Faculty
Markus Breitschmid, Ph.D., S.I.A.
Assistant Professor
Dr.-Ing. / Ph.D., Technische Universität Berlin, Berlin-Germany
Markus Breitschmid teaches the lecture course “History of Architecture: From the Baroque to the Present” and seminars on modern and contemporary architecture. He offers a design and thesis studio geared towards students who attempt to test theoretical ideas by means of design inquiries.
Breitschmid is a trained architect and architectural historian. He is a registered architect (Level E.T.H., No. 1/15593) and a member of the Swiss Institute of Architects and Engineers (No. 135605). He received his education as an architectural historian in Germany, where he has been graduated with a Doktor der Ingenieurwissenschaften (Dr.-Ing.) / Philosophiae Doctor (Ph.D.).
Breitschmid joined Virginia Polytechnic Institute & State University in 2004. Previously, he was the “2003 Visiting Historian for Architecture and Urbanism” at Cornell University. He held a tenure-track assistant professor position at the University of North Carolina since 2000. Breitschmid has held positions as a visiting scholar, a visiting critic and a visiting lecturer at several European and American universities from 1994 to the present.
Breitschmid’s scholarship focuses on the aesthetic mentality of modernism and postmodernity, in particular its promulgations in philosophical aesthetics, architecture, and other forms of art. His lectures and publications attempt to elucidate theoretical knowledge on the nature and transformation of architectural space, form, style, and ornament.
His book publications include: The Significance of the Idea (Niggli Verlag, 2008), Three Architects in Switzerland - Beat Consoni - Morger & Degelo - Valerio Olgiati (Quart Publishers, 2007), Valerio Olgiati - Conversation with Students (Virginia Tech Architecture Publications, 2007), Julius Meier-Graefe. A Modern Milieu (Virginia Tech Architecture Publications, 2007), Nietzsche’s Denkraum (Edition Didacta, 2006), Can architectural art-form be designed out of construction? (Architecture Edition, 2004), and Der bauende Geist. Friedrich Nietzsche und die Architektur (Quart Verlag, 2001).