French Architects and Engineers in the Age of Enlightenment

This book offers a unique insight to the teaching and practice of architects and engineers.

Antoine Picon (Author)

9780521123693, Cambridge University Press

Paperback, published 17 December 2009

452 pages
24.6 x 18.9 x 2.3 cm, 0.8 kg

The professions of architect and engineer, which had maintained very close links since the time of the Renaissance, became increasingly isolated from one another in France during the course of the eighteenth century, the 'Age of the Enlightenment'. This book analyses the meaning of this gradual mutual isolation, the consequences of which can still be felt at a variety of different levels, and offers a unique insight in English to the teaching and practice of architects such as Jacques-Francois Blondel and Pierre Patte, and engineers such as Jean-Rodolphe Perronet and Gaspard-Riche de Prony. The text of the book is clear and easily comprehensible, and presents a fully accessible account of this key period in the development of architectural achievement and debate.

List of Figures
Acknowledgements
1. General Remarks
2. The classical tradition
3. The impact of the Enlightenment on architecture
4. 'Towards a classical architecture' Jacques-Francois Blondel and the 'Cours d'architecture'
5. The engineers' 'system'
6. The principles of training and the economy of knowledge
7. Stability and construction
8. Pierre Patte and the concept of the rational town
9. A productive countryside
10. From the revolutionary 'Genius' to Neo-classicism
Conclusion
Appendix
Biographical
Notes.

Subject Areas: Architectural structure & design [AMC]