Labrouste and Ledoux
Logan Thornton
ARCH3110-001
Carla Keyvanian
March 21, 2013
Henri Labrouste and Claude Ledoux were French architects during the 18th and 19th centuries and are pioneers of modern architecture. Henri Labrouste was born in 1801 and was the product of the renowned École des Beaux Arts School of Architecture. He believed that architecture should reflect society, and his work reflects the rationalism and technical aspects of industrial society. His work also embodies the ideals of writer Victor Hugo, who believed that architecture is a form of communication, like literature, and that in the beginning phases of construction it expressed the generalization of society and social commonalities. Claude Ledoux was born in 1736 and was one of the earliest exponents of neoclassical architecture. He gained architectural relevance after marrying the daughter of someone who worked for the royal court and was offered a job for the courts Water and Forestry Department. He was considered a utopian architect and had some very modern ideas about industrial production, urban planning, and territorial intelligence.
Henri Labrouste was one of the first architects to master using iron structure in an aesthetically pleasing way. Iron had already been used in structures like train stations, but never in a formal interior environment, as in a library. One example of his skillful use of iron is in the library, Bibliotheque Ste. Genevieve, where he incorporated past masonry construction practices with iron. He kept the huge arches of past churches, but instead of using heavy stones he used iron trusses for support. With this new design, the exterior walls no longer had to hold all of the forces from the arches, and the iron supports could simply rest on top of the walls. The walls were also modified with the use of iron by essentially applying reinforcement bars encased with plaster to make thinner walls, that had just as much strength as previous thicker walls. Since the new iron arches
ARCH3110-001
Carla Keyvanian
March 21, 2013
Henri Labrouste and Claude Ledoux were French architects during the 18th and 19th centuries and are pioneers of modern architecture. Henri Labrouste was born in 1801 and was the product of the renowned École des Beaux Arts School of Architecture. He believed that architecture should reflect society, and his work reflects the rationalism and technical aspects of industrial society. His work also embodies the ideals of writer Victor Hugo, who believed that architecture is a form of communication, like literature, and that in the beginning phases of construction it expressed the generalization of society and social commonalities. Claude Ledoux was born in 1736 and was one of the earliest exponents of neoclassical architecture. He gained architectural relevance after marrying the daughter of someone who worked for the royal court and was offered a job for the courts Water and Forestry Department. He was considered a utopian architect and had some very modern ideas about industrial production, urban planning, and territorial intelligence.
Henri Labrouste was one of the first architects to master using iron structure in an aesthetically pleasing way. Iron had already been used in structures like train stations, but never in a formal interior environment, as in a library. One example of his skillful use of iron is in the library, Bibliotheque Ste. Genevieve, where he incorporated past masonry construction practices with iron. He kept the huge arches of past churches, but instead of using heavy stones he used iron trusses for support. With this new design, the exterior walls no longer had to hold all of the forces from the arches, and the iron supports could simply rest on top of the walls. The walls were also modified with the use of iron by essentially applying reinforcement bars encased with plaster to make thinner walls, that had just as much strength as previous thicker walls. Since the new iron arches