The Faculty of Architecture / Architecture (English taught)
2nd Year, sem 2, 2025-2026

BP2-18E | Composition

Compulsory Course | Hours/Week: 2C | ECTS Credits: 3

Department:

Basics of Architectural Design

Course Leader:

conf.dr.arh. Horia Dinulescu

Teaching language:

English

Learning outcomes:

The course aims to develop an understanding of architectural composition as a process of conscious organization of spatial order, through the correlation of perception, codified systems, and the production of meaning.
Specific objectives:
- understanding perception as the foundation of spatial organization;
- understanding the classical orders as a system of thought and a codified architectural language;
- analyzing the fundamental instruments of architectural design: plan, section, façade, and perspective;
- developing critical analytical skills through case studies;
- forming a coherent and well-argued compositional way of thinking.

Content:

PART I — PRINCIPLES
Introduction. The notion of composition.
Gestalt principles in architecture
– perception as a primary fact.
The classical orders as a system of thought
– architecture as a codified language.
The Plan
– the abstract order of space
– diagram, control, thinking without the body.
The Section
– body, gravity, interiority
– vertical experience.
The Façade
– architecture as sign
– address, mask, convention.
Perspective
– who sees, who decides
– the illusion of control.

PART II — CASE STUDIES
Farnsworth House
– the free plan
– transparency and image.
Glass House
– self-representation
– architecture as declaration.
M. C. Escher
– the crisis of perspective
– impossible space.
Villa Müller
– Raumplan
– space as sequence.
Villa Savoye vs. Villa Rotonda
– modernism vs. classicism
– plan, proportion, body, promenade.
Louis Kahn vs. Piranesi
– ruin, memory, archetype.

REVIEW
– synthesis for the final examination.

Teaching Method:

- lectures illustrated with visual material.

Assessment:

- written examination (minimum passing grade: 5.00)

Bibliography:

The present bibliography includes general references relevant to the major themes discussed in the course.
Arnheim, Rudolf – Art and Visual Perception
Ching, Francis D.K. – Architecture: Form, Space and Order
Kleinman, Kent; Van Duzer, Leslie – Villa Müller
Le Corbusier – Toward an Architecture
Loos, Adolf – Ornament and Crime
Michelis, Panayotis – Aesthetics of Architecture
Radian, H.R. – The Book of Proportions
Vitruvius – On Architecture
von Meiss, Pierre – Elements of Architecture