Les Maisons de Rouen, XIIe-XVIIIe siècles

Abstract

Such as we can larn from surviving buildings, archaeological information, and written sources, Rouen houses have evolved considerably through time. Stone houses, livel in by the upper classes, are numerous in the 12th and 13th centuries. Perhaps due to pressure from the communes they then tend to disappear, making way for a stone based type of construction (the cellar), with a wooden erection. In the 14th century, houses with roadfacing gables are replaced by a layout consisting of two rows of buildings parallel to the road, joined by a gallery with stairs. Between the 15th and the middle of the 18th century, the main dwelling types remain remarkably stable, then blocks of flats appear, characterized by a larger massive building structure and by the regrouping of the volume facing the road. By studying the formal characteristics we note a slow evolution towards higher constructions, larger houses, and a decline of building projects including several houses. Period by period, the houses are described according to the types statistically defined, and according to the distribution of these characteristics in the town. The second part considers means of defining the layout of both individual houses or those grouped on an «estate », from legal and architectural plans. We then look at administrative control, from road plans — particularly the granting of building lines that are to act as a limit between public and private areas, and are to give a regular aspect to the street — and on the houses' layouts. This control is probably very old. A more consequent development of argument is devoted to the importance of the building trade activity, considering the amount of new houses built and large scale repairs, and the «lifespan » of a house, which varies in time. The relationship with planning blocks, and the importance of the types of buildings that constitute them are considered in the perspective of their evolution in the economic and socio-culturel context. Finally, the building is analysed from a social angle, particularly the maintainance, renewal and occupational habits (of the owners and tenants, in a mainly monofamilly unit). The state of the houses relative to their situation in the town is socially very significant. The 2 000 edifices studied at Rouen, representing more than 2 500 houses, that is a third of the private street buildings intra-muros at the end of the 18th century, thus appear as a major source of information about the town between the 12th and the 18th century.