When Genius Meets Genius: Leonardo Reads Vitruvius
GreenCE’s mission is to support the necessary transition to a sustainable built environment by empowering design professionals to address the environmental, economic, and social impacts of buildings. GreenCE’s course catalog includes LEED exam preparation, continuing education to maintain your AIA or LEED credential, as well as specialty education focused on topics such as ADA/Barrier-Free requirements. We are committed to designing the highest quality continuing education programs in the construction industry.
The year is 1414. Europe teeters on the brink of collapse—cities drowning in their own filth, forests stripped bare, ancient wisdom crumbling into superstition. In a forgotten Swiss monastery, a Vatican spy named Poggio Bracciolini makes a discovery that will shake the foundations of civilization. Hidden beneath centuries of dust lies the ultimate treasure: a manual for architectural mastery, written by written by Marcus Vitruvius Pollio, a Roman engineer whose principles would change the world. But this is no ordinary manuscript. What Bracciolini unleashed from that monastic tomb would ignite the Renaissance, possess the mind of Leonardo da Vinci, and inspire design professionals into the 21st century. Join us as we learn about Vitruvius and his contributions to sustainable design.
- Explore Vitruvius revolutionized architecture by integrating strength, function, and beauty with environmental responsiveness, creating the foundational principles that guided designers to build structures lasting millennia while working with rather than against natural forces.
- Examine how Leonardo da Vinci, Leon Battista Alberti, and Filippo Brunelleschi transformed the rediscovered manuscript into revolutionary design methodologies, examining their systematic application of ancient Roman wisdom to create everything from the Florence Cathedral dome to ideal city planning.
- Discuss Vitruvian environmental analysis techniques including soil testing, water quality assessment, wind pattern evaluation, and solar orientation studies that enabled builders to select optimal building sites and create structures perfectly adapted to local conditions.
- Understand how Vitruvius created architecture that enhanced human comfort, health, and productivity through passive environmental control strategies, proportional systems based on human anatomy, and building orientations that optimize natural lighting, ventilation, and thermal performance across centuries of use.
