Romantic Neo classisism

Claude Nicolas Ledoux

French Neo classicalist.
Visionary plan for the ideal city of Chaux. Became known as Uthopian.
His most ambitious work was the uncompleted work of the royal saltworks
at the arc-et senans.
Hotel DHallwyll
The Royal Saltworks at Arc-et- senans
 The design, which received royal approval, of the Royal Saltworks at Arc-
et-Senans, or Salines de Chaux, is considered Ledoux's masterpiece. The
initial building work was conceived as the first phase of a large and
grandiose scheme for a new ideal city. The first (and, as things were to
turn out, only) stage of building was constructed between 1775 and 1778.
Entrance is through a massive doric portico, inspired by the temples
at Paestrum.The alliance of the columns is an archetypal motif of
neoclassicism. Inside, a cavernous hall gives the impression of entering an
actual salt mine, decorated with concrete ornamentation representing the
elementary forces of nature and the organizing genius of Man, a reflection
of the views of the relationship between civilization and nature endorsed
by such eighteenth-century philosophers as Jean-Jacques Rousseau.
 The entrance building opens into a vast semi-circular open air space that is
surrounded by ten buildings, which are arranged on the arc of a
semicircle. On the arc is the cooper's forge, the forging mill and
two bothies for the workers. On the straight diameter are the workshops
for the extraction of salt alternating with administrative buildings. At the
centre is the house of the director (illustrated), which originally also
contained a chapel.
The significance of this plan is twofold: the circle, a perfect figure, evokes
the harmony of the ideal city and theoretically encloses a place of
harmony for common work, but it recalls also contemporary theories of
organization and of official surveillance, particularly
the Panopticon of Jeremy Bentham.
 E.L.Boullee
It was his teacher and theorist at the cole Nationale des Ponts et
Chausses between 1778 and 1788 that Boulle made his biggest impact,
developing a distinctive abstract geometric style inspired by Classical
forms. His work was characterised by the removal of all unnecessary
ornamentation, inflating geometric forms to a huge scale and repeating
elements such as columns in huge ranges.
For Boulle regularity, symmetry and variety were the golden rules of
architecture.
Boulle rejected the perceived frivolity of sumptuous Rococo design in
favor of the rigid orders of the Greeks and Romans. Driven by his search
for pure forms derived from nature, he looked back into history to the
monumental forms of cultures that predated the Greeks. Transcending
mere adulation of historical precedents, Boulle remixed classic elements
at a scale and level of drama previously unachieved.
 Cenatoph for Sir Isaac Newton

For Boulle the sphere represented perfection and majesty, creating soft gradations
of light across its curved surface and having an immeasurable hold over our senses
(3). For Newtons cenotaph a 500 ft diameter sphere is embedded within a three-
tiered cylindrical base, giving the impression of a buried volume. Boulle smartly
completes the figure of the sphere with a flanking pair of curved ramps
 Boulle creates an interior world that inverts exterior lighting
conditions. At night, light radiates from an oversize luminaire suspended
at the center point of the sphere. Vaguely celestial in form, its light spills
through the long the entry tunnels. During the day, a black starlit night
blankets the interior. Points of light penetrate the thick shell through
narrow punctures whose arrangement corresponds with locations of
planets and constellations. A seemingly inaccessible corridor with a
quarter-circle section rings the perimeter.
The sections begin to suggest a negotiation of forces, as the dome appears
to attenuate or hollow out at the top and thicken towards the supports.
The bare walls and lack of ornament create a sombre
impression. Changes in tone and fog-like elements bolster the sense of
mystery.
 French national library
In the late 18th century, a new vision of the library arose within the context of
expanding literacy, and the increased publication of books and journals for the
general reading public. Enlightenment architect tienne-Louis Boulle (1728-1799)
envisioned a grand design in his proposal for a French National Library in 1785. In
Boulles presentation, the state would take responsibility for the collection,
ordering, and dissemination of all available information to its citizens.
The design for the main reading room featured a vast, barrel-vaulted ceiling and a
modern shelving arrangement: stacked galleries of books over flat wall-cases.
These seemingly endless bookcases were open and easily browsable, in dramatic
contrast to the earlier medieval system of chaining that bound both books, and
readers, to a specific location. Visitors are free to wander about and converse in
small groups, but there is no provision of study desks or chairs for extensive
research in this idealized environment.
The bibliographic utopia pictured here, though never realized, is significant as a
model for monumental public structures in the 19th century, and as a source of
inspiration to contemporary architects such as Maya Lin and Michael Graves.
 Durand

Architect, French theorist, professor

Treatise , presents a scheme and rational way of describing
buildings
Categorising world architecture
Spaces- public and private/ ways to build in a square plan ,
forms
A greater understanding of key elements
 Jefferson

American architect.
Came up with the jefferson style of neo classical architecture
Palladian design (e.g., central core, symmetrical wings)[6]
Portico-and-pediment primary entries
Classical orders and moldings
Piano nobile (main floor elevated above ground level)
Red brick construction
White painted trim
Sand painted columns
Octagons and octagonal forms
Chinese railings
"Suppressed" (hidden) stairs, instead of grand stairways
Monticello
Virgina State Capitol