An artistic practice contributing to the material framework of society, a medium of experience and individual and collective memory, architecture is also a field of discourse and an object of scientific research, in both its historical and contemporary dimensions. A new history of architecture has emerged, partially emancipated from the history of art within which it grew up, which applies the methods introduced by the Annales school and more recent ones, and tackles questions hitherto ignored, such as its relationship to the temporalities of its construction and use.

The abundant scientific production of recent decades calls for an effort to recast and generalize it in an overall perspective that transcends national borders and stylistic issues, in order to draw a picture that can be read by researchers, practitioners and citizens alike. It is essential to trace longitudinal sections - diachronic - in the decisive developments in the history of architecture since the Enlightenment, as well as cross-sections - synchronic - to understand the matrices of change.

In addition to art-historical methods and architectural concepts, which have been shaped by internal theoretical reflection, the courses combine concepts from history in the broadest sense, and from literary theory, to consider architectural and urban objects in all their dimensions.

In addition to historical questions, the course offers a critical observation of the processes at work in today's cities, whose texture results as much from the conversation between ancient and contemporary buildings as from the constant, if delicate, adjustment between their spaces and uses. Teaching will take account of these two dimensions of architecture and the city, in line with the holder's current and future research programs.