There are three main objectives: first of all, we aim at constructing a vocabulary of keywords, which allows the understanding and interpretation of architectural and urban phenomena in the long duration of Western history; furthermore, it aims at the configuration of a sort of personal ideal museum of architecture, through which each student can measure his own choices and aspirations; finally, we aim at understanding the complexity of the processes, the identities of the different actors and the multiplicity of cultural reasons (technological, economic, social, political) that, over the centuries and in particular between the eighteenth and twentieth centuries, have produced architectures and cities in the West. Thus, at the end of the course, students must be able to demonstrate at least two intellectual qualities, built in parallel: the knowledge of architectural and urban facts, but also the ability to distinguish the various interpretations, produced along a broad spectrum time and through a plurality of voices, trying finally to produce new, original.

A solid historical culture, having the built environment at the centre of its narration, is the indispensable requirement for dealing with the course. In fact, the premises of the course are not only the basic knowledge and skills learned during the courses of Storia dell’architettura contemporanea, Teoria storia e tecnica del restauro and Storia dell’architettura moderna, but also the ability to read and interpret architectural phenomena and urban areas, matured during the multidisciplinary design ateliers, followed during the 1st level studies.

As a privileged object of study, the course has the knowledge of the historical method and of the critical discourse, as developed between the 18th and 21st centuries, and its application to the analysis of architecture, the city and the built environment, without limits of time and space. The aim is to complete the visual and critical education of each student, who is required to read, understand and interpret the environment built in the contemporary age according to these principles, overcoming the boundaries of time and space, and crossing national histories and cultural identities. To this end, the course requires constant interaction between teachers and students, as well as between recommended bibliographies and reading exercises, to be carried out mainly as an in-class exercise. Therefore, from the first meetings, each student will be asked of imagining a brand-new personal Museum of Architecture, containing, in a reasoned and conscious sequence, a series of at least twenty architectural works, identified according to explicit and discussed criteria, as well as studied in their design and, possibly, constructive history.

As a constitutive part of the students' education in the humanities, the course aims to increase their awareness of analytical, critical and speculative tools, produced by architectural cultures and / or intended for them. In order to understand the greatest possible number of issues and problems, the narration takes place in both diachronic and synchronic terms. Therefore, the course is developed on four research areas, through the examination of a series of case studies belonging to the early contemporary age: the first area is dedicated to the history of historiography of art and architecture; the second to the history of notions such as Eclectism, Historicism, Classicism, Romanticism etc .; the third area examines some key texts in the history of art and architecture of the long Eclecticism; the fourth area examines some key works in the history of art and architecture of the long Eclecticism. Thus, through the presentation of written and iconographic documents, the course analyzes and compares the different interpretations that have been produced on these works by a variety of social actors involved in the production and / or reception of the built environment (architects, technicians and builders, customers and users, critics and journalists).

In addition to the main general reference texts on arts and architecture between the 18th and 20th centuries, the main texts are: - Simonetta CIRANNA, Gerardo DOTI, Maria Luisa NERI, _Architettura e città nell'Ottocento. Percorsi e protagonisti di una storia europea_, Roma: carocci, 2011. - Adrian FORTY, _Words and Buildings: A Vocabulary of Modern Architecture_, London – New York: Thames and Hudson, 2000; trad. it.: Parole e edifici. Un vocabolario per l’architettura moderna, Bologna: Pendragon, 2004. - Werner SZAMBIEN, _Le musée d'architecture_, Paris: Picard, 1988; trad. it.: _Il museo d'architettura_, Bologna: CLUEB, 1996. At the end of each lesson, a specific bibliography will be provided.

Exam: Written test; Optional oral exam; Individual essay;

At the examination of the History of Architecture A course each student, who regularly attends the course, must prepare a paper, consisting of an accurate description, accompanied by a reasoned bibliography, of a work of architecture, whether or not realized between the second half of the 18th and the first half of the 20th century; this paper, drafted and corrected gradually, is evaluated at the end of the course. At the time of the examination, those who have received the evaluation of the paper are asked to answer in writing two open questions on the topics of the course (the first on a general issue; the second on a specific architecture), having two hours of time for delivery. In the case of a student who has regularly attended the course, there is no oral exam: the final assessment is the mathematical average between the grade of the paper and that of the two written answers described above. In the case of a student who has NOT regularly attended the course, therefore without the monographic paper developed during the course, at the end of the two written questions in the classroom three additional questions are asked, in oral form: the final assessment is the mathematical average of the marks awarded to the five answers (two oral and three written). If the oral examination is scheduled to take place after the written examination, the total duration of the oral examination is approx. 30/40 minutes.

In addition to the message sent by the online system, students with disabilities or Specific Learning Disorders (SLD) are invited to directly inform the professor in charge of the course about the special arrangements for the exam that have been agreed with the Special Needs Unit. The professor has to be informed at least one week before the beginning of the examination session in order to provide students with the most suitable arrangements for each specific type of exam.