The curriculum of the faculty of architecture at the Politecnico di Torino includes, at its first degree level, courses in the history of medieval, early modern and contemporary architecture, together with a workshop in the history of architecture without temporal connotations. A similar educational model, with slight variations, is followed by most European faculties of architecture. At the beginning of the Master's degree in «Architettura per la Sostenibilità», the “Environmental History of Architecture B” course aims to present the whole history of architecture from a new perspective. Its premises are based on factual considerations: architecture is a unique creation primarily due to human beings' ability to choose and manipulate the natural resources available in a specific location. In this way, the course aims to explore sources, chronologies/periods and research topics that can best provide any possible reconstruction and interpretation of the relationship between the natural, anthropised, and built environments. With this in mind, the programme covers a medium/long period, although the focus will mainly be on the contemporary age, with specific insights into the present day. Through a series of in-class lessons, supported by extensive bibliographic and iconographic resources, the course aims to investigate how human beings have designed and constructed their living environment, sometimes in harmony with the surrounding natural environment, sometimes to its detriment. Particular attention will be paid to two crucial issues: on the one hand, the exploitation of fossil and other natural resources, indispensable for the design, construction and preservation of architecture, and on the other, the omnipresence of climate, and today of climate change, with the consequent provision of manually, electrically or electronically operated devices to regulate internal comfort in contrast to external conditions.

The ‘Environmental History of Architecture’ course aims to provide the skills needed to develop a dual knowledge structure. The first - a ‘factual’ approach - focuses on analysing a series of architectural and urban issues, regarded as paradigmatic in the history of the natural and built environment in terms of characteristics, technologies, typologies and figurative repertoires. The second - a ‘critical’ approach - focuses on analysing and comparing the different interpretations of these architectural and urban facts as produced over the years by the numerous social actors who have contributed to the production and reception of the built environment. At the end of the course, students should be able to move between two levels of learning. First, exemplary case studies should familiarise them with architectural and urban facts. At the same time, they should be able to reconstruct their historical and/or critical contextualisation over a broad period and through a plurality of voices. In other terms, upon completion of their training in the humanities, students should be at ease in demonstrating multiple intellectual skills, developed in parallel: the knowledge and hierarchisation of historical facts; the skill of defining and/or distinguishing their respective symbolic and figurative values; and, finally, the talent of producing new ones, rooted in their awareness of the past but ready to shape the present.

A good historical background, with the natural and built environment at the centre of the narrative, is an essential prerequisite for successfully attending the course. It will be indispensable to take for granted not only the basic academic knowledge and skills acquired in the previous studies in the history of architecture, but also the ability to read and interpret architectural and urban phenomena, gained during multidisciplinary design workshops, attended during bachelor's degree courses. Another crucial prerequisite is an excellent aptitude for critical thought, exercised in dialogue, debate, and harsh confrontation, gained through careful listening to lectures and attentive observation of images.

The course timetable consists of 60 hours of lessons during the first teaching period. Apart from the subdivision of the course timetable, each topic will be covered in approximately one and a half hours of lectures and seminar discussions. Students who intend to attend the entire course – a strongly recommended practice – will be required to take handwritten notes either on paper or on a tablet with an electronic pen, to be kept until the final exam. Computer use will not be allowed in the classroom. There won't be any in-class exercises, test exemptions, or homework throughout the course.

Students who intend to attend the course – a strongly recommended practice – will be required to take handwritten notes on paper or on a tablet with an electronic pen, to be kept until the final exam. Computer use will not be allowed in the classroom. There won't be any in-class exercises, test exemptions, or homework throughout the course.

The course programme covers a medium/long period, although the focus will mainly be on the contemporary age, with specific insights into the present day. Through a series of in-class lectures, supported by extensive bibliographic and iconographic resources, the course aims to investigate how human beings have designed and constructed their living environment, sometimes in harmony with the surrounding natural environment, sometimes to its detriment. Particular attention will be paid to two crucial issues: on the one hand, the exploitation of fossil and other natural resources, indispensable for the design, construction and preservation of architecture, and on the other, the omnipresence of climate, and today of climate change, with the consequent provision of manually, electrically or electronically operated devices to regulate internal comfort in contrast to external conditions.

The whole course will be rooted in four reference books, which will be the source for most of the lectures: - Reyner BANHAM, _The Architecture of the Well-Tempered Environment_, II ed., Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1984. - Daniel A. BARBER, _Modern Architecture and Climate: Design before Air Conditioning_, Princeton - Oxford: Princeton University Press, 2020. - Barnabas CALDER, _Architecture: From Prehistory to Climate Emergency_, London: Pelican Books, 2021. - Kim FÖRSTER (ed.), _Environmental Histories of Architecture_, Montréal: Centre Canadien d'Architecture, 2022. More readings will be suggested during the course, derived from a number of books, such as: _

Slides; Libro di testo;

Modalità di esame: Prova orale obbligatoria;

Exam: Compulsory oral exam;

... At the end of the course, students will be required to take a mandatory oral exam, in which they will be asked to demonstrate their knowledge of the specific topics covered during the programme and their ability to critically analyse the general issues addressed in the course, based on the lectures and/or readings, as indicated. Following the general guidelines described above, the exam programme will be the same for all students enrolled in the course: the detailed schedule will be published and updated on the course page, with the related bibliographical references. Those who have attended the course will have the advantage of knowing how these texts have been read and interpreted in class, while those who have not participated in the course will have to understand how they can be read and interpreted by themselves.

Gli studenti e le studentesse con disabilità o con Disturbi Specifici di Apprendimento (DSA), oltre alla segnalazione tramite procedura informatizzata, sono invitati a comunicare anche direttamente al/la docente titolare dell'insegnamento, con un preavviso non inferiore ad una settimana dall'avvio della sessione d'esame, gli strumenti compensativi concordati con l'Unità Special Needs, al fine di permettere al/la docente la declinazione più idonea in riferimento alla specifica tipologia di esame.