Cursos / 1º Ciclo / Faculty of Architecture and Arts :: Architecture ( Integrated Master)

HISTÓRIA DA ARQUITECTURA - 2025/2026

3º curricular year
Semestralidade: 1st semester
ECTS: 2

Teachers

Leading Teacher: Prof. Doutor Alberto Estima
Assistant Professor: Prof. Doutor Alberto Estima

Class type and School hours

Teórica : 2 Horas

Teaching Language

Portuguese

Main Aims/Objectives

This course unit will address the problematics of Architecture (and Cities) transformations from the 19th century to the present day, comprising a rich and complex period of Western and World History. Therefore, one opted to:
- Emphasize, building understanding and relating, the most significant works and architects. Therefore, one restricts the History of Architecture to a more specific approach, but sufficiently attractive and able to supply clarifying elements about the profession, the orders, the limits and possibilities to work in space and time.

Specific Aims/Objectives

- Identify the most and least propitious historical junctures to the transformations held in Architecture.
- Relate and provide a context for works and architects, distinguishing the most significant ones.

Skills to be acquired

- Identify the main works and architects from the 19th, 20th and 21th century.
- Be able to distinguish and apply the following concepts within Architecture: Classicism, Revivalism, Eclecticism, Modernism and Post-Modernism.
- Relate artistic movements from 19th, 20th and 21th centuries (within Visual Arts and Architecture).

Teaching Procedures

- Through seminars, one will explore the bibliography and the samples to analyze and open to debate.

Programme

1 - Historical guidelines: the Contemporary Era or, and the triumph of Liberal/Bourgeois Revolution.
2 - From the Neoclassical and Neo-Gothic option to the Architecture Eclecticism in the 19th century; exploring the following cases: French, English, German, Russian, Italian and American.
3 - The Universal Exhibitions and its Architecture (from the 1st one in London to the one in Paris in 1900). The crisis of Eclecticism: William Morris and the "Arts and Crafts". The Great Chicago Fire in 1871 and the "School of Chicago". The early years of F. L. Wright. The Art Nouveau in Architecture. The Classic recovery from A. Perret to Tony Garnier.
4 - The shaping of modern movement in Architecture, in Europe and America: from "Deutscher Werkbund" to "Bauhaus". The singularity of Le Corbusier. The French, Dutch, Russian and Italian Architects. Richard J. Neutra in America and the American F. L. Wright. The new visibility of Architecture (contests, exhibitions, publications and the CIAM).
5 - The Architecture of dictatorships (exploring the following cases: German, French, Italian and Russian) and the position of modern architects (in Europe and America).
6 - The modern Architecture on a worldwide scale (Latin America, India and Japan).
7 - The critical reviews to the Modern in the 60s and 70s: the new Utopia (Hundertwasser, Paolo Soleri and others). The New York 5 group / United States and the Tendenza group / Italy.
8 - Figurative Postmodernism: Pop Architecture by Robert Venturi, Denise Scott and others. The High-Tech Architecture. Deconstructivism in Architecture.
9. Ecological and Sustainable Architecture and other current perspectives on Architecture.

Evaluation Type

Two written tests without consultation plus the respective frequency at the end of the semester.

Teaching Resources

From traditional projection methods to the most modern, including on-line documentaries.

Sustainability Objectives

Ecological and Sustainable Architecture in the current context.
Raising awareness of the new challenges that the Planet and Human Beings face in this century, with Architecture playing a relevant role in this vast ecosystem. To this end, "The 17 Sustainable Development Goals" defined by the United Nations in 2015 will be analyzed with the presentation of some case studies.

Keywords

History
Architecture
c.19th 20th and 21th.

Main Bibliography

Complementary Bibliography