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Prof. Mirka Beneš UTexas School of Architecture LAR388/ARC 388/368R Fall 2013 p. 1 LAR 388 / ARC 368 R / ARC 388 R Prof. Mirka Beneš Thursday, 2pm-5pm Office hours: TBA. Room: Sutton 3.112 Office: TBA. School of Architecture Office: TBA. University of Texas at Austin email: TBA. LAR 388: Seminar Professional Design Practice in Baroque Rome: Landscape, Urbanism, Architecture Francesco Borromini. Fall Semester 2013 * Course Unique Numbers LAR 388 [01805], ARC 388 R [01245], ARC 368 R [00960]. Course Description Design is a synthetic act, and studying or rehearsing how a design comes together in a specific historical setting gives the student deeper insight into how synthesis is achieved. This inter- disciplinary seminar on the City of Rome during the Baroque period (c. 1600-1700) focuses this year on the life and works of one architect as a means to explore the act of design synthesis, in the context of the urban, landscape, and architectural dimensions of a great city. The seminar takes Francesco Borromini, one of seventeenth-century Papal Rome's greatest architects and draughtsmen, as the departure point for exploring professional practices and disciplines at a paradigmatic moment in the history of design, when landscape architecture, urbanism, and architecture were the practices of a single designer, but the turn to specializations was already appearing. Set against the scenery of Rome, one of Europe's monumental Baroque cities, epitomized by the seventeenth-century Piazza Navona with its fountains and sculptures, the "spine" of the seminar follows the chronological study of Borromini's major works (1630s to 1660s)--among them, San Carlino alle Quattro Fontane and the Oratory of San Filippo Neri for religious communities, and Sant'Ivo alla Sapienza for the Roman University; chapels such as the Cappella dei Re' Magi; designs for the Barberini, Carpegna, and Pamphilj palaces. Borromini's works were the source of inspiration for a great many European and Latin American architects through the eighteenth century. These works are also considered synchronically within the broader contexts of Roman Baroque society and its papal monarchy in a period of triumphant Catholic Counter-Reformation, as well as diachronically with a view to ancient, medieval, and Renaissance precedents, from Hadrian's Villa to Gothic architecture to Palladio. Borromini's complex works are at the same time profoundly emotional and rigorously intellectual and serious, and the specificity of their conceptualization is considered in illuminating contrast to the jubilant, dynamic, and dramatic creations of his so-called professional rival in Rome, the sculptor-architect Gian Lorenzo Bernini. Students are immersed in the richness of design culture in Baroque Rome, a period of exceptional artistic innovation, connected on the one hand to modernity, to new scientific studies of Prof. Mirka Beneš UTexas School of Architecture LAR388/ARC 388/368R Fall 2013 p. 2 perception, optics and light, machinery, and botany, and on the other hand to antiquity, to remarkable archaeological and antiquarian studies. Recent, exceptional historical research on Roman society provides understanding of the social categories fundamental to Baroque Rome's urban, architectural, and landscape development--rural and urban, public and private, religious and secular spaces; men and women; vernacular and elite lives; patronage and social networks of the designers. Seminar meetings and our discussions, including sessions with rare books, prints, and maps in the Harry Ransom Center and one session in the Prints & Drawings Room of the Blanton Art Museum, focus on topics that contextualize Borromini. Goals of the Seminar The purpose is to give students an understanding of the synthetic act of design and a strong inter- disciplinary grounding in one of the key historical periods of design and in advanced research methods. As well, the student is gain strong intellectual, conceptual, and historical frameworks with which to approach design creatively today, by rehearsing the translation of the synthetic act of design from the past to the present and by understanding how the design profession carves its territory of concerns and interests, from concrete and technological to spiritual and philosophical. This is accomplished by having students become deeply familiar with the life's work of one outstanding architect in history, Francesco Borromini in seventeenth-century Rome, and thereby to encourage reflection on professional design practice and the status of the architect/landscape architect/urban designer today. Class attendance is mandatory, and forms part of your grade for this course. It is mandatory, unless exemption has been given in advance by the instructor for excusable absences. Students with two (2) or more unexcused absences are subject to lowering of the final grade for the course. Please contact the instructor by email in advance, if you expect to be absent. The instructor records attendance. Time Commitment of Students: Includes class time (lectures and discussions), plus about three-four (3-4) hours (varies) of weekly reading. Additional time for study, reading and preparation for projects. The course assignments are spaced across the semester, and the instructor attempts to accomodate deadlines for the class in view of specific studio deadlines that students may have. Basis of Final Grade and Assignments: See at end of this Syllabus for details of Assignments # 1 and # 2. The work in this Seminar is structured so that the first months of the semester have most assignments, while the last month (November) frees you to work on your Final Project. 1. Class Participation: Discussions/questions, and 2-page typed autobiographical essay..15 % Essay due Sept. 5, 2013. [Assignment 1 handed out Aug. 29, 2013.] 2. Short Project: Essay, 4 typed pages plus bibliography and illustrations, on "Borromini and 17th century Roman / Italian Culture".....................................15 % Essay due Oct. 10, 2013. [Assignment 2 handed out Sept. 12, 2013.] Prof. Mirka Beneš UTexas School of Architecture LAR388/ARC 388/368R Fall 2013 p. 3 3. Short Project: Report in class, 15-20 minutes, with PowerPoint illustrations, on a book or essay, or specific topic. See Syllabus entries on this. The goal is to raise questions and stimulate discussion on the topic, drawings, or building presented. ........................................................................25 % Reports are scheduled throughout the semester--see Syllabus. Students agree on the topic with the instructor 2 weeks in advance. 4. Final Project: A final essay of 10 typed pages plus illustrations, notes, and bibliography on a topic of the student's interest. Ph.D. and Master's degree students in architectural history write a 20 page paper. Students may opt to make a model, which must be accompanied by an interpretative essay of 3 pages. .............................................. ......45 % S In class, on Nov. 21, 2013, students will informally and briefly present their final project in a progress report: the goal is to get feedback from the seminar group and the instructor, before turning in the project Dec. 5. Deadline: Dec. 5, 2013. Final Project due to Instructor in Class. Grading Policy and Grade Descriptions: A = excellent work that displays conceptual rigor, original research, and insights and ideas that tend to go beyond those presented by the readings or by the instructor in class; excellent writing and superb presentation of the project in terms of Bibliography, Notes, Images. The assignment or essay has a rigorously supported argument. Readings are strongly engaged in the assignment, and the student takes a position with respect to them, successfully critiquing or building on them. B = good work that displays thorough understanding of the material and successful completion of the assignment, very good writing, diligent research, fine presentation of the project in terms of Bibliography, Notes, Images. The assignment or essay has an argument that is clear to the reader. Readings are very well engaged in the assignment. C = satisfactory work that meets the minimum requirements of the assignment, displays no further pursuit of ideas presented in class and in readings, displays limitations in skills, writing, conceptualization, and presentation of project. The argument of the essay or assignment is not clearly presented. Readings are minimally brought into the assignment. D = poor work that does not meet the minimum requirements of the assignment and does not meet the level of skills required to complete the assignment in terms of conceptualization, writing, and presentation. No attempt to structure an argument is made. Readings are not well understood and are not even minimally brought into the assignment. F = unacceptable, failing work that includes incomplete assignment or major parts of it, unacceptable delays in turning in the work, unsuccessful performance overall. Honor Code for the University of Texas: Prof. Mirka Beneš UTexas School of Architecture LAR388/ARC 388/368R Fall 2013 p. 4 The core values of The University of Texas at Austin are learning, discovery, freedom, leadership, individual opportunity, and responsibility. Each member of the university is expected to uphold these values through integrity, honesty, trust, fairness, and respect toward peers and communicty. Honor Code for this Course: Each student in this course is expected to abide by this Honor Code, and any work submitted by a student will be the student's