RIBA Architecture Parts 1, 2 and 3 Architectural History, Theory and Criticism Syllabus

Architectural History, Theory and Criticism syllabus — full chapter and topic list

Expand any chapter to see its topics and sub-topics. This is the whole examinable outline for Architectural History, Theory and Criticism in RIBA Architecture Parts 1, 2 and 3, not a summary of it.

1. 1

   Histories of Architecture

   5 topics

   • Classical antiquity to the Gothic
     • Greek and Roman orders
     • Romanesque and Gothic structural innovation
   • Renaissance, Baroque and Enlightenment
     • Palladio and the treatise tradition
     • The picturesque and the Grand Tour
   • Industrial revolution and the 19th century
     • Iron, glass and the new building types
     • Arts and Crafts and the Gothic Revival
   • Modernism and the avant-garde
     • Bauhaus, CIAM and the International Style
     • Brutalism and post-war reconstruction
   • Postmodernism to the contemporary
2. 2

   Theory and Critical Frameworks

   5 topics

   • Tectonics, type and typology
   • Phenomenology and the experience of place
   • Semiotics and meaning in architecture
   • Critical regionalism and globalisation
   • Gender, power and space
3. 3

   Research Methods and Dissertation

   4 topics

   • Formulating a research question
     • Literature review and gap analysis
     • Qualitative and quantitative methods
   • Academic referencing and Harvard citation
   • Ethics in architectural research
   • Structuring and writing the dissertation
4. 4

   Contemporary Discourse and Sustainability Theory

   4 topics

   • The climate emergency and the architect's role
   • Decolonising the curriculum and the canon
   • Adaptive reuse and the retrofit-first agenda
   • Social value and spatial justice

Architectural History, Theory and Criticism flashcards for RIBA Architecture Parts 1, 2 and 3

19 of 51 cards from the Architectural History, Theory and Criticism deck — real questions with worked answers.

1. In Classical antiquity, what are the three canonical Greek architectural orders, in order of increasing ornamentation?

   Doric (plain, sturdy, no base), Ionic (volute capitals, slender), and Corinthian (elaborate acanthus-leaf capitals). The Romans later added the Tuscan and Composite orders.

2. What three qualities did Vitruvius (in 'De architectura') argue all good architecture must possess?

   Firmitas (durability/structural soundness), Utilitas (usefulness/commodity), and Venustas (beauty/delight) — later rendered by Henry Wotton as 'firmness, commodity and delight'.

3. What structural innovation defines Gothic architecture and how does it differ from the Romanesque it succeeded?

   The Gothic uses the pointed arch, rib vault and flying buttress to channel loads, allowing thin walls, large stained-glass windows and great height. Romanesque relied on the rounded arch, thick walls and small openings.

4. Who is credited with originating Renaissance architecture, and with which dome?

   Filippo Brunelleschi, who engineered the double-shell dome of Florence Cathedral (Santa Maria del Fiore), completed 1436, reviving classical principles and rational proportion.

5. What key treatise did Leon Battista Alberti write, and what concept of beauty did he define?

   'De re aedificatoria' (On the Art of Building, c.1452). He defined beauty as 'concinnitas' — a harmony of all parts such that nothing could be added or taken away without making it worse.

6. How does Baroque architecture differ formally from High Renaissance architecture?

   Baroque (c.1600–1750) favours dynamic curved forms, dramatic light/shade, illusionism, movement and emotional theatricality, whereas the Renaissance prized static symmetry, flat planes and serene proportion.

7. Name two leading architects of the Roman Baroque and a hallmark work of each.

   Gian Lorenzo Bernini (St Peter's Square colonnade and baldachin) and Francesco Borromini (San Carlo alle Quattro Fontane), known for his undulating facades and complex geometries.

8. What was the Enlightenment's 'architecture parlante', and who exemplified it?

   'Speaking architecture' — buildings whose form expresses their function or purpose. Étienne-Louis Boullée and Claude-Nicolas Ledoux exemplified it with visionary, geometric, symbolic projects.

9. Which 18th-century theorist proposed the 'primitive hut' as the origin and rational basis of architecture?

   Abbé Marc-Antoine Laugier, in his 'Essai sur l'architecture' (1753), used the primitive hut (column, beam, pediment) to argue for a rational, structurally honest classicism.

10. What new building material and structural form characterised the architecture of the Industrial Revolution?

    Iron (then steel) and glass, enabling large-span, prefabricated, skeletal structures — exemplified by Joseph Paxton's Crystal Palace (1851) and the railway shed.

11. What were the central aims of the 19th-century Arts and Crafts movement, and who led it?

    Led by William Morris (influenced by John Ruskin), it championed handcraftsmanship, honesty of materials and the dignity of labour in reaction against industrial mass production and ornament-by-machine.

12. What was the 19th-century 'Battle of the Styles'?

    The debate, especially in Britain, between Gothic Revival (championed by Pugin and Ruskin as morally Christian) and Classical/Italianate styles for public buildings — a contest over national and moral identity in architecture.

13. What did Louis Sullivan mean by 'form ever follows function'?

    That a building's outward form should be derived from and express its purpose; coined in his 1896 essay 'The Tall Office Building Artistically Considered'. Sullivan is called the 'father of the skyscraper'.

14. State Le Corbusier's 'Five Points of a New Architecture'.

    1) Pilotis (supporting columns lifting the building), 2) Free plan, 3) Free facade, 4) Horizontal ribbon windows (fenêtre en longueur), 5) Roof garden. Demonstrated in the Villa Savoye (1931).

15. What design philosophy did the Bauhaus promote, and who founded it?

    Founded by Walter Gropius (Weimar, 1919), it promoted the unity of art, craft and industrial mass production, functionalism, abstraction and 'Gesamtkunstwerk' — a total work of art integrating all disciplines.

16. What is meant by the 'International Style' in Modern architecture?

    A term coined by Hitchcock and Johnson (1932) for the white, flat-roofed, ornament-free, volumetric, regular Modernism of the 1920s–30s emphasising volume over mass, regularity and the absence of applied decoration.

17. What slogan is associated with Mies van der Rohe, and what does it convey?

    'Less is more' — an aesthetic of structural clarity, minimal refined detailing, open 'universal space' and expression of steel-and-glass construction (e.g. Farnsworth House, Seagram Building).

18. How did Postmodernism react against Modernism, according to Robert Venturi?

    Venturi countered Mies's 'less is more' with 'less is a bore', advocating complexity, contradiction, historical reference, ornament, symbolism and the 'decorated shed' in 'Complexity and Contradiction in Architecture' (1966).

19. What is the distinction Venturi/Scott Brown drew between the 'duck' and the 'decorated shed'?

    A 'duck' is a building whose whole form is a sculptural symbol of its function; a 'decorated shed' is a conventional structure with applied signs/ornament communicating meaning. From 'Learning from Las Vegas' (1972).

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