Subject Semester (Fachsemester) FS21 in the Field of History and Theory of Architecture (gta Delbeke

Abstract

Theme for this History Research Studio is ‘The Ways of the Architect’. The Studio aims at exploring the artistic, social and cultural paradigms through which the figure of the early modern architect became institutionalized and canonized or, conversely, was questioned and challenged, through professional practices, craftsmanship, discourse, iconography, education, politics and so on.

Objective

Students are invited to identify and investigate their own specific case studies that pertain to this theme. The Studio will teach students to be both historically and critically competent. By combining different historiographical approaches, students will develop the skills to articulate their research questions, carry out appropriate primary and secondary study and write a complete paper. The structure of the studio will follow an input-exchange-output model. All members of the chair will provide input, to both the theme and method, as well as examples and references of research. There is also room for students to read and discuss together with the material prepared for them (short texts, summaries and reading lists) and the materials they found. Weekly group meetings and individual supervision by the chair members will help students in academic research and writing. Exchanges with the researchers at the chair are also beneficial to further develop their research themes and teaching.

Content

The cultural, economic, social and professional identification of the architect has been the object of countless debates and profound transformations over the early modern period. Far from being univocal, these transformations are a result of specific historical milieus and socio-cultural conditions. There is not such as the architect, but rather a vast universe of architectural practices and products, each the result of the unique conditions of a time and a place. This Master Studio invites students to adopt the figure of the architect as a primary investigative territory to critically examine the ways in which architecture is produced, conceptualised and historicised in a particular cultural and historical context. The courses and meetings of the semester will examine the professional, artistic, authorial and cultural identification of the architect as an opportunity for debate and discourse over architectural history during the early modern period (circa 1450-1850). Possible topics include: - How specific cultural and social contexts (e.g. Switzerland, Italy, France, England) impacted and codified specific ‘ways’ of being an architect (i.e. traditions of craftmanship, political/religious forces, economic conditions…). - The ways in which early modern architects developed a professional profile and promoted their own persona, for example through books or by establishing relationships with patrons or political figures. - How architects operated in the field, and the outcomes of their practice: buildings, temporary structures, books, drawings, paintings, decorations, furniture, design methods, pedagogy… - The social and cultural status of the architect and its public dimension and reception, for example through issues of gender, education, personal background, personality... - The position of the architect in relation to other figures, such as craftsmen, builders, plasterers, printers, engravers, patrons, politicians, writers, clients, colleagues, students… The course examines the ways in which architects cultivated and negotiated their identities, how they carried out their work and the forces at play along these processes, in relation to specific places, such as Switzerland, Italy or France. On the one hand, we understand the necessity of a canonical history; on the other hand, the Studio searches and tests approaches and methods of enquiry that challenge that canon and propose a different history. As the incipit of his Story of Art, Ernst Gombrich famously stated that ‘There is no such thing as art. There are only artists.’ Along similar lines, in order to understand how architectural practitioners operated, how their work was received and represented, and how their professional profiles were constructed, we have to also examine the cultures, artistic sensibilities, technological systems, politics and economies across which they existed. ‘The Ways of the Architect’ seeks to ‘start with the architect’ as a key entry point into the ways in which architecture itself was negotiated through the conditions of specific a place and time.

Resources