Architecture, particularly in its integrative role in culture, is nowadays seriously challenged by specialised research and short-term interests. This one-year M.Phil, course aims to provide a comprehensive understanding of architecture, rooted in the humanities. This is undertaken through a study of history – the most fundamental access to the reality of architecture – and of philosophy – the form of reasoning most capable of integrating a range of specialist knowledge into a meaningful whole. The situational structure of architecture serves as a foundation for a more fully developed human ecology.
1. Problems of interpretation in Architecture
The main intention of the course is to establish a basis for the interpretation and understanding of the current reality of architecture. The method developed in the course will follow the principles of contemporary phenomenology and hertneneutics. The same method will also be used in the interpretation of the broader historical background.
2. Selected themes from Architectural History
The transition from the late Baroque to the Enlightenment separates Traditional from Modern culture. This period of transition will be used as a reference for the selection and interpretation of the following critical themes:
a) The problem of architectural order, its foundations and cultural context, with particular emphasis on the classical and Christian tradition, and their culmination at the beginning of the eighteenth century.
b) The conditions of modernity, the role of scientific and historical knowledge in the formation of a new architectural thinking, the problems of cultural autonomy, historicism, style, representation and meaning.
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