Compare and contrast the methods developed and employed by Viollet le Duc, Ruskin, and Semper in their search to establish a new architecture for the 19th c. Your answer should highlight the outcomes or principle theories that resulted. ( Tip: Encyclopedia, Seven Lamps or Virtues, and Mathematical formulation of style).

Compare and contrast the methods developed and employed by Viollet le Duc, Ruskin, and Semper in their search to establish a new architecture for the 19th c. Your answer should highlight the outcomes or principle theories that resulted. ( Tip: Encyclopedia, Seven Lamps or Virtues, and Mathematical formulation of style).

                  The common factor between Viollet-le-Duc, Ruskin, and Semper is their interest in gothic revival architecture and that they were all three social reformers. First, lets break down these three architects beliefs on Gothic architecture. Semper designed works at all scales, from a baton for Richard Wagner to major urban interventions. Ruskin loved Gothic, but hated iron. And finally, Semper, who loved tectonics, but hated Gothic and iron. Semper wrote extensively about the origins of architecture, especially in his book The Four Elements of Architecture from 1851, and he was one of the major figures in the controversy surrounding the polychrome architectural style of ancient Greece. Viollet le Duc loved Gothic and iron. He was a French architect and theorist, famous for his interpretive "restorations" of medieval buildings. Born in Paris, he was a major Gothic Revival architect. He was the architect hired to design the internal structure of the Statue of Liberty.

                 

                  Semper did not see the necessity of technological innovations and did not incorporate iron in his architectural theory. Later architects disagreed with this notion and said he should incorporate these ideas, especially in his larger scale applications for load-bearing structural purposes. Some people’s opinions were that he lacked an appreciation for the Gothic style architecture and that he did not appreciate Gothic’s shift of ornament to structure. Semper’s theories revolves around his four categories of the built form (hearth, substructure, the roof, and the enclosure). To Semper all architecture contains these aspects in some way.

                 

                  Ruskin’s masterpiece is The Seven Lamps of Architecture, which are the Lamp of Sacrifice, of Truth, of Power, of Beauty, of Life, of Obedience, and of Memory. Ruskin was very adamant about honesty in architecture, he wrote “Do not let us lie at all” this meaning that materials needed to stay true to their nature. Arguing against painting faux finishes and building faux supports, Ruskin also despised the use of machine made ornamentation. He believed in the spirit of the carver and that the craftsmanship is what makes a building. Although later he states that “The dishonesty of the machine would cease, as soon as it became universally practiced, of which universality there seems every likelihood in these days.” He is essentially stating that once something becomes commonplace it is no longer dishonest. Ruskin was criticized for his totally two-dimensional vaults. However, he did view Gothic architecture as a way of life. He says “Imperfection is in some sort essential to all that we know of life. It is the sign of a state of progress and change.” He calls Gothic architecture "changefulness." He talks about "the perpetual variety of every feature of a building," and an "active rigidity; the peculiar energy which gives tension to its movement." These are all quotes from "The Nature of Gothic," a chapter in The Stones of Venice.

                 

                  Viollet le Duc, born in 1814, is very different from Ruskin and is generally seen as a structural rationalist. On the one hand, he saved the Gothic from revivalism. For example, sheer stylistic duplication, but on the other, he removed the flying buttress and replaced it with the iron tension rod.  He was looked to be a 20th-century engineer; he started to diminish all of the Gothic ribs. He reworked the cross vault into a space frame. With Viollet-le-Duc, architecture shifts from a massive state towards a complex state, a mixture of materials and a mixture of elements. It was the true beginning of the modern joint, the joint as a technical problem. Before, the joint was only an architectural problem. Suddenly we have this emergence of the joint and the detail, simply because components are now made in a factory before they arrive at the construction site, where they have to be assembled and jointed. Obviously, Viollet le Duc won the hearts and minds of the modernists, because his view of iron and the Gothic style is an industrialized one. In his encyclopedia, Viollet-le-Duc argues that architecture is about reasoning, that it must be analyzed. He rationalized every aspect of architecture, to him “there is a reason for everything; geometry is paramount and ornament is admitted with nice discretion.” Additionally, he believed that the intelligence of the designer is more important than the craftsmen.

To conclude these three architecture social reformers appreciated the beauty and form of gothic architecture, although their methods are differing. Viollet-le-Duc rationalized all aspects of the architecture. Ruskin believed in the importance of the craftsman. Semper mathematically analyzed the architecture.

Gothic Architecture Structure

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