Main focus
- History and theory of architecture
- Urban architecture of the early modern period
- Coding and staging of public spaces
- Staging of architecture as a model of rule
- Political and religious iconography in the visual arts
Teaching concept
The teaching of architectural theory provides students with insights into how architecture is conceived beyond the purely planning act, which aesthetic and philosophical concepts are decisive, and which social and intellectual functions building can fulfil. It looks for explanations as to why spirit and form have interacted in different creative ways at different times. It aims to show how architecture can be read and thought, how it can be used as a language to express and communicate oneself, and how one can enter into an intelligent dialogue with other architecture (both historical and modern). In this sense, architectural theory sees itself as an important link between architectural history and heritage conservation on the one hand and design on the other.
Focal points in research and teaching
- the dramaturgical and ritual staging and the iconographic coding of (urban) spaces
- the relationship between image and (urban) space
- architecture as language and as philosophy
- paradigms of architectural discourse (tectonics, organicism, metaphysics, ornamentation, imitatio, reconstruction/reproduction, concept of modernity)
