This website, as are its accompanying books and exhibition, is the outcome of a master seminar in Architectural History held in the Autumn and Spring semesters of 2016-2017 and 2017-2018, at the Department of Architecture and Urban Planning of Ghent University.
The seminar brought together students with a strong interest in history, architectural design, measuring and representation techniques, model making, photographic documentation, and graphic design.
All drawings and photographs have been made by the students. The site of each palazzo has been inserted into fragments of the contemporary and spectacular Duca di Noja map, of 1775. The models, on scale 1:100, have been made in plaster, a material with a secular tradition in the representation of architecture and one that we still consider relevant, even in the era of sophisticated 3D-printing.
The field work that preceded the drawing and model-making was done during workshops in Naples, organized in partnership with the Università degli Studi della Campania “Luigi Vanvitelli” (formerly Seconda Università di Napoli) and the Università di Napoli Federico II. I wish to thank in particular prof. Anna Giannetti, prof. Renata Valente and prof. Gabriella Pezone for the invaluable help, the vivid exchanges during our ‘walking seminars’, for their warm hospitality and enduring friendship. The Naples experience was shared with colleagues at UCL-LOCI, Brussels, where I especially thank prof. Christine Fontaine, for the always invigorating years-long collaboration, and prof. Joëlle Houdé for generously sharing her drawing techniques with my students.