20 Key Buildings from the Renaissance to Classicism

A conversation between author Jean Taricat, Mariabruna Fabrizi and Laurent Koetz

jeudi 24 septembre 2026
à 13:00
lieu : à la bibliothèque

These twelve lessons provide an introduction to three centuries of European architectural history through architectural analysis. They recount the origins of twenty famous buildings, most of which are situated in Italy, but also in France and England. In their day, thanks to their renown, these buildings explicitly influenced one another, weaving together their own historical narrative. Each lesson contains one or two short monographs on buildings or public spaces, which are first examined in their current state and then studied, as far as possible, with the aim of bringing to life their original design and the design choices made (programmatic, structural and aesthetic).

Jean Taricat (author)
Jean Taricat trained as a sociologist. He taught the history of architecture and urbanism at the École d’architecture de la ville & des territoires Paris-Est, where he served as director for five years. He is the author of several books on the city and architecture, including Le logement à bon marché, chronique, Paris-1850-1930 (Apogée, 1981), Histoires d’Architecture (Parenthèse, 2003), a collection of architectural analyses, and Suburbia, une Utopie libérale (Éditions de la Villette, 2013). He has also published numerous articles, notably on the origins of the ‘grands ensembles’, the emergence and origins of ‘rutalisme’, Tafurian criticism, Olmsted and the ‘landscape pact’ in the USA, ‘urban sprawl’ and home-ownership democracy.

Mariabruna Fabrizi
Mariabruna Fabrizi is an architect, lecturer, exhibition curator and researcher at the OCS. She is currently based in Paris, where she co-founded the Microcities practice and the online atlas Socks-studio. At ENSA Paris-Est, she teaches as a tenured senior lecturer in the history and theory of architectural representation and coordinates the Representation research area. She is also co-coordinator of the Architecture & Experience Master’s seminar.

Laurent Koetz
Laurent Koetz is an architect, senior lecturer and member of the OCS research laboratory. His research takes a cultural approach to the history of technology. In particular, it addresses the issue of innovation and examines the role of little-known or marginalised actors in the development of discourses and practices in which invention plays a central role.