Developments (L. Ghirri, T. Struth, H. Binet, A. Gursky, I. Baan) - Photography and Historical Memory: The Temporal Factor - Photography in the Analysis of Urban Phenomena (J. Gehl) Architecture as an Optical Device The Notion of a Device - References to Jonathan Crary's The Techniques of the Observer - Scopic Regimes (Christian Metz and Martin Jay) - The Evolution of 19th-Century Optical Instruments and Their Repercussions - Architecture as an Optical Device - References to Walter Benjamin (Passagenwerk) - References and Analogies between Cinema, Art, and Architecture The Phenomenological Gaze: Art and Architecture Principles of Phenomenology (Edmund Husserl, Maurice Merleau-Ponty) - Architecture's Relationship to Phenomenology (Juhani Pallasmaa) - Principles of Atmospherology (Tonino Griffero, Peter Zumthor, Steven Holl) - Phenomenology and Atmospherology in Artistic and Architectural Installations (Olafur Eliasson, James Turrell, Dan Graham, Anish Kapoor, Diller + Scofidio, Eduardo Souto de Moura, Herzog & de Meuron, Ryue Nishizawa) The Gaze in Images Venturi and Scott Brown: Architecture as Signs and Systems (the Las Vegas lecture in retrospect) - Architecture as Communication - Comparing Experiences and Viewpoints: from Y. Michaud to W. Benjanim to S. Kracauer, from R. Venturi to R. Stern's reconfiguration of Times Square - Examples include: Diller Scofidio + Renfro - Doug Aitken - Peter Cook - Jean Nouvel - Paul Rudolph - Neutelings Riedijk - teamLab

It is believed to be useful to have a good knowledge of the history of architecture and advisable to have a general knowledge of the history of modern art in order to grasp the references that will be made during the lessons.

Fabio Quici (2023). Architettura e cultura visuale, Libria: Melfi. Andrea Pinotti e Antonio Somaini (2016). Cultura visuale: immagini sguardi media dispositivi, Torino: Einaudi. Michele Cometa (2020). Cultura visuale, Milano: Raffaello Cortina Editore.

Attendance at classes is not mandatory but is recommended.

Knowledge acquired on the topics covered in class will be assessed through an oral exam and the presentation of an in-depth research project to be completed during the semester. The research will be conducted through a critical reading of five issues of an international journal (Abitare, Domus, Casabella, Architectural Review, L'Architecture d'Aujourd'hui), focusing on issues from the 1960s, 1970s, 1980s, or 1990s. With particular attention to iconographic content, the interconnections between architecture and other figurative arts must be highlighted, that is, the interdisciplinary aspects characterizing the historical period under consideration must be highlighted. The research findings must be presented in a slide show to be shown during the exam for a maximum of 15 minutes.

- Andrea Pinotti e Antonio Somaini (2016). Cultura visuale: immagini sguardi media dispositivi, Torino: Einaudi. - Michele Cometa (2020). Cultura visuale, Milano: Raffaello Cortina Editore. - Fabio Quici (2023). Architettura e cultura visuale, Libria: Melfi. - Susan Sontag (1973). On Photography, New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux; ed. it. Sulla fotografia. Realtà e immagine nella nostra società, Torino: Einaudi, 2004 - Jonathan Crary (1990).Techniques of the Observer. On Vision and Modernity in the Nineteenth Century, Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press; ed.it. Le tecniche dell’osservatore. Visione e modernità nel XIX secolo, Torino: Giulio Einaudi Editore, 2013 - Beatriz Colomina (1994). Privacy and Publicity: Modern Architecture as Mass Media, Cambridge, Mass.: The MIT Press - Franco Purini (1996). Una lezione sul disegno, Roma: Gangemi Editore - Jean Baudrillard (2008). Simulacri e impostura. Bestie, Beaubourg, apparenze e altri oggetti, Milano: Pgreco - Giovanni Fanelli (2009).Storia della fotografia di architettura, Roma-Bari: Editori Laterza - Vittorio Prina (2009). Cinema Architettura Composizione, Sant’Arcangelo di Romagna: Maggioli Editore - Juhani Pallasmaa (2011). The Embodied Image: Imagination and Imagery in Architecture, Chichester: Wiley; ed. it. L’immagine incarnata: immaginazione e immaginario nell’architettura, Pordenone: Safarà, 2014 - Giacomo Ravesi (2011). La città delle immagini: cinema, video, architettura e arti visive, Soveria Mannelli: Rubbettino Editore - Claire Zimmerman (2014). Photographic Architecture in the Twentieth Century, Minneapolis-London: University of Minnesota Press - Nicholas Mirzoeff (2017). Come vedere il mondo. Un’introduzione alle immagini: dall’autoritratto al selfie, dalle mappe ai film (e altro ancora), Monza: Johan & Levi; tit. orig. How to See the World, London: Penguin Books Ltd, 2015. - Martino Stierli (2018). Montage and the Metropolis. Architecture, Modermity, and the Representation of Space, New Haven and London: Yale University Press.

The course includes lectures delivered in Italian, contributions from external speakers and guided tours.