Class Architectural Theory 4.2

The programme of this course unit aims to foster students' interest in the discourses of composition, theoretical movements and architectural languages that marked the second half of the twentieth century and continue into the contemporary period, through the study of public spaces and buildings for collective use. The course unit promotes the development of critical thinking on the relationships between public space, collective facilities, recent history, technology and architectural culture. It also aims to provide students with the knowledge required to understand and develop methods of analysis concerning the relationships between theory and design practice, between architectural concepts and their formal and spatial materialisations, considering the specific conditions of spaces for public and collective use.

Not applicable

Complexity and contradiction; reason and analogy; continuity of the modern and individual expression. Theory, city and architectural form: typology, memory, context and urban form. Aldo Rossi, Giorgio Grassi and Rafael Moneo. Language, meaning and architectural culture: architecture as communication, representation and experience. Robert Venturi, Charles Jencks, Peter Eisenman and Bernard Tschumi. Public space, city and collective practices. Contemporary approaches: Álvaro Siza, Eduardo Souto de Moura, Kengo Kuma and Herzog & de Meuron. Architecture, ecology and sustainability: Mohsen Mostafavi and William McDonough. Digital culture in architecture: transformations in the processes of design, representation and architectural production. Antoine Picon. Digital turn and digital fabrication: authorship, algorithm, variation, information and digital fabrication. Mario Carpo, Achim Menges and Rivka Oxman.

The course unit is developed through theoretical-practical sessions, supported by the presentation and analysis of images, texts and case studies. Classes promote the contextualisation of themes, critical discussion and the articulation between disciplinary contents, methods of analysis and reflective exercises. Students are encouraged to participate actively in the discussion of the case studies presented, developing an argumentative reflection on architecture, public space and collective facilities. The teaching-learning process values the relationship between theory and practice, as well as the construction of tools for architectural reading and interpretation. At the end of the course unit, students are expected to produce a well-founded essay, accompanied by images, and to present it in class. The essay and its presentation, the written test and the personal notebook/portfolio constitute the assessment elements, together with attendance and individual participation.

Carpo, M. (2011). The alphabet and the algorithm. MIT Press. Carpo, M. (Ed.). (2013). The digital turn in architecture 1992-2012. Wiley. Carpo, M. (2017). The second digital turn: Design beyond intelligence. MIT Press. Carpo, M. (2023). Beyond digital: Design and automation at the end of modernity. MIT Press. Colomina, B., & Galán, I. G. (Eds.). (2022). Radical pedagogies: Experiments in architectural education in the post-World War II era. MIT Press. Eisenman, P. (1987). Houses of cards. Oxford University Press. Frampton, K. (1983). Towards a critical regionalism. In H. Foster (Ed.), The anti-aesthetic: Essays on postmodern culture. Bay Press. Graves, M. (1982). Michael Graves: Buildings and projects. Rizzoli. Hays, K. M. (Ed.). (1998). Architecture theory since 1968. MIT Press. Jencks, C. (1986). What is post-modernism? Academy Editions. Jencks, C. (2011). The story of post-modernism: Five decades of the ironic, iconic and critical in architecture. Wiley.