The three masters of modern architecture
Teaching module for upper secondary schools
The aim of this module is to provide enrolled students with the key information and essential tools to understand the history of modern architecture, starting with the lives and most significant works of three great masters: Le Corbusier, Mies van der Rohe, and Frank Lloyd Wright.
The lessons will focus on themes, trends, changes and theories that not only shaped the work and personal lives of these key figures, who were active in Europe and the United States from the early 20th century to the 1960s, but also invite reflection on the role of architecture in today’s society and its intrinsic significance.
In collaboration with Maria Chiara Virgili.
Le Corbusier and the Five Points of a New Architecture
- Thursday 8 April 2027 at 10:00 - 12:00
Born in Switzerland, but a naturalised French citizen, and universally known as Le Corbusier, Charles-Édouard Jeanneret-Gris (1887-1965) was one of the most prolific and influential architects of the last century. A pioneer in the use of reinforced concrete in architecture and the originator of ‘The Five Points of a New Architecture’ (principles that are well represented in the famous Villa Savoye in Poissy), he was also one of the founding fathers of contemporary urban planning. His works, shaped by a multifaceted and ever-evolving personality, combine the austere functionalism typical of the Modern Movement with Brutalist expressionism.
Mies van der Rohe, the architect of ‘Less is more’
- Thursday 15 April 2027 at 10:00 - 12:00
A German architect and designer, Mies van der Rohe (1886-1969) created rational, linear works characterised by elegant simplicity and formal minimalism, embodied by his famous motto ‘Less is more’. His career, both personal and professional, spanned two worlds: the Europe of the avant-garde, where he earned a leading role amongst the teaching staff at the Bauhaus, and the America of modernism and skyscrapers, where he invented the curtain wall and experimented with auditorium-style buildings.
Frank Lloyd Wright and organic architecture
- Thursday 22 April 2027 at 10:00 - 12:00
Frank Lloyd Wright (1867-1959) was the leading figure in modern American architecture and a champion of the organic movement, which held that any architectural work must be conceived in relation to its surrounding environment. His long life, full of personal twists and turns and marked by great professional successes, can be divided into four phases: the Prairie Houses, single-family homes integrated into the natural landscape; the Textile Block Houses, villas in the Mayan revival style built in California; the Usonian Houses, homes designed for middle-class families, built after the 1929 crash; and the reinforced concrete phase, a material which, from the second half of the 1930s onwards, he used to create his most celebrated masterpieces.
