Bramante is better than Alberti

A seminar, in the manner of a forum, devoted to the practice of architectural critique and evaluation.

Twelve significant and comparable pairs of architectural works (individual’s full oeuvres, singular buildings), selected from different periods in the history of Western Architecture will be analyzed, discussed and evaluated in class (i.e. Alberti/Bramante; Rossi/Venturi; OMA/Herzog & de Meuron; etc). 

There will be required selected readings for the preparation of each class discussion, which will be structured in two parts: approximately a one hour and a half presentation by the instructor followed by an open discussion led by a pre-selected team of students in the class. A number of distinguished invited guests will visit specific seminars to present their views on the day’s topic and participate in the discussions. Students enrolled in this seminar will be expected to have previously acquired a broad and solid knowledge of the overall arch of Western Architecture history, from Classical Antiquity to the Present. 

Assignments: a) A mid-term short paper, b) students’ team presentations of selected cases during the last seminars of the semester, and c) a final individual paper to be based on an elaboration of each student’s contribution to the team presentation in assignment b). 

Prerequisites: Students must have had a prior study of Renaissance and Modern Western architecture as demonstrated by a copy of transcript or course syllabus.

Note: 15 spaces are reserved for MArch II students who select the course first in the limited enrollment course lottery (the course fulfills Techniques and Discourse requirement). 

Please note that the video is from the the last semester in which this course was offered.