The Architectural History of the City
from Antiquity to the 21st Century

The lecture gives an overview of the architectural history of the city from antiquity to the middle ages, to the modern era and the industrial revolution up to today's information age. The focus lies on the question of how cities have acquired their urban and architectural form. Which factors and intentions led to the emergence of certain architectural and urban designs, and which effects and statements are linked to them?

In order to answer those questions, we will describe and analyse the complex interplay of urban structures and architectural designs on the basis of examples typical of their time. In addition to a predominantly chronological approach, certain aspects will be also examined in diachronic digressions, i.e. on a level that points beyond their time-specific context. The social, economic, religious and philosophical framework for urban planning and design decisions will certainly be addressed. However, special attention is paid to the urban form as a carrier of meaning and to the special tradition of the European "historical city" as the product of a continuous redesign, in which the new becomes readable only against the background of what already exists.

According to the rule "You only see what you know", the lecture is aimed at enabling prospective architects and urban planners to see cities more consciously and to name and understand the various layers of time and their respective qualities - an indispensable prerequisite for contemporary designs that contribute with sufficient complexity to the diversity of urban references.