"The journey not the arrival matters." –– T. S. Eliot

"One’s destination is never a place, but a new way of seeing things." –– Henry Miller

Florence: shaping the modern imagination

This course aims to provide its participants with some critical tools and concepts, which focus on the act of experiencing the city as part of the physical (architecture, landscape, and topography) and cultural (art, history, literature, philosophy)  contexts that define it. Florence, given its  cultural and physical history, is undoubtedly  among the most appropriate settings in the world to develop a truly experiential understanding as well as a poetic memory of a place. Poetic, here, means that something has meaning and transcends the actual appearance of its "thingness," within the effort to unveil its essence.

Course Objectives

The objectives of this course are twofold. On one hand, it will highlight and investigate significant art, artefacts,  architecture, landscapes, and urban forms in the history of Florence. On the other, it will explore the critical role these spatial manifestations have played in the formulation of creative strategies of Modernity ––roughly the period between the mid-18th century and the second half of the 20th century. The course explores the origins of the city from Etruscan and Roman times, continues with the Medieval and Early Renaissance contexts, and concludes with the emergence of the High Renaissance.

Field Trips

The course includes field trips  to relevant sites related to the themes presented in class, i.e., Città di Castelo, Siena, Certosa d'Ema, San Gimignano, Volterra, Bagno Vignoni,  Fiesole, San Galgano Abbey and an overnight trip to Bologna.

Course Dates

Classes begin: Monday, 06 May 2013

Classes end: Friday, 31 May 2013

Pre-requisites:

There is no previous architecture or art history training required to take this course.

| professor ricardo l. castro, fraic | school of architecture | mcgill university | 2013 |