Scholarly reflection on the relationship between human ideals and the built environment is not limited to contemporary architecture. The aim of this particular assignment was to explore the relationship between a specific building (prior to 1900) and a human ideal and to ask in what sense buildings and urban spaces have been conceived as symbols and instruments for democracy, equality, eternity, freedom, independence, reform, virtue, etc.

This illustrated essay attempts to explore and discuss how the Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore materialised humanism in the context of the origins of the Italian Renaissance.

Course History Theory II

Course Coordinator Katharine Bartsch