Laurent Stalder: Catalogue data in Spring Semester 2022 |  |
| Name | Prof. Dr. Laurent Stalder |
| Field | Theory of Architecture |
| Address | I. f. Geschichte/Theorie der Arch. ETH Zürich, HIL E 64.3 Stefano-Franscini-Platz 5 8093 Zürich SWITZERLAND |
| Telephone | +41 44 633 76 63 |
| laurent.stalder@gta.arch.ethz.ch | |
| Department | Architecture |
| Relationship | Full Professor |
| Number | Title | ECTS | Hours | Lecturers | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| 052-0804-00L | History and Theory of Architecture II  | 2 credits | 2V + 2U | M. Delbeke, T. Avermaete, L. Stalder, P. Ursprung | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Abstract | Introduction and overview of the history and theory of architecture from the Renaissance to the nineteenth century. (Prof. Dr. M. Delbeke) Introduction in the methods and instruments of the history of art and architecture. (Prof. Dr. M. Delbeke, Prof. Dr. L. Stalder, Prof. Dr. P. Ursprung, Prof. Dr. T. Avermaete) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Learning objective | Acquiring basic knowledge of the history of architecture and architectural theory, resp. of the methods and instruments of research into architecture. Being able to identify the main architectural issues and debates of the period and geography covered in the course. Acquiring the attitudes and tools to develop a historically informed reading of the built environment. Acquiring the tools to be able to draw on historical, theoretical and critical research to nourish one's architectural culture. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Content | The course History and Theory of Architecture II offers a chronological and thematic overview of the architecture and architectural theory produced in Europe from the 15th up to 19th century. Thematic lectures about key questions at play during the period will be combined with the in-depth analysis of historical buildings. Themes will cover the emergence and development of Vitruvian design theory and practice up to the 19th century, and related issues such as the emergence of the architect; the media of architectural design and practice (drawings, models, building materials); patterns and media of dissemination and influence (micro-architecture, imagery); building types (the palazzo and the villa); questions of beauty and ornament; questions of patronage (e.g. the Roman papacy); the relation of buildings to the city (e.g. the development of European capitals); attitudes towards history (origin myths, historicism); the question of the monument. The course Fundamentals of the History and Theory of Architecture II consists of different parts, each dealing with a particular area of research into the history of art and architecture (1) The historiography of architecture (M. Delbeke) (2) Architectural media (L. Stalder). (3) Architecture and art (P. Ursprung) (4) Urbanism and the Commons (T. Avermaete) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Literature | Literature and handouts will be provided over the course of the term. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Prerequisites / Notice | For the course History and Theory of Architecture II students will rely on assisted self study to acquire basic knowledge of the canonical history of architecture in Europe. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 052-0806-00L | History and Theory of Architecture IV | 2 credits | 2V | L. Stalder | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Abstract | This two-semester course is an introduction to the history of architecture from the Second Industrial Revolution in the 1850s to the Oil Crisis in the 1970s in Europe. Students will be able to identify the “things”—technical objects and ensembles—that transformed architecture, and to relate them to the technical, scientific, and cultural concerns that introduced them as key features of modernity. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Learning objective | To introduce students to the history and theory of architecture, the course has three objectives. First, students will be able to identify the “things” that transformed architecture in modernity, and the crucial events, buildings, theories, and actors that characterize their history. Second, students will be able to describe how these “things” operated at different scales, focusing less on the formal level, and naming instead the different forms of expertise that constituted them historically, as well as the processes within which they were embedded. Third, students will be able to reflect on a series of apparatuses, devices, and building parts that are in fact micro-architectures which have often been neglected, despite their pivotal role in shaping the daily lives of modern societies. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Content | The course proposes a new approach to the study of the history and theory of architecture in Europe during modernity. It focuses less on single architects or their buildings, and more on those “things” that have brought profound transformations in the built environment and daily life over the last 200 years, such as the revolving door, the clock, and the partition. The notion of “thing” includes both the concrete building parts and the concerns associated with them, such as material performance, social synchronization, and individual expression. To understand buildings as assemblages of “things,” therefore, does not mean to diminish their significance, but on the contrary to add reality to them, to understand them in terms of the complex, historically situated, and diverse concerns within which they were designed. Each lecture introduces one “thing” through a genealogy that shaped it, from patents and scientific discoveries and technological advancement, to cinema, the visual arts, and literature. A set of renowned projects as well as lesser-known buildings from all around Europe offer a variety of case studies to describe these “things,” to understand how they operated in relation with one another, and to identify the theories and tactics that architects mobilized to make sense of them. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Lecture notes | https://stalder.arch.ethz.ch/lectures/history-and-theory-of-architecture-iv_en | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Prerequisites / Notice | Location: 1st Hour: Lecture, HPV G 4 (LIVESTREAM: https://video.ethz.ch/live/lectures/hoenggerberg/hpv/hpv-g-4.html; RECORDINGS: https://www.video.ethz.ch/lectures/d-arch/2022/spring/052-0806-00L) 2nd Hour: Seminars in groups, HIL (see Website: https://stalder.arch.ethz.ch/lectures/history-and-theory-of-architecture-iv_en) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 052-0814-22L | History, Criticism and Theory in Architecture: Built Accidents  | 2 credits | 2S | C. M. Peca, L. Stalder | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Abstract | The accident as a sudden and unforeseeable event contradicts the rational aspirations of modern architecture, even if with every new invention its failure is simultaneously designed. How does modernity deal with its accidents and what explanatory patterns are used to place the disastrous events back into a structure of meaning? | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Learning objective | 1. Learning from accidents: As a first step, the analysis of accidents enables us to better understand the functioning of systems, devices and techniques. For on the one hand, faults and malfunctions in technological ensembles refer to the intended mode of operation, which is now absent. On the other hand, accidents occur suddenly and unexpectedly, so that their course of events must be reconstructed through subsequent investigations and expert reports. Tools of the theory and critique of architecture sharpen our view to trace a learning process of architecture along the discussion of accidents in the professional journals. 2. Explaining accidents: In a second step, accident scenes from literary and cinematic narratives are examined. In them, attempts to explain the cause of unfortunate coincidences and man-made accidents can be found. These are an expression of the attempt to cope with inexplicable events by transferring them into known patterns of meaning. The analysis of the explanatory patterns in turn sharpens the eye for their rhetoric and narratives, which can then also be recognised in the discourse of architecture. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Content | The built environment in Europe (and beyond) has undergone major changes in the course of industrialisation. Rationalised production processes, scientific expertise, targeted materials research and technological as well as infrastructural developments, testify to the attempt to regulate the environment in a targeted manner through a series of systems, devices and techniques. Not only do technical objects move into the architecture, the buildings themselves become technological ensembles that are connected to infrastructure networks via lines, cables and electromagnetic waves and are thus interconnected. Building on the seminars and lectures on the "things of modernity", this course asks about the consequences and concatenations of unfortunate circumstances when these "things" fail and refuse to serve. As the technical complexity and infrastructural interconnectedness of the built environment increases, so does the vulnerability of these technological ensembles. The unforeseen accident runs counter to the purposefully planned technology and manifests itself in a long list of industrial accidents, technological disasters and maximum credible accident (MCA). Together we trace the shift within modernity from calculating and regulating potential hazards of the environment to anticipating and safeguarding against the hazards of technology. In this course, we work both with investigative reports that seek to reconstruct, on a factual level, how an accident occurred, and with literary and cinematic works that construct explanations for the unpredictable events on a narrative level. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Prerequisites / Notice | The number of participants is limited to 20. A short letter of motivation via mail is expected for application. (peca@arch.ethz.ch) The assessment consists of (1) the participation in the discussions, (2) a discussion moderation and (3) the essay. Submission of the essay: 26.05.2022. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Competencies |
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| 052-0816-22L | Seminar Architectural Criticism Does not take place this semester. Not offered in FS22. | 2 credits | 2G | L. Stalder, A. Stahl | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Abstract | This course is not offered in FS22. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Learning objective | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Prerequisites / Notice | Especially for students from the 5th semester Bachelor. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 052-0818-22L | Theory of Architecture Seminar: Datascapes in Architecture | 2 credits | 2S | N. Bredella, L. Stalder | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Abstract | Today, computational design increasingly relies on the processing and visualization of data: from processes of simulation, procedures of manufacturing to the optimization of complex building processes. Looking at the post-war period, this seminar critically discusses current approaches of data-based design, considering the political, social, and economic interests that conditioned the designs. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Learning objective | Using examples of contemporary architecture as well as historical examples from the post-war period, the seminar attempts to provide a critical approach to the significance of datascapes for architectural practice. The aim is on the one hand to introduce theoretical reflections on data-based planning processes and on the other hand to identify their significance for the design process and to develop own criteria for dealing with datascapes. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Content | The seminar investigates the significance of datascapes for architectural practice. Students will discuss sources from architectural history, science and technology and media studies in the context of analyzing historical and current design projects. One focus will be placed on projects of the Media Lab (MIT) of the 1960s and 1970s, which will be questioned in terms of their topicality. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Lecture notes | To follow | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Prerequisites / Notice | To follow | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 063-0802-22L | History and Theory of Architecture: New Brutalism Course languages: English and German. | 2 credits | 2V | M. Delbeke, L. Stalder | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Abstract | The course offers an advanced introduction into the practices and debates of architectural history and theory. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Learning objective | Basic knowledge of the history and theory of the architecture. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Content | Maarten Delbeke, Rococo This lecture series explores and interprets the rococo church architecture of what is now Southern Germany, by examining its religious and political context, by proposing a close reading of a number of case-studies, and by offering a thematic analysis of some of its key features. The course is intended at once as a thorough introduction and an open-ended process of discovery, where preliminary observations will be weighed and discussed collectively. Laurent Stalder: What is new about New Brutalism? LIVESTREAM/RECORDINGS: https://www.video.ethz.ch/lectures/d-arch/2022/spring/063-0802-22L Taking the English avant-garde as an example, the lecture examines the deep transformations in architecture during the postwar period. The focus lies on the question of performance in architecture, from constructive questions (e.g., prefabrication), structural challenges (e.g., theory of plasticity), physical properties (e.g., isolation), infrastructural changes (e.g., pipes and machines), to spatial challenges and their aesthetic consequences for people, architecture, and the environment. The goal of the lecture is to use the recent architectural history to shed light on different concepts still relevant for contemporary architecture. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 064-0004-22L | Advanced Topics in History and Theory of Architecture | 3 credits | 2K | M. Delbeke, T. Avermaete, L. Stalder, P. Ursprung | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Abstract | Advanced Research Methods in the History and Theory of Art and Architecture | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Learning objective | Acquiring insight in the different possible research methods available to PhD-researchers in the fields of the history and theory of art and architecture. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Content | Today, it is still common to think of architecture in terms of individual authors, styles and canonical buildings. Any study following this logic, however, will always miss out on the complexity of a practice embedded in, and actively contributing to, the global process of modernisation. For the factors that have transformed architecture worldwide in the last two hundred years have been less individual figures, formal accomplishments or singular buildings, than new technologies, organisational models and professional alignments. One way of grasping these processes, and by extension better understanding architecture’s central role in the continual unfolding of modernity, is to shift our attention from the discipline’s internal discourse to what buildings are actually made of. In other words, to think of architecture as an assemblage of technical objects—or ‘things’—like elevators, pipes, air conditioning systems, and so on. This doctoral-level course will encourage students to think about buildings in terms of ‘things’ by introducing them to a vast literature on the ontological, epistemological and social politics of objects and matter more in general. Students successfully completing the course will be in a position to read buildings from an object-oriented perspective. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||