Claude-Nicolas Ledoux: Architecture and Utopia in the Era of the French Revolution. Second and expanded edition

Claude-Nicolas Ledoux (1736-1806) is today regarded as chief representative of French revolutionary architecture. With his extraordinary inventiveness he projected the architectural ideals of his era. Ledoux’s influential buildings and projects are presented and interpreted both aesthetically and historically in this book. His best-known projects – the Royal Saltwords of Arc-et-Senans, the tollgates of Paris, the ideal city of Chaux – reveal the architect’s allegiance to the principles of antiquity and Renaissance but also illustrate the evolution of his own utopian language. With the French Revolution, Ledoux ceased building as his contemporaries perceived him as a royal architect. He focused on the development of his architectural theory and redefined the vision of the modern architect. Claude-Nicolas Ledoux (1736-1806) gilt heute als Hauptvertreter der französischen Revolutionsarchitektur. Sein vielgestaltiger Erfindungsreichtum griff die Architekturideale seiner Zeit auf und entwickelte daraus kühne Utopien. Dieses Buch stellt Ledoux' Bauten und Projekte in ihrer ästhetischen wie historischen Bedeutung dar. An seinen Werken - die königlichen Salinen von Arc-et-Senans, das Zollgebäude von Paris, die Idealstadt von Chaux - zeigt sich, wie diese Architektur aus der Antike und der Renaissance schöpft, aber auch eine ganz eigene Formensprache findet. Mit der Revolution war Ledoux' bauliches Schaffen beendet, da er den Zeitgenossen als Architekt des Königs galt. Er widmete sich nun der theoretischen Arbeit und entfaltete seine Vision des modernen Architekten CONTENTS PREFACE INTRODUCTION PART I: A CAREER OPEN TO TALENT, 1760–1789 1. CLASSICAL MAXIMS 2. EMBLEMS OF NOBILITY 3. PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION 4. THE ARCHITECTURE OF PRODUCTION 5. LANGUAGES OF CHARACTER 6. GALLO-ROMAN ANTIQUITY 7. THEATRICAL VISION 8. PHYSIOGNOMIES OF JUSTICE 9. THE PROPYLAEA OF PARIS PART II: FROM NEW TOWN TO UTOPIA, 1776–1806 10. PHYSIOCRATIC REGIONALISM 11. AGRONOMIC ARCHITECTURE 12. TEMPLES OF SOCIABILITY 13. UTOPIA OR REVOLUTION CONCLUSION: L’ARCHITECTE MAUDIT NOTES CHRONOLOGY BIBLIOGRAPHY INDEX OF PERSONS INDEX OF LOCATIONS AND PROJECTS ABOUT THE AUTHOR ILLUSTRATION CREDITS