The Ornament. Communicative Design Tool in Cultural History and Modernity

   

Description

In the architecture of recent modernism, ornamentally designed facades are frequently observed. This gives rise to the question of what the kinship relationships are between the forms today and those of the past, and what the buildings communicate in this way. Are there examples here from architecture where the perception of formal and existing structures has led to new solutions?

In the current debates about ornament, the voices favoring the paradigm of intercultural interconnections predominate. This orientation is at the same time connected with numerous recourses to the ornament theories of the later 19th century, e.g. to Owen Jones' study Grammar of Ornament from 1856 or Alois Riegl's Stilfragen. The grammar of a universal formal language fascinated in different ways artists and architects such as Matisse, Kandinsky, Klee, Loos or Mies van der Rohe in their search for new formal solutions.

In the seminar basic texts on the theory of ornament will be read. Against the background of these texts, ornamentally designed facades will be analyzed.

 

Module

Compulsory Elective Module 
M. A. // exclusively for students of Digital Media Communications

Dates

On wednesdays, 2:30 p.m until p.m
Start: October 12, 2022
SE 108 (1580|108)

Accompanying Content

You can download the corresponding lecture content for follow-up purposes on RWTHMoodle .