Buiding Theory - Concept and Interpretation

Course guarantor:

Pavla Melková

Lecturer:

Vendula Bryndziarová, Michal Hybský, Pavla Melková

Tutor:

Vendula Bryndziarová, Michal Hybský, Pavla Melková

Supervisor:

Department of Building Theory

Synopsis:

The interpretation of architecture is inseparable from the question of the meaning of architecture and the environment itself. First, it is necessary to understand or create the meaning of the work, to propose a concept, and then to be able to formulate, interpret, and present it. These skills and abilities can serve as the foundations of architectural design, as its direct component, and also as tools for its interpretation and presentation. Their subject is not only architecture itself but also architectural thinking as such. The term architecture here refers to the complex built environment, including landscape design.

The operational platform of architecture (its interpretation or presentation) is expanded by formats that go beyond the framework of the main tools of design and construction itself, such as critical writing, artistic concepts, publications, exhibitions, live presentations, photography, film, social media, new communication technologies, and others. These platforms can play not only an interpretative but also a formative role.

The language of architectural interpretation is the same as the language in which users perceive it, and also the language in which architecture itself communicates with its users the very language we, as architects, embed in it. Therefore, as practicing architects, we should examine and master it.

Communication is increasingly becoming an essential part of public space, and the ability to communicate architecture is turning into a natural and indispensable skill that the public rightly expects from architects.

Requirements:

Requirements:

Attendance, student activity in lectures and especially in seminars, and the number and quality of submitted and personally presented assignments presentations.

Student activity is assessed throughout the entire semester. In each seminar, students may write down on a distributed form the order in which they wish to present. Immediately after their presentation, they receive feedback from the instructors as well as from their fellow students during the discussion.

Syllabus of lectures:

Syllabus of tutorials:

Study Objective:

Lectures:

The aim is to introduce students to the tools of architectural interpretation in such a way that the fundamental connection between the architectural concept of the interpreted work and the tools of its interpretation becomes clear. The lectures will include defining general rules through examples of specific interpretations. Valuable will also be feedback from the lecturers, who are often not architects themselves, bringing perspectives on architecture from other disciplines from the outside.

The lecture topics are structured into six blocks, each covering one platform for presenting and communicating architecture. Each block consists of one lecture followed by one seminar, for which students prepare their own short presentation in the format of the given platform, based on the information gained in the preceding lecture.

Seminars:

For each seminar, students prepare at home a short presentation in the format of the given blocks theme. They also submit a brief version of their presentation on Moodle. During the seminar, students present their work in person and receive feedback from the instructors. Other students also take part in the discussion on the presented works.

Study materials:

Hejlová, Denisa: Public Relations. Grada, 2015. Str. 90111

Koolhaas, Rem: S, M, L, XL. New York 1995.

Kraus, Jiří: Člověk mluvící. Leda, 2011. Str. 3649, 135157

Le Corbusier-Saugnier: Za novou architekturu. Praha 200X (Vers une architecture, Paris 1923)

Loos, Adolf: Řeči do prázdna. Praha-Kutná Hora 2001 (Ins leere gesprochen, Paris und Zürich, 1921)

Pelčák, Petr: Několik poznámek k současné architektuře. Brno 2007

Rudofsky, Bernard: Architecture Without Architects. New York 1964

Tichá, Jana (ed.): Architektura na prahu informačního věku. Praha 2001

Tichá, Jana (ed.): Architektura v informačním věku. Praha 2006

Tichá, Jana (ed.): Architektura: tělo nebo obraz. Praha 2009

Venturi, Robert. Denise Scott-Brown, Steven Izenour: Learning from Las Vegas, Cambridge,MA 1972

Ada Louise Huxtable, Architecture Criticism, Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society, Vol. 134, No. 4 (Dec., 1990)

Era 21 01/2017, Podoby kritiky monotematické číslo o architektonické kritice, editor Ondřej Hojda

Steen Eiler Rasmussen, Jak vnímat architekturu, Praha 2016

Rostislav Švácha Milena Sršňová Jana Tichá, Euroamerické architektonické myšlení, Praha 2018

Ondřej Dušek Karolina Jirkalová, K čemu jsou architekti, Praha 2019

Harries, Karsten. Etická funkce architektury. Arbor Vitae a VŠUP¨, 2011

Holl. Steven, Paralaxa, Era, 2003

Kratochvíl, Petr, O smyslu a interpretaci architektury, VŠUP, 2005

Melková, Pavla, Cikán, Miroslav, Bastion XXXI u Božích muk, Praha 2012

Melková, Pavla, Prožívat architekturu, Arbor vitae, Řevnice 2013

Melková, Pavla, Cikán, Miroslav, Stůl u okna, na stole kniha, A Table at the Window, a Book Upon the Table, Arbor vitae, 2014

Melková, Pavla, Humanistická role architektury, Arbor vitae, Řevnice 2016

Melková, Pavla, Blažek, Petr, Památník Jana Palacha ve Všetatech, Národní muzeum, Praha 2019

Melková, Pavla (ed.), Ke stolu!, Dokořán a IPR, Praha 2019

Melková, Pavla, Blažek, Petr, Hrana, Národní muzeum, Praha 2020

Melková, Pavla, Cikán, Miroslav, Architektura reciprocity, Kant, Praha 2020

Melková, Pavla, Vnímání prostoru, Arbor vitae, Řevnice, 2021

Melková, Pavla (ed.), Živá památka, IPR, Praha, 2022

Mitášová, Monika, ed. Oxymorón & pleonasmus I, Zlatý řez a Vysoká škola výtvarných umění v Bratislavě, 2012

Mitášová, Monika, ed. Oxymorón & pleonasmus II, Zlatý řez a Vysoká škola výtvarných umění v Bratislavě, 2013

Pallasmaa Juhani, Oči kůže, Archa, 2012

Plamínek, Jiří, Komunikace a prezentace, Grada, 2012

Petříček, Miroslav, Myšlení obrazem, Herrmann & synové, 2009

Rezek, Petr, Architektonika a protoarchitektura, Ztichlá klika, 2009

Rezek, Petr, Tělo, věc a skutečnost, Ztichlá Klika, 2010

Morales, Ignasi de Sola, Diference. Topografie současné architektury, Česká komora architektů, 1999

Ulrich, Petr a Ševčík, Oldřich ed., Texty praktikujících architektů. W. Alsop, V. Gregotti, G. Hartoonian, E. Jiřičná, P. Blundell Jones, C.Pelli, R. Piano J. Tollit, P. Zumthor. Česká komora architektů, 2000

Veselý, Dalibor. Architektura ve věku rozdělené reprezentace. Problém tvořivosti ve stínu produkce. Academia, 2008

Saint, Andrew, The Image of the Architect, Yale University Press,1983

Vojtěchovský, Milan, Vostrý, Jaroslav, Obraz a příběh, AMU, KANT, 2009

Witt, Christopher, Real Leaders Dont Do Powerpoint, Crown Publishing Group, 2009

Note:

Time-table for winter semester 2025/2026:

	06:00–08:0008:00–10:0010:00–12:0012:00–14:0014:00–16:0016:00–18:0018:00–20:0020:00–22:0022:00–24:00
Mon
Tue
Wed	room305 Melková P. Bryndziarová V. 15:00–16:30 ODD WEEK (lecture parallel1 parallel nr.101) Thákurova 9 roomT9:152 Melková P. 15:00–16:30 (lecture parallel1) Dejvice roomT9:111 Melková P. 15:00–16:30 EVEN WEEK (lecture parallel1) Dejvice
Thu
Fri

Time-table for summer semester 2025/2026:

Time-table is not available yet

The course is a part of the following study plans:

• Bakalářský Krajinářská architektura 2018 (compulsory course)
• Bakalářský Design 2018 (elective course)