The Department of Architectural Restoration and History of Architecture offers courses related to historical surveys, sustainable techniques for conservation, and the application of sustainable strategies for preserving context and heritage. Topics in Renaissance architecture are featured in select courses.
3 semester credits. This course consists of theoretical and practical approaches that gradually and comprehensively allow the student to approach the logic of composite syntax and design problematics of contemporary architecture. Students will conduct a critical analysis of concrete examples of architecture through the works of globally recognized architects, presented in individual lessons focusing on a direct and cross-sectional approach in order to draw out significant relationships of methods and language from their projects and singular experiences. The principal objective posed by this course is to understand the original features of an architectural project or research, starting from a reflection upon the "elements of architectural composition," their application, and the evolution of architecture. The analysis is conducted with a historical timeframe, starting from a study of the masters of architecture such as Boullée and Palladio and how the application of their teachings is located in subsequent architects such as Thomas Jefferson and arrives at the works of masterpieces modern architects such as Le Corbusier, Louis Khan, Mies van der Rohe, and Frank Lloyd Wright and those from the Italian panorama including Carlo Scarpa. The concluding studies will be concentrated on current masters working in the field such as Alvaro Siza, Peter Zumthor, and Santiago Calatrava.
3 semester credits. This course explores the principal architects, monuments and themes of fifteenth and sixteenth century Italian architecture. The course includes site visits in the city of Florence. Emphasis will be on Renaissance architecture in Florence, but will also include architectural developments in Rome, Urbino, Mantua, Verona and Vicenza. Special topics will include: architectural theory, Medici and papal patronage, urban planning, and church and palace design. A special focus will be dedicated to architects: Brunelleschi, Alberti, Michelozzo, Giuliano Sangallo, Bramante, Antonio Sangallo the Younger, Michelangelo, Giulio Romano and Palladio. Visits to key Renaissance buildings and urban spaces in Florence are included.
3 semester credits. This course spans the history of Italian gardens from the 1200s to the 1700s. The course explores the evolution of the Italian garden landscape starting from the ancient Roman roots and the emergence of herbal gardens in medieval monasteries for medicinal remedies to the flourishing of early Renaissance masterpieces in the great palaces and villas of Italy. The early transformation of the garden from functional to recreational purposes will be examined in religious and humanistic contexts. A second phase of evolution from the recreation to symbols of power will be introduced through the gardens of ruling families and religious figures who combined garden aesthetics with experimentation and horticultural innovation until the late Renaissance. The course will conclude with the waning of the Italian garden in the 18th century, which ceded the domination of Italian gardens to the landscaping practices of France.