France

Modern Architectures in History

Jean-Louis Cohen, Christian Hubert

• Publisher: Reaktion Books
• Year: 2016
• Print ISBN:
  9781780233543
• eBook ISBN:
  9781780233949
• Topic: Architecture
• Subtopic: Architecture General

France, arguably more than any other Western nation, played a central role in the emergence and development of modernism across a variety of disciplines, with its architects in particular creating some of the most iconic buildings of the twentieth century. Yet few histories have attempted to grapple with the continuities and breaks in France’s architecture since 1900, particularly against the broader international background. France: Modern Architectures in History is the first book to present a complete narrative of the unfolding of architectural modernity in France, dealing both with the buildings themselves and also the political and critical frameworks surrounding them.

This book is based on more than three decades of research on the architecture and urban design of the francophone world, dealing not only with developments within France itself but also the colonial context and the systems of exchange with other countries including Italy, Germany, Russia and the United States. Jean-Louis Cohen offers a new perspective on ideas, projects and buildings too often considered in a narrow, nationalistic perspective. He also maps France’s architectural and spatial development against its problematic search for national identity, the background of European rivalries and the country’s colonial project.

Authoritatively written and drawing on a wealth of recent research, France: Modern Architectures in History will be of interest to students, professionals and historians of architecture as well as in other fields of study.

References

Introduction

1 Eugène-Emmanuel Viollet-le-Duc and Félix Narjoux, Habitations modernes (Paris, 1874–5).

2 Antoine Compagnon, Five Paradoxes of Modernity [1990] (New York, 1994).

3 Jacques Lucan, Composition, Non-Composition: Architecture and Theory in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries [2009] (Abingdon, 2012).

4 Jean-Louis Cohen, ‘Le culture della modernizzazione: il balletto delle egemonie’, in Dizionario dell’architettura del XX secolo, Immagini e temi, ed. Maria Luisa Scalvini and Fabio Mangone (Rome, 2004), pp. 21–31.

5 Henry-Russell Hitchcock, Modern Architecture: Romanticism and Reintegration (New York, 1929); Sigfried Giedion, Bauen in Frankreich, bauen in Eisen, bauen in Eisenbeton (Leipzig, 1928), trans. as Building in France, Building in Iron, Building in Ferroconcrete (Santa Monica, CA, 1995); Nikolaus Pevsner, Pioneers of the Modern Movement from William Morris to Walter Gropius (London, 1936).

6 Manfredo Tafuri, Progetto e utopia: architettura e sviluppo capitalistico (Bari, 1973), trans. as Architecture and Utopia (Cambridge, MA, 1979); Kenneth Frampton, Modern Architecture: A Critical History (London, 1980).

7 Henri-Marcel Magne, L’Architecture (Paris, 1922).

8 Marie Dormoy, L’Architecture française (Boulogne-Billancourt, 1938); Pierre Lavedan, L’Architecture française (Paris, 1944).

9 Louis Hautecœur, Histoire de l’architecture classique en France, vol. VII: La fin de l’architecture classique, 1848–1900 (Paris, 1957); L’Architecture française (Paris, 1950).

10 Maurice Besset, New French Architecture (New York, 1967). It is interesting to compare this work to Giorgio Piccinato’s short L’architettura contemporanea in Francia (Bologna, 1965).

11 Michel Ragon, Histoire mondiale de l’architecture et de l’urbanisme modernes (Tournai, 1971–8); René Jullian, Histoire de l’architecture en France de 1889 à nos jours (Paris, 1984).

12 Gérard Monnier, Histoire critique de l’architecture en France, 1918–1950 (Paris, 1990); Gérard Monnier, ed., L’Architecture moderne en France, 3 vols (Paris, 1997–2000).

13 François Loyer, Histoire de l’architecture française de la Révolution à nos jours (Paris, 1999).

14 Jacques Lucan, France, architecture, 1965–1988 (Paris, 1989) and Architecture en France, 1940–2000: histoire et théories (Paris, 2001).

15 Christian Freigang, Auguste Perret, die Architekturdebatte und die ‘Konservative Revolution’ in Frankreich, 1900–1930 (Munich, 2003).

16 Paul Ricœur: Memory, History, and Forgetting [2000], trans. Kathleen Blarney and David Pellauer (Chicago, IL, 2004).

17 Jacques Le Goff and Pierre Nora, Constructing the Past [1984] (Cambridge, 1985); Carlo Ginzburg, Wooden Eyes: Nine Reflections on Distance (London, 2002).

18 Pierre Nora, ed., Realms of Memory: Rethinking the French Past [1984], 3 vols (New York, 1996).

19 Fernand Braudel, The Identity of France: History and Environment [1986] (London, 1988); Theodore Zeldin, A History of French Passions, 4 vols (Oxford, 1973–7).

20 This is the same moment I chose in setting out my history of architecture in the twentieth century: The Future of Architecture: Since 1889 (London, 2012).

21 Manfredo Tafuri, Theories and History of Architecture [1968], trans. Giorgio Verrechia (New York, 1980), p. 104.

chapter one From Ironmade Wonders to Storms of Steel, 1889–1918

1 Émile Zola, L’Œuvre (Paris, 1886), pp. 176–7; trans. Ernest Alfred Vizetelly as His Masterpiece, pp. 113–15.

2 Émile Zola, ‘Une enquête sur l’architecture modern’, Revue des arts décoratifs, XVI (1896), p. 95.

3 Joris-Karl Huysmans, ‘Le salon officiel de 1881’, L’Art moderne (Paris, 1883), pp. 244–5. Unless otherwise stated, all translations by Christian Hubert.

4 On the teaching of history, see Simona Talenti, L’Histoire de l’architecture en France: Emergence d’une discipline (1863–1914) (Paris, 2000).

5 Frantz Jourdain, L’Atelier Chantorel (Paris, 1893), pp. 186–7. On Jourdain as a critic, see Marianne Clatin, ‘“Un brin de plume au manche du tire-ligne”: Frantz Jourdain (1847–1935)’, Livraisons d’histoire de l’architecture, V/1 (2003), pp. 37–53.

6 Jourdain, L’Atelier Chantorel, p. 102.

7 Eugène-Emmanuel Viollet-le-Duc, Discourses on Architecture [1863–72], trans. Henry van Brunt (Boston, MA, 1875), p. 511.

8 The dates given in parentheses for projects and buildings correspond as closely as sources permit to the beginning of the design, and where applicable, the completion of construction.

9 Denyse Rodriguez-Tomé, ‘L’Organisation des architectes sous la IIIe République’, Le mouvement social, 204 (2006), pp. 55–76; Jean-Michel Leniaud, Les cathédrales au XIXe siècle (Paris, 1993).

10 Béatrice Bouvier, L’Édition d’architecture à Paris au XIXe siècle: les maisons Bance et Morel et la presse architecturale (Geneva, 2004).

11 Félix Narjoux, Notes de voyage d’un architecte dans le nord-ouest de l’Europe: croquis et descriptions (Paris, 1876); Paul Sédille, L’Architecture moderne en Angleterre (Paris, 1890); Adolphe Bocage, ‘La maison moderne et la situation de l’architecte aux Etats-Unis’, L’Architecture, VII/41 (13 October 1894), pp. 333–40; Jacq...

Table of contents

• Front Cover
• Half Title
• France: Modern architectures in history
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Contents
• Introduction
• one From Ironmade Wonders to Storms of Steel, 1889–1918
• two An Elitist Modernity, 1918–40
• three Social Reform and Modernity, 1918–40
• four War and Reconstruction, 1940–50
• five Languages and Techniques for High Growth, 1950–65
• six State-driven Modernization, 1950–65
• seven Catharsis and Renewal, 1965–81
• eight Public Monuments and Architectural Invention, 1981–2000
• nine Since 2000: the Dissolution of the French Model?
• References
• Bibliography
• Acknowledgements
• Photo Acknowledgements
• Index