HYSTORY OF ARCHITECTURE FOR CIVIL ENGINEERS

Abstract

The study of architectural history for civil engineering students at the Technical University of Budapest has certain traditions. Professor Frigyes Pogány was won for teaching the subject who gave 2 hours of splendid slide-illustrated lectures a week to all first year students. After his death chance opened for lecturing History of Architecture again in 1999, as an elective subject. The computer aid was required by the accelerated and enlarged receptivity in pictures, which characterizes our information society. Thus, instead of the traditional 80 slides, a computer aided presentation provides the possibility for illustration with 200-250 figures and pictures. We can be lost in the jungle of works, creators and dates, which can only be avoided by moderation and focusing on the key issues. Therefore we mainly examine the structural plans of growing space and spans, the technical and material background affecting the structure-function-form relation. The interest of students is well demonstrated by the high number of registration: 70-80 students. We find that these students appreciate the subject and enjoy compiling their 15-20 page, illustrated study in the selected topic. It is our target to have students examined a certain building and its structure from their own surrounding. We propose to study certain Hungarian historic buildings or objects from the World Heritage. We provide literature which analyse the relation between building technology and aesthetics, and which do not speak the language of exclusiveness saying that architecture is only an art, is only a science or only a profession, as we are convinced that architecture is a joint of these all.