AGE OF ENLIGHTENMENT

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AGE OF ENLIGHTENMENT
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Rhee 18th and 19th centuries. Destabilizing the
canonical nature of Classical architecture by
Claude Perrault. What style to build with? The
various interpretations of the Classical Greek,
Roman, Egyptian, Gothic, and little later
Oriental. The division of enlightenment
thoughts into rationalism and romanticism. Laugier
s rationalism and seeking the essential aspects
of architecture from nature. Soufflots
interpretation of the ideas of Laugier reductive
and sparse. Palladian Revival and Neo-Classicism
Interpretive revival of classical
architecture, and the picturesque treatment. The
archaeological fantasies of Piranesi. Romantic
Classicism The expressive architecture of
Boullee and Ledoux. Durand, and the
systematization of architecture, and its
reduction into elementary units, and
multiple combinations. Structural Rationalism or
Classicism The rational ideas of Viollet le
Duc. The new engineering constructions using
ironwork and glass by Paxton, Eiffel and
Labrouste. Structural Classicism and Romantic
Classicism.
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AGE OF ENLIGHTENMENT The 18th century was
described as an astounding century, heralded as
the Age of Reason. The Age was defined by a full
social, scientific, intellectual and cultural
transformation. The century will become more
enlightened day by day, so that all previous
centuries will be lost in darkness by
comparison.
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AGE OF ENLIGHTENMENT Transformations. Political
Shift from enlightened despotism To the
Declaration of the Rights of Man
(1789). Revolution in America and France leading
to new citizenry and state. Economic Agrarian
to urban society. Rise in international trade,
and the beginning of the colonial
empires. Capitalist economy. Technological Steam
engine and new material innovations and the
inauguration of the Industrial Revolution. Scienc
e and Philosophy Revolutionary changes, the dawn
of the modern era. Existing religious and
scientific views and old world-order challenged
by Copernicus, Galileo, Descartes,
Newton. Science and reason gain grounds. The work
of the French philosophes made the
Enlightenment project popular Voltaire, Diderot,
Rousseau.
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Baroque Planning
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The Ptolemaic World-View The Copernican Revolution
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Galileo Galilei But the earth does move.
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Rene Descartes and Issac Newton
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The Encyclopedie was one of the many innovative
intellectual projects produced by Enlightenment
figures like Diderot and Rousseau
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Claude Perrault makes the age-old
Vitruvian-Albertian canon questionable, and
brings about a crisis in Classical architecture.
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Abbe Laugier (1713-69) Following the crisis, and
in order to find a stable premise for
architecture, Laugier proposes investigating the
most original condition of architecture Nature.
Good architecture is the authentic imitation of
nature. And Geek architecture is still the
finest because it is the best imitation
(mimesis).
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Giovanni Battista Piranesi (1720-78) Piranesi
questioned the superiority of the Greeks. Good
architecture should not imitate one ancient
example or another, but should be a prudent
combination of the Tuscan, Grecian and
Egyptian. The artist ought to open for himself a
road to the discovery of new ornaments and new
manners.
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The Revolutionary Architects Etienne-Louis
Boullee (1728-99)
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Claude-Nicolas Ledoux (1736-1806)
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Jacques-Germain Soufflot The Church for Ste.
Genevieve, Paris demonstrated the new principles
suggested by Laugier as well as by the Gothic.
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Revolutionary Architecture It is
revolutionary or visionary because it pushed
Neo-Classical ideas beyond its time, thus
inaugurating many modern architectural
ideas. Rational and sensationalist appreciation
of architectural form. Monument and
monumentality. Grandiloquent, symbolic, and
monumental forms. A composition of
self-sufficient parts. Beauty of masses, and
simplicity of forms and surfaces, generated
by elemental geometric units. A poetics of
plainness. Architecture parlante an
architecture that speaks.
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Architecture parlante an architecture that
speaks. Issues of character of a building what
is it for, what does it convey? Expression of
function and content. A romantic atmosphere of
mood, effect and atmosphere.
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Architecture and Light Newtons Cenotaph.
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Sublime emotions of terror and tranquility.
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Rationalist and sensationalist appreciation of
form. Rational geometric, pure
shape. Sensational Size, scale, quality of light
and shadow. William Blake writes on the
sublime as an aesthetical category. Science of
perceptual appreciation of form begins.
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Grandiloquent and monumental volumes, almost
unbuildable The utopian project
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Poetics of plainness
Architecture of the City Forts and City Gates.
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Human Institutions Library and Museum
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Claude Nicolas Ledoux (1736-1806) was a French
neoclassical architect. Known as a Utopian he
hoped that urban design and architecture could
lead to an ideal society. Despite this his great
works were funded by the French monarchy and came
to be seen as symbols of the ancien regime. His
career was thus curtailed by the French
Revolution. In 1804 he published a book on his
works titled L'Architecture considérée sous le
rapport de l'art, des murs et de la
législation.His most ambitious work was the
uncompleted Royal Saltworks at Arc-et-Senans, a
utopian town showing many examples of
architecture parlante.It also demonstrated his
socialist vision. He also designed about 60
elaborate toll gates around Paris.
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Imaginary Houses.
Ledoux
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Toll-Gates for Paris
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Utopian visions of architecture and the city
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Plan for the Saltworks
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Lequeau
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Le garde manger
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Gateway