Michael Gnehm
Curriculum Vitae
⚫︎ MICHAEL GNEHM is a research associate at the Accademia di architettura of the Università della Svizzera italiana (USI) in Mendrisio. He received his Ph.D. in Art History from the University of Zurich in 2004 with a book on ARCHITECTURE AND LANGUAGE in Gottfried Semper, and his habilitation (second book) in Art and Architectural History in 2010 from ETH Zurich with a work on literary aspects of architectural description. ⚫︎ He is teaching at the Department of Architecture of ETH Zurich on the HISTORY AND THEORY OF ARCHITECTURE. In 2006, he was awarded the Prix Jubilé of the Swiss Academy of Humanities and Social Sciences for an article on the first German translation of Vitruvius in the 16th century. ⚫︎ Since 2017, he is CO-EDITOR of the critical and commented edition of Gottfried Semper’s Style, a collaboration between the Institute for the History and Theory of Architecture (gta), ETH Zurich, and the Istituto di storia e teoria dell’arte e dell’architettura (ISA), USI Mendrisio. ⚫︎ In his TEACHING AND RESEARCH, Michael Gnehm focuses on architectural positions from the 19th to the 21st centuries against the backdrop of the relationship between history and the present. A list of PUBLICATIONS with PDFs is available here.
HISTORY & THEORY of ARCHITECTURE IX
[063-0807-23]
PHILOSOPHY for ARCHITECTS
Michael GNEHM
Autumn 2023 | Fridays 11:45–12:30
HIL E 3
▶︎SYLLABUS and READINGS
Philosopher Sylviane AGACINSKI raised the issue in the mid-1980s whether philosophical concepts such as that of inwardness were not unthinkable before the spatially effective activity of architecture, just as the tomb cannot be separated from the idea of a soul. Other thinkers held that philosophy is groundwork per se, that is, a precondition also for the «fundaments» of architecture. A third branch tried to cope generally with the presence of architectural metaphors in philosophical writings. The lecture course discusses architectural topics around this kind of semiotic triangle in theory and practice with reference to (phenomenological) presence and absence, (digital and linguistic) codes, the subconscious, (female) chora, and the (colonizing) anthropocene along the lines of writers such as Homi K. Bhabha, Ethel CHARLES, Hélène CIXOUS, Jacques DERRIDA, Elizabeth GROSZ, Donna HARAWAY, bell HOOKS, Luce IRIGARAY, Julia KRISTEVA, Henri LEFEBVRE, Achille MBEMBE, Legacy RUSSELL, Isabelle STENGERS, and Victoria WELBY, together with their presence, or absence, in the current discourse on architecture. The objective of the course is to provide tools for a critical assessment, and practical application, of arguments at the intersection of philosophy and architecture.
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HISTORY & THEORY of ARCHITECTURE IX
[063-0807-22]
COMING HOME. Stories in Architectural Theory
Michael GNEHM
Autumn 2022 | Fridays 11:45–12:30
HIL E 3
The lecture course discusses architecture and literature in its diverse relations: Stories as moments when architecture comes to life, the writing of architectural history and theory and literary writing. The focus aims at the notion of home and its discontents in architectural narratives.
▶︎Course Catalogue
▶︎Recordings
HISTORY & THEORY of ARCHITECTURE IX
[063-0803-02]
Between COSMOS and CHAOS
Semper’s Theory of Architecture
Michael GNEHM
Autumn 2021 | Fridays 11:45–12:30
HIL E 8
The lecture course discusses Gottfried Semper’s complex approach to architecture as the «small world» created by mankind within a global scope framing history and the present between a cosmological totality and chaotic fragmentation.
▶︎Course Catalogue
▶︎Recordings
COURSES
HISTORY & THEORY of ARCHITECTURE IX
[063-0807-23]
PHILOSOPHY for ARCHITECTS
Michael GNEHM
Autumn 2023 | Fridays 11:45–12:30
HIL E 3
▶︎SYLLABUS and READINGS
Philosopher Sylviane AGACINSKI raised the issue in the mid-1980s whether philosophical concepts such as that of inwardness were not unthinkable before the spatially effective activity of architecture, just as the tomb cannot be separated from the idea of a soul. Other thinkers held that philosophy is groundwork per se, that is, a precondition also for the «fundaments» of architecture. A third branch tried to cope generally with the presence of architectural metaphors in philosophical writings. The lecture course discusses architectural topics around this kind of semiotic triangle in theory and practice with reference to (phenomenological) presence and absence, (digital and linguistic) codes, the subconscious, (female) chora, and the (colonizing) anthropocene along the lines of writers such as Homi K. Bhabha, Ethel CHARLES, Hélène CIXOUS, Jacques DERRIDA, Elizabeth GROSZ, Donna HARAWAY, bell HOOKS, Luce IRIGARAY, Julia KRISTEVA, Henri LEFEBVRE, Achille MBEMBE, Legacy RUSSELL, Isabelle STENGERS, and Victoria WELBY, together with their presence, or absence, in the current discourse on architecture. The objective of the course is to provide tools for a critical assessment, and practical application, of arguments at the intersection of philosophy and architecture.
▶︎︙︙︙
▶︎︙︙︙
HISTORY & THEORY of ARCHITECTURE IX
[063-0807-22]
COMING HOME. Stories in Architectural Theory
Michael GNEHM
Autumn 2022 | Fridays 11:45–12:30
HIL E 3
The lecture course discusses architecture and literature in its diverse relations: Stories as moments when architecture comes to life, the writing of architectural history and theory and literary writing. The focus aims at the notion of home and its discontents in architectural narratives.
▶︎Course Catalogue
▶︎Recordings
HISTORY & THEORY of ARCHITECTURE IX
[063-0803-02]
Between COSMOS and CHAOS
Semper’s Theory of Architecture
Michael GNEHM
Autumn 2021 | Fridays 11:45–12:30
HIL E 8
The lecture course discusses Gottfried Semper’s complex approach to architecture as the «small world» created by mankind within a global scope framing history and the present between a cosmological totality and chaotic fragmentation.
▶︎Course Catalogue
▶︎Recordings
