Structural Imperative and the Origin of New Form

Abstract

Contemporary writing on architecture, following art history, tends to focus on formal analysis where visual ideas dominate the discussion of the origin and meaning of style. Technology is rarely touched upon; and structure, although generally understood as necessary, is hardly seen as a legitimate giver of form, even for large-scale building.' This modern point of view must be understood, at least partly, as a reaction to the ideas of Eugine Viollet-le-Duc (1814-79), self-trained architect, restorer, archaeologist, and theorist. Mainly on the basis of his extensive practical experience with the restoration of medieval monuments, Viollet-le-Duc compiled a ten-volume encyclopedia, Dictionnaire raisonne de l'architecture frangaise du XIe au XVIe sizcle (185468), that remains even today probably the single most important published work on medieval building technology (fig. 1). He also inferred from this experience that many of the principal stylistic elements of the Gothic were originally derived from the demands of the construction process or the laws governing structural forces. Furthermore, he argued, since these laws apply to all building at all times, innovation in visual form springs from appropriate response to structural demands in terms of the materials of construction.2 In this light, he then