Architecture and Urbanism Majors

Learning Objectives:

To introduce students to building materials and their applications in architecture through examples drawn from the history of construction.

Course Content:

Stone, steel, wood, concrete, insulation, terracotta, and more are described using simple examples and their applications, which highlight their properties.

Coursework:

Simple models, simple photography of existing models

Educational Objectives and Course Themes:

The objective of this lecture is to allow students to discover architecture as a disciplinary field in its own right, in order to explore its specificities. From this perspective, theory and practice are closely linked in a constant dialectical relationship that unites the theory course with the practice of architectural design. In other words, while the theory course offers students the opportunity to structure their minds to consciously plan, in turn, the practice of the project allows them to grasp and understand the theories and doctrines of architectural and urban design. Thus, at this stage of the curriculum, the course is part of a progressive process built throughout the Bachelor's degree program and constitutes a phase of discovery and initiation in relation to the courses of the following semesters. This is why all the lectures are organized around a central question: "What is architecture?" In other words, what is the essence of architecture? What are its foundations? This complex question refers to the analysis of knowledge provided in a diachronic temporality where the elements of permanence are distinguished from the questions of the time through a certain number of specific themes which provide both elements of response to the main question and new questions. These themes are centered on the problem of composition, of the conception of space and architectural and urban forms which is considered as an intellectual work, a search of the spirit.

Course Structure and Content:

This course is a weekly lecture-based lecture class in an amphitheater with the entire first-year class. It takes place over one semester and is validated by a written exam at the end of the semester. This course also provides an introduction to architectural analysis, in terms of concepts, methods, and representation tools. The body of knowledge analyzed consists of written and graphic documents. These documents constitute a source of knowledge that will allow the student to develop and subsequently write their undergraduate report and then their master's thesis. Ultimately, this analytical approach to knowledge should enable the student to develop the critical thinking skills essential for their future careers.

Lecture No. 1: What is Architecture?

Definitions: architecture, theory, theory of architecture, doctrine.

Where can one find the theory of architecture, how is it manifested?

Lecture No. 2: From book to building: theory between treatises and manifestos.

Common rules, stable principles between permanence and transformation: Architecture as a science in Vitruvius's treatise, Architecture as a concept in Alberti's treatise, and the manifest buildings of the modern movement.

Lecture No. 3: The body of the subject and architectural space.

The subject in its body: its five senses. The articulation between the body of the subject and architectural space: dimension, scale, proportion, and symbol. From Renaissance Man to Le Corbusier's Modulor to touch upon the ineffable, the immeasurable of L. Kahn.

Lecture No. 4: The Elements of Architecture: An Introduction to Architectural Analysis.

Definition and analysis of the major elements of Architecture for composition: the wall, the partition, the column, and the window, and their graphic representations in terms of tools, codification, and methodology. If the plan were a text: from writing to reading. The construction of analytical writing.

Lecture No. 5: The Elements of Architecture and Composition (1): The wall and the window in the "Raumplan" and "the space of the structure."

The question of the wall and the window in the composition of the "Raumplan": cross-analysis of texts by A. Loos and the Muller house. Development of modern space or a return to the roots? The question of the wall and the window in L.I. Kahn's "the space of the structure": cross-analysis of texts by L.I. Kahn and the Fischer house.

Lecture No. 6: The Elements of Architecture and Composition (2): The Column and the Wall in the "Free Plan" and "Open Space."

The Column and the Wall in the Free Plan: Cross-analyses of the texts of Th. Van Doesburg and Rietveld's house. Cross-analyses of the 5 Points of a New Architecture and the Villa Savoye. The Column and the Wall from "Open Space" to the Glass Box: Analyses of the Barcelona Pavilion at the Villa Farnsworth. Transformation or New Typology?

Lecture No. 7: The Role of Light in Composition:

The Relationships Between Color and Light and Between Opacity and Transparency. Three Projects from the Window to the Light-Emitting Wall: Le Corbusier's Convent of La Tourette. L. Barragan's Wall of Light and Shadow. Light as Structure in L.I. Kahn's Architecture.

Lecture No. 8: The Place of Architecture: The Site Within the Building.

The Interior-Exterior Relationship in T. Ando's Buildings: The Constitution of an Architectural Space Beyond the Enclosed. Did You Say Virtuality?

Lecture No. 9: Beyond the Limit: What Architectural Space?

The Definition of the Site as Landscape in A. Aalto's Interior Courtyards, Topography as Architectural Space in L. Snozzi's Houses.

Lecture No. 10: Architectural Form: Between Standard and Symbol.

After the House on Stilts, the Return of the "Box" Through the Dominance of the Rectangle to Compose the Plan of the House Today.

Lecture No. 11: Architecture as Language, as Art.

On Elementary Geometry and Its Qualities for the Definition of Architectural Space. O. Niemeyer and the Power of Drawing. L.I. Kahn and Art as the Language of Man.

Lecture No. 12: What if Order Didn't Exist?

Order, Orders in Architecture: Consistency from Antiquity to the Modern Movement... to compose architectural form and space. What is the situation today in light of the "Bilbao Effect"? Towards a Critical and Constructive Questioning.

Learning Objectives

• Learn the architectural vocabulary specific to Antiquity and the Middle Ages

• Recognize the different types of buildings and their functions

• Identify a building and describe its different parts

• Introduction to ancient construction

Course Content

This course in the history of architecture covers the period from Antiquity to the Middle Ages. It aims, through a diachronic perspective, to study and understand the functioning of cities, the articulation of their monumental array, and the functioning of the main building types.

Through a detailed study of architectural productions, we will highlight the particularities and similarities specific to each civilization. By focusing our reflections on the typology and functionality of buildings, we will see how they reflect the functioning of an organized society, with its own political organization and culture. Construction techniques will also be discussed, a particularly important concept when studying ancient architecture and addressing the subject of innovation.

Course 1: Introduction, Appearance of the First Architectures

Course 2: Sumer, Egypt

Course 3: Greece and Etruscans

Course 4: Roman (1)

Course 5: Roman (2)

Course 6: Early Christian Architecture

Course 7: Religious Buildings from the 9th to the 15th Centuries (1)

Course 8: Religious Buildings from the 9th to the 15th Centuries (2)

Course 9: Military and Power Architecture from the 9th to the 15th Centuries

Course 10: Housing from the 9th to the 15th Centuries

Educational Objectives

Geography is both a discipline of observation and a "toolbox" for capturing, describing, and analyzing socio-spatial organizations and distributions. Within the multidisciplinary teaching context of ENSA, it provides students with technical tools (representation tools such as cartography, for example), specific vocabulary, and concepts (landscape, territory, network, place, for example) to describe, analyze, and understand the environment (both rural and urban, in France and abroad) in which architecture students will operate in their professional practice. This teaching of tools for interpreting and analyzing territories in a spatial manner is complemented by a constant focus on scales and perceptions. Its objective and pedagogical approach are therefore twofold: to begin with the physical dimension (morphology and geohistory of forms), the "environments," to understand how individuals and social groups construct, transform, and mobilize the space and territory in which they operate. The course combines morphological, ecological, cultural and social approaches to address the question of territory and landscape; its production, its uses and constant transformations.

Course Content

This course introduces students to the analysis of the territory in all its components and dimensions to establish the relationships between the specific characteristics of the environment in the broadest sense (natural, open, urban, or human-affected) and the logic of human settlements.

It also, and above all, introduces students to the major contemporary territorial and urban dynamics. Overall, this educational objective is achieved through the discussion of several dimensions:

• The morphology of urban forms and the larger landscape

• Their transformations

• The historical depth of the territory and places

• Their durations, rhythms, and temporalities

• The plurality of uses, as well as perspectives and perceptions (residents, users)

To address these issues, this introductory Geography course combines three sessions devoted to the issue of Landscape (Hélène Izembart, Landscape Architect) with seven sessions devoted to the city and urban dynamics (Caroline Rozenholc-Escobar, Professor of Geography, Researcher at CRH-LAVUE).

Course Structure

Session 1 (Geography and Landscape and Urban Dynamics):

1.1 Joint general introduction (C. Rozenholc + H. Izembart)

1.1.1 Presentation of the course objectives and expectations.

1.1.2 Overview of all topics

1.1.3 Initial information on the work to be submitted at the end of the semester and schedule

1.2

• Understanding diversity and describing a landscape

• Definitions. What is a territory? A landscape?

• Landscape Language

• Elements of Landscape Analysis and Their Dynamics

Session 2 (Geography and Landscape): Analysis Tools

• Data and the Diversity of Available Tools (Tools, Cartography, Interlocking Scales, Dynamics of Evolution, etc.)

• Decoding and Connecting the Dots

Session 3 (Geography and Landscape): Maps and Territorial Realities

• Maps and Fieldwork

• Fieldwork

Session 4 (Cities and Urban Dynamics): The City in Context

• Contemporary Urban Issues

• Site, Situation

• Forms and Processes

• Metropolitanization

Session 5 (Cities and Urban Dynamics):

5.1 Progress Report on the Work to be Submitted

5.2. Forms of Relegation

• Segregation

• Borders

• Slums and Encampments of the World

Session 6 (Cities and Urban Dynamics): Scales of Mobility

• Residential Mobility

• Intra-urban Mobility

• Peri-urban Mobility

• Mobility and Migration

Session 7 (Cities and Urban Dynamics): Enclosure as an Intra-urban Dynamic

• Residentialization in France

• Residentialization in the World

• Forms, Issues, and Processes

Session 8 (Cities and Urban Dynamics): Gentrification(s)

• Processes

• Issues

• Urban Contexts

Session 9 (Geography of Cities and Urban Dynamics): Heritage Development

• Definition

• Tools

• The Objects of Transformation

Session 10 (Cities and Urban Dynamics): Territory, Resources, and Places

• Region and Regionalization

• Bioregion

• Environment

Assignments

The Urban Geography course also relies on readings of scientific articles that students may be asked to discuss during the class. These articles are made available to students prior to each class.

The course will explore the history of modern architecture from the Italian Renaissance (early 15th century), through the French Renaissance and the Grand Siècle, to the beginning of the Neoclassical period (early 18th century). Drawing on a solid and varied body of work, the course will situate the major architectural trends and principal achievements in their historical, constructive, and technical context.

Learning Objectives:

• Develop analytical, critical, and interpretive skills with regard to architectural and artistic works

• Provide the knowledge necessary to understand continuities and discontinuities in the production of built space

• Become familiar with architectural vocabulary

• Be able to approximately date a building

Provisional Course Schedule

This course meets from mid-March to mid-May on Tuesdays from 8:30am to 10:30am, with one additional 2pm-4pm meeting on Tuesday during the first week. 

1. Week 1 – 8:30-10:30 AM

• Introduction to the Course and Examination Procedures

• From the Middle Ages to Modern Times

• Architecture and Drawing: Filippo Brunelleschi and the Rediscovery of Perspective

2.  Week 1 – 2:00-4:00 PM

• From Medieval Castle to Urban Palace: Michelozzo, Benedetto da Maiano, Mauro Codussi

• Intellectual Architects: Leon Battista Alberti from Theory to Practice

3. Week 2

• Return to Rome: Bramante, the Construction of St. Peter's Basilica

4. Week 3 

• Roman Palaces and Villas: Peruzzi, Raphael, and da Sangallo

• Mannerism: The Ruptures of the Terza Maniera

5. Week 4

• Beyond the Rule: Michelangelo

• The Classical Axis of the Veneto, Palladian Monumentalities, and the Legacy of the Renaissance /1

6. Week 5

• The Classical Axis of the Veneto, Palladian Monumentalities, and the Legacy of the Renaissance /2

• The Reception of the Renaissance in France: Chambord, Delorme, and Lescot's Louvre

7. Week 6

• The Baroque: Protest, Technique, and Criticism

• Influences in Northern Italy and Germany

8. Week 7

• The Grand Siècle in France: Urban Development and the Major Construction of the Château de Versailles

9. Week 8

• The Classical Path: Bernini at the Louvre and Perrault's Final Project

• The Mansarts and Le Vau: Châteaux, Churches, and Hospital Architecture

10. May 13, 2025

• Neoclassical: Rationalism, Archaeology, Progress