Particular Questions in Architectural Theory: Ruskin & Us: Reading, Reactions, Relevance

Abstract

Few thinkers influenced the intellectual sphere of the late 19th Century as much as the English dilettanti writer, painter, teacher, art critic, social reformer, conservationist and architectural theoretician John Ruskin. Our seminar will analyse texts of Ruskin and we will discuss the potential relevance of his reform ideas for today’s building.

Objective

Students or student groups will be asked to analyse one text and present it in the seminar. We will then compare different texts and locate them in their historical contexts. Having clarified its original meaning we will discuss in what way it could or could not be relevant today. The students will learn both to try and understand a text in its historic setting and critically question the same text for its relevance today.

Content

Few thinkers influenced the intellectual sphere of the late 19th Century as much as the English dilettanti writer, painter, teacher, art critic, social reformer, conservationist and architectural theoretician John Ruskin. The incredible variety of his topics – from aesthetics, social questions to environmental questions - influenced William Morris, Octavia Hill, Mahatma Gandhi, Karl Marx, Marcel Proust and many others more. The architectural theories of Frank Lloyd Wright, Adolf Loos, Hermann Muthesius and Walter Gropius (to just name a few) are inconceivable without takeovers from Ruskin’s thoughts. Social scientists like Patrick Geddes and Otto Neurath fell back on his ideas of economic reform, workers education and controlling urbanisation. Especially visionary were his early observations of the negative effects of industrialization on the environment which led to first protection measures like buying up farmland in the Lake District. The preservation movement owes Ruskin the idea of the „Altersspuren“, the documentation of minor monuments and the foundation of the National Trust of England. Our seminar will analyse texts, paintings, drawings and photographs of Ruskin and we will discuss the potential relevance of his reforms for today’s building.

Resources