Building on a Global Legacy in Architectural History and Theory
Attendees at the SEU conference commemorating the centenary of the birth of Joseph Rykwert, “Cultural Foundations: Origins, Measures, Fabrications.” (Photo Min Zhong)
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The late architectural historian Joseph Rykwert, who served as Paul Philippe Cret Professor of Architecture at Penn from 1988-1998, was a towering presence until his death in 2024. To posthumously celebrate his 100th birthday this spring, a constellation of colleagues and former students gathered at an international symposium at Southeast University (SEU)—an institution founded by Penn alums—in Nanjing, China. The event was held at the SEU Asian Architectural Archive Center, which is soon to be the repository of Rykwert’s 20,000+ volume library. SEU also has a fellowship for researchers to come to Nanjing and access the collection.
Organized by David Leatherbarrow, the former graduate group chair in the Department of Architecture at Weitzman and the founding dean at the Architecture Internationalization Demonstration School at SEU, the event attracted multiple generations of intellectual heirs. Attendees included current graduate group chair and Associate Professor of Architecture Franca Trubiano (PhD’05) and program alums Antonios Thodis (PhD’23), Jin Baek (PhD’04), Juan Manuel Heredia (PhD’08), Kazi Ashraf (PhD’02), and Esra Sahin Burat (PhD’09).
Rykwert was a prolific and influential writer whose books The Idea of a Town and On Adam's House in Paradise gave meaning to the 20th-century city and helped earn him the prestigious RIBA Gold Medal. “Rykwert saw architecture as a sister field to anthropology,” says Leatherbarrow. “His cultural approach argues that architecture gives meaning to our lives, like art, rituals, or ceremonies.”
Rykwert (1926 - 2024) was the Paul Philippe Cret Professor Emeritus of Architecture and one of the foremost architectural historians and critics of his generation.
At Penn, Rykwert added a world-class orientation in history and theory to the well-established PhD program, along with teaching and the study of technology. “It made it a unique program,” says Leatherbarrow. “He led students into critical thinking and leadership roles where theory and practice were connected.”
“We discussed the work that was done during the years that Joseph and David were part of the PhD program at Penn,” Trubiano says. “That work was important to many of its graduates who invested in its teaching methods and research questions and who have gone on to create important centers of learning across the world.”
Rywkert’s students have gone onto many prestigious and influential positions around the world. Harry Mallgrave (PhD’83) is Distinguished Professor Emeritus at the Illinois Institute of Technology. He is best known as the author of many books including most recently Writers on Architecture in America: From Jefferson to Giedion (Routledge, 2026). Gevork Hartoonian (PhD’82) was also a renowned figure in the architectural history field. He contributed many volumes to the field, including Architecture and Spectacle (2014, Routledge) and Time, History and Architecture (Routledge, 2018).
Since 2024, Antonios Thodis (PhD’23) has been an assistant professor at the Internationalization Demonstration School at SEU. He has published several important papers, including ‘Platforms: standing between sky and soil’, with Leatherbarrow as co-author, in the journal arq: Architecture Research Quarterly. Later this year, a version of his dissertation will be published by Harvard University Press as Beginning Again with the Classical Orders: Rhythms of Justice, Nature, and Architecture.
“One of the great things about the program was having access to remarkable academic resources such as the Anne and Jerome Fisher Fine Arts Library and the Architectural Archives,” Thodis says. “Also being able to examine the artifacts that are housed at Penn Museum fostered my academic development and led my research to unforeseen paths.”
