Foreign languages faculty

Project Work at the Academies of Art in Rome and Paris
In the 16th century, Italian architects sought to make their vocation "professional," no longer wishing to belong to the class of artisans, but to be elevated to the level of artist. The training that they traditionally received as builders or stonemasons was not, in their view, adequate to meet the demands of art and science as well as to enable them to design buildings that were true, beautiful, and useful. In order to be prepared to fulfill their professional and social ambitions, they had to establish an important precondition. To be elevated to a profession, architecture had to develop a theoretical foundation in order to establish the art of building as a scholastic subject. Since this need was shared by painters and sculptors alike, architects forged an alliance with them and founded an art academy-the Accademia di San Luca-in Rome under the patronage of Pope Gregory XIII in 1577. The early years, however, were quite difficult. When the academy was first opened in 1593, a lack of rooms, curricula, and funds restricted teaching to Sundays and public holidays.
From the outset, it was clear that training at the Academy would necessarily remain unsatisfactory until lectures were accompanied by a second element, namely competitions. Since the Renaissance, competition had played an important part in building. It contributed to the establishment of architecture as an independent profession which challenged architects to become creative artists. The development of artistic creativity was, of course, also the goal of academic training. Teachers gave the advanced students challenging assignments, such as designing churches, monuments, or palaces. These assignments introduced students to the demands of their profession and, at the same time, enabled them to apply, independently and creatively, the rules and principles of composition and construction that had been acquired in lectures and workshops. The Academy's initial competition took place in 1596, but it was not until 1702 that it was permanently incorporated into the schoolyear calendar.
The structure of the academic competitions corresponded directly to architectural competitions; in both cases there were assignments to be carried out, deadlines to be kept, and juries to convince. However, in contrast to real competitions for architectural commissions, the designs in academic competitions were purely hypothetical tasks. For this reason, they were called "progetti." "The projects were intended to be exercises in imagination, since they were not intended to be built," observed Egbert (1980, p. 11). It was at the Accademia di San Luca in Rome that the term "project" first appeared in an educational context. However, this does not imply that the project method had emerged as a central teaching device, since the competitions organized by Accademia di San Luca were not viewed as an integral part of training. Participation was open to every young architect, regardless of whether he was a student at the Academy or not.
Patterned after the Italian model, the Académie Royale d'Architecture was founded in Paris in 1671 but the French architects did not simply replicate the Italian model. For instance, they altered the conditions of competition, limiting participation to registered students. The competitions also became more frequent. In addition to the annual "Prix de Rome" competition, a monthly "Prix d'Emulation" was also established. With the introduction of the Prix d'Emulation, training focused on learning by projects. Students had to complete several monthly "projets" to be awarded medals or gain recognition. These awards were necessary in order to progress to the master class and acquire the title of academic architect. With the Prix d'Emulation of 1763, the evolution of the project idea into an acknowledged scholastic and teaching method was completed.