French Architect Research Articles

Development of Functionalist Principles in Architectural Heritage of Le Corbusier. Villa Savoy in Poissy

The article is devoted to one of the most famous residential building projects executed by the French architect Ch.-E. Jeanneret-Gree (Le Corbusier) in the traditions of functionalism. Villa Savoy in Poissy (1928–931) is milestone work in his activity. Upon its completion, Jeanneret-Gree joined the group of outstanding architects, who had the opportunity to freely experiment with the variety of architectural styles (modernism, brutalism, etc.). The paper presents the analysis of the main architectural and design concepts of Jeanneret-Gree, embedded in the general and floor plans, facades, and interiors of this unusual villa.

INFLUENCE OF MODERNISM ON POST-INDEPENDENCE INDIAN ARCHITECTURE

The modern architecture, which was conceived as a reaction to the chaos and eclecticism of the earlier 19th century was taking its shape in the late 19th century and earlier 20th century. The exact timeline in which the modern movement in architecture started in the world cannot be described with precision. But ‘Modern architecture’ had its origin in the developments of the late 18th century with major thrust on the idea of progress. This movement of modern architecture in India started quite late in the first half of 20th century. Its development in India started with the isolated efforts of some foreign architects’ works. But the movement gained momentum only after the arrival of foreign trained Indian architects with imbibed policy of modernism in their mind. Final thrust to this movement was given by the political patronage bestowed upon the idea of modernism by the then Prime Minister Pt. Jawahar Lal Nehru, when he invited Swiss born French architect Le Corbusier to design the state capital city of Chandigarh. This paper delves upon the Influence of Modern architecture of these foreign architects built in India on the Post independence Indian architecture.

Purism in creative activity of Jeanneret-Gree (Le Corbusier)

The paper is devoted to purism (Latin purus − "pure, strict"), the second creative direction in the design and social activity of S.-E. Jeanneret-Gree (Le Corbusier, 1887−1965), the outstanding French architect. It is one of the most popular trends in modern painting and architecture in the early 20th century.The paper considers this style in detail. The most striking elements of French purism were firstly tested in the design of the villa belonged to Raul Albert La Roche (1925−1928), a Swiss businessman and collector of paintings.

Eye to I: Panoptic Muslim Surveillance and Warsan Shire’s Poetics of Liberation

In 1786, French architect Jeremy Bentham envisioned the panopticon, a structure in which prison cells surround an opaque tower where guards surveil the prisoners. In the panopticon, prisoners could be observed by guards without knowing when they were being watched, making them trained for constant vigilance. My research places this centuries-old theoretical model against contemporary Muslim surveillance, arguing that the panopticon is a way to more deeply and thoroughly understand the omnipresent surveillance weaponized against Muslim communities after 9/11. More broadly, I refuse to dilute the impact of internalized and externalized policing on marginalized communities. I investigate how post-9/11 surveillance in Nairobi places Muslim communities into a prison-like structure in which they are repeatedly watched, affecting their internal psyche— the art form of poetry written by these marginalized groups allows for a deeper viewing and dissection of this surveillance. Invoking French philosopher Michel Foucault, who drew from the panopticon in his literary theories on discipline, with first-hand ethnographic research on Muslim surveillance from contemporary scholars living in Nairobi, Kenya, I pose a literary-ethnographic stance regarding how we can view the lasting impacts of Muslim surveillance. In analyzing the detrimental conditions of surveillance in postcolonial Kenya, I also investigate how a key contemporary poet, Warsan Shire, breaks free from these boundaries through her artistic work, which focuses on the generational and haunting implications of surveillance in her own Muslim community. Shire herself was born in Kenya and migrated to the United Kingdom with her family when she was a young child. Her poetry, both spoken and written, has now reached global audiences in North America, Germany, and South Africa and has influenced the contemporary literary canon. Catechizing Muslim surveillance through meshing literary and anthropological research, I hope to dismantle the post 9-/11 prison-panopticon of inspection, emphasizing the role of artistry in liberation and resistance.

Andre Godard and Maxime Siroux: Disentangling the Narrative of French Colonialism and Modern Architecture in Iran

AbstractThis paper investigates the impact of two French architects, Andre Godard and Maxime Siroux, in early twentieth-century Iran using postcolonial methodology to challenge the reductive prevailing narrative of these architects as representatives of Western imperial powers. Furthermore, this paper argues for the existence of a distinct local modernism in Iran, highlights the enduring presence of Iranian architectural traditions throughout different historical periods, and argues against the narrative of modern architectural works in Iran as simplistic hybrids of pre-Islamic Iranian architecture and Western modernism. In addition, this research underscores the role of Iranian intellectuals in shaping the cultural and social movements that led to the broader modernization of Iran and modernism in Iranian architecture.

JUST “A FOLLOWER WITH NO VISIBLE CHARACTERISTICS”? EXAMPLES OF ERNESTS ŠTĀLBERGS’ MODERNISM IN THE CONTEXT OF WESTERN ARCHITECTURE

The view of modernist architecture as a “unified mass” without regional traits or specific developmental trends has sometimes become symptomatic and is threatening to monuments of this style even today. This article aims to introduce the most significant conclusions obtained from the analysis of the architect Ernests Štālbergs’ creative legacy in the context of Western modernist architecture, identifying the means used to localise the style. Formal and stylistically comparative methods were applied for this purpose. Štālbergs’ modernist works reveal three lines of influences – from the German architect Erich Mendelsohn, the French architect Le Corbusier and the Nordic modernism. This does not mean direct appropriations of composition but rather impulses and inspirations. Štālbergs attempted to adapt modernism to local conditions, as he paid attention to the context of surrounding environment and regional traditions. However, he was more interested not in national but in regional identity, thus fitting in a wider cultural space.

Depicting Scent: Incense Burners in the French Engravings of the 18th Century

This article is devoted to the comparative study of images of the incense burner, i.e. a device for filling the interior with a pleasing scent. The author refers to materials from French design and book engravings of the eighteenth century. The article contains descriptions and results of a comparative analysis of engraved images of incense burners in the works of French decorators and illustrators of the eighteenth century. A comparative study of incense burners as a sketch of an interior item and as the entourage of a book illustration makes it possible to trace the changes in their typology, style, and semantics over the eighteenth century. The article refers to engraved sketches of incense burners in the projects of French architects and ornamentalists of the eighteenth century, such as J. Bйren, B. Turreau, J.-M. Oppenord, J.-F. Blondel, J.-Ch. Delafosse, J.-F. de Nefforge, J.-F. Boucher, R. De La Londe, and J.-F. Forty. Secondly, it draws upon book engravings depicting incense burners created by such artists as C. Gillot, L.-F. Dubourg, H.-F. Gravelot, F. Boucher, Ch. Eisen, J.-J.-F. Le Barbier, K.-P. Marillier, J.-M. Moreau le Jeune, J. de Sиve, and A. Borel. As a result of the description and analysis of images, the author determines the genres and features of the iconography of the incense burner. A comparative analysis of design and book engravings helps address the problem of the genesis of the image of the incense burner in illustrations. The author substantiates the direct influence of design engravings on the images of incense burners in book illustrations and at the same time, the absence of a “literal” influence of literary texts, pointing out the stable continuity of images of the incense burner in similar works of illustrators for different editions of the same literary text. In a comparative aspect, the article analyses the semantics of images of the incense burner in the design and book engravings, noting the predominance of the sensual-hedonistic connotation of the images of the incense burner over the eighteenth century.

Орнамент 1870-х гг.: В поисках самобытного русского искусства (Виктор Бутовский, Владимир Стасов и Эжен Виолле-ле-Дюк)

Before being denounced as a “crime,” ornamentation held a prominent place within debates that focused more on national identity than aesthetics. The present article revisits the controversy that took place around ornamentation as an expression of the national in the 1870s between the director of the Stroganov School, Victor Butovsky, and the art critic Vladimir Stasov. Shocked by the latter’s thesis, suggesting that Russian peasant embroideries had Asian origins, Butovsky attempted to counter by suddenly attributing considerable importance to Byzantine influence on Russian art, which he had previously denied. Moreover, he invited Eugène Viollet-Le-Duc to join this debate by commissioning a work from him. However, in “L’Art russe” (“Russian Art”), published in Paris in 1877 and translated into Russian in 1879, the famous French architect, in turn, defends the thesis of the Asian origin of Russian ornamentation. But if Butovski still raves about the book, it is because Viollet-Le-Duc asserts that the Russians drew their artistic originality from the most prestigious of the East, India; doing so, he endows the Russians with an Aryan genealogy that allows them to join the great European family. On his part, Stasov, concerned with a scientific approach that has led him to rethink Russia’s relationship with Asia completely, gives a mixed reception to the work, as he perfectly perceives its weaknesses.

Cubism in creative activity of Le Corbusier (Tomsk)

The article is devoted to the early creative activity of the outstanding French architect Charles-Édouard Jeanneret known as Le Corbusier. His move to Paris can be explained by the increased professional and creative ambitions, spiritual maturation of the young master. The paper studies his first design works implemented in France include engineering structures, Ovriere village near Dieppe, and others.The main attention is paid to two residential mansions made in the style of Cubism, namely the Ozenfant House and Studio in Paris built in the mid-1920s. Their master plans, original solutions of facades, lightweight frames made of precast concrete are studied herein. For those years, it is a fundamentally new building material, used later in the modern residential architecture. It is noted that the creator of architectural functionalism concludes that reinforced concrete structures have a wide compositional potential that allows working not only with flat, but also with curvedlinear walls, volumetric blocks. In addition, reinforced concrete allows him to successfully test his all five principles of modern. In these works, Le Corbusier first tests residential cell technology. These works are his first approbation of conceptual models of modern architecture.

Design Methodology in the French Architecture

In this paper the authors are focusing on Jean Nouvel, a significant member of the French architect society. The aim of this research was to analyse the most remarkable elements of the architect’s life’s work: what kind of notable results he created, what ideas did he apply, etc. The authors tried to make a comparison between the design ways of architecture and mechanical engineering.

Interactions between Turkish Building Professionals and French Advisors in the Reconstruction of Historical Cities in Western Anatolia

The year 1923 was a turning point for Turkey. The collapse of the Ottoman Empire after a long war brought in Republican ideology centered on economic self-sufficiency and modern, secular values. With the proclamation of the Republic, the reconstruction of war-torn historical cities became a priority, to spread the new ideology and meet the country’s industrial needs. The new authorities encouraged municipalities to consult with Western European architects, many of whom were invited in the first years of the Republic. Their knowledge of the latest technologies and modern urban planning principles in Europe were to be applied to reconstruct Anatolian towns and villages according to the modern ideology. To facilitate this cooperation, the Society of Studies for the Reconstruction of İzmir was established in Paris in 1922. It brought together French experts and Turkish authorities during the planning process of Western Anatolian cities. The most prominent French consultants were Paris-based Henri Prost and Rene Danger, working together in France after having gained long-term experience in French colonies. This paper, firstly, highlights the mobility of these French professionals in Western Anatolia by tracing the history of their planning studies. Secondly, framing the political tension between the two countries, it aims to investigate whether the perspectives of the Turkish authorities associated the guest French architects and planners with colonial France. Lastly, it focuses on the post-war reconstruction process of historical cities in Western Anatolia, discussing the results of the interaction of the decision-makers and focusing on İzmir, Manisa, and Uşak.

La première œuvre collective de l’Académie de France à Rome : un apparat éphémère pour la guérison de Louis XIV*

Abstract This article focuses on the ephemeral, multimedia façade for the French Academy commemorating the recovery of Louis XIV from illness. Known only through an engraved print, this installation seems tobe the first – and perhaps the only – tangible manifestation of the collective work carried out by French architects, sculptors, and painters resident in Rome during the second half of the seventeenth century. The aim is to demonstrate that, in addition to constituting a precious reservoir of visual references, whose correct understanding depends on an archaeological study of the ancient and modern repertoires, this apparatus imposes itself as an ambitious project of political mediation at a particular moment in the history of the Kingdom of France.

White Atlantic: Counterfeiting Race in France

This article proposes that a new white racial consciousness is emerging in France. Camouflaged as the default universal, unraced and unmarked, against which racial difference is measured, whiteness turns racelessness into power. We know as much from the critical race and whiteness studies that have dissected the normative apparatus at work in white pretentions to color-blindness. But if such a critique remains relevant in France—where color-blindness is the legally mandated norm—it also isn’t enough. Examining recent polemics against le racisme anti-blanc, or anti-white racism, I document how white color-consciousness is taking hold in the French mainstream. The new white identity revolves around a central premise: the victimization of white people by the forces of antiracism. Advancing a diasporic vision of beleaguered whiteness, French architects of what I call the white Atlantic issue dark warnings about the “genocidal” consequences for white people of Black Lives Matter and related social movements. In so doing, I argue, they counterfeit the collective historical experience that gives race meaning—in particular the experience of Black people, whose history of transatlantic suffering the new white identity simulates and exploits.

Defining a sustainable French architecture: France's national pavilion at the 2004 Venice Biennale

The French pavilion at the 2004 Venice Biennale of Architecture took up the theme of sustainable design through a “prospective game” that challenged participating architects to imagine an urban neighborhood's transformation in response to economic, social, and environmental constraints over the following 30 years. The exhibition paradoxically appeared to proclaim French sustainable know-how at a time when French architects viewed the profession as lagging behind their European neighbors in terms of ecological approaches. By framing sustainability as avant-garde, experimental design, the pavilion reconciled “French” and “sustainable” architecture. Examining this exhibit and its impact contributes to an understanding of French self-fashioning of national identity around culture. Moreover, this case demonstrates how cultural elements of identity influence responses to global challenges such as climate change.

Mining City — Ideal City: From Chaux to Ekaterinburg, from Conception to Implementation

This article considers the history of the unrealised project of the establishment of “free mining towns” in Russia (in the Urals) in the first half of the nineteenth century. Only free people were to live and work in such towns. In 1802, the outstanding mining figure A. S. Yartsov filed a note addressed to Emperor Alexander I, in which he proposed several measures to improve the domestic mining industry. The creation of mining towns inspired by European Bergstдdte was one of these measures. A special committee on the reform of the mining part was established under the influence of Yartsov’s note. In 1804, the French architect Claude-Nicolas Ledoux published a treatise L’Architecture considérée sous le rapport de l’art, des mœurs et de la legislation (Architecture Considered in Relation to Art, Morals, and Legislation) in Paris. The work was preceded by a dedication to the Russian emperor. The project of the ideal mining city of Chaux was presented in the publication. With the help of architectural forms, Ledoux dreamed of creating an ideal environment for the moral development of people. Could the French architect have known that at the very same time in St Petersburg work was being carried out for a legal justification of the establishment of “free cities” in Russia, a country where serfdom was still a reality? This assumption does not look improbable. A special committee prepared a draft of new mining legislation, which was approved by Alexander I on July 13, 1806. Ekaterinburg received the status of a mining city on May 1, 1807. However, afterwards the emperor lost interest in liberal projects. Ekaterinburg remained the only mining city in Russia. The content of the concept of a “free mining city” also changed: the dream of free labour was replaced by the idea of independence of such a city from the governor’s power.

Points and lines, nodes and rods: megastructure, graph realism, and Yona Friedman’s scientific architecture

In June 1966 Hungarian-born French architect Yona Friedman travelled to the port town of Folkestone on the English Channel to join the International Dialogue of Experimental Architecture (IDEA). The event was a large two-day symposium on radical experiments in architecture and urbanism organised by the British architectural collective Archigram. A leading figure in experimental international groups of architects and artists crafting techno-futuristic visions of three-dimensionally expanding cities, Friedman seemed to be an essential participant in an event advertised as a convocation of ‘all Europe’s creative nuts’.

Influence of “Mingei (Folk Crafts)” on the Creative Theories of Charlotte Perriand

This paper aims to clarify the influence of “Mingei (Folk Crafts)” on the creative theories of French architect and interior designer Charlotte Perriand (1903–1999) and reconsider an aspect of modern architecture. First, in Section 2, this paper examines Perriand’s articles before her encounter with “Folk Crafts”. Section 3 traces her experience of “Folk Crafts” during her time in Japan, and finally, Sections 4 and 5 compare the thoughts of Yanagi and Perriand. Perriand integrated the ideas of Yanagi’s “Folk Crafts” from her interest in vernacular buildings, and this matured into a spatial theory of the “contact”. This hand-based “contact” was not a rejection of machine-driven civilization; rather it had the characteristic of universality as far as the sense of touch was based on the human physiological sense.

Life in Switzerland of Charles-Édouard Jeanneret known as Le Corbusier

The article is devoted to the early design and social activities of the extraordinary French architect Charles-Édouard Jeanneret known as Le Corbusier (1887–1965), who is considered to be one of the founders of European Functionalism. His first design and pictorial works are considered together with his trips to Western Europe and the Middle East. This experience helped the architect to create his first conceptual versions and models of the modern architecture, which will be described in our further works.

Morteza Djamali, Nicolas Faucherre. “Sasanian architecture as viewed by the 19th century French architect Pascal-Xavier Coste”

Morteza DJAMALI, Nicolas FAUCHERRE, “Sasanian architecture as viewed by the 19th century French architect Pascal-Xavier Coste”, Dabir 7, 2020, p. 91-100. Ce court article ressort de l’histoire des idees sur l’architecture. P. Coste, compagnon de voyage de E. Flandin, peintre, auteurs du Voyage en Perse en1840-41, replace l’architecture sassanide, en particulier voutes et arcs, dans une evolution qu’il voit presque lineaire de l’architecture antique et medievale. C’est le theme d’une communica...

Assessment of the seismic behaviour of heritage masonry buildings using numerical modelling: A study of Fernand Pouillon's Totem Tower in Algiers, Algeria

This paper deals with the seismic response evaluation of the Totem tower of Diar Es Saada, which is one of the taller unreinforced masonry (URM) building in Algeria with twenty floors and 62 m in height. The tower located in Algiers, a town exposed to important earthquakes, has survived so far without major damage or alteration. This high-rise building was designed by the French architect Fernand Pouillon in 1953 without considering regulations for earthquake-resistant construction. It was built in only fifty days by adopting an original structural system and an innovative construction processes developed by this architect: URM stone and brick load-bearing walls with reinforced concrete floors. The study carried out consists of a multidisciplinary approach. First, a detailed diagnosis was performed on site to assess the state of conservation of the building. Then, the seismic behaviour was modelled and analyzed by using both linear dynamic and non-linear static analysis in SAP2000 and TreMuri software. With regard to the current Algerian seismic design regulation, the results obtained in terms of time period, frequency, storey drifts and displacements showed that the tower can be considered as an earthquake-resistant building fulfilling the required structural safety conditions. In this respect, the Totem tower of Diar Es Saada deserves to be classified as a national heritage and its satisfactory overall structural behaviour confirms that the architect Pouillon has also excellent skills in engineering construction.