Structural Rationalism During the Age of Enlightenment

History of Architecture (AP313) | Essay | 2013

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Structural Rationalism During the Age of Enlightenment

Essay for History of Architecture (AP131)

Prashansa Sachdeva

04216901611

Sushant School of Art and Architecture

INTRODUCTION

The seventeenth and eighteenth centuries saw changes in thoughts and

architecture, in social order and society as a whole. (1) The essay discusses the

society and changes in architecture (mainly) that led to new styles and more rational

designs; also looking into advancement and engineering. The essay follows three

parts; first, the society at the age of enlightenment and what changes it brought;

second, the works and theories of architects in that age and thirdly what impact did

this ignition of reason in design led to in the future. To culminate, the essay points

out the structural and architectural advancement in the particular time span and

show the influence of the age of reason in architecture.

THE AGE OF ENLIGHTENMENT (or simply the Enlightenment or Age of

Reason) was a cultural movement of intellectuals beginning in late 17th and 18th-

century Europe emphasizing reason and individualism rather than tradition. (2) Its

purpose was to reform society using reason, to challenge ideas grounded in

tradition and faith, and to advance knowledge through the scientific method. It

promoted scientific thought, skepticism, and intellectual interchange. (3) This


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affected all spheres of life, and its impact resulted in many phases of architecture in

France, Germany, USA, England and other countries of Europe. Neo-classic,

Romantism, Rationalism, Empiricism to Arts and Crafts movement to name some.

(1) The clear definition of Structural Rationalism during this phase can’t be quoted,

but according to many, ‘Structural Rationalism was the name given to Rationalism in

architecture and was later better known as Neoclassicism.’ (4) While some believed

structural rationalism is best expressed in neo classism. (5) Other theories state

that the structural rationalism during this phase of the 17th and 18th centuries, was

a transitional phase between Rococo to Classism and Neo Classism. (6) “Neo

Classicism is the term at present most in favour for the artistic manifestations of

the later eighteenth century, a period of transition between the ‘Rococo’ and the

more carefully defined movements of nineteenth- century art. “ (6) After Baroque,

from about 1750 Neo-Classicism followed, when the architectural taste turned to

the calmer architectural details of the Ancient Greece or Rome, to the classical

vocabulary. The name of Classicism also originated from the Latin language and

refers to the classical Ancient art and architecture….to mention that only the

English terminology uses the Neo-preposition before Classicism. In German or in

Hungarian only Classicism, or Klassizismus, opposite to Neo-Classicism used in

England or in the U.S.A. (1) This essay will read structural rationalism as this

transitional phase, as it is true to the meaning of the era of change it was held in.

Structural Rationalism on a more general note, is said to be the era of Viollet le Duc

and his architecture of cast iron and masonry after the industrial revolution. This

phase is longer than the transitional phase during the age of enlightenment and

thus holds more prominence. (7) (1)

The decorated buildings of Baroque and Rococo styles weren’t desired anymore.

‘There was criticism of Rococo, whose undisciplined frivolity was contrasted with

the ‘belle simplicite’ of Antiquity. (1) This marked interest in classic Greek and


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Roman buildings and along with architecture, in archaeology. (8) Neo-classical

Architecture was meant as a return to the perceived purity of the arts of Rome and

Greece. (4) The picturesque gardens of the Baroque style also weren’t aspired more.

‘Beside early Neo-Classicism landscape gardening, a new type of garden had

architectural influence. The Neo-Classical buildings with their simple, geometrical

forms were contrasting with the surrounding landscape garden. The symmetrically

planned Baroque garden-architecture didn’t succeed, the gardens were more

natural. The name of this garden-architecture, designed naturally, is referred to as

"English garden". In these gardens a Baroque axis can’t be observed anymore but

some irregularly winding paths, groves, lakes with fountains, garden houses and

pavilions, rounded temples, statues are laid out amongst the naturally grown,

picturesque plants and clumps of trees.’ (1) These English Gardens weren’t only the

new style of landscaping but were seen as a reflection of a society. ‘The character of

English architecture and garden design seemed to mirror the values of a society

that many in France had begun to envy for its political liberties. ‘ (6) This reflection

of the society, was considered to be what bounded enlightenment together. The

one subject that united enlightened opinion was the growing sympathy, largely

inspired by Rousseau, for the unspoilt beauty of nature. The informality of the

English garden was linked with the prevalent taste in the decorative arts for the

irregularity and exoticism of Chinese arts, and the ‘anglo chinese’ or ‘picturesque’

garden, as it was called, revolutionized the concept of a building as a work of art

existing in opposition to the country that formed its setting, while also popularizing

more informal patterns for domestic housing that were to proliferate during the

course of the following century and beyond. (6)

Before discussing the changes in architecture, one must mention the changes in the

society, changes which affected architecture. First and foremost, was the

development of architectural schools and schools of philosophies. Second was


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importance given to ‘rational’ thinking. ‘in which reason was advocated as primary

source and legitimacy for authority.’ (4) The majority were not essentially

philosophers or trained in abstract thought, but had active professions of their own

and a living to earn, and though they shaped and were shaped by the key

theoretical issues of the day, their commitment to theory seems by and large to

have been instinctively practical and emotional, and at times surprisingly casual.

This is especially striking in the case of Soufflot, for example, or Belanger, and even

with those who were more deeply committed to the written word, like Blondel and

Le Roy. (6) One could trace Plato and Vitruvius’s theories being traced back to. (4)

Two names, at the beginning of the age of enlightenment, can be marked for the

progress of architecture. Jacques Germain Soufflot and Voltaire.

Soufflot was an influential architect of the time, who attained academic

qualifications along with learning from Rome.(reading and measuring excavations.)

‘The general direction of stylistic change and technical progress within the period

can be traced in the evolution of Soufflot’s church of Ste Genevieve, beginning with

the first design of 1757, and covering the transformations of the 1770s and the

alterations that took place after the Revolution.’ (6) Before 1757, almost a century

ago, a revolutionary event happened for the first time in history. Today its popularly

known as ‘Measure Drawing’. A phenomena of simply measuring a building and

making its drawing, turned to change the perspective via which people looked into

architecture. ‘Antonine Desgodetz, who published the most accurate survey that

had yet been attempted of the antiquities of Rome, Les Edificies antiques de Rome

1683……. They challenged the very basis of the traditional Renaissance view that

man himself was the measure of architectural proportions.’ (6) His detailed

drawings clarified many tiny transitions that took place in history. Example,’

‘…lower storey of the Theatre of Marcellus, columns of the Tuscan order with an

unsculpted entablature and no base mouldings of any kind’. (6)


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I Order engraved by Desgodetz

Ref: The Architecture of the French Enlightenment

The documentation of these drawings helped students at the academy and inspired

many, like Soufflot to visit Rome for a detailed study. ‘Soufflot discussed the

structure and proportions of Gothic churches in relation to Renaissance practice;

while critical of their decoration he praised the lightness of their interiors, which he

compared with antique basilicas. ‘Vitruvius in his basilica at Fano had no frieze or

cornice…the Goths without wishing to follow them [the ancients] in that, believed

like them that projections, interrupting the sight lines, encumbered the plan of the

churches.’’ (6) They also helped him develop a different order. ‘Instead of the

elaborate French Ionic order that was everywhere to be found in contemporary

architecture, where small garlands hung vertically from the ears of the capital

,Soufflot has an unusual order which is distinguished only by a raised moulding well

below the level of the volutes. ‘ (6)


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During the early phase of Soufflot, his main work was the theatre in Lyon.

‘……engravings and drawings suggested that Soufflot made few innovations in

heating, lighting and fire precaution. Unlike court theatres his was also a free

standing building equipped with cafes and a foyer for the convenience of a public

audience. ‘

II Section of theatre at Lyon

Ref: The Architecture of the French Enlightenment

Trusses in roofs can be noticed.


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IIISection 2 of the theatre at Lyon

Ref: The Architecture of The age of Enlightenment

Trusses for roof.

While all this advancement, the true experience of change couldn’t be experienced.

‘Neo classicism has the advantage of stressing the importance of antiquity for the

architecture of the time, even if the prefix Neo carries implications of the merely

derivative which are more suited to the academic classicism of the early nineteenth

century. Few of the buildings of ancient Rome, and still less those of Greece, had

ever been exploited to the same extent as the sculpture of antiquity, or the meagre

remains of antiquity painting.

Architecture was unable to command the freedom that painters or writers then

enjoyed. Its own technique, based upon developments in engineering, could not yet

be frankly exploited and the imitation of past styles became increasingly academic

rather than ‘romantic’. ‘ (6)

Then came the most important building of Soufflot’s life and the marker of a new

age in architecture. ‘The church of Ste- Geneviève (now the Pantheon), begun by

Soufflot in 1757, reflected throughout its long building history that reappraisal of


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tradition in a mood of optimism and apparent rationality which is fundamental to

the pages of the Encyclopédie. Swiftly following this reappraisal came the freedom

to repudiate the notion of human progress, fundamental to the thought of

Rousseau, and used to great architectural advantage above all in the works of

Ledoux. Architects became more articulate and more conscious of their

responsibilities than before, and many committed their views, sometimes

disastrously, to print. They wrote not treatises on the orders or pattern books of the

traditional kind, but mostly books and articles dealing with their own works that

show a new awareness of what should constitute good architecture both in theory

and in practice. ‘ (6)

IV plan of Pantheon

Ref: Great buildings.com (http://www.greatbuildings.com/cgi-bin/gbc-drawing.cgi/Pantheon_in_Paris.html/Pantheon_in_Paris_Plan.jpg)

‘The form of a Greek cross with its four equal arms is to be associated not with any

obvious French precedent but with such monuments of the history of architecture

as the designs of Bramante and Michelangelo for St Peter’s and with Wren’s Great

Model for St Paul’s.’ (6)


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V section of Pantheon and Dome

Ref: Greatbuildings.com (http://www.greatbuildings.com/cgi-bin/gbc-drawing.cgi/Pantheon_in_Paris.html/Pantheon_in_Paris_Sect.jpg)

The three tier dome.


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VI Section of the Pantheon

Ref, The Architecture of the age of Enlightenment.

Columns, Lintels, Trusses.


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VII Corner Detail

Ref: Structural Rationalism (http://digitalstudio.gre.ac.uk/downloads/hat/Structural%20Rationalism.pdf)

‘The use of free standing columns and straight lintels in preference to pilasters and

piers. The portico is composed of 24 columns, taller than the columns of the

Roman Pantheon and largely free Standing, which form a temple front far more

extensive than any that had distinguished a Christian basilica in he past. A smaller

order of columns reigns inside the church, columns set on low bases and

supporting not arches but a straight entablature….the interior constitutes a decisive

break with the Renaissance tradition and its reliance upon the wall, the pilaster and

the arcade……. The ovals of the drum cast light between the two shells of the

dome, while the rectangular windows below, themselves transformed into ovals in

the interiors, light the crossing of the church.’ (6)


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VIII Sectional View of the Pantheon

Ref: Structural Rationalism, PPT (http://digitalstudio.gre.ac.uk/downloads/hat/Structural%20Rationalism.pdf)

The play of light.

IX View of the Pantheon

Ref: Structural Rationalism, PPT (http://digitalstudio.gre.ac.uk/downloads/hat/Structural%20Rationalism.pdf)

Light falling through the centre.


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The Other important person for forming theories and increasing the practise was

Voltaire. ‘Few had the time or the money to concern themselves directly with

building, and Voltaire was almost alone in the extent of his architectural patronage.

The relatively modest buildings he constructed, mainly at Ferney, were

architecturally unremarkable, and not by any of the more famous architects of the

period. ‘My church’, he wrote in 1760, ‘will not be built until the Spring. You want

me to dare to consult M.Soufflot about this village church, and I have made my

chateau without consulting anyone.’’ (6)

‘A piece of architecture is beautiful when it is strong and seen to be strong, and

when it is visibly appropriate to its purpose. Strength is here the equivalent of

health in living creatures; appropriateness to a purpose is the equivalent of

suitability to a given way of life in human beauty.’; Voltaire.

After them came Laugier and his three theory, in 1753. ‘In his most influencial

book, the Essai, Laugier argued for a reform of architecture based on the concept of

the ‘primitive hut’,…..all architecture, Laugier felt, should be based upon the use of

column, the entablature and the pediment. Pediments should only appear at the

ending of the roof, not as its sides or anywhere else on a building. Entablatures

which include a cornice should only appear at roof level, since the cornice

represents the eaves of the roof, and so on. Laugier strongly disapproved of

arcades, of cantilevering and of the use of structural members supported on the

crown of an arch, which he regarded as an extreme case of irrational design. ‘ (6)

Laugier’s concept of the primitive hut originally dates back to Vitruvius. Thus he,

like all of his age ,went back in search of true architecture.


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X The primitive hut – Laugier

Ref: Architecture of the Age of Enlightenment


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XI Censored Columns

Ref: Structural Rationalism (http://digitalstudio.gre.ac.uk/downloads/hat/Structural%20Rationalism.pdf)

Before Laugier, ‘the Abbe de Cordemoy, advocated a very similar building to Essai,

in his Nouveau Traite de Toute l’architecture’. (6)

Lastly, a particular building of Legeay was worth mentioning along with

revolutionary architecture of enlightenment.’ the cathedral of St Hedwig in

Berlin….Something of the Roman Pantheon and something of Bernini’s churches are

combined in a design…unusual perhaps in this guise is the smooth dome, rising

from a rusticated wall surface, and the paired columns of the interiors carrying an

unaccented entablature around the circumference of the church, which is otherwise

decorated in a manner that again recalls Bernini.’ (6)


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XII Plan of Cathedral

Ref: The Architecture of the age of Enlightenment.


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XIII Section


Other works included Peyre’s Hotel De Conde. ‘At the hotel de Conde Peyre reunited

once again the vestibule and staircase, inventing an exactly symmetrical circular

plan which also incorporated free standing columns- and all this he contrived

without diverting the route of access from the court to the state rooms on the

garden side of the ground floor.’ (6)


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XIV Hotel De conde -Plan and Detail


Circular staircase with free standing columns.

Next came the circular colonnade, the style which could be seen even ages later

across the world. This was seen in Chateau of Montmusard. ‘The geometrical

planning of the house, ‘a pavilion dedicated to Apollo’, is related to the layout of

the adjacent gardens.’ (6)


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XV Plan of the Mansion


XVI Remaining Columns


Circular Colonnade


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Taking forward the circular staircase and colonnade, the Paris market, Halle au Ble,

was constructed in 1762. ‘The building consisted of a double aisled hall with a flat

vault supported on Tuscan columns and a steep upper storey vaulted in brick and

stone….yet as in a circus the circular plan was evidently well suited for ease of

movement in a building that had no particular focus beyond its two

staircases….Oval in shape, and thus recalling the greatest masterpieces of the

French classical tradition, they had two interweaving flights, one for ascending and

one for descending traffic.’ (6)

XVII Section of building and staircase


This phase now in the 1750-1760s shifted to the Neoclassical style and the

transitional phase changed. This resulted in the architecture of the French

Revolution, where imagination grew and with a new generation of architects, the

style changed. (2)


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This age was a mark of fresh ideas in society, arts, architecture, engineering and in

science. This age led to the French Revolution, the American Revolution and at last

the Industrial Revolution. But its impact on architecture can be felt even after 2-3

centuries at the advent of modernity. (1) (4)

List of Bibliography

1. PhD, Agnes Gyetval-Balogh. Architecture of the 19th Century and the Turn of the

century. .eptort.bme.hu. [Online] 2007. [Cited: March 14-03-2014, 2014.]

http://www.eptort.bme.hu/doc/egyeb/bekacomb.pdf.

2. Oxford. Oxford Dictionaries. s.l. : Oxford University Press, 2013.

3. Kors, Alan Charles. Encyclopedia of the Enlightenment. s.l. : Oxford UP, 2003.

4. Ramzy, Nelly Shafil. Between the École Des Beaux-Arts and the Bauhaus: Modern

Architecture as an Outcome of. Ain Shams Journal of Architectural Engineering.

2010, Vol. 2, nov .

5. Hackett, Lewis. The age of Enlightenment . History- world. [Online] 1992. [Cited:

March 16-03-2014, 2014.] http://history-world.org/age_of_enlightenment.htm.

6. Braham, Allan. The Architecture of the French Enlightenment. London : Thames

and Hudson Ltd, 1989. ISBN 0-520-06739-8.

7. Age of Enlightenment. Scribd.com.

8. Narayanan, Nipesh P. Neoclassicism. [presentation] 2013.


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List of Figures

I Order engraved by Desgodetz Ref: The Architecture of the French Enlightenment ............................. 5

II Section of theatre at Lyon Ref: The Architecture of the French Enlightenment Trusses in roofs can

be noticed. .............................................................................................................................................. 6

IIISection 2 of the theatre at Lyon Ref: The Architecture of The age of Enlightenment Trusses for roof.

................................................................................................................................................................ 7

IV plan of Pantheon Ref: Great buildings.com (http://www.greatbuildings.com/cgi-bin/gbc-

drawing.cgi/Pantheon_in_Paris.html/Pantheon_in_Paris_Plan.jpg) ..................................................... 8

V section of Pantheon and Dome Ref: Greatbuildings.com (http://www.greatbuildings.com/cgi-

bin/gbc-drawing.cgi/Pantheon_in_Paris.html/Pantheon_in_Paris_Sect.jpg) The three tier dome. ..... 9

VI Section of the Pantheon Ref, The Architecture of the age of Enlightenment. Columns, Lintels,

Trusses. ................................................................................................................................................. 10

VII Corner Detail Ref: Structural Rationalism

(http://digitalstudio.gre.ac.uk/downloads/hat/Structural%20Rationalism.pdf) ................................. 11

VIII Sectional View of the Pantheon Ref: Structural Rationalism, PPT

(http://digitalstudio.gre.ac.uk/downloads/hat/Structural%20Rationalism.pdf) The play of light. ..... 12

IX View of the Pantheon Ref: Structural Rationalism, PPT

(http://digitalstudio.gre.ac.uk/downloads/hat/Structural%20Rationalism.pdf) Light falling through

the centre. ............................................................................................................................................. 12

X The primitive hut – Laugier Ref: Architecture of the Age of Enlightenment ...................................... 14

XI Censored Columns Ref: Structural Rationalism

(http://digitalstudio.gre.ac.uk/downloads/hat/Structural%20Rationalism.pdf) ................................. 15

XII Plan of Cathedral Ref: The Architecture of the age of Enlightenment. ............................................ 16

XIII Section Ref: The Architecture of the age of Enlightenment. ........................................................... 17

XIV Hotel De conde -Plan and Detail Ref: The Architecture of the age of Enlightenment. Circular

staircase with free standing columns. .................................................................................................. 18

XV Plan of the Mansion Ref: The Architecture of the age of Enlightenment. ....................................... 19

XVI Remaining Columns Ref: The Architecture of the age of Enlightenment. Circular Colonnade ....... 19

XVII Section of building and staircase Ref: The Architecture of the age of Enlightenment. ................. 20

Structural Rationalism During the Age of Enlightenment

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