ARCHITECTURE, DECOR & FURNITURE

​A1-                              GREEK ARCHITECTURE

The impact of an architecture that influenced, Rome, modern Europe, and the US architecture.
       3 to 5-hour lecture  

A2-                          ROMAN ARCHITECTURE
       The history of Roman architecture and art and its influence on the Renaissance architecture.
       3 to 5-hour lecture  

A3-            ROMANESQUE ARCHITECTURE IN FRANCE
Romanesque architecture is the main style developed in Medieval Europe from the 9th to the 12th Century, combining architectural elements from ancient Roman and Byzantine buildings, with traditional decorative motifs and local construction techniques.        

        3 to 5-hour lecture  

A4-                           GOTHIC CATHEDRALS
     A style born in France: Saint-Denis Basilica, Notre Dame and the Sainte Chapelle of Paris, Notre Dame of Chartres, Laon, Reims, Beauvais, Sens, Amiens, Rouen, Bourges, Albi: the amazing feast of architecture, the transcendental beauty of the stained glass windows, the political and human impact of a construction process that would sometimes take more than a century to see its accomplishment. We will compare the changes, which occurred with the discovery of the flying buttresses against the Romanesque type of architecture.
      1hr 45mn to 5-hour lecture

A5-                            THE RENAISSANCE   
  The transformation from medieval thinking to new more open-minded philosophies that saw an incredible transformation in architecture, furniture and decor, but also in literature, philosophy, poetry, religion and music. From Italy, starting in the late 1300, the influence will penetrate all parts of Europe.  
       3 to 18- hour lecture 

A6-               THE CASTLES OF THE LOIRE VALLEY
  From Angers to Chambord, through Azay, Usse, Villandry, Chenonceau and lesser-known castles. A look at the birth of the French Renaissance, its architecture and decor. We will talk about the women who designed or owned some of the most beautiful castles, Leonardo da Vinci's last years of his life in Clos Luce and the changes in architecture, decor. It is also the human side of history, from the time of feudal Lords in the year 1,000 to the first absolute French king, Francis I, in the 16th Century.
      1hr:45mn  to 5 hour lecture 

A7-                                       PALLADIO
       A wide review of his architecture and his influence on British and US architecture, as well as an understanding of the period in which he lived and worked. Also how badly copied, just look at the pseudo Palladian houses in Florida, by people who could not read his Four Books of Architecture in which gives practically all the recipes
      3 to 6 hour lecture  

A8-         BAROQUE ARCHITECTURE IN ITALY AND EUROPE  
     Born from the Mannerist style, in the late 16th century it will survive the Rococo era in many parts of Europe until the beginning of the 19th Century.  It is a style full of movement, opposite to the Renaissance style. The Roman Catholic Church, in trying to counter the Protestant Reformation, considered that the arts should communicate religious themes in an over played emotional form. Contrary to the Renaissance style in art or architecture, the Baroque style is overly opulent.
       From St Peter Basilica to Versailles and the grand castles (in Germany: Ludwigsburg Palace, Perterhoff in Russia, and churches of Europe, we will visit with some of the greatest architects and artists of the time. Gianlorenzo Bernini, Francesco Borromini, Christopher Wren, Sir John Vanbrugh and Nicholas Hawksmoor.
       Some of the architects, artists and buildings we will discuss:
Michelangelo, Giacomo della Porta, Carlo Maderno: St Peter's Basilica, the Vatican; Francesco Laparelli, Gerolamo Cassar: Urbanistic complex of the city of Valletta, Malta; Giacomo Barozzi da Vignola, Giacomo della Porta: Church of the Gesu, Rome;  Carlo Maderno: Santa Susanna, Rome; Giovanni de Galliano Pieroni, Andrea Spezza, Niccolo Sebregondi: Wallenstein Palace, Prague, Czech Republic; Jules Hardouin Mansart, Louis Le Vau, André Le Nôtre, Château de Versailles, Versailles, France; Francesco Borromini: San Carlo alle Quattro Fontane, Rome, Italy;  Guarino Guarini: San Lorenzo (Turin), Turin, Italy; Christopher Wren: St Paul's Cathedral, London, England; Augustyn Wincenty Locci, Giovanni Spazzio: Wilanów Palace,  Warsaw, Poland; Jules Hardouin Mansart: Les Invalides, Paris, France; Jean Baptiste Mathey, Giovanni Domenico Orsi Troja Palace Prague, Czech Republic; Jakob Prandtauer: Stift Melk, Austria; Matteo Alberti: Schloss Bensberg, Bergisch Gladbach, Germany; Christoph Dientzenhofer, Kilian Ignaz Dientzenhofer: Saint Nicholas Church (Malá Strana), Prague, Czech Republic;
Sir John Vanbrugh: Blenheim Palace, Woodstock, England; Matthäus Daniel Pöppelmann: ZwingerPalace, Dresden, Germany; João Frederico Ludovice: Mafra Palace, Mafra, Portugal; Teodoro Ardemans, Filippo Juvarra: Palace of La Granja, Segovia, Spain; Bartolomeo Rastrelli: Peterhof Palace, St Petersburg, Russia;
Nicola Salvi: Trevi Fountain, Rome, Italy; Filippo Juvarra, Juan Bautista Sacchetti, Ventura Rodríguez: Royal Palace, Madrid, Spain, etc....
       3 to 18 hour lecture  

A9-                                        VERSAILLES
       The Sun King and the daily life at the court, the mistresses, the architects and the artists who created the decor of one of the largest castles in the worlds. We will talk about the political and economical reasons behind the construction of the castle. We will see the evolution of different architectural and decorative styles.
       We will look at Vaux le Vicomte, a marvelous castle built in 5 years by 18,000 workers and designed by the same architect, gardener and decorator who will later create Versailles.
       1hr:45mn  or 3 hour or 6 hour lecture

A10-         THE GARDENS OF VILLANDRY AND VERSAILLES                                             
       Villandry is probably the most perfect example of a Renaissance garden based on monastic Medieval decorated kitchen gardens. In this 32,000 sq. feet garden, the precise decor, the colors and the forms are created strictly with vegetables and fruit trees representing 120,000 plants a year. Villandry also has The Love Garden" a 13,000 sq. feet geometric garden "a la française" containing tall boxwood and yew trimmed into hedges surrounding carpets of flowers (25,000 plants) symbolic designs associated with love.
       Versailles is a huge park with several gardens each with its own style, its own story. From French to English gardens, it is a beautiful walk in the mist of hundreds of statues and some of the most beautiful fountains ever designed.
      1hr:45mn or 3 hr or 6 hr lecture (Monet at Giverny can be added)

A11-              ROCAILLE, LOUIS XV, ROCOCO ARCHITECTURE 

                         AND DECOR IN  FRANCE AND EUROPE
Rocaille is one of the more prominent aspects of the Rococo style of architecture and decoration that developed in France during the reign of King Louis XV (1715–74). The Rocaille style was born from the Baroque in which it took it fluid and complex shapes and new interest in nature and natural sciences. In French, rocaille means “rubble,” or “pebbles,” or "landscape of rocks" and style rocaille is synonymous with Rococo. Solitude Palace in Stuttgart; Chinese Palace in Oranienbaum;  the Bavarian church in Wies;  Sanssouci in Potsdam;, Augustusburg and Falkenlust Palaces in Brüh; Charlottenburg Palace in Berlin; Chinese House in Potsdam and some portion of the Château de Versailles are great examples of decor and architecture of the period.
      Antoine Gaudreau, Charles Cressent, Jean-Pierre Latz, François Oeben, Bernard II van Risamburgh  Thomas Chippendale, Thomas Johnson François de Cuvilliés, Nicholas Pineau, Bartolomeo Rastrelli Juste-Aurèle Meissonier,  the marchands-merciers and their leader Simon-Philippe Poirier are some of the great cabinet makers/ decorators we will talk about.    
       3 to 10 hour lecture  

A12-                  NEO-CLASSICISM IN ARCHITECTURE

                                  AND DECOR IN EUROPE
The movement was both a reaction against the complexity and opulence of the Rococo and the renewal of interest in classical architecture after the re-discovery of Pompeii. A non negligible influence was the architecture of Andrea Palladio which started to be more known around Europe. The style will give birth to many different styles like the Adam Style, Empire Style, Federal, American Empire, and even Nazi and Stalinist architecture. Some of its elements can be found even in Art Deco architecture or furniture.
        3 to 6 hour lecture  

A13-                          THE LOUVRE MUSEUM
240 to 500 slides or so to tell of eight hundred years in the history of the Louvre from Philippe-Auguste small fortress to I. M. Pei's glass pyramid. More than ten architects designed all the buildings that created perhaps the largest palace in the world. Amazingly enough, there is a certain unity of style although the buildings still standing were designed starting in the early 1400s, and then saw many different epochs: Francis I, Henri II, Henri IV (French Renaissance), Louis XIII (The time of Mansart), Louis XIV (Baroque era, Le Vaux future architect of Versailles), Napoleon I, Napoleon III up to the Pyramid by I.M. Pei as well as some of his inside decorative and space planning work.
      1hr:45mn  or 3 hour or 6 hour lecture

A14-                    FRENCH COUNTRY FURNITURE
A grand panorama of the "country French" styles. The roots of more than 48 different styles coming from at least 12 different main regions.  
      3 hour,  6 hour, or 10hr OR several chapters for 20 hours of lecture.

A15-      A SHORT HISTORY IN IMAGE OF FRENCH FURNITURE

                                                AND DECOR
      It brings out the reasons why some pieces of furniture did appear and how people lived through the centuries getting to "modernize" their surroundings when foreign influences would bring new ideas.
      3 hour lecture or 2 time 1hr:30mn
 

A16-          APPRECIATING FRENCH FURNITURE, DECOR                                                          AND ARCHITECTURE
     From the medieval era to the modernist period of the late 1930, a wide survey of how people lived with furniture and the connection between history, architecture and decor.
      18hr in different lectures lengths   

A17-                            ART NOUVEAU
      From Brussels to Nancy to Paris, the birth of a movement using nature as its inspiration.
      3 to 6 hr lecture

A18-           THE BIRTH OF MODERN AND BEYOND
       An Overview of Western Architecture, Painting and Sculpture from 1850 to 1980: This course will revive and enhance the professional's knowledge of Western 19th and 20th Century architecture, painting and sculpture.
      Beginning with the onset of the Industrial Revolution in the mid-1800's, and progressing past World War II to the 1980's, the course will cover prominent movements including the Barbizon School, Pre-­Raphealites, Impressionism, Nabism, Fauvism, Cubism, Dada, Surrealism, Bauhaus, International Style and continue on to Neo-Abstraction. We will also cover the influential artists, architects and works of each period. This course is supplemented by over 1000 slides and will discuss not only the art and architecture but the Political and socio-economic factors that influenced the key movements Industrial Revolution, The Russian Revolution, Socialism, World Wars l and Il.
      Two-time Ten Hour lecture (can be CEU for Interior Designers and Architects).

A19-     ART NOUVEAU IN CENTRAL AND EASTERN EUROPE

("New Art" in French). Based on precepts akin to William Morris' Arts and Crafts movement in England, the attempt was to eradicate the dividing line between art and audience. Everything could and should be art: Burne-Jones designed wallpaper, Hector Guimard designed metro stations, and Mucha designed champagne advertising and stage sets. Each country had its own name for the new approach and artists of incredible skill and vision flocked to the movement. It was a movement that had a very strong influence essentially in the middle of Europe. Some of the greatest example of architecture, decor and art can be found in Austria, the Czech Republic or Hungary.
      3 to 6 hour lecture  

A20-                                  ANTONI GAUDI
Gaudí was an architect with an amazing sense for geometry and volumes, and one of the most imaginative of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. He generally didn't draw but preferred to use scale models to convey his ideas to the builders. He was often improvising with a strong intuition and creative capacity, Gaudí conceived his buildings in a global manner, taking into account both structural and decorative functions.
             1hr:45mn or 3hr

A21-                           THE VIENNA SECESSION  
      The Vienna Secession was founded on 3 April 1897 by a group of artists who had left the Association of Austrian Artists, because they were unhappy by its control on what they needed to produce as well as the commission they had to pay to the association on every sale of their works. They were painters, sculptors, and architects. Their first president was Gustav Klimt. Some of the most important were Koloman Moser, Josef Hoffmann, Joseph Maria Olbrich, Max Kurzweil. Although Otto Wagner is recognized as part of the Vienna Secession he was not a founding member. The artists objected to the prevailing conservatism of the Vienna Künstlerhaus.
Because of differences of opinion, some artist left the movement and went on to create in 1903 the Wiener Werkstätte (engl.: Vienna Workshop). Their aim was to create a movement of architects, artists and designers who would create art that would be accessible to everyone. One of their most famous accomplishments is the Stoclet Palace in Brussels.
      1hr:45mn or 3hr

A22-                                OTTO WAGNER
Otto Wagner, an Austrian architect born in 1841 started designing buildings in 1864, following the ideas of a contemporary movement, Architectural Realism, that wanted to rely less on historical forms or elements. Then in early1890s, he designed several Jugendstil (Art Nouveau in Austria) buildings. He was very interested in urban planning  and designed a new city plan for Vienna. Although his plan was not developed, his urban rail network, the Stadtbahn, was built. In its evolution, his style incorporated the use of new materials and new forms as well as quasi-symbolic references to reflect the fact that society was changing. He wrote that "new human tasks and views called for a change or reconstitution of existing forms". In 1897, he joined the Vienna Secession shortly after it was founded.                    
      1hr:45mn or 2:5hr

A23-                           THE ORSAY MUSEUM
      How an obsolete train station was saved from demolition to become one of the most beautiful museums in the world.    You will discover the art of the late 19th century and beginning of the 20th, which includes a great collection of Impressionists. We will also look at lesser know art like the "style nouille" (pasta style) and the "style pompier" (firemen style), some very unusual and beautiful furniture and a few of the major sculptors of the century.
      1hr:45mn  or 3 hour or 6 hour lecture

A24-                   CHARLES RENNIE MACKINTOSH  
Born in 1868, he was a Scottish architect, furniture designer, watercolorist and sculptor. He was part of the Arts and Crafts movement and also Art Nouveau. He talent was considerable and soon he had created his own style that no longer could be incorporated in any other mainstream movements. His influence on European architecture was important.  
       3 to 5 hour lecture  

A25-                              FRANK LLOYD WRIGHT
Frank Lloyd Wright, born 1867, was an American architect, interior designer, writer and educator. He designed more than 1,000 projects. More than 500 of them were completed works. Wright promoted organic architecture after learning of the concept while working with an important American Architect, Louis Sullivan (Fallingwater,  a disaster of a house). He made himself a leader of the Prairie School movement of architecture (Robie House, Westcott House, Darwin D. Martin House) although it was not entirely his ideas. They were mostly those of Marion Mahoney, his first employee, the second women graduating from MIT as an architect, the first women with a license to practice architecture in Illinoi, while FLW did not obtain one until he was in his sixties.   He developed the concept of the Usonian home (Rosenbaum House). His work included many different building types, (offices, churches, schools, skyscrapers, hotels, and museums) but also included interior elements of many of the of his buildings original and innovative examples of Wright also often designed, such as the furniture and stained glass.          
      3 or 6 hr course

A26-                    ART DECO ARCHITECTURE, FURNITURE

                                        AND DECOR IN EUROPE
Although a style born in France around 1910 which lasted until the 1925 "Exposition des Arts Decoratifs" in Paris giving the style its name, recognized its culminating point and saw its demise, Art Deco influenced the European architecture landscape as can be seen in cities all over Europe from Vienna to Prague to Budapest, to Brussels to Amsterdam, Berlin and more.
       3 to 10 hour lecture  

A27-            ART DECO FURNITURE AND DECOR IN FRANCE
An overview of a style born in France around 1910 which lasted until the 1925 "Exposition des Arts Decoratifs" in Paris giving the style its name, recognized its culminating point and saw its demise, all at the same time.
      1hr:45mn  or 3 hour or 6 hour lecture

A28-                                FALLINGWATER

How not to design a house according to your client's desires
      1hr:45mn

A29-                                 LE CORBUSIER
       The ideas and the work of the great Swiss architect and the people who worked with him.
       3 to 5 hour lecture  

A30-                                  EILEEN GREY
       1hr:45mn to 5 hour lecture  

A31-                                 THE BAUHAUS
Weimar, Dessau, Berlin
       1:45mn 3 hour 6 hour

A32-                          THE BAUHAUS IN THE US
The influence of this great German movement on our contemporary architecture.
       1:45 3 hr  

A33-                     COMMUNIST ARCHITECTURE
       An overview of architecture in Central and Eastern Europe (Czech Republic, Poland, Hungary, East Germany, Romania) that can at times be considered as de-humanizing and at best rather simplistic and minimalist, with foray into the grandiose and over powering. We will also see how some architects were able to create rather original architecture despite the stringent rules and how politics and fears played an instrumental role in a seemingly boring style.
       1.5 to 3 hour
 
A34-           THE SARASOTA SCHOOL OF ARCHITECTURE 

                                               MOVEMENT
       4 hour lecture

A36-                                MOSTLY MODERN
The major projects of the late 20th century in Paris: The Pompidou Center, the Pyramid and the Grand Louvre, the Arch of the Defense, the Museum of Orsay, the Center for the Arabic World, the Bastille Opera, the Museum of Science and Technique, The Park of la Villette, the National Conservatory of Music, the National Library, the American Center in Paris, amazing low income housings by Ricardo Bofill and Paolo Nunez and more.
An interesting look at some of the boldest and most controversial architecture of today and a Paris that most tourist miss.
       1hr:45mn  or 3 hour or 6 hour lecture

A37-                            THE POMPIDOU CENTER
       1hr:45mn

A38-                                  HUNDERTWASSER
He was one of the most well know contemporary Austrian artist but also a very interesting and controversial architect with many "green" ideas ahead of his time.
       1hr:45mn

A39-                                IMRE MAKOVECZ
One of the greatest Hungarian architect (he died in 2012), and one of the greatest organic architects, he used hidden symbolism in his architecture. someone I had the pleasure to met and spend time with him talking about his vision.
       1hr:45mn

A40-                               NEUTRA AND SCHINDLER
wo Austrian architects who will have an enormous influence on modern architecture in the US.
      3hr

A41-                                       JEAN PROUVE
      A metal worker, self-taught architect, engineer and designer who transferred manufacturing technologies from industry to architecture with style and aesthetic qualities. He was involved in architectural design, structural design, industrial design and furniture design.
      1hr:45mn

A42-                  PAOLO SOLERI AND ARCOSANTI
      An experiment that was ahead of its time? Where is the failure? What ideas could still be taken from Soleri's philosophy? Other architects' similar projects.
       2 hr  

A43-            BUILDING & DESIGNING THE HEALTHY HOME
       Two-time 10 Hour CEU HSW for Interior Designers and   

    Architects. Can be adapted to the general public,

        2 x 2-hour lecture      
 

A 44-                  THE ALMOST PERFECT BUILDING
      Two-time 8 hour CEU HSW for Interior Designers & Architects.                                          
A46-                       AUTOCLAVE AERATED CONCRETE
An 80-year old technology creating blocks or panels for commercial or residential construction. It is a superior material with a 4-hr fire rating, non toxic, non pollutant, with a high insulation rating, a high sound proofing rating, great strength, non conductive to mold proliferation, impervious to termite, 5 time lighter than normal concrete blocks, easy to work with hand tools.
       1-hr CEU  for architects

A47-                             THE SKYSCRAPERS
An America invention? How it changed the configuration of the urban landscape. The advances in technology. Defying the impossible.
       3 to 6 hr course  

A48-                                   URBAN SPRAWL
We dehumanise housing by creating sprawl. What are the solutions, and can we continue to go at the rate we do for very long.
       3 to 5 hr course

A49-                           ORGANIC ARCHITECTURE
      Organic architecture is not new. We can find examples of it from Celtic times to Art Nouveau, to Arts and Crafts, to the work of Anton Alberts, Laurie Baker, Claude Bragdon, Nari Gandhi, Antoni Gaudi, Bruce Goff, Neville Gruzman, Hugo Häring, Hundertwasser, Kendrick Bangs Kellogg, John Lautner, Le Corbusier, Imre Makovecz, Hans Scharoun,  Gustav Stickley. Louis Sullivan, Rudolf Steiner,Frank Lloyd Wright,  Bruno Zevi. Organic architecture is gentler to the environment, gentler on our sense of aesthetics because softer and in some ways with a sense of humor. It is based on natural or curvilinear forms rather than the straight-line concept of modernism. "So here I stand before you preaching organic architecture: declaring organic architecture to be the modern ideal and the teaching so much needed if we are to see the whole of life, and to now serve the whole of life, holding no 'traditions' essential to the great TRADITION. Nor cherishing any preconceived form fixing upon us either past, present or future, but instead exalting the simple laws of common sense or of super-sense if you prefer determining form by way of the nature of materials..." Frank Lloyd Wright, An Organic Architecture, 1939 in his circumvoluted way of expressing himself.
      3 to 18 hour lecture  

A50-                       THE ARCHITECTURE OF PRAGUE                      
A view of some of the most interesting buildings in the city and a panorama of amazing facades, plus some of the outstanding free standing sculptures seen all along the city.
      1hr:45mn

A51-                              ARCHITECTURE AS ART
Great building from all over the world that could pretend to also be works of art. Although often, it could be debatable.
      1:45mn

​

A52-               COLUMBUS, INDIANA, AMAZING 6TH BEST

       US ARCHITECTURAL CITY 

With over a hundred buildings designed by more than 55 renowned architects, this small, clean, charming Midwest city is a museum of great architecture from 1942 to the present. 

      1:45mn