Relationships and transformations: Towards a history of the constructed environment

Abstract

The goal of the teaching of architecture history in the faculties of architecture is to contribute to the training of architects rather than to that of historians. Consequently, the teaching should be oriented to supporting the students in their projectual work, a projectual work of necessity referring to the time and the place in which they live, train, and are to serve society. This contribution seeks to sketch a teaching of history based on the big issues of the world of today and contemporary architectures understood as responses to these issues. Specifically, a reflection on the project for the Wiesenfeld Housing Complex developed by Japanese architect Kazunari Sakamoto tor the city of Munich is taken as a starting point to identify moments in the history of the landscape, of the city and of architecture, which serve to understand this project in its true depth. Atthe same time, we mention the advantages of a teaching of history understood as a history of the constructed environment, which embraces the history of the landscape, the city, and architecture, as opposed to the traditional teaching of architecture as an object.