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Architecture and the City: The Work of Leon Battista Alberti with Peter Kohane

The ancient Vitruvian analogy between the human being and architecture was reconsidered in the Early Renaissance, most profoundly by Leon Battista Alberti. His writings emphasize the role of a human being as an ideal type, worthy of representation in the visual arts. According to Alberti, beauty in architecture is innate, which means that a person cannot help but respond in a positive way to well-proportioned buildings. Alberti even believed that if an army were to enter a city with the intention of destroying it, but the buildings are beautiful, the warriors would lay down their weapons and act in a peaceful manner. This utopian theory provides insight into architecture’s extraordinary role of maintaining civic life. In his theoretical writings, Alberti assisted architects by outlining the steps to be followed when designing a building.

This video course presented by Peter Kohane, Senior Lecturer of Architecture at UNSW Sydney, reviews Alberti’s principles and discusses both their relation to the architecture of the Renaissance and how they can be applied to architectural debates today. The video course is followed by a recording of the live Q&A session with Dr. Kohane that took place at the premiere of the program on February 18, 2021.

Learning Objectives

• Understand Alberti’s principles, including the steps involved in making a classical building.
• Realize that an architect in the Renaissance strived to create forms which accord with the constitution of a human being.
• Recognize that a building by Alberti was intended to have a positive impact on a beholder, which involved acting in a civilized manner within the city.
• Invoke Alberti’s ideas to clarify the nature of debates in the present about architecture and the city.

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Tags: video, video course, education