The objective of this course is to provide an overview of the main ideas in modern Viennese architecture. The course will focus on architectural ideas and social concepts in architecture that were invented in modern Vienna (starting with Loos, Wagner, Sitte, Holzmeister, Hollein, Hundertwasser, Feuerstein, to contemporary architects such as Coop Himmelb(l)au, Krischanitz, Delugan-Meissl and others) and that have influenced the international architectural discourse.
Rather than a chronological survey, the course will be organized thematically, with numerous examples drawn from early modernism up to contemporary practice. Even today the most challenging examples of Viennese architecture and city planning (Frauenwerkstatt, Miss Sargfabrik, Gürtelbögen, Pilotengasse, Flugfeld Aspern etc.) derive their tone and ethos from the heady years of the 1910s and 20s, when manifestos circulated in Vienna among young artists and architects and sponsored ambitious architectural projects such as Karl Marx Hof, the Einküchenhaus Heimhof or the large Gänsehäufl baths, to name but a few.
Course work involves analysis, interpretation and written assignments of 20th century theories and buildings in Vienna. Selection of buildings varies from semester to semester. Site visits and field study included.
Prerequisites:
None
Learning outcomes:
The student will learn the vocabulary and the general debates on contemporary architecture. Viennese examples are examined in detail in order to illustrate the influence of social, political and economic factors on the formation of the built environment as well as its effects. Through site visits, sketching and analysis, as well as ensuing discussions, the student will gain skills to actively conceptualize architectural and urbanistic issues. In composing a term paper, the student will synthesize different representations and perspectives together and reach a profound understanding of architecture.
Method of presentation:
Lectures with powerpoints; discussion of texts and buildings, site visits.
Required work and form of assessment:
Attendance at lectures and tours is mandatory (see Vienna attendance policy in your Vienna Student Handbook). Class participation (10%); sketch book (10%), 10-page term paper (30%); 1-hour written midterm examination (20%) and 1,5-hour written final examination (30%).
(Sketch book: To record the site visits - with annotated survey drawings, and notes on first impressions and for use in class. Students will develop drawing, observation, and visualization skills. Term paper: The qualifying paper is a short scholarly work of original research and analysis. It is expected to be approximately ten pages long, plus notes and bibliography. The paper develops and expands information and ideas already examined in class.)
content:
WEEKLY TOPICS
1.Introduction: Architecture vs. Building.
Recitation: Representations of Architecture
2.Architecture and Morality: Sensuality vs. Puritanism
Excursion: BEHF, Hollein, Clemens Kirsch, Krischanitz, Querkraft, Rataplan, Steinmayr & Mascher
3.Mask and the Metropolis
Excursion: Postsparkasse, Plecnik, Wienzeile
4.Ornament and Crime
Excursion: MIchaelerplatz, American Bar, Kleines Café
5.Language Games
Excursion: Palais Wittgenstein
6.Midterm
7.Panopticon vs Panorama
Excursion: Ringstrasse, Kirche am Steinhof, Narrenturm
8.City as a Battlefield
Excursion: Karl-Marx-Hof, Werkbundsiedlung, Gänsehäufl, Schrebergärten, Selbstversorgersiedlung
9.Architecture of Social Democracy
Excursion: Sargfabrik, Kabelwerk, FrauenWerkStadt, Pilotengasse, Gasometer, RoSa
10. Carneval Culture
Excursion: Prater, Dogenhof, Hundertwasserhaus, Donauinsel, Badeschiff, Haus des Meeres
11. The Duck, the Shed, and the Cell Phone
Excursion: Media Tower, Uniqa, Nouvel
12. Final Exam
Required readings:
(assigned from)
1.Jormakka & Kuhlmann, Lost in Space, Skriptum TU Wien 2007; Arthur C. Danto, The Transfiguration of the Commonplace : a Philosophy of Art, Cambridge, Mass. : Harvard University Press, 1981
2.David Watkin, Morality and Architecture Revisited, Chicago: University of Chicago Press 2001; Carl E. Schorske, Fin de Siecle Vienna. Politics and Culture, New York: Vintage Books 1981.
3.Gottfried Semper, “Der Stil” in Fritz Neumeyer (Ed.), Quellentexte zur Architekturtheorie ,
München, Berlin, New York: Prestel Verlag, 2002, p. 248-271; Otto Wagner, Modern Architecture. Reprint of the Edition of 1902. Santa Monica: Getty Center for the History of Art and the Humanities 1988
4.Adolf Loos,”Ornament and Crime” in Ulrich Conrads (Ed.), Programs and Manifestos on 20th century Architecture, Cambridge, London: MIT Press 1989, p.19-25. Georg Simmel, “The Metropolis and Modern Life” in Kurt H. Wolff, The Sociology of Georg Simmel, New York: The Free Press 1950, p.409-424; Beatriz Colomina, “Interior” in Colomina ,Privacy and Publicity. Cambridge, Mass: MIT Press1994, p.232-281
5.Allan Janik & Stephen Toulmin, Wittgenstein’s Vienna. New York: Simon and Shuster 1973, p.67-
201
6.Midterm
7.Camillo SItte, „Der Städtebau nach seinen künstlerischen Grundsätzen (1889) in Fritz Neumeyer
(Ed.), Quellentexte zur Architekturtheorie , München, Berlin, New York: Prestel Verlag, 2002, p.
300-317, Anthony Vidler, “Urban Anxiety and Urban Design” in Datutop 27: The Art of the City, University of Technology Tampere, 2005, p. 108-121; Kari Jormakka, "The View from the Tower"; in Datutop 27: The Art of the City, University of Technology Tampere, 2005, p.122-141.
8.Eve Blau, The architecture of Red Vienna, 1919-1934, Cambridge, Mass: The MIT Press, c1999, Luise Lipschitz and Bertha Blaschke, Architecture in Vienna 1850-1930: Historicism, Jugendstil, New Realism. Wien: Springer Verlag, 2002, Wolfgang Foerster, 80 years of Social Housing, in http://www.wien.gv.at/english/housing/promotion/ (September 7, 2010)
9.W. Foerster et al (Ed), Housing in Vienna, Innovative, Social and Ecological.Vienna: Exhibition
Catalogue AZW, 2008
10. Koolhaas, Junkspace. Sze Tsung Leong, “And then there was shopping” in Koolhaas et al (Ed.), Harvard Design School Guide to Shopping, Koeln: Taschen Verlag 2001, p.129-155, F. Hundertwasser, “Mould Manifesto against Rationalism in Architecture” in Ulrich Conrads (Ed.), Programs and Manifestos on 20th century Architecture, Cambridge, London: MIT Press 1989, p.157-160.
11. Antti Ahlava, Architecture in Consumer Society, Helsinki: University of Art and Design Pub. 2002, Ventury, Scott-Brown, Izenour, Learning from Las Vegas, Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press 2000, Jon Godbun, “Public Private Pedestrianship in Las Vegas. Towards a Critical Experiantalism of the Inhabitable Image” in Karin Jascheke/ Silke Ötsch, Stripping Las Vegas. A Contextual Review of Casino Resort Architecture, Weimar: University of Weimar Press 2004, p. 153-170.
Recommended readings:
August Sarnitz. Architecture in Vienna. Wien: Springer Verlag, 2009
A detailed list of further readings covering individual artists and areas of study, a list of reading assignments and suggested paper topics, and a list of places and museums to visit will be distributed in class.
Brief Biography of Instructor:
Professor Dörte Kuhlmann (Germany, Austria), professor of Architecture Theory, Gender Studies and design.
Dörte Kuhlmann studied architecture in Hanover and Vienna. She received her PhD at the Bauhaus
University in Weimar. Since 1998 she has been teaching at the Institute of Architectural Sciences at Vienna University of Technology. She is author of numerous books on contemporary architecture and gender studies including Mensch und Natur. Alvar Aalto in Deutschland (1998), Metamorphosen des
Organizismus (1998), Cybertecture (2001), Building Gender (2002), Building Power (2003), Raum,
Macht und Differenz (2005), Wood with a Difference (2009). She has lectured at different architecture schools, including MIT, SciArc, Bauhaus University Weimar, UBT Prishtina and UIC/ Chicago.
Professor Kari Jormakka is a Finnish architect, historian, critic and pedagogue. He studied architecture at Helsinki University of Technology and Tampere University of Technology, completing his PhD in 1991. He is currently Professor of Architecture Theory at Vienna University of Technology, Vienna, Austria. Previously he has taught at Harvard University, the Bauhaus in Weimar, University of Illinois at Chicago, The Ohio State University and Tampere University of Technology. He has authored 12 books and more than a hundred papers on architectural theory and history.
The objective of this course is to provide an overview of the main ideas in modern Viennese architecture. The course will focus on architectural ideas and social concepts in architecture that were invented in modern Vienna (starting with Loos, Wagner, Sitte, Holzmeister, Hollein, Hundertwasser, Feuerstein, to contemporary architects such as Coop Himmelb(l)au, Krischanitz, Delugan-Meissl and others) and that have influenced the international architectural discourse.
Rather than a chronological survey, the course will be organized thematically, with numerous examples drawn from early modernism up to contemporary practice. Even today the most challenging examples of Viennese architecture and city planning (Frauenwerkstatt, Miss Sargfabrik, Gürtelbögen, Pilotengasse, Flugfeld Aspern etc.) derive their tone and ethos from the heady years of the 1910s and 20s, when manifestos circulated in Vienna among young artists and architects and sponsored ambitious architectural projects such as Karl Marx Hof, the Einküchenhaus Heimhof or the large Gänsehäufl baths, to name but a few.
Course work involves analysis, interpretation and written assignments of 20th century theories and buildings in Vienna. Selection of buildings varies from semester to semester. Site visits and field study included.
None
The student will learn the vocabulary and the general debates on contemporary architecture. Viennese examples are examined in detail in order to illustrate the influence of social, political and economic factors on the formation of the built environment as well as its effects. Through site visits, sketching and analysis, as well as ensuing discussions, the student will gain skills to actively conceptualize architectural and urbanistic issues. In composing a term paper, the student will synthesize different representations and perspectives together and reach a profound understanding of architecture.
Lectures with powerpoints; discussion of texts and buildings, site visits.
Attendance at lectures and tours is mandatory (see Vienna attendance policy in your Vienna Student Handbook). Class participation (10%); sketch book (10%), 10-page term paper (30%); 1-hour written midterm examination (20%) and 1,5-hour written final examination (30%).
(Sketch book: To record the site visits - with annotated survey drawings, and notes on first impressions and for use in class. Students will develop drawing, observation, and visualization skills. Term paper: The qualifying paper is a short scholarly work of original research and analysis. It is expected to be approximately ten pages long, plus notes and bibliography. The paper develops and expands information and ideas already examined in class.)
WEEKLY TOPICS
1.Introduction: Architecture vs. Building.
Recitation: Representations of Architecture
2.Architecture and Morality: Sensuality vs. Puritanism
Excursion: BEHF, Hollein, Clemens Kirsch, Krischanitz, Querkraft, Rataplan, Steinmayr & Mascher
3.Mask and the Metropolis
Excursion: Postsparkasse, Plecnik, Wienzeile
4.Ornament and Crime
Excursion: MIchaelerplatz, American Bar, Kleines Café
5.Language Games
Excursion: Palais Wittgenstein
6.Midterm
7.Panopticon vs Panorama
Excursion: Ringstrasse, Kirche am Steinhof, Narrenturm
8.City as a Battlefield
Excursion: Karl-Marx-Hof, Werkbundsiedlung, Gänsehäufl, Schrebergärten, Selbstversorgersiedlung
9.Architecture of Social Democracy
Excursion: Sargfabrik, Kabelwerk, FrauenWerkStadt, Pilotengasse, Gasometer, RoSa
10. Carneval Culture
Excursion: Prater, Dogenhof, Hundertwasserhaus, Donauinsel, Badeschiff, Haus des Meeres
11. The Duck, the Shed, and the Cell Phone
Excursion: Media Tower, Uniqa, Nouvel
12. Final Exam
(assigned from)
1.Jormakka & Kuhlmann, Lost in Space, Skriptum TU Wien 2007; Arthur C. Danto, The Transfiguration of the Commonplace : a Philosophy of Art, Cambridge, Mass. : Harvard University Press, 1981
2.David Watkin, Morality and Architecture Revisited, Chicago: University of Chicago Press 2001; Carl E. Schorske, Fin de Siecle Vienna. Politics and Culture, New York: Vintage Books 1981.
3.Gottfried Semper, “Der Stil” in Fritz Neumeyer (Ed.), Quellentexte zur Architekturtheorie ,
München, Berlin, New York: Prestel Verlag, 2002, p. 248-271; Otto Wagner, Modern Architecture. Reprint of the Edition of 1902. Santa Monica: Getty Center for the History of Art and the Humanities 1988
4.Adolf Loos,”Ornament and Crime” in Ulrich Conrads (Ed.), Programs and Manifestos on 20th century Architecture, Cambridge, London: MIT Press 1989, p.19-25. Georg Simmel, “The Metropolis and Modern Life” in Kurt H. Wolff, The Sociology of Georg Simmel, New York: The Free Press 1950, p.409-424; Beatriz Colomina, “Interior” in Colomina ,Privacy and Publicity. Cambridge, Mass: MIT Press1994, p.232-281
5.Allan Janik & Stephen Toulmin, Wittgenstein’s Vienna. New York: Simon and Shuster 1973, p.67-
201
6.Midterm
7.Camillo SItte, „Der Städtebau nach seinen künstlerischen Grundsätzen (1889) in Fritz Neumeyer
(Ed.), Quellentexte zur Architekturtheorie , München, Berlin, New York: Prestel Verlag, 2002, p.
300-317, Anthony Vidler, “Urban Anxiety and Urban Design” in Datutop 27: The Art of the City, University of Technology Tampere, 2005, p. 108-121; Kari Jormakka, "The View from the Tower"; in Datutop 27: The Art of the City, University of Technology Tampere, 2005, p.122-141.
8.Eve Blau, The architecture of Red Vienna, 1919-1934, Cambridge, Mass: The MIT Press, c1999, Luise Lipschitz and Bertha Blaschke, Architecture in Vienna 1850-1930: Historicism, Jugendstil, New Realism. Wien: Springer Verlag, 2002, Wolfgang Foerster, 80 years of Social Housing, in http://www.wien.gv.at/english/housing/promotion/ (September 7, 2010)
9.W. Foerster et al (Ed), Housing in Vienna, Innovative, Social and Ecological.Vienna: Exhibition
Catalogue AZW, 2008
10. Koolhaas, Junkspace. Sze Tsung Leong, “And then there was shopping” in Koolhaas et al (Ed.), Harvard Design School Guide to Shopping, Koeln: Taschen Verlag 2001, p.129-155, F. Hundertwasser, “Mould Manifesto against Rationalism in Architecture” in Ulrich Conrads (Ed.), Programs and Manifestos on 20th century Architecture, Cambridge, London: MIT Press 1989, p.157-160.
11. Antti Ahlava, Architecture in Consumer Society, Helsinki: University of Art and Design Pub. 2002, Ventury, Scott-Brown, Izenour, Learning from Las Vegas, Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press 2000, Jon Godbun, “Public Private Pedestrianship in Las Vegas. Towards a Critical Experiantalism of the Inhabitable Image” in Karin Jascheke/ Silke Ötsch, Stripping Las Vegas. A Contextual Review of Casino Resort Architecture, Weimar: University of Weimar Press 2004, p. 153-170.
August Sarnitz. Architecture in Vienna. Wien: Springer Verlag, 2009
A detailed list of further readings covering individual artists and areas of study, a list of reading assignments and suggested paper topics, and a list of places and museums to visit will be distributed in class.
Professor Dörte Kuhlmann (Germany, Austria), professor of Architecture Theory, Gender Studies and design.
Dörte Kuhlmann studied architecture in Hanover and Vienna. She received her PhD at the Bauhaus
University in Weimar. Since 1998 she has been teaching at the Institute of Architectural Sciences at Vienna University of Technology. She is author of numerous books on contemporary architecture and gender studies including Mensch und Natur. Alvar Aalto in Deutschland (1998), Metamorphosen des
Organizismus (1998), Cybertecture (2001), Building Gender (2002), Building Power (2003), Raum,
Macht und Differenz (2005), Wood with a Difference (2009). She has lectured at different architecture schools, including MIT, SciArc, Bauhaus University Weimar, UBT Prishtina and UIC/ Chicago.
Professor Kari Jormakka is a Finnish architect, historian, critic and pedagogue. He studied architecture at Helsinki University of Technology and Tampere University of Technology, completing his PhD in 1991. He is currently Professor of Architecture Theory at Vienna University of Technology, Vienna, Austria. Previously he has taught at Harvard University, the Bauhaus in Weimar, University of Illinois at Chicago, The Ohio State University and Tampere University of Technology. He has authored 12 books and more than a hundred papers on architectural theory and history.