Vitruvius: firmitas, utilitas, venustas
1st century BC. Vitruvius, one of Caesar's military engineers, writes "De Architectura" — 10 books defining the three fundamental principles of good architecture. Rediscovered in 1414, it inspires the Renaissance and every architectural theory that follows.
The ideal city: a dream never realized
Milan, 1461. Filarete describes Sforzinda — an eight-pointed star-shaped city, never built. From Palmanova (1593, the only one actually realized) to Brasília (1960) to Jane Jacobs' critique: the dream of the perfect city and its failures.
Haussmann and the transformation of Paris
Paris, 1853. Napoleon III appoints Haussmann prefect of the Seine. In 17 years he demolishes 60% of medieval Paris, builds 95 km of boulevards and 400 km of sewers. The Paris we know — and its banlieues — are the same operation.
Le Corbusier the urban planner: the city as a machine
Paris, 1925. The "Plan Voisin" proposes demolishing central Paris and replacing it with 18 skyscrapers set in a park. It is never built. But Europe's 1950s–70s peripheries apply the same logic — without the parks and without the services.
Situationism: the city as a battlefield
Cosio d'Arroscia, 1957. Debord founds the Situationist International and proposes the urban dérive — wandering the city without a destination, guided by "psychogeographic currents". It anticipates parkour, the critical smart city, and Jane Jacobs.
The World's Fair: architecture's laboratory
London, 1851. The Crystal Palace — prefabricated iron and glass — opens the first World's Fair. Every major World's Fair has produced at least one work of architecture that changed history. The Eiffel Tower, the Barcelona Pavilion, Fuller's dome.
The architecture of totalitarian regimes
Berlin, 1937. Speer designs "Germania" — an Avenue of Victory 120m wide, a Great Hall 290m tall, holding 180,000 people. It is never built. Nazism, Italian fascism and Stalinism all use architecture as a tool of power. With very different results.
Sustainability in architecture: more than a label
Oslo, 2014. Powerhouse Kjørbo produces more energy than it consumes over its entire life cycle. It's not a "green" building with panels on the roof: it's energy-positive. The difference between this and architectural greenwashing is enormous.