CLAUDE NICOLAS LEDOUX

1736-1806 -18th CENTURY (PART 3 )

TOA-2
ARCHITECTURAL THEORIST NO.8
6 B TOSA
BY: Ar.NIDHI JOSHI

LEDOUX :INTRODUCTION
BORN : 21 March 1736, Dormans near the river
Marne, France
DIED: 18 November 1806 , Paris ,France.
OCCUPATION: French Architect
He was one of the earliest exponents of French
Neoclassical architecture.
He used his knowledge of architectural theory to
design not only domestic architecture but also town
planning; as a consequence of his visionary plan for
the Ideal City of Chaux, (pronoun:shoe) he became
known as autopian.
Ledouxs greatest works were funded by the French
monarchy and came to be perceived as symbols of the
Ancien Rgimerather than Utopia.
This French architect was one of the most advanced
builders of the 18th Century .
He was one of the representatives of the architectural

FYI :
Ancien Regime. This term, which
is French for 'old order,' is often
used to describe the structures,
politics, and powers of French
society before the French
Revolution.
French society in the Ancien
Regime was divided into a

LEDOUX :BIOGRAPHY
1. Ledoux was the son of a modest merchant fromChampagne.( PR shm-pn)
2.

At an early age his mother, Francoise Domino,( PR f r -ah -n -s w -ah z) and godmother,
Francoise Piloy, encouraged him to develop his drawing skills.

3. Later the Abbey of Sassenage ( PR sas-a-nagh) funded his studies in Paris (17491753) age
13 to 17 at theCollge de Beauvais,( PR bu-way) where he followed a course in Classics.
4. On leaving the Collge, at age 17, he took employment as an engraver and made his living
by selling his battle scenes.
5.

Four years later he began to study architecture at the private cole des Arts collge
under the tutelage ofJacques-Franois Blondel, for whom he maintained a lifelong respect.

6. He completed his professional training in the atelier of Louis-Franois Trouard (1729

1794).
7. Ledoux deftly established his career through contacts among alumni of thecollge,the
architects and amateurs affiliated with Blondel's school, and a circle of musicians and artists
at Versaillesthat opened to him in 1764 (age 28) when he married Marie Bureau, the
daughter of an oboist in the court orchestra.
. From the 1760s, these overlapping networks led to a wide range of challenging and profitable
private and public commissions
. . After having been rejected by the Royal Academy of Architecture in 1767 as second class
member, he was finally accepted in 1773 and given the designation, as all such members
were, Architecte du Roi.
1. His royalist associations, however, led to his professional ruin and imprisonment (17931795)
during theFrench Revolution.

LEDOUX : INFLUENCE AND STYLE

1. Ledoux shared the interest in Greco-Roman architecture that constitutes a defining
attribute of neoclassicism, but his formal sources and theoretical intentions went beyond
the revival of antiquity.
2. His teacher, Blondel, instilled an enduring appreciation for the grandeur and
compositional logic in the buildings of Franois Mansart (French Architect15981666) and a
conviction that architects must infuse their designs with an expressive character
appropriate to their purpose.
3.

Ledoux pursued this attitude by exploring typology and the ways by which architecture
can convey meaning.

4. His investigations into the fundamental characteristics of building types paralleled the
classificatory efforts of scientists, such as Georges-Louis Leclerc Comte de Buffon (French
naturalist, mathematician, cosmologist, and encyclopedic author. 17071788).
5. His study of meaning engaged him with contemporary theories of perception, including
Edmund Burke's (Irish statesman born in Dublin, as well as an author, orator, political theorist and philosopher
who, after moving to London, served as a Member of Parliament (MP) for many years in the House of Commons
with the Whig Party. 17291797) writings on the sublime.

6.

Ledoux's formal language was informed by a lifelong interest in three-dimensional

geometry and also by the compositional vocabulary of Andrea Palladio (15081580),
which he learned through study of Palladio'sFour Books on Architecture(1570) and
English neo-Palladian architecture. ( Ledoux never travelled to Italy)

7. Ledoux, like many other architects of his generation, was strongly influenced by the view
of antiquity of the Italian engraver Giovanni Battista Piranesi, which was essentially a
romantic one strongly tinged with elements of fantasy.
8.

It was in large measure from Piranesi that Ledoux's fondness for the dramatic derived, as seen in
the grandiose scale of many of his compositions and the forceful massiveness of his
simple architectural forms.

LEDOUX : EARLY WORK (17621770)

1. CAF MILITAIRE-1762
1. In 1762, when Ledoux was a 26 year old he designed thesalle de caf,of the Caf
Godeau on rue St Honor.
2. Known as the Caf Militaire for its clientele of officers, its ancient Roman-inspired interior
aptly boasted panels with heavily carved trophies.
3. These were topped by plumed helmets, each referring to a different hero of antiquity, as did
the trophies.
4. The panels, set against mirror with its endless reflections, appeared to stand out in the open,
an impromptu Roman officers camp.
5. His imaginative woodwork at the caf brought him to the notice of society, and he soon
became a fashionable architect.

LEDOUX : EARLY WORK (17621770)

In the 1760s and early 70s he designed many private houses in

an innovative Neoclassical style for the higher social circles
inFrance.

LEDOUX : EARLY WORK (17621770)

2. CHATEAU OF MAUPERTUIS-1763

1. The following year in 1763,the Marquis de Montesquiou-Fzensac commissioned

Ledoux to redesign the old hilltop chteau on his estate atMauperthuis.
2. Ledoux rebuilt the chteau and created new gardens, replete with fountains
supplied by anaqueduct.
3. The Chateau of Maupertuis consisted of a central pile with loosely connected
pavilions
4. Various features distinguished it from Baroque works: the cylindrical belvedere
contrasted with the triangular pediment, the almost frameless windows,
and the undifferentiated row of arcades on the ground floor.

LEDOUX : EARLY WORK (17621770)

2. CHATEAU OF MAUPERTUIS-1763

6. Ledoux planned to add to the castle two very curious outbuildings, which it is
doubtful that a patron would have considered. The Pheasantry and the shelter for the
rural Guards.
7. The Pheasantry, was designed on the plan of a Greek Cross (fig. 65).In the center,it
is crowned with a hemispheric cupola above a massive drum; the cross-arms are
prisms with bare walls and Venetian doors.

LEDOUX : EARLY WORK (17621770)

2. CHATEAU OF MAUPERTUIS.
8. The Shelter for the Rural Guards (Maison des gardes agricoles) is one of the architect's
most daring inventions (fig. 64 ).
9. He worked out the designs for this Shelter methodically in perspective, plan, and section.
10. It was to have been a complete sphere set in a sunken basin, accessible by four
bridges. The ground floor was to contain stables and green-houses; the main floor
bedrooms' with the kitchen in the center; the top floor, storage rooms.
11.In the Shelter, Ledoux shows an extreme instance of pure geometry.

LEDOUX : EARLY WORK (17621770)

3. HOCQUART HOUSE-1764
1. In 1764, he designed for Prsident Hocquart, a Palladian house on theChausse
d'Antinusing thecolossal order.
2. The House of President Hocquart was a cube erected on a nine-partite square (fig.
70). The center was occupied by the very high circular dining room. On the outside the
low dome above the dining room was contrasted to the cubic mass; fourcolumned pedimented porticoes were loosely appended to the fronts.
3. Ledoux would frequently employ this motif that was condemned by the strict French
tradition, which embraced the principle of superimposing the classic column motifs on
each floor, rising from simplest to the most complex:Tuscan,Doric,Ionic,Corinthian, etc

LEDOUX : EARLY WORK (17621770)

WORKS WHEN AT THE WATER AND FORESTRY DEPARTMENT-1764-1770

1. On 26 July 1764, in theSaint-EustacheChurch, Paris, Ledoux married Marie Bureau, the

daughter of a court musician.
2.

A friend from Champagne, Joseph Marin Masson de Courcelles, found him a position as the
architect for the Water and Forestry Department.

3.

Here between 1764 and 1770 he worked on the renovation and designs of
churches, bridges, wells, fountains and schools, inTonnerrois,SnonaisandBassigny.

4. Among the still extant works from this period are the bridge ofMarac, the Prgibert bridge in
Rolampont, the churches ofFouvent-le-Haut,Roche-et-Raucourt, Rolampont, thenave and
portal ofCruzy-le-Chtel, and thequireofSaint-Etienne d'Auxerre.
5. This experience sparked an interest in the economics, social organization, and architecture of
rural life and brought him into contact with physiocratic reformers.
Physiocracy (from the Greek for "Government of Nature") is an economic theory developed by a group of
18th century Enlightenment French economists who believed that the wealth of nations was derived solely
from the value of "land agriculture" or "land development" and that agricultural products should be highly
priced.

LEDOUX : EARLY WORK (17621770)

WORKS WHEN AT THE WATER AND FORESTRY DEPARTMENT-1764-1770

The Prgibert bridge inRolampont

LEDOUX : EARLY WORK (17621770)

4. HTEL D HALLWYLL -1776

1. In 1766 Ledoux began designing the Htel d'Hallwyll (Le Marais, Paris), a building that,
according to the architectJacques Cellerier, received widespread praise and
attracted new patrons to the architect.
2. The owner Franz-Joseph d'Hallwyll (a Swiss colonel) and his wife, Marie-Thrse
Demidorge, were anxious to ensure work was executed economically. Therefore, Ledoux
had to reuse portions of the existing buildings, the former Htel de Bouligneux.
3. He had envisaged twocolonnadesin theDoric orderleading to anymphaeum decorated
with urns at the foot of the garden. However, the limitations of the site made this
impossible, so Ledoux resorted totrompe l'oeilpainting a colonnade on the blind wall of
the neighboring convent, thus extending the perspective.
In fine art, the
termTrompe
l'oeilrefers to the
technique of visual
illusion, whereby the
eye of the viewer is
deceived into thinking
that apaintingis
actually a threedimensional object,
rather than merely a
two-dimensional
representation of it.

Htel d'Hallwyll, Paris, 1766. Elevation of the facade on the rue Michel-le-

LEDOUX : EARLY WORK (17621770)

4. HTEL D HALLWYLL -1776

The upper portion of the hotel is markedly severed from the lower by the
strong cornice;
The receding center is clearly set off from the sides .
The whole seems to disintegrate into single compartments. The rooms are
arranged in the freest manner, their sizes and shapes depending exclusively on
their practical purposes. The c1assicising features, such as the columns flanking
the door, play a minor role in this building.

A new simplicity and clarity has been reached in this house and in Antoine's
Hotel de Fleury, 1768, which belong to the same stylistic phase.

Htel d'Hallwyll, Paris, 1766. Elevation of the facade on the rue Michel-le-

LEDOUX : EARLY WORK (17621770)

5. HTEL D

UZS.

1. The recognition given to the relatively modest Htel d'Hallwyll led to a more prestigious
commission, the Htel d'Uzs, forFranois Emmanuel de Crussolon therue Montmartre.
2. Here too, Ledoux preserved the structure of an earlier building.
3. Its plan was conventional, but contained only rectangular rooms. The house stood
on a narrow, deep plot. From the monumental entrance, praised by a contemporary as "a
wonderful composition," an alley led to the court and the house. The garden front extended
on one side a ' good deal farther than the court front.

LEDOUX : EARLY WORK (17621770)

6. CHTEAU DE BNOUVILLE
1. Ledoux designed theChteau de BnouvilleinCalvados(17681769) for the Marquis de Livry.
2. With its simple, almost severe, facade of four stories, broken by aprostyleportico,
the Chteau de Bnouville, while not one of Ledoux's most inventive plans, is notable for the
unusual placement of the main staircase at the center of the garden facade, a position
normally taken by the main salon.

LEDOUX : WORKS
Ledoux travelled to England in the years 1769-1771. There he became familiar
with thePalladian style of architecture.Palladio, an influential Renaissance
architect, was famous for his Italian villas (e.g., theVilla Rotunda).
From this point Ledoux worked often in the Palladian style, usually
employing a cubic design broken by a prostyle portico which gave an air
of importance even to a small structure.
7.

In this genre, he built, in 1770, ahouse for Marie Madeleine Guimardin the
Chausse d'Antin;

8. Following that commission the house of Mlle Saint-Germain, in theRue SaintLazare,

9.

The house of Attilly in the suburb ofPoissonnire,

10. A house for the poetJean Franois de Saint-LambertinEaubonne,

11.And most notably the Music Pavilion constructed between 1770 and 1771 at the
Chteau de Louveciennesfor the King Louis XV's mistressMadame du Barry,
whose patronage and influence were to be of use to Ledoux in later years

LEDOUX : WORKS
7. House for Marie Madeleine Guimardin the Chausse d'Antin (1770-73)
In 1770 Ledoux erected on the Chaussee d' Antin the "Temple of Terpsichore,"
as a gift of the Marechal deSoubise to the dancer Guimard
Its plan was distinguished by the free asymmetrical disposition of the
rooms.
The upper part of the slightly projecting porch towered high over the
building, like a smaller block superimposed on the main block.

Its most conspicuous feature was the spherical vaulting above the
entablature of the porch. Here the concept of contrasting volume with
mass was unmistakably expressed.

The elliptical theatre added to the house reminds one of the interior of the
Theatre of Besancon.

LEDOUX : WORKS
8. The house of Mlle Saint-Germain,
in theRue Saint-Lazare.
The staircase of the House of Mlle de
St. Germain, on the rue des
Porcherons, 1772 (fig. 71), inserted
between the salon and the porch,
disrupted the continuity of the
rooms.
On the exterior, the tendency
toward cubism had definitely
gained in strength.
The central portion of the front
receded markedly.
The high four-columned porch
projecting from the recess suggested a
smaller block intruding into the larger
one.
The walls were nude, the windows
unframed, the roof flat.
The house was far more modern than
its age.

LEDOUX : WORKS
10. House for the poetJean Franois de Saint-LambertinEaubonne
Its temple-like elevation is a dull performance of revivalism. No trace of Ledoux'
inventive mind can be found here except, perhaps, in the forceful design of the
open stairs.

LEDOUX : EARLY WORK (17621770)

11. The Music Pavilion constructed between 1770 and 1771 at the
Chteau de Louveciennes
(PR lou-ve-si-yen) for the King Louis XV's mistressMadame du Barry.
The chteau is an approximately cubic construction, of average size and modest
appearance

LEDOUX : LATER WORKS

12. HTEL DE MONTMORENCY
His reputation established, Ledoux commenced a period of yet more ambitious designs.
The Htel de Montmorency ( mont-mor-en-cy) on theChausse d'Antin has a principal faade
in the Ionic order above arusticground floor. Statues of illustrious members of the
Montmorency family decorate the roof. However, the depletion of the Montmorency
fortune meant that Ledoux was required to execute the project with some parsimony.

13. THE GATE OF THE PARE DE BOURNEVILLE

The Gate of the Pare de Bourneville is a further curious instance of Ledoux'

experiments (fig. 105).
Two small circular structures form the bases for tall columns, a central
oblong house bridges the road between them.

LEDOUX : LATER WORKS

Ledoux was interested in the work of the Royal Administrations Department
and at times considered working for them, even though the positions they offered
were often on the borderline between architect and engineer.
Through this interest in civic and municipal architecture and due, in no small part,
to the notorious influence of Madame du Barry, Ledoux was commissioned with
the modernization of theSalines de l'Est(Eastern Saltworks).
The modernization was initiated following the construction of theBurgundy Canal.
In 1771 Ledoux was promoted to Inspector of the saltworks inFranche-Comt, a
title he held until 1790, with the position yielding him an annual salary of 6000
livres.
As early as 1773, the architect of King Louis XVI. commissioned to build the
Royal Saltworks of Arc-et-Senans (PR: Se-nah) in the department Franais du
Doubs.

North entrance of the canal tunnel at Pouilly-en-Auxois

Burgundy Canal near Fulvy

14. THE ROYAL SALTWORKS AT ARC-ET-SENANS (17751778)

INTRODUCTION:

In the 18th century salt was an essential and

valuable commodity.

Salt served as a valuable source of income for the

French king. Salt was then the meaning as the oil
in the present.

Franche-Comt
Region of France

InFranche-Comt, due to subterranean seams of

halite, ( rock salt) salt was extracted from
saline wells by vaporizing in wood-fuelled
furnaces.
InSalins-les-Bainsor inMontmorot, the
saltworks' boilers were built close to the
wells, and the wood was brought from the
adjacent forests.
Contrary to what the French government wanted,
Ledoux placed the salt works near the woods
as opposed to the source of the salt water.
He logically reasoned that it would be easier to
transport water than wood.
Close to the first of these sites, theFermiers
Gnrauxdecided to explore a more mechanized
and efficient method of extraction, by constructing
a purpose-built factory near the forest of Chaux, in
the Val d'Amour.
The saline water was to be brought to the factory
Salins-les-Bains is a commune in the Jura
by a newly constructed canal.

department in the region of Bourgogne-FrancheComt in eastern France

14. THE ROYAL SALTWORKS AT ARC-ET-SENANS (17751778)

1st PROJECT: (PROPOSAL)

Ledoux in his Architecture illustrates two different projects for the Saltworks
The plan of the First Project shows all the houses coherently arranged around
a square court, with bordering alleys forming an outer square ( fig. 136).
Within the court, diagonal corridors serve as additional communications between the
central pavilions.
The pattern of the ground plan is strictly geometrical.
However, the main front is, in all its plainness, basically Baroque (fig. 138).
The two-storied center and pavilions project from the one-storied wings and are
distinguished by quoined angles.
The main entrance is marked by a portico of four large, ringed columns.
The geometrical layout is masked by a conventional front with a dominant
center and subordinated sides.
The practical disposition is as follows: The forefront contains the gateway, flanked by the
apartments of the director and the employees; the left corner pavilion houses the
circular chapel with the altar in its center, that to the right, the bakery.
The wings and the pavilion of the lateral fronts include the homes of the workers.
The rooms destined for the fabrication are located in the rear.
The center of the court is marked by a fountain.

14. THE ROYAL SALTWORKS AT ARC-ET-SENANS (17751778)

14. THE ROYAL SALTWORKS AT ARC-ET-SENANS (17751778)

14. THE ROYAL SALTWORKS AT ARC-ET-SENANS (17751778)

The first plan was not satisfactory.

Ledoux then made a Second Project, adding to the apartments and the workshops
a number of buildings for common use, and fundamentally changing the general
form

THE ROYAL SALTWORKS AT ARC-ET-SENANS (17751778)

The design, which received royal
approval, of theRoyal Saltworks at Arc-etSenans, orSalines 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.
The entire system was regarded as a
model system and is an ensemble of
eleven buildings that stand in a
semicircle to each other.
Thus, they form an integrated
operation ,a working class
neighborhood and a fantastic
building for the Directorate.
The house of the director rises in the
center of the whole.
On either side it is flanked by the
factories; behind it the coach house has
its place.
In front, where the major diameter
intersects the ellipse, is the portico,
inserted between the houses of the
workers and employees.

THE ROYAL SALTWORKS AT ARC-ET-SENANS (17751778)

THE ROYAL SALTWORKS AT ARC-ET-SENANS (17751778)

THE ROYAL SALTWORKS AT ARC-ET-SENANS (17751778)

THE ROYAL SALTWORKS AT ARC-ET-SENANS (17751778)

THE ROYAL SALTWORKS AT ARC-ET-SENANS (17751778)

THE ROYAL SALTWORKS AT ARC-ET-SENANS (17751778)

Entrance is through a massiveDoricportico, inspired by the temples atPaestum.
The alliance of the columns is an archetypal motif of neoclassicism.

THE ROYAL SALTWORKS AT ARC-ET-SENANS-ENTRANCE

The entrance was to house the room of the guards, the prison, and the
bakery.
With all the traditional apparatus of columns, entablature, etc., the porch of the
Gateway has a character of its own.
Its block like mass emerges from lower wings, its back wall is shaped as a grotto in
unhewn rock.
Thus three non-homogeneous elements are combined: classical features,
pseudo-natural Romantic finishing, and the new cubism.

THE ROYAL SALTWORKS AT ARC-ET-SENANS-ENTRANCE

THE ROYAL SALTWORKS AT ARC-ET-SENANS (17751778)

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 asJean-Jacques Rousseau.

THE ROYAL SALTWORKS AT ARC-ET-SENANS (17751778)

The entrance building opens into a vast semicircular open air space that is
surrounded by eleven buildings, which are arranged on the arc of a semicircle.

THE ROYAL SALTWORKS AT ARC-ET-SENANS (17751778)

In the intermingling of disparate traits a certain picturesqueness results ,which in
itself is a momentous symptom of the longing for freedom from the rules.
Impressive instances of picturesque architecture are the Factory flanking the House
of the Director and ( fig.139) particularly the lateral fronts to the entrance of the
Furnaces ( Salle des bosses) ( fig. 142).

THE ROYAL SALTWORKS AT ARC-ET-SENANS (17751778)

This entrance consists of a sturdy, squat lower portion and a disproportionately high
triangular, sloping roof.
The latter opens in three Venetian windows, which in liveliness form an effective
contrast to the surface behind them.
There is, moreover, on the walls of the ground floor, the dramatic contrast of
smooth ashlar, the rustication of the quoins, and the framing of the doors.
The vigorous exploitation of the material is an outstanding characteristic of all the
structures erected at Arc-etSenans

THE ROYAL SALTWORKS AT ARC-ET-SENANS (17751778)

Blondel, in his earlier years, had maintained that "matter does not count."
His pupil Ledoux holds that the material should be emphasized.

Side by- side with this modern tendency appears the Romantic trendArchitecture parlante in the urns seemingly pouring forth the precious fluid, to
tell us of the saline, the source of the city's wealth

THE ROYAL SALTWORKS AT ARC-ET-SENANS (17751778)

At the centre is the house of the director which originally also contained a chapel.

THE ROYAL SALTWORKS AT ARC-ET-SENANS (17751778)

the house of the director

THE ROYAL SALTWORKS AT ARC-ET-SENANS (17751778)

the house of the director with the factories at either sides

THE ROYAL SALTWORKS AT ARC-ET-SENANS (17751778)

the house of the director with the factories at either sides

THE ROYAL SALTWORKS AT ARC-ET-SENANS (17751778)

Columns of the house of the
director.
The circular shafts are
pierced by squares -

THE ROYAL SALTWORKS AT ARC-ET-SENANS (17751778)

the house of the director as proposed. Had a colonnade at the sides as well. Not
built due to ceconomical reasons

ARC-ET-SENANS DESIGN THEORY

At Arc-et-Senans, the single units are aesthetically independent; each building-the
director's house, the saltworks, the houses of the employees-might stand alone.
Ledoux wanted both practical isolation and formal independence.

Afraid that this might result in harshness or abruptness, he thinks of the simple device
which Boullee applied: trees or shrubs make the whole more pleasant.

Contrary to other Utopian cities, Chaux was conceived for an actual site.

Ledoux' aim was not for pictorial effect by blending architecture with nature. Neither was
he strictly utilitarian.

He wanted to combine his new formal ideal with the new ideal of the gardencity.

To sum up, the first project is still a complex derived from the basic concept of Baroque
building, which may be defined as follows: One part is to rule over the others and form
with them an indivisible whole.
The concept which underlies the second project was to become law in the future: Let the
elements be free and of equal right. The momentous years which advanced the
freedom of the individual brought freedom to the architectural elements as well.
The second project foreshadows the nineteenth century also in that it combines
traditional features with a new composition.
Though disguised by garments borrowed from the past, the architectural whole already
conforms to a new formal ideal.
In the second project of Chaux(ideal city ) he abandoned the principle of the differentiation
of the buildings according to their rank at the moment when the ideal of social hierarchy
vanished

ARC-ET-SENANS : IMPLICATIONS ON AN ARCHITECTS ROLE

Ledoux did not want civic art to be strictly utilitarian, he did not want the city to be
simply an agglomeration of houses; he wanted it to be the crown of all architectural
endeavors.
The buildings of practical purpose are to be dealt with first, since from them grew the
project of the Ideal City.
It is significant and symptomatic that an architect who was a member of the Royal
Academy and a favorite of the upper circles of society devoted himself to utilitarian
projects.

The changed attitude towards the architect's function was a revolution in itself.

It was to widen the field of the architect's activities to an extent never heard of before.

No longer did designs of an humble structure lower the architect's prestige. Now it
depends on him to ennoble his lowertask:

The utilitarian building received full attention, for life and all its activities in
the growing modern city were now to center around the worker.

ARC-ET-SENANS ENDING PHASE

The salt works entered a painful phase of industrial production and marginal
profit, because of competition with the salt-water marshes.
After some not very profitable trials, it closed indefinitely in 1790 during the
national instability caused by theFrench Revolution.
Thus the dream of success for a factory, conceived at the same time as a royal
residence and a new city, ended.
For a brief period in the 1920s the salt works were reused but eventually closed
due to competition.
For the following decades, the salt works lay in decay until they were named a
UNESCO world heritage site and refurbished as a local cultural center.
Ledouxs master plan and architectural designs systematically
addressed the technical, social, and symbolic dimensions of this
important industry.

THE IDEAL CITY

THE IDEAL CITY

UTOPIANISM-IDEAL CITY

Around the time of the royal saltworks, Ledoux formalized his innovative design
ideas for an urbanism and an architecture intended to improve society, of a
Cit idale (ideal city )charged with symbols and meanings.
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 thePanopticonof
Jeremy Bentham
Along withtienne-Louis Boulleand his project for the Cenotaph of Newton, he is
considered a precursor to the utopians who would follow.
Boulle and Ledoux were a specific influence on subsequent Greek Revival
architects .
After 1775 he presentedTurgotwith the first sketches of the town of Chaux,
centered on the royal saltworks. The project, constantly perfected but never
executed, was engraved beginning in 1780.
The engravings, announced in 1784 and probably all designed by 1799, were
finally published in 1804, as part of the first edition of hisL'Architecture considere.
As a radical utopian of architecture, teaching at thecole des Beaux-Arts, he
created a singulararchitectonic order, a new column formed of alternating
cylindrical and cubic stones superimposed for their plastic effect.
In this period, taste was returning to the antique, to the distinction and the
examination, of the taste for the "rustic" style.

THE IDEAL CITY

The concept of the ideal city goes back to thoughts of contemporary philosophers
and social reformers on the positive effects of the toiling work.
Accordingly, the plotting of these projects saw the foundation of workplaces and
residential buildings in one place. Here too, a garden was considered for self
management. The thought of the ideal town reaching to the provision of clothing.
The revolutionary architecture Ledoux was associated with a `monumental
geometric compositions, as the example of the plant in Saline of Arc-et-Senans
and the ideal city of Chaux revealed.
From the year 1780 plotted Ledoux 60 customs houses on the outskirts of Paris.

Here, too, he realized his basic geometric shapes.

Ledoux notions of the ideal architecture culminated in the architecture parlante,

with the house by a waterway shall flow a waterway and the house of a tire maker
would then have the same shape as the manufactured goods which it
manufactures.

Although in his architecture Ledoux for the social and human needs of the users
were in the foreground, he fell into disfavor during the French Revolution, because
he had realized for the nobility and the royal family orders.

THE COOPERY

One of the most striking instances of

Ledoux' artistic intentions is the Coopery
( Atelier des cercles ) ( fig.171) . It is a
plain cube, the four fronts of which are
formed by gigantic concentric circles
inscribed in framing squares .
After having met the functionalist Ledoux,
we find him here an extremist of
geometrical formalism.
The Coopery may be interpreted as a
document of a new formalism, as well as an
outstanding instance of " Narrative
architecture.
Ledoux did not content himself with the
simple apposition of shallow symbols, like
the many who put lyres on the walls of a
theatre, or Mercury's caduceus on a
commercial building.
Eventually we find him applying fasces to
one of his stern cubes .

But in the Coopery he goes beyond the

literary signboard symbolism and
transforms this entire building into a
fantastic pattern representative of its
purpose, which he himself finds pregnant
with meaning

THE HOUSE O F THE SURVEYORS -1780

THE HOUSE O F THE SURVEYORS

The House o f the Surveyors o f

the River (Maison des directeurs
de la Loue) consists of a low
prismatic block with open
stairs on each side, and a
superimposed horizontal
semi-cylinder (fig . 198).
Ledoux makes the river pass
through the building so that the
mighty vaulting is set astride the
rushing waters .
The composition may, of
course, be interpreted as
architecture parlante, as the
symbol of human rule over
nature .
Man's mastery of the flood is
visualized so vividly that one
might easily suppose some
present-day expressionist had
devised it for a hydraulic power
plant.
However, now familiar with the
architect's inclination to
dramatize form, we understand

THE HOUSE O F THE SURVEYORS

The house is full of contrasts : the

vaulting versus the stepped substructure;
the void of the tunnel versus the massive
masonry; the rigid edges versus the
gushing waters .
There is tension between the tiny
apertures and the large lower ones .
There is reverberation of the double
outline of the semi-cylinder and the
curves over which the cataract falls . The
open stairs, ascending in opposite
directions, enact a drama for
themselves .
It would prove but little understanding of
architecture as an art, to ridicule this
design because of its practical defects :
the disturbance caused by the rushing
water and the inadequacy of the small
upper windows . It is among those
inventions which have a higher purpose
than satisfying the miserable lower
necessities of life .

We must look at it as a "great

picture," and as the reflection of an
outstanding period in an
outstanding mind .

I t tells o f the desire for innovation and

for a new order of the elements; of the

GUN

FOUNDRY

When asked to render plans for furnaces for a gun foundry, Ledoux drew them as
pyramids.

GUN

FOUNDRY

The gun foundry, has a system of independent pavilions.

the main accent has been shifted from the center to the pyramids in the
corners
It is characteristic of the Foundry that the single elements do not form into
pictorial ensembles, contrary to the Baroque complexes where the parts of the
house, foreground and background, building and nature, are blended into a whole.
No longer is the center the "heart" from which all"circulation" goes out
and to which it returns; it is merely the crossing-point of the main axes.

THEATER AT BESANON

In 1784 Ledoux was the architect selected to design a theatre atBesanon,

Franche-Comt.
The exterior of the building was designed as a severe Palladian cube, adorned
only by an almostGrecianneoclassical portico of sixIoniccolumns.
Ledoux planned the sloping roof to be concealed by a parapet, for the northern
climate did not allow for a flat roof, which he would have preferred.

THEATER AT BESANON

THEATER AT BESANON
However, if the neoclassical hints to the exterior was regarded as modern then the interior was a
revolution venues for public entertainment were rare in the French provinces,and where they did
exist it was traditional that only the nobles had seating, while those of less exulted rank had stood.
Ledoux, realizing this was not only inconvenient but elitist planned the theatre at Besanon on
more egalitarian lines with seating for all but in some quarters such a plan was seen as radical if
not revolutionary, the aristocracy had no wish to be seated alongside commoners.

However Ledoux found an ally in theIntendantof Franche-Comt,Charles Andr de la Cor, an

enlightened man, he consented to follow this reforming plan.

Even so, it was decided that the social classes would still be segregated thus the theatre was the
first to have a ground floor amphi-theatre furnished with seats for the ordinary paying public.

Above them was a raised terrace or balcony for state employers.

Directly above was the first tier of boxes reserved for the aristocracy, and above this a tier of
smaller boxes occupied by the middle-class the second.

Thus Ledoux achieved his ambition that the theatre could at the same time be a place of social
communion and shared entertainment while still maintaining a strict hierarchy of the classes.
The three semicircular tiers of seats (Ledoux abolished boxes) recede as they rise until they reach
the theatre's most monumental feature, the curving colonnade (Doric, without bases) supporting a
frieze. Never before had classical architecture been adapted so inventively and logically to the
requirements of a large modern theatre.
The seating was not the only innovation at the theatre. With the aid of the machinist Dart de
BoscoLedoux expanded the wings and back stage scenery apparatus, giving it greater depth than
was customary, and many other modern improvements.

Besanon was the first theatre to screen the musicians in an orchestra pit.

The building was widely acclaimed on its opening in 1784

THEATER AT BESANON

THEATER AT BESANON

THEATER AT BESANON

One of his engravings, presenting the audience mirrored in a big eyeball, reveals
his propensity for the unusual (fig. 84).

THEATER AT BESANON

PUBLICATION

With the onset of the French Revolution, Ledoux was accused of being a royalist
sympathizer; his popularity suddenly waned, and he was forced into permanent
retirement.

He turned to architectural theory, and for the remainder of his life he

concentrated on principles which he hoped would lead to the building of an ideal
city. Ledoux played with the thought of an ideal city as a life and home of the
virtuous, which makes the architecture of the amicable coexistence with other
human beings and nature

His high-flown, imaginative, and essentially romantic ideas appeared

inL'Architecture considre sous le rapport de l'art, des moeurs et de la
lgislation(1807). Architecture considered in relation to art, morals, and
legislation].
In this book he took the opportunity of revising his earlier designs, making them
more rigorously neoclassical and up to date.
This revision has distorted an accurate assessment of his role in the evolution of
Neoclassical architecture

BARRIERES OR TOLL HOUSES

INTRODUCTION :
Ledouxs most important public project in the last phase of his career was to
design 60 tollhouses situated at the city gates of Paris.
He turned what might have been modest customs offices into a series of
monumental gates and other structures called the Portes de Paris.
In thebarriresLedoux took his interest in squat, colossal geometric forms to its
furthest extent, fashioning rotundas, Greek temples, porticoes, and vaulted apses
with rusticated masonry and Doric and Tuscan columns.
The barriers are of the greatest variety in plan and elevation but uniformly
massive and overlaid with Doric or Tuscan orders of heavily rusticated columns.
The cost of these buildings proved ruinous to the public treasury, however, and he
was dismissed from his project in 1789.
Many of thebarrireswere subsequently torn down by mobs of resentful
taxpayers during the Revolution.

BARRIERES OR TOLL HOUSES

When the Ferme Generale asked Ledoux in 1784 to erect the tollhouses around
the capital, he gave the fullest proof of his inventiveness, not restricting
himself to a uniform scheme, but shaping each tollhouse in a different
and peculiar way ( figs.1 13, 120, 129) .

TOLL HOUSES

TOLL HOUSES

BARRIERES OR TOLL HOUSES

Some of these projects were too bold to be acceptable to the patrons.

While working on the tollhouses, which though commonly known as barrieres, were called
Propylaea of Paris by Ledoux, he planned also several inns (guinguettes) .
In 1787 the work done by him was considered too expensive and too extravagant.

Public opinion was so aroused-"Le mur murant Paris rend Paris murmurant" -that the
commission was taken from him two years later.
The barrieres were badly damaged in the Revolution (fig.1 28 ) .
A few years after their mutilation, the French National Convention decided that these relics of
the monarchy"des pierres ... entassees par la tyrannie"-be transformed into memorials to
honor the revolutionary victories and preserved as " monuments publics."
Most of the barrieres were finally destroyed in 1859.

BARRIERES OR TOLL HOUSES

Today, only four are still extant :
1. The almost unaltered B arriere du Trone ( or, deVincennes ) , place de la
Nation ;
2.

The Barriere d'Enfer,terminating the Route d'Orleans ;

3.

The Barriere de Saint-Martin ( or, Rotunda de la Villette ) , powerful still in

its deterioration, and

4.

The small Rotunda in the Parc de Monceau, also called B arriere de Chartres
which up to recent times was in a shameful state of degradation, and thus a
witness to how little Ledoux was thought of in his country.

1.B ARRIERE DU TRONE ( OR,

DEVINCENNES )

TOLL HOUSES- 2.THE BARRIERE D'ENFER

TOLL HOUSES- 3. BARRIERE DE SAINT-MARTIN

TOLL HOUSES -4.

ROTUNDA IN THE PARC DE MONCEAU,

ALSO CALLED B ARRIERE DE CHARTRES

Instances of interpenetrating masses are the Rotunda of Monceaux, and

the tollhouses of Reuilly.
Their cylindrical bodies emerge from circular colonnades so that a
telescopic effect results

BARRIERES OR TOLL HOUSES

Some barriers (tollhouses ) are reminiscent of the
Renaissance. (Barriere de la CroixBlanche,* and the
similar " Proj ect V , " )
Nearly all are made up of classical features. (the
Barriere de Courcelles)
Even those few barrieres where Ledoux rather strictly
follows ancient models deviate from the cliche in
characteristic details.
Ledoux seemed particularly fond of ringed columns
which he used in many toll houses. Yet there is a
considerable difference between the Renaissance
columns and those of Ledoux.(Ex: Barriere de chartres
)
Serlio's stone bands look as if they were of flexible
matter. They tie the columns to the wall, as his plates
show.
Vignola, too, joined similar columns to the wall, while
Ledoux' square drums virtually tare the shafts apart,
without establishing any connection with the wall.
Eventually he presented twin columns held together
by broad bands. (Ex: Barriere du la rue Royale)
Sometimes he created a vigorous pattern by
duplicating the outline of the pediments ( Barriere des
V ertus de I'Observation,or Paillassons; des
Fourneaux or Voierie)

The proj ect of the Barriere de Courcelles

( rue de Chartres ) , is distinguished by the
application of doors and small double stairs to the
side fronts which, though perhaps conditioned by
practical considerations, impair the solemnity of
the
Greek temple scheme, dependent largely on the
emphasis of the longitudinal axis . F o r this main
axis, leading from the portal to the sanctuary,
terminated the processional road.

BARRIERES OR TOLL HOUSES

win columns held together by broad bands

vigorous pattern by duplicating

the outline of the pediments

BARRIERES OR TOLL HOUSES

Often he inserts a heavy keystone in the tympanum.
Vanbrugh and Hawksmoor had already dramatized doors and
windows by oversized keystones.
But we should not infer that Ledoux copied them. It was the same
spirit of revolt against tradition that inspired all progressive
architects in the Age of Reason.
Those gigantic keystones were no longer willing merely to perform
their humble tasks; they asserted themselves in the boldest way.
To Ledoux the Palladian motif no longer meant what it had meant
to Renaissance and Baroque architects; the expression of perfect
gradation and concatenation; the symbol of the integral whole
formed by the ruling central part and the subservient sides.

Ledoux frequently changed the dynamics or the rhythms of the

motif. In some cases he made the central arch protrude into the
pediment. (de la Pompe de Chaillot )

In others he inserted three higher arches between the low

rectangular sides ( Barriere de Charoune) or even five.((F
ontainebleau)
This means that he proceeded from the well balanced rhythm of
the Palladian motif to a pattern in which equivalence was more
important than gradation.
A forceful variation of the motif presents twin columns between
the arches. (Belleville; Menilmontant; Enfer; Bord de l'Eeau,or
Cunette) .
All these transformations of traditional features reflect the unrest
that had come over architecture.

De la Pompe de Chaillot

BARRIERES OR TOLL HOUSES

The Barriere de la Sante is composed of elementary geometrical shapes (fig. 119) .
From the prismatic podium a tall cubic tower rises, with three tiny apertures high up on each
side, finished by a boldly projecting cornice. capped by a hemisphere; the four crossarms
projecting from the tower are covered with heavy barrel vaults.
This project fascinates even twentieth-century observers, accustomed to monumental
simplicity and bold contrasts

The double program of dramatized composition and exaltation of the material

underlies most of the barrieres, and most of Ledoux' entire work

CONCLUSION

In his search for new spatial solutions, Ledoux became the true precursor of the
twentieth century.
In ever varying attempts he wanted to present buildings:as aggregates of
interpenetrating masses; or as crossings of volume and mass; or as piles of
stepped off units (motif of contrasted sizes) ; or as assemblages of incongruous
elements (motif of contrasted shapes).
The pattern of interpenetrating masses appears in many variations in Ledoux'
works, beginning in feeble essays and ending in forceful; outspoken solutions.
We may recall that this was one of the modern patterns which Blondel had
condemned so explicitly.
Today, glass construction permits the concept of volume versus mass to be
presented far better than was possible in former times. Let us not fail to observe
that this artistic ideal preceded the technical potential, just as eighteenth-century
cubism preceded the era of concrete.
Ledoux was the most prolific, productive, and original architect of late 18thcentury France. The powerful and brilliantly simplified geometry of his buildings
held little appeal for the following generations, however, and wholesale
demolitions and vandalism during the 19th century left only a handful of his
works still standing.
Among them is his saltworks at Arc-et-Senans, whichUNESCOdesignated a
World Heritage sitein 1982.