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The 20 Principles of French Architecture Aubrey Leigh Lassetter

Table of Contents

02 prologue 03 concepts 05 representation 07 context 09 analysis 11 abstraction 13 grid 15 surfaces 17 light + shadow 19 mass 21 solid + void 23 environment 25 materials 27 structure 29 fabrication 31 defamiliarization 33 tropes 35 transformation 37 circulation 39 dialogue 41 datum

prologue France is a country filled with a combination of modern and ancient styles. From the country side cottages to the epicenter that is the city of Paris, there is range of architecture to study. We can find the solid principles of structure and material within the stone palaces. We can find the metaphorical principles of analysis and context within the more modern additions. Finally, everything comes together to form a fansinating infastructure of a country. The 20 principles of architecture are hidden within very corner of the architecture of France.

concepts Concept can be seen as the idea of a design. It is flexible, allowing change to a design without losing the orginal vision. Concept allows for openmindess. In my project, the analysis of the design allows for the concept to shine through. One can focus on the base idea when it is simplified by lines.

Jorn Utzon Concept Sketch Sydney Opera House

Jorn Utzon Sydeny Opera House

French architecture uses concept as a base for all ideas. The base idea is to meld with preexisitng buildings. This leaves room for compromise and evolution in designs. Jarmund/Vigsnaes Architects Dune House

Jarmund/Vigsnaes Architects Concept Sketch Dune House

representation Designs must be able to be transferred from the architect to the builder. Representation allows for ideas to be understood clearly outside of the mind of the one who created it. This can be done through plans, elevations, sections, and axonmetrics. These allow the architect to represent the interior volumes, outward planes, and three dimensionall ideas. In my project, my analysis represents the architect’s idea for a floor plan. The architect created this plan to show that they wanted an abstract grid design in the layout to the builders.

Studio Gang Eleanor Boat House at Park 571

Jean Francois Chalgrin College de France Elevation/Sections

Andrea Palladio Villa La Rotonda

David Adjaye Ruby City

Representation had to be used in French architecture, as with all other architecture. The buildings are complex and have many layers. This needed to be clearly expressed through the fabrication process.

context Context is defined as the circumstances that surround an idea that are looked at for understanding. In architecture, everything plays a role in the creation of the idea. Context could be the zoning laws, the soil of the ground, the surrounding buildings, the surrounding community, or the person commisioning the building. Anything and everything is involved in the analysis of an architectural idea.

Lorcan O’Herlihy Architects Formosa 1040

I see the context of French architecture being found to be the cultural context. French architecture has a deep history and it is with that in mind that we analyze every building within the country. Even when adding more modern buildings, architects must keep in mind the ornate structures of the past. Jacquez Chirac Musee du quai Branly

Tadao Ando Rokko Housing

analysis Analysis is not truth. It is instead a look into what could be the truth of the idea. Analyis examines all the ways an idea could be interpreted and it is up to the viewer to decide what they believe to be correct. That is what I have done in my analysis projects, They explore what could have been the architect’s vision when creating their designs. There is no way for me to know the actual truth

Inigo Jones Drawings of Stonehenge

Jennifer Bonner Domestic Hats

French architecture is open to wide and extensive analysis. With buildings ranging through centurues, the orginal understandings and visions have been lost. They are opem to analytical interpretation now.

Andrea Palladio Villa Cornaro

abstraction

Miles van Der Farnsworth House

Venturi & Rauch Vanna Venturi House VI

Abstraction is a way to look at the idea of a building without having to present the entire structure. What is presented instead are the main points and characteristics of the design. In my analysis, I looked at the main points of the design and presented them in a clear format. The idea of the architect’s idea was given without too many details.

Mallet-Stevens Villa Cavrois

Abstraction is presented in the more modern buildings of French architecture. The cleaner, simplier designs play off of the ornate buildings of the past, mirroring their main points without copying the details.

grid The grid brings order to a composition. It is used to organize any design into one that is balanced and structured, even if it is chaotic in itself. Grids can be small, large, completely cohesive or abstract. In my project, an abstract grid is the beginning of the piece. Chatotic lines and connections grew from that base grid, allowing the mind to see organization among differing ideas.

Four-Square and Nine-Square

Louis Le Vau Palace of Versailles

Piet Mondrian Tableau 1

In French architecture, the grid is seen everywhere. When looking at an arial view of Versailles, the grid is used for the organization of the grounds. This is where the concept of size comes into partnership with the concept of the grid. The large square grids of Versailles differ from the small grid work of the city. This makes Versailles seem opener and more in order.

surfaces The surface of a building is the first thing a viewer sees when examining a building. It holds the first impression to the building’s idea and characteristics. The surface identifies the building to the outside world. The surface can be thought of as simply as a series of planes. In my planes project, I put focus into how the planes of the paper came together to form the object, creating a facade surface in the process.

Barkow Leibinger Laser Machine and Tool Factory

In French architecture, the surfaces of the building tell a story of the space within. The surfaces introduce the character of the design while also simply adding interest to the combined landscape of other surfaces.

Colmar

Etienne-Louis Bollee Cenotaph for Newton

Adolf Loos Looshaus

light

Tadao Ando Church of the Light

Shadow and light are a duo that go hand in hand. They play off one another to allow for a space to take on a new dimension Sculpting with light is a noted technique. Light can wrap around a part of a geomentry while casting the other parts into shadow, completely transforming the oringal piece. Shadows can extend and lift up an object’s silloette, creating contrast with the base.

Church of Saint-Pierre

shadow French Architecture captures this team with the use of windows. These windows allow for beams of light to shine into a space, wrapping around columns and arches. The shadows surround and frame this brightness, creating a constrasting scene.

Louis Le Vau Palace of Versailles

MASS Mass is a concept that occupies space and volume. It is recognizable and distinctive as an object of density and solidity. Mass is a form that is notably there and present within the space. This can be done through adding to or subtracting from the form. In other forms, the mass is noticed when other mass is taken away from the space. In my project, the mass of the random objects gets more noticable as more objects are added to the composition; adding to the density of the form.

I. M. Pei Johnson Museum

In French architecturre, mass can be seen in the stone structures of the landscape. The stone is chiseled and formed into large structures that add a block of mass amongst the other buildings.

Jean Chalgrin Arc de Triomphe

Pezo and Von Ellrick-Hausen Cusa Pollo

Mendes da Pocha Brazilian Museum of Sculpture

solid + void The concept of solid and void plays with adding and subtracting mass to create a sense of space. The solid creates the base while cutting out voids allows for depth. In my project, the use of light and shadow allows me to create obvious solids and voids in my form without actually cutting through the surface.

Aurelio Galfetti Castegrande Museum

French architecture plays off solids and voids. There will be a large mass of a structure and right next to it will be a delicate thin structure, the void. It abstracts the orginal principle idea.

Takeshi Hosaka Love House

Luigi Moretti Strucutres and Sequences of Space

environment

Environment is a large factor in architecture. It plays into the material, the context, the fabrication, and the structure. The building must work with the land, both in design and in construction. In my project, I analyzed how the architect dug into the grounf to exaggerate the vaults in the studio spaces.

Charles Francis Hall Community of igloos

French architecture requires environment to be in the mind of every design. The landscape of the city contrasts greatly from that of the countryside. Buildings must match the theme of its surroundings. La Roque-Gageac

Pueblo architecture

materials Material is what makes up the physical form of a design. Choices made on the materials of a project can influence how something is seen and interpreted. Material also involves how functional a form can be. Many factors go into choosing material, such as how it will be affected by time and environment. In my project, the plaster of paris reads as rough while the foam core reads as smooth. This affects how I view the pieces and the balance of the composition.

Weaving craft Logman Arja

French architecture is a mix of materials. The use of a certain material helps interpret the time frame and environment of the building. Ornate, carved stone reads of medival times, while sleek glass tells of modern design. Wood can be seen in more rural cottage structures while hardier stone is used in more packed cities.

Pierre Lescot Musee du Louvre

Logman Arja

structure

As Lagier’s artwork “The Primitive Hut” expresses, structure can be as simple as columns, beams, and a roof. Structure is the formwork that makes up a building. In architecture, structure doesn’t have to be simple. It can be the highlight of the space if wanted.

Le Corbusier Dom-Ino House

As with my wooden dowel project, the dowels not only keep the form supported. They also are the main feature of the design.

Structure can be seen most with the older buildings of French architecture. Load bearing arches or columns are main design featues. Notre Dame’s use of ornate flying buttresses is not only to add interest but also add support to the roof from the walls.

Pierre de Montrevi Notre-Dame de Paris

Pier Luigi Nervi/A Viitellozzi Palazzetto dello Sport

Sendai Media theque

fabrication The construction of a building influences the final look. Anything within the building process can change the final product. This is the concept of fabrication. In my project, I had to continually change the form of the clay. I had an idea of how the clay would look in the end, but the fabrication of the form changed this. Every indent of my finger or crack in the clay changed the final look.

In French architecture, the fabrication is important to how the building is viewed. Sleek seemless stone appartments or smooth glass sky scrappers seem newer. Thick, carved stone or brick, cobbled buildings show their age instead. This influences how we examine the structures.

Pierre de Montrevi Notre-Dame de Paris

Kantana Fim/Animation Institue Bangkok project studio

defamiliarization

Richard Neutre The Lovell Health House

One can begin to view something as ordinary and normal. Defamiliarization tries to break the held concept of something that one has. Defamiliarization attempts to make something new from what already exists. In my project, I took decades old buildings and deconstrcuted them into new forms. The original concepts of the buildings are no longer familiar.

In French architecture, new and old buildings change held perceptions. For instance, French castles defamiliarize the idea of a castle. Its castles range from a solid stone fortress to delicate carved art pieces. It doesn’t let one idea become the norm of the type of structure.

Marshall Brown Chimeras

Chateau de Foix

tropes Architectural tropes are a break from reality. The subsections of metaphor, metonmy, irony, and hyperbole are devices to express abstract ideas in familar, understandable ways. Tropes can range from the implied to the most blantant of ideas. In my project, I showed through my analysis the beuilding’s exaggeration of vaults, showing hyperbole.

French architecture can boarder the lines between reality and abstraction. Buildings can express hyperbole through being dramatic and exaggerated, such as with the gothic style. They can also express metonymy with the subtle modern style. Frank Gehry LUMA Arles Tower

Kazuo Shinohara House on a Curved Road

Eero Saarinen TWA Terminal

transformation Transformation in architecture can be literal or metaphorical. The point is that one views a building and the concept of change comes to mind. A building could physically change due to mechanics within the framework, or could seem to change instead, through changes in sunlight or weather.

Richard Rogers Zip-Up House

In my project, change in light changed the strucutre of the formwork, strengthing or softening the corners and curves.

The Institut du Monde Arabe is an example of French transformation. The building is not only a modern, clean structure, but also acts as a mechanical device. Its walls are made of small movable lens that open and close to allow certain amounts of light in. A transformation by light is present.

Gilbert Lezenes Institut du Monde Arabe

Kisho Kurokawa Nakagin Capsule Tower

circulation Circulation is the focus on the movement of a space. When a space is used, there needs to be a builtin flow to follow. This can be done through pathways, doorways, or stairways.

Le Corbusier Maisons Jaoul

Caruso St. John Newport Street Gallery

Paris, France overview

UID Architects Pit House

The circulation of French architecture is more focused on the infastructure of the cities. There is an art in how the streets bend and twist around the ancient building sites.

dialogue Buildings last longer than the time they are originally built. Buildings of the past contrast with moddern buildings to start conversations. Each new conversation adds a new line of dialogue to examine.

Dialogue is present everywhere in French architecture. Buildings of present and past speak to the viewer, mixing ideas to form a new landscape.

In my project, I combined buildings of different designs together. They lost their original ideas to contrast to form new dialogue.

Alexander Ross Cathedrale Saint-Andre

Nicholas Hawksmoor St. Mary Woolroth

James Stirling No. I Poultry

datum Datum is meant to unify a collection of elements. Datum holds the main hierarchy of a piece. Datum is not a singular concept; it can instead range from a horizon line to a grid to a mass. It is meant to organize what could be considered chaotic and unorganized.

Pierre Lescot Musee du Louvre

Le Corbusier Villa Savoye

Pierre Lescot Musee du Louvre

The Musee du Kouvre needed a new entrance in the 80s. I. M. Pei created a glass pyramid entrance in reponse. This pyramid entrance in response. This pyramid employs the use of datum. The pyramid is within itself a space while also adding a contrasting place to the site. The modern element show not mix well with a 14th century palace. Yet it does as it draws the horizontal lines of the palace into a unifying triangle reference point.

citations 06

College de France

Musee du quai Branly

Villa Cavrois

Versailles Arial View

Colmar

Palace of Versailles

Arc de Triomphe

La Roque-Gageac

Musee du Louvre

Notre-Dame de Paris

Chateau de Foix

LUMA Arles Tower

Institut du Monde Arabe

Paris Overview

Cathedrale Saint-Andre

Musee du Louvre