Construction history of a nineteenth century metropolis, Paris. From urban planning and infrastructure development to innovative architecture in new materials such as iron, glass and concrete.
The participants will acquire an in-depth understanding of 19th century construction history, between neo-classical and classical modernism, from contemporary treatises to preserved monuments, and including modern challenges of preservation.
Paris is the 19th century metropolis par excellence. There is hardly any city with a more abundant architectural, urban and infrastructural development in the 19th century, and hardly anywhere more monuments of his period have been preserved. Furthermore, an outstanding amount of contemporary scientific and architectural discussion has been published which allows us to reconstruct the details of the design and planning processes. The variety of preserved monuments includes late examples of classical French construction highlights such as coupe des pierres architecture like the flat vaults of the Odéon, innovative uses of traditional materials like timber (timber vaults of the neo-classical churches following Saint-Philippe-du-Roule, de l'Orme roofs inspired by the Halle au Blé, etc), experimental iron architecture (roofs of Bourse and Bibliothèque Sainte-Geneviève, iron churches of Saint-Eugène, Saint-Augustin and Notre-Dame-du-Travail), extensive infrastructural developments (Belgrand's water supply and sewer systems) and historistic architecture with hidden technical innovations (Sainte-Trinité, Opéra). All these projects have been discussed extensively in contemporary monographs and journal articles. The lecture will cover all these aspects and provide a general introduction to 19th century construction history, including the echoes of French ideas in neighbouring countries such as Prussia. The lecture will include a seminar week dedicated to the on-site study of surviving monuments (including access to monuments not normally open to the public).