ARC 368R/388R
Filippo Brunelleschi: A Gothic High-Tech Architect

Instructor: Dr. Danilo Udovicki-Selb
Time and Place: Tuesdays 6:30-9:30

In the conclusion of his monumental study on Filippo Brunelleschi (1993), historian Howard Saalman compared this XVth century architect to Mies Van Der Rohe. Equally struck by the contemporary qualities of Brunelleschi's architecture, Bruno Zevi brought his "architectural language" into bearing with Frank Lloyd Wright's understanding of "Organic Architecture" (The Modern Language of Architecture), while historian Carlo Argan showed convincingly how Brunelleschi systematically denied any symmetrical (thus classicist) reading of his spaces. Neither, however, attempted to propose any critical explanation to these otherwise quite pertinent intuitions about the work of an architect who has been traditionally, if inaccurately, considered as the father of the Renaissance in architecture. The implicit aim of the seminar will be to uncover just that. The larger, explicit goal will be to search for an explanation to how a man trained as a simple jeweler was able--apparently ex nihilio--to solve in one breath a problem the Florentines wrestled with unsuccessfully for an entire century, that is, how to build a dome over the huge crossing of Arnolfo di Cambio's Santa Maria del Fiore Cathedral.

After a series of lectures and discussions in the first part of the semester, individual students will present their own research on the subject.

Requirements:
Class attendance,
Participation in discussions,
Presentation of selected topic
Research paper.
Grading: based equally on each of requirements
Paper due at the end of the Term.