Architecture

Living in the Monstrous The ongoing war in Gaza is manifesting a lot of terrible things. Among them there are also issues affecting architecture and the environment, with a project that involves phases of destruction and extermination, colonization and reconstruction, shifts in perception and rewriting of history. All areas of social life are affected by those events, from the urban dimension to that of smaller towns and landscapes. The course will start with what is happening in Gaza following the detailed analyses conducted by the British research center Forensic Architecture over a limited period of time: October 2023-November 2024. From there we will go back in time to analyze the role of architecture in historical colonial projects: particularly in the Americas and the Indian subcontinent, but also with a specific focus on the Italian colonial enterprise in Africa. We will then move on to the forms of war in Europe, focusing in particular on the moment in which, during the twentieth century, architecture and the environment became crucial elements in war strategies. Architecture will therefore be examined as a two-faced phenomenon: on the one hand, negatively, as an instrument of territorial, political, and cultural occupation; on the other, positively, as the promise of a therapy for living. Aesthetics, understood as a philosophy of sensible life, will be the perspective from which we will study the themes of otherness, differences, and how these can be recomposed into new approaches to design, different from those that can be traced back to a colonial conception of residential settlements.

no prerequisities

The bibliography for the exam will be divided into three parts: Part A) includes the more specifically philosophical texts; Part B) texts more directly related to architecture; Part C) historical or narrative texts that will allow for a deeper understanding of at least one of the topics covered in the course. All students are requested to study 4 texts: 1 from part A, 1 from part B, 2 from part C. A. Giorgio Agamben, Homo Sacer, Einaudi, nuova ed. 2005. Peter Sloterdijk, Sfere, vol. II Bolle, selected passages Roberto Esposito, Immunitas, Einaudi, Torino. Olúfémi Táíwò, Against Decolonization. Taking African Agency Seriously, Hurst & Company, London 2022. Silvia Federici, Calibano e la strega, Mimesis edizioni, 2004. B. Eyal Weizman, Spaziocidio. Israele e l’architettura come strumento di controllo (2007), Mondadori, Milano; ed. originale Hollow Land, Verso, New York. Paul Hirst, Space and Power, Politics, War and Architecture, Polity Press, Oxford 2005. Allais, Lucia, Designs of Destruction: The Making of Monuments in the Twentieth Century, Chicago, Chicago University Press, 2018 C. Antonio Gibelli, L’officina della guerra, Bollati Boringhieri, Torino, nuova ed. 2007. Tzevan Todorov, La conquista delle Americhe (1982) Einaudi, Torino; ed. originale The Conquest of America: the Question of the Other, Harper & Row, New York. Derek Gregory, The Colonial Present, Blackwell, Oxford 2004. Mary Douglas, Purezza e pericolo: un’analisi dei concetti di contaminazione e tabù (1966), Il Mulino, Bologna 2013; ed. originale Purity and Danger. An Analysis of Concepts of Pollution and Taboo, Routledge, London. Francesco Dal Co, Abitare nel Moderno, Laterza, Roma-Bari W. G. Sebald, Storia naturale della distruzione (1999), Adelphi, Milano 2004; ed. originale Luftkrieg und Literatur, Hanse, Carl Hanser Verlag; ed. inglese On the Natural History of Destruction, Penguin, London 2003. Amitav Ghosh, Fumo e ceneri. Il viaggio di uno scrittore nelle storie nascoste dell’oppio, Einaudi, Torino 2025; ed. Originale Smoke and Ashes. Opium’s Hidden History, John Murray Press, London 2023

not mandatory Detailed and upgraded informations about the course available at: https://elearning.uniroma1.it Course: 2025-26 Estetica

Class lessons