The Visionary Architectural Drawings of Etienne-Louis Boullee and Claude Nicolas Ledoux - Essay Example

Lecturer & Essay Architecture In early 1920s, the works of Boullee and Ledoux were discussed at a locallevel. Étienne-Louis Boullée (1728-1799) and Claude-Nicolas Ledoux (1736-1806) were a French architects whose visionary art works still remains influential up to date. Claude-Nicolas was an architect and a thinker whose thoughts represented some of the most fundamental strains of liberal bourgeois values with its alternative of reason and devotion to the triplicate concepts of liberte, fraternite and égalité, and fraternité. Together with other architects, the structure they imagined and designed and city plans they anticipated became some of the most aspiring and revolutionary designs in their time. The structures that they envisioned looked unbuildable because of their technical standards. The following paper tries to elaborate how both architects Etienne-Louis Boulee and Claude Nicolas Ledoux challenge classical style of their time. The historical importance of Ledoux is the fact that he introduced a new system in his architectural works. The new system incorporated new elements that became evident in the old system dominating it and replacing it with the new system. In French revolution period, theses architects are considered to have developed opposing principles. The work by Etienne is a demonstration of the new system in architecture where he asserts the importance of new principles in architecture and isolation of the other parts. In most cases, both architects are considered together but they are not similar in their architectural works. Ledoux is considered pragmatic because his works were developed to be constructed putting into consideration the needs of the people. On the other hand, Boullee does not seem to share the same interests. He was appointed as an architect by king Lous XVI in 1773 and before he could publish his work he was dismissed and arrested in 1793 by the revolutionary committee for alleged conspiracy of cooperating with Madame du Barry and for not acknowledging the king. His book was published in 1804 prior to his death, and this enabled him to share his ideas concerning architecture (Lawrence 25). Boullee’s theoretical designs for public cenotaphs sought to instigate lofty feelings in the view by architectural designs that suggested immensity, sublimity, and awesomeness of nature and divine aptitude underlying its creation. He was greatly inspired by indiscriminate interest for antiquity form Egyptian monuments experienced by his contemporaries. Boullee work is characterized by geometric forms put forward by ancient works developing a new concept of monumental structures that shows calmness, an ultimate beauty of conventional architecture and at the same time exerting expressive power. In his essay, La Théorie des corps, he studied the properties of geometric structures and their influence on the sense attributing symbolic qualities to a cylinder, cube, pyramid, and sphere. The sphere was regarded as the ideal form. His numerous public monuments design culminated in the 1784 design that later served as a cenotaph and a memorial for Isaac Newton. The universe in the cenotaph was represented by the hollow globe. Boullee relied on natural properties of light and shadow to bring geometric structures to life. He also incorporated the poetic approach to architecture by empathizing on concealing a part of the building structure. He also applied symbolism in his architectural work. For instance, he prefigures 19th century Romantic Movement by placing Palais Municipal on a four-stand guardhouse like structure depicting that society is anchored by law (Beard and John Henderson 43). Ledoux was involved in reformist idealism during the second half of 18th century. It was his understanding that architecture had to respond to the profound changes that were going on from a new social order to a moral view point. Like Etienne, he considered himself a philosophical architect. Ledoux was to a great extent influenced by Rousseau’s theories developed in Salines that acted as a meetin{"status":"TOOLBAR_READY","toolbarId":220280897}{"status":"TOOLBAR_READY","toolbarId":222097861}g point for all types of people in the society . His design for Chaux represents a design for new and urban design organization. The outline of the building represents the activities that take place inside the building. City’s shape indicates a community symbol that culminates to a common center. Ledoux’s city design does not include a landscape. The layout looks like a Roman settlement bearing decumanus and cardo, but the reference extends beyond that. The horizontal alignment acts as the pathway connecting the cities Arc et Senans. The vertical alignment is new and straight with no end crossing the Loue River, Perrousse forests and Chaux (Kauffmann 54). Horizontal alignment depicts the relationship of the location while the vertical axis shows the symmetry planning or the project. Boullee and Ledoux were well-known for their theorist and educators of the neoclassical style that was created in the 18th century in France. In their time, they trained some of the prominent neoclassicists. Jean Chalgrin, Jean Nicolas Durand, and Alexandre Theodore were trained by Boullee while, and Ledoux helped to educate Laurynas Gucevičius one of the influential Lithuanian architects. Most of the works that were built from their own architectural works were confined to more traditional factors on neoclassicism and demonstrated their complete mastery of the style. Going beyond their admiration of the Roman, Greek and Renaissance designs which were their core inspirations, both architects were drifted towards utopian speculation. Disregarding all Albertan dicta and Vitruvian concerning practicality and feasibility, each of the architects developed structural plans that seemed impossible. Absorbed in an era of scientific, political revolution, and intellectual, Ledoux and Boullee bore a symbol of their time (Robin 45). The experience they got in the revolutionary period brought upon them the impression that a new world was unfolding before their very eyes whereby a space of infinitive possibility could open up. Recanting several ornamental and columnar principles that form the base of neoclassical architecture, Ledoux and Boullee resulted in simple geometric shapes in their architectural design. These shapes lacked decorative features and depicted their independent raw profundity. A good example of this is depicted in Ledoux’s House of Agriculture of 1770 and Boullee’s cenotaph of Isaac Newton of 1784. Many of the buildings designed by Boullee were devoted to great personalities or concepts that illustrated Enlightenment. Apart from his building in honor of Isaac, he envisioned a monument that was supposed to serve as a tribute to Supreme Being in 1794. Boulllee was enthusiastic the idea a concrete shape. He referred the monument to as building for worshipping the Supreme Being. This is a subject that warrant sublime ideas and to which architecture should hand out character. Ledoux was highly gifted in developing buildings for the aristocracy in the ancient regime and was put behind bars for several years in the Revolution period. Through this, he gained an explicit view and understanding of Jacobin innovations as Robespierre’s fad. A number of objects and buildings that Ledoux illustrated were more theoretical in their meaning and impossible to construct in their structural design than Boullee’s designs. For instance, his sketch published in 1804 Ledoux depicted a cosmology of clouds in a way they seemed floating beyond the Chaux’s cemetery a city which he had originally designed. A tiny representation of the world, seemingly popping out of a cloud, surrounded by numerous tiny planetoids that circle in orbit. Hanging in the air with no support seemed like a collection of aerostatic spheres. This geocentric model seemed to give the inhabitants of the buried cemetery a Ptolemaic eternity. Ledoux was not thinking about eternity until after the death of Robespierre and Saint-Just in the Thermidorean Reaction in an execution where he felt revolution was betrayed. His morbid grew, and he started ruminate on the idea of death and interment. In his diary, he terms this as a corpus of things isolated in black against the light. As a result, he created another design of his unbuildable masterpiece known as The Temple of Death in 1795 (Lawrence 34). Unlike other architects, Boullle and Ledoux had to express themselves influenced by the sentiments and needs of a particular moment. Their work reflected the popular trends of the era, passion for grandeur, will of innovation and the quest for the undiscovered. Part their imaginary artistic work was developed before political revolution giving us food for thought. The two architects can be said to have become creative in architecture prior than in life. Boullee’s ideas had a critical influence on his contemporaries. He was a teacher of one the renown architects such as Jean Chalgrin, Alexandre-Théodore Brongniart, and Jean-Nicolas-Louis Durand. Some of his work remained relevant even in the 20th century. His book Essay on the Arts of architecture was published in 1953 that advocated for neoclassicism. This book contained his architectural work from 1778-1788 which mostly comprised of structural designs for public constructions on an impractical majestic scale. His appreciation for grandiose designs has made him be categorized as visionary and megalomaniac. His concentration on polarity and appliance o0f light and shadow was exceedingly innovative and still continues to inspire architects up to date (Kaufmann 97). In 20th century, he has inspired great architects like Aldo Rossi. The Cenotaph of Isaac Newton Clusters of visitor mount a monumental staircase at the base of a spherical structure that is advanced than Great Pyramid of Giza. A small portion of the sphere is covered by an arc of sunlight leaving a hollow out entry portal and a big mass in the deep shadow. This incorporates the emotional feeling of romanticism a plain rationality of neoclassicism and splendor of antiquity. This is a representation of Newton’s cenotaph. The sublime perception of this cenotaph is emblematic of the specific historic precipice and an artistic accomplishment that prefigures the modern conception of architectural structures. the expression was created through a sequence of washings,{"status":"TOOLBAR_READY","toolbarId":220280897}{"status":"TOOLBAR_READY","toolbarId":222097861} drawings and ink, the monument is one of the several stimulating designs created by Boullee toward s the end of 18th century. The cenotaph represents a poetic homage for Isaac Newton, who 150 years since his demise had grown into a reversed icon of enlightenment ideals (Robin 76). Boullee’s methodology on design beckoned the schism of architecture as an independent art from the building science. He disregarded the Vitruvian concept for him to execute a manifest of a conceptual methodology through spatial systems. His quest was for an unchallengeable and totalizing architecture. In Boullee’s lifetime, France was world’s cultural center and a nexus of a huge transformation. Though he completed several small-scale structures for private entities and religious patrons, he remained most influential in his lifetime in educational roles at the Ecole Nationale des Ponts et Chaussées and the Académie Royale d’Architecture. He rejected the famous Rococo design and at the same time he favored the Greek and Romans designs. Inspired by the search for derived untainted forms of nature he alluded to the history of a monumental system of cultures that preluded the Greeks. He incorporated the classic element at a ratio and level of spectacle that has never been achieved (Beard and John 87). In the cenotaph, a single staircase heads to round plinth. The drawing impacts the environment over the legibility of the outline for instance indicating a tiny outer door on the subsequent level above a band of crenellation but exhibiting no means of accessibility. The slender stairs create an external connection between the uppermost walkways and the second. Each level is circumscribed by closely spaced cypress trees synonymous with mourning in Romans and Greeks ethos. The spherical entry at the lower level leads to an extended dark tunnel running beneath the central volume of the cenotaph. The final run of the stair case in the center creates a cavernous emptiness. At the center lies a tomb for Isaac as an indication of human scale in the inner center of gravity. Boullee’s designs though not constructed were greatly engraved and circulated. According to Thomas Wells, he refers the cenotaph as an outstanding piece of architecture that is characteristic of the age. He considers the work of Boullee and Ledoux along his works as his contemporaries predisposed the work at Eole des Beaux-Arts in mid and late 19th century. In 1980, Lebbes Woods designed a monument for Einstein that was as a result of inspiration from Isaac Newton’s cenotaph. Architects such as Viel has been able to develop their conceptions of architecture convention in principles via persistent and vehement critique of an invention in contemporary practice created by revolutionary architects in France in the likes of Ledoux and Boullee. Ledoux and Boullee have reinstated their rightful place in architecture in elementary forms. Ledoux has all through indicated his advancements in his effort to find a new order of the system. Leqeu was poised to bring in the emotional and irrational on a higher notch compared to the two architects. Ledoux and Boulee have played a critical role in connecting the architectural work of 18th and 19th century ensuring continuity of ideas. These two architects were seers of long terms goals in architecture. They did not leave examples that can be imitated, and their vision has necessitated a new dawn in the field of architecture. Works Cited A.W.Lawrence (1996) Greek Architecture, Pelican Beard, Mary, and John Henderson. Classical Art: From Greece to Rome. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001. Print. Kaufmann, Emil. Tres Arquitectos Revolucionarios: Boullée, Ledoux Y Lequeu. Barcelona [etc.: Gustavo Gili, 1980. Print. Osborne, Robin. Archaic and Classical Greek Art. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998. Print. Read More