Architecture (Conservation)

ANTONIO RUSSO

The course aims to provide students basic methodology of bibliographic, archival and direct research for what concern written and constructive “sources” in order to retrace the history of architectural phases of single building or urban areas aiming to the conservation and protection of historical architectonical heritage.

The course aims to provide the tools for understanding Western architectural heritage, through the case of the city of Rome, in particular studying the language of the architectural orders, with the aim of providing a useful method for drafting historical research paper, that is preparatory to the restoration project.

Basic knowledge of historical periods and Western architectural styles and typologies.

The course aims to provide the tools and methods for historical research, intended as the instruments which are necessary for understanding the design and construction process of architecture. Therefore, it will be structured in lectures dedicated to the transmission of methodological knowledge of historical research: from bibliographic recognition via online and paper resources, to the study of artistic literature and from the reading of direct sources (archival material) to the analysis of the building understood as the primary document of the architecture itself. Concerning the perusal of the building as a document itself, the use of survey drawing is the tool of direct interrelation with the studied architecture.
The purpose is helping the student to develop a critical awareness, to improve his/her knowledges gained at the bachelor’s degree in architecture. By critical awareness we mean a conscious look towards the city and the architecture by which it is composed. This awareness, as a result of the adoption of increasingly appropriate cognitive and methodological tools, allows the young architect to have a critical eye on the architectural work to study. The critical eye is to be understood as not necessarily an evaluative perspective, but rather an analytical one, in order to understand the historical phases and the linguistic and material layers of the architecture. In other words, we mean the ability of recognizing the components of an architectural work and its context, so having the tools for understanding the different levels of which a building of the past is composed. These levels can be considered within the Vitruvian utilitas, firmitas and venustas. These three conceptual categories represent the valid basis of the historical knowledge of a building: decomposing the plan according to its functions; the structure according to the construction systems and the forms according to the languages. In this way the course aims to transform the student into an architectural technician and more precisely into an expert analyser of the historical processes that led to the creation of a specific building. To achieve this goal, it is necessary to choose a common thread that unites continuously the architectural experiences which must be evaluated within the context of the course. In the specific case of Rome, the use of the column orders has been chosen as the common thread. The Western architecture from Antiquity to Late Modernity, is characterized by the uninterrupted continuity of the use of column orders, especially in Rome. Even the Middle Age which seems to be a pause, in the case of Rome is a period of the reuse of ancient ruins, therefore of column orders. In this sense it is necessary to provide to the students a specialized vocabulary that allows them to use an appropriate lexicon for recognizing the principal elements of an architecture, in both constructive (firmitas), linguistic (venustas) and functional (utilitas) spheres. The goal is providing the tools for a subsequent material approach which is fundamental for the conservation. In order to know the language of the architecture of the past, a vocabulary is essential, which consists of the names of classical orders components. This vocabulary will be useful for understanding the architecture that goes from the Antiquity to the Early Modern Age (14th-17th centuries) in which the classical grammar was rediscovered and used till its decline in the contemporary age. Furthermore, it is necessary to gain the knowledge of the two fundamental construction schemes, the columnar trilithic one and the "Roman" one (arch on pillars) with all their variations within the time. In the Early Modern period, often the column order loses its structural function and preserves the figurative one (so once again the knowledge of Vitruvius). As far as utilitas is concerned, it is good to focus on a specific architectural type, which in this case is chosen as church architecture. In Rome, church architecture allows doing an 'evolutionary' analysis of the relationship between order and wall, and order and space. Thus, it is the best architectural type for teaching the column order in the Roman context. Providing students, our future architects, with the tools for recognizing these historical processes, allows them to act in the conservation field with conscience, having as their goal the intentio operis of the architecture itself. Because they have understood, after this course, the language and the form of architecture; the structure, the construction system and the function, the development of the space.
In addition to these tools, there are the historiographic categories with which the methods for the knowledge of the single artefact must be considered. So, the bibliographic study, the so-called state of art, and archival research: which can be understood as the most proper method of the architectural historiography. Regarding the first, the accurate reading of what has already been discovered and analysed about the building is the starting point. From that point we start our study on the building, so from the secondary sources (the already published literature). This feeds also our relationship with the primary sources which are chronicles, registers, payments, notarial deeds, letters, material purchase documents, etc. This degree of in-depth analysis is achievable with a mature awareness in the critical approach to the architecture by means of the cognitive tools of which we have spoken. We must start precisely with these tools and use them for the Architectural History to avoid inappropriate conservation operations.
Students will be required to prepare a final book including the exercises (which will be done from time to time and reviewed with critic sessions). The aim of this book is putting into practice the theory explained during the classes.

The texts will be specified in class and cover the topics covered in the course program. An integral part of the study will be the lectures held in class, of which pdf will be provided.

The course takes place in classrooms and through scheduled educational visits to buildings in the center of Rome.

Attendance is not mandatory but recommended because it facilitates understanding the topics covered and completing the exercise album assigned during the course.

The evaluation will focus on the answers to the oral questions asked during the exam and the quality of the album of exercises submitted by the candidate.

The questions will focus on the topics covered in class and during the didactic visits; particularly the language of the column orders and its relationship with the Roman building system. They will also focus on the assignments included in the album of exercises to be submitted for exams, including historical research papers on buildings selected from those visited.

• Introduction to the course.
  • Books: Reference texts will be provided during class for each topic covered. Pdf versions of the lectures will also be provided.


• The Classical Orders: Part One


• The Classical Orders: Part Two


• The rediscovery of the language of orders: Brunelleschi and Alberti.


• Renaissance treatises: Serlio.


• Renaissance treatises: Vignola and Palladio.


• Types of church facades: aedicule, attic, intersecting orders.


• Other types of church facades: with portico, with prothyrum, palatial, hybrid.


• The use of order in the interior of modern longitudinal churches.


• Case study: Giovanni Battista Mola's project for San Giovanni in Laterano.


• The use of order in the interior of central plan churches of the modern age.


• The use of orders in the domes and drums of modern domes.


• The use of orders in modern bell towers.


• Case Study: Historical Phases of Santa Maria Maggiore in Rome.


• Case study: between survay and "inventio" of the antiquity: the Renaissance drawings of the Arch of Aquino.


• Didactic visit of Rome's Renaissance palaces: Palazzo Farnese, Baldassini, Stati, Massimo alle Colonne, and Spada. The aim of the tour is to produce a historical paper.


• Didactic visit of the Church of the Gesù, Santa Maria in Aracoeli, and the Capitoline Hill. The purpose of the tour was to prepare a historical paper.


• Didactic visit to San Giovanni in Laterano and Santa Croce in Gerusalemme. The purpose of the visit was to prepare a historical paper.


• Didactic visit to San Carlino, Sant'Andrea al Quirinale, and Palazzo Barberini. The purpose of the visit was to prepare a historical paper.


• Didactic visit to the belltower and "Tiburio "of San'Andrea delle Fratte, to the palace of Propaganda Fide. The purpose of the visit was to prepare a historical paper.


• Seminar review of the assigned exercise book.


• Seminar review of the assigned exercise book.


• Writing an annotated bibliography and citing texts for the purpose of historical research: Part One.


• Writing an annotated bibliography and citing texts for the purpose of historical research: Part Two.