The Moment of the Monument

Built around two practica–involving the \”excavation\” of an existing monument and the design of a future monument–the course examines the rise and fall of the Western cult of monuments from antiquity to the present. Major themes: monumentality as a value in the history of architecture, materials and monuments, monuments and inscription, deliberate and accidental monuments, and anti-monumentalism. Among the authors represented in the readings: Propertius, Dante, Petrarch, Foscolo, De Champeaux, Rodenbach, Mallarme, Nietzsche, Riegl, and Freud. Among the architectural artifacts examined, works by Chalgrin, Soufflot, Bartholdi, Sacconi, Muguruza/Mendez, Terragni, Sironi, BBPR, and Maya Lin.