Introduction to the particular modes of thinking and producing in architecture, and to the mutations that occur under the influence of external factors (natural, historic, social, cultural, technological, etc.) and ideological

approaches (interpretation, theory, criticism).

The specificity of architecture as discipline. Types of knowledge converging into architectural thought and production. The position of architectural discourse in relation to art, science, technology, and politics. The surplus

of meaning: architecture vs building. Types of architectural theory: normative, speculative, interpretative.

The language analogy in architecture. The idea of order: formal and intellectual order, and their manifestation. Form and content, image and idea. Architectural meaning in context, meaning by association. Primary meaning of architectural forms: Architecture ans Semiotics. The notion of rhetorics in architecture. Sources of architectural

form: model, precedent, type. The notion of type as analytical and operative tool. The notion of transformation: combination, assemblage, deformation, collage, displacement. Typology vs Iconography, typology as iconography.

The problem of repetition: reproduction and invention. Creativity in architecture.