Special Topics

Catalog description

Prague is a unique city, in which all architectural styles combine: from the pre-Romanesque, to Romanesque and Gothic, Renaissance, Baroque and Classicist styles, to the modern ones that include Historicism, Art Nouveau, the original Cubism in architecture, Art Deco, Constructivism and Functionalism, even the post-war Stalinist architecture, and contemporary trends. The city did not undergo extensive renewals such as occurred in other European metropolises, and thus fragments of various epochs have been left standing here side by side, and partially, there is also the medieval urban layout to be seen. Architects and master builders from many European countries worked here and local architects and artists were also influenced by foreign models. The city is in fact an ideal textbook of architecture from the Middle Ages to the present day. The course should take the students through this development chronologically, in lectures accompanied by projections of pictures and short films, but also in visits to typical buildings, including their interiors. The main emphasis will be put on the period of the 19th and 20th centuries, in which the lecturer specializes. Architecture is linked to other fields, such as fine arts, urban planning, national heritage care, industrial design, and others. Teaching will thus also focus on these. During the course, each of the students will present an independent study of one chosen building: they will analyze the building, place it within a broader context of European architecture and supply it with their own illustrations. They will defend the work. At the end of the term they will sit for a test. There is compulsory and recommended specialist literature in English available for them, and they are expected to supplement the information gained at lectures and excursions by self-study. By the end of the term the student should have acquired…