History of modern and contemporary architecture

20th century architecture, a critical history (focus after 1940)
CM every Tuesday (9.15-11.15am)

The purpose of history is to understand rather than to judge. It sheds light on the present by analyzing the processes that have shaped it, while taking care not to use the past to legitimize current practices, or to project contemporary judgments onto it – attitudes that are nonetheless common and tantamount to anachronism. The writing of history is based on sources that are often fragmentary and already partly constituted by their placement in archives. Selective and discontinuous, it is an intellectual construction that in itself constitutes a form of use of the past. Thus, there is no single history, but a plurality of histories.

By adopting a socio-historical approach, this course combines the analysis of practices (projects, buildings, operations) and discourses (writings, vocabulary) with the study of players placed in their cultural and socio-economic contexts. It sheds light on the emergence of various architectural currents and models by examining their conditions of production, dissemination, circulation and re-appropriation in a variety of geographical and cultural contexts. The study also assesses their impact, both immediate and long-term, as well as their re-actualization (revivals).

This course promotes a critical and reflective approach to history, which aims to:
-understand, describe and illuminate, without lapsing into hagiography, empathy or condemnation;
-question periodizations and historiographical categories;
-deconstruct doctrinal certainties.

In addition to acquiring a base of knowledge and references, the aim is to examine architecture from three angles:
-as an expression of a moment in history and culture,
-as an action on society,
-as a process of stratification in perpetual transformation.

Targeted skills
– acquisition of in-depth knowledge of certain contemporary themes,
– ability to adopt a multi-disciplinary approach inherent in the analysis of architectural and urban projects,
– ability to demonstrate a spirit of synthesis that enhances the value of the training acquired, in written and oral expression,
– ability to adopt a critical and reflective approach to architectural practices and contemporary debates.

After a brief look at the policies of reconstruction and massive housing construction, as well as the role of the welfare state in Europe, the course explores the diversity of architectural currents which, after the Second World War, aspired to redefine modernism and the status of the architect.
Drawing on projects and realizations, writings, theories and controversies, the study of the main architectural currents focuses on :
their conditions of production: the context and circumstances that led to their emergence, the issues they address and the currents they oppose;
-their transformations (re-appropriations, adaptations, mutations) through their circulation and diffusion in space and time;
-their forms of re-actualization and revival in the contemporary era.

Emphasis is placed on the differences – similarities and differences – between yesterday’s and today’s questions and practices, in order to avoid the anachronisms of a history constructed a posteriori. Critical redefinitions of modernity in the post-war period have led to a fragmentation of references, and this course examines the issues, potentialities and limits of this fragmentation. Focusing on the manufacture, transfer and circulation of models from both a temporal and geographical perspective, the course explores the diversity of modernisms and the renewed relationship between a supposed center and its peripheries, of which colonial architecture is the most radical example. The aim is to identify the forms of appropriation and interaction between these different spaces and architectural traditions.

Given the importance of architectural form in contemporary debates, the course highlights the search, throughout the 20th century, for new forms (style, architectural language, envelope) and types (archetype, serial object, patterns, structures). The articulation between these forms and types highlights how the question of form in architecture embodies and translates cultural and political representations, as well as the state of techniques. By examining the use of prefixes such as “new” (new brutalism, new empiricism), “post” (postmodernism) and “de” (deconstructivism), the course questions the filiations, continuities and ruptures claimed between architectural currents. It also analyzes the dialogues that an architectural work maintains with other disciplines (philosophy, social sciences, cognitive sciences) and modes of expression (art, literature, cinema), as well as the way in which architects and currents conceive their relationship with time, between past, present and future.

Lastly, the course examines the historiographical constructions of modern, new and contemporary architecture throughout the 20th century, as well as their critical revision, which began in the post-war period and has been deepened since the 2000s.

SCHEDULE OF SESSIONS (13 sessions)
Thematic sessions covering the whole of the 20th century alternate with in-depth sessions dedicated to the post-World War II period.

Table-top exam in the form of synthetic essays

Must-read chapters online from J.L. COHEN, The Future of Architecture since 1889, London, Phaidon, 2012.
Complement course notes with readings and cross-cutting themes to review for the final exam.
HTP: 20h

I. GENERAL WORKS

R. BANHAM, Theory and Design in the Industrial Age, Orléans, HYX, 2009 [1960]
R. BANHAM, The Architecture of the Well-Tempered Environment, HYX, 2011 [1969]
J.L. COHEN, The Future of Architecture since 1889, London, Phaidon, 2012.
J.L. COHEN, L’architecture du XXe siècle en France, Paris, Hazan, 2014.
J.L. COHEN, Architecture en uniforme. Designing and building for the Second World War, CCA/Hazan, 2011.
J.L. COHEN, N. OULEBSIR, Alger: Paysage urbain et architectures, 1800-2000, Les Éditions de l’Imprimeur, 2003.
J.L. COHEN, M. ELEB, Casablanca: Mythes et figures d’une aventure urbaine, Hazan, 2019 [1998].
A. COLQUHOUN, L’architecture moderne, Genève, Infolio, 2006
K. CUPERS, La banlieue, un projet social. Ambitions d’une politique urbaine, 1945-1975, Parenthèses, 2018.
W. CURTIS, Modern architecture since 1900, London, Phaidon, 2004.
F. Dal Co and M. TAFURI, Architecture contemporaine, Paris, Gallimard/Electa, 1991
J. DETHIER and A. GUIHEUX (eds.), La Ville, art et architecture en Europe, 1870-1993, Paris, Centre Pompidou, 1994.
F. DUFAUX, A. FOURCAUT (dir), Le monde des grands ensembles, Paris, Creaphis, 2004.
G. FANELLI, R. GARGIANI, Histoire de l’architecture moderne: structure et revêtement, Presses Polytechniques Romandes, 2008.
A. FORTY, Words and Buildings. A Vocabulary of Modern Architecture, London, Thames and Hudson, 2000.
A. FOURCAUT A., P. HARIMENDY (dir.), Grands ensembles, intentions et pratiques (1850-1970), Saint Brieuc, Rencontres urbaines de Mazier, 2011.
K. FRAMPTON, Modern Architecture. A critical history [1980], Thames and Hudson, Paris 2006.
F. GRAF (ed.), Histoire matérielle du bâti et projet de sauvegarde: devenir de l’architecture moderne et contemporaine, Lausanne, Presses polytechniques et universitaires romandes, 2014.
P. HALL, Cities of Tomorrow: An Intellectual History of Urban Planning and Design Since 1880, Oxford, Blackwell, [1988], 2014.
D. HARVEY, The Condition of Postmodernity: An Enquiry into the Origins of Cultural Change Oxford, Cambridge, Mass.: Blackwell, 1990.
H. IBELINGS, Supermodernism. Architecture in the age of globalization, Hazan, 2003.
F. JAMESON, Postmodernism or the Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism, ENSBA, Paris, 2007.
R. KLEIN, G. MONNIER (dir), Les années ZUP. Architectures de la croissance 1960-1973, Paris, Picard, 2002.
A. KLINGMANN, Brandscapes: Architecture in the Experience Economy, MIT Press, 2007.
A. KOPP, Quand le Moderne n’était pas un style mais une cause, Paris, École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts, 1988.
A. LEACH, What is Architectural History, Cambridge, Polity, 2010.
J. LUCAN, Composition, non-composition, Architecture et théories XIX-XXe siècles, 2009.
J. LUCAN, Habiter, ville et architecture, EPFL Press, 2021
C. MANIAQUE, E. MARANTZ, J.L. VIOLEAU (dir.), Mai 68, l’architecture aussi, Paris, Editions B2, 2018.
R. MOULIN, Les Architectes. Métamorphose d’une profession libérale, Calmann-Lévy, 1973.
N. OULEBSIR, M. VOLAIT (dir.), L’Orientalisme architectural entre imaginaires et savoirs, Paris, CNRS and Picard, 2009.
M. SWENARTON, T. AVERMAETE, D. HEUVEL (eds.), Architecture and the Welfare State, New York/London, Routledge, 2014
M. TAFURI, F. DAL CO, Architecture contemporaine, Paris, Gallimard, [1976], 1991.
M. TAFURI, Projet et Utopie, Paris, Entremonde, 2021 [1973]
P. TOURNIKIOTIS, The Historiography of Modern Architecture, Cambridge Mass., MIT Press, 2001.
B. VAYSSIERE, Reconstruction-déconstruction. Le hard french ou l’architecture des trente glorieuses, Paris, Picard, 1988.

II. BIBLIO ”MODERNITÉS”
BONILLO J.L., MASSU C., PINSON D. (dir.), La Modernité critique, Marseille, Editions Imbernon, October, 2006.
GOLDHAGEN S. W., LEGAULT R. (dir.), Anxious Modernisms: Experimentation in Postwar Architectural Culture, Cambridge (MA), 2001
ROUILLARD D., Superarchitecture, le futur de l’architecture 1950-1970, Editions Villette, 2004
RISSELADA M., HEUVEL van den, D. (eds), Team 10 1953- 1981. In Search of A Utopia of the Present, Rotterdam, NAi Publishers, 2005
CANIZARO V., Architectural regionalism: collected writings on place, identity, modernity, and tradition, Princeton Architectural Press, 2007
LICHTENSTEIN C., SCHREGENBERGER T. (eds), As Found. The discovery of the ordinary, Zurich, Lars Müller, 2001
SCOTT F., Architecture or Techno-Utopia: politics after modernism, Cambridge (MA), 2007
HUGHES J., SADLER S. Non-Plan: Essays on Freedom, Participation and Change in Modern Architecture and Urbanism, Architectural Press, 2000
BERKE D., HARRIS S. (dir), Architecture of the Everyday, New York, Princeton Architectural Press, 1997
LEUPEN B., Frame and generic space. Rotterdam, 010 Publishers, 2006
VAN DER LEY S., Megastructure Reloaded. Visionary Architecture and Urban Design of the Sixties Reflected by Contemporary Artists, Hatje Cantz, 2008.
GUIHEUX A., (dir.), Archigram, Paris, Centre Georges Pompidou, 1994
ROSS K., Rouler plus vite, laver plus blanc. Modernisation de la France et décolonisation, Flammarion, 2006.
SCOTT F., Architecture or Techno-Utopia: politics after modernism, Cambridge (MA), 2007
BRUN E., Les situationnistes. Une avant-garde totale (1950-1972), Paris, CNRS Éditions, 2014

KOURNIATI M., “Team 10: regarder l’Autre pour inventer l’habitat humain”, in Martine BERGER and Lionel ROUGE (dir.), Être logé, se loger, habiter, Paris, Harmattan, 2012, p. 159-181.
KOURNIATI M., “Bidonville” and “Grands Ensembles”, in Pierre CHABARD and Virginie PICON-LEFEVRE (eds.), La Défense: un dictionnaire, architecture/politique, Marseille, Parenthèses, 2012, pp. 77-80 and 256-260.
KOURNIATI M., “Après-Guerres: révisions de l’histoire et réappropriations du modernisme”, Criticat, n° 3, March 2009, pp. 62-87.

> P. CHABARD and M. KOURNIATI, Raisons d’écrire, Des livres, des architectes (1945-1999), Paris, Ed. de la Villette, 2013.

III. SOURCES
-C. ALEXANDER, De la synthèse de la forme, 1974.
-ASCORAL / LE CORBUSIER, Les Trois Établissements humains, Paris, Denoël, collection ASCORAL, 1945.
– R. BANHAM, The Architecture of the Well-Tempered Environment, 1964/1984.
– R. BANHAM, Le Brutalisme en architecture: éthique ou esthétique, Dunod, 1970 [1966].
– G. De CARLO, L’architecture est trop sérieuse pour être laissée aux architectes, Paris, Ed. Conférence, 2022
– S. GIEDION, Espace, Temps et Architecture, 1990 [1941].
-W. GROPIUS Walter, Architecture et société, Paris, 1995 [1956].
– H. HERTZBERGER, Architecture Lessons, 2010 [1991].
– R. KOOLHAAS, S, M, L, XL, The Monacelli Press, 2000.
– R. KOOLHAAS, New York Délire, Parenthèses, 2002 [1978].
-MVRDV, Metacity/Datatown, 010 Publishers, 1999.
-B. RUDOFSKY, Architecture sans architectes: brève introduction à l’architecture spontanée, 1977 [1964].
-A. ROSSI, The Architecture of the City, 2001 [1966].
-A. SMITHSON (ed.), Team Ten Primer, 1962/1965.
-R. VENTURI, On ambiguity in architecture [1966].
-R. VENTURI, SCOTT BROWN, IZENOUR, Learning from Las Vegas, 1968.
B. ZEVI, Apprendre à voir l’architecture, 2011 [1959] and
Le langage moderne de l’architecture: Pour une approche anticlassique, Parenthèses, 2016 [1973].
– Architecture, 1980: The presence of the past, Venice Biennale, 1980.
– The presence of history. L’après modernisme, 1981.

IV. ANTHOLOGY OF TEXTS and DICTIONARIES
F. CHOAY (dir.), L’Urbanisme, utopies et réalités. Une anthologie, Paris, Seuil, 1965.
U. CONRAD, Programmes et manifestes, Editions de la Villette, 1989.
M. DENÈS (ed.), Form Follows Fiction. Écrits d’architecture de fin de siècle, Paris, La Villette,
K.M. HAYS, (dir), Architecture Theory since 1968, The MIT Press, Cambridge 1998.
P. MERLIN, Dictionnaire de l’urbanisme, de l’aménagement, du logement et de l’environnement, Paris, PUF, [1988], 2023.
J. P. MIDANT, Dictionnaire de l’architecture du XXe siècle, Paris, Hazan, 19
K. NESBIT, Theorizing a New Agenda for Architecture: An Anthology of Architectural Theory 1965 – 1995, Princeton, Princeton Architectural Press, 1996.
J. OCKMAN (ed), Architecture Culture 1943-1968. A Documentary Anthology, Columbia/Rizzoli, New York, 1993.

PP, Audiovisual extracts.
J.L. COHEN, The Future of Architecture since 1889, London, Phaidon, 2012 (scanned chapters)