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Dan Turkel! Reading Response #2! ! Intro to Architecture Laugier Marc-Antoine Laugier’s thesis in An Essay on Architecture is that there is objective beauty and lack thereof in architecture and that in architecture, as in all things, “there is only one way of doing it well” (Laugier, 3). The success of a work of architecture is inherent and not to be seen as varied with the opinion of a viewer—the ability to know whether or not a piece is beautiful is simply a matter of taste-level. Laws have to be set up to define the best routes to create this solidified vision of beauty and Laugier attempts to draft those laws in An Essay. ! Laugier states that the Greeks are to thank for all architectural perfection and that the Romans could do nothing but imitate or change it for the worse. In the same way, he believes there is little that contemporary architects can do but imitate and detract from Greek architecture. Laugier’s most important criterion is adherence to the natural model of a simple shelter. It is natural human nature to create a simple shelter and Greek architecture can be seen as representative of that template: columns represent wooden beams, entablature represents horizontal pieces across them and the pediment represents the sloped roof. “Such is the course of simple nature; by imitating the natural process, art was born” (12). This model is necessary as it is the “cause of beauty” and the only deviations can be by necessity, which allows license to stray from the model, or “parts added by caprice” which “add every fault” (12). ! A striking feature of Laugier’s work is his harsh criticism of well known and highly valued architectural pieces of his time. The logic here is that by critiquing so harshly what others would consider to be so beautiful he “suggest[s] to the public, especially to the artists, that they should doubt, should make conjectures, and should never be easily satisfied” (4). He wants to solidify the guidelines as to which factors, motifs or techniques in a building make it pleasing and which make it distasteful. As a result of this goal, Laugier casts doubt on wellestablished trends and highlights others that are falling by the wayside in an attempt to restore what he believes to be the proper guidelines for architectural beauty. Dan Turkel! Reading Response #2! ! Intro to Architecture Laugier Laugier sets up guidelines for orders where he lists rules to follow and faults to avoid. Faults can be a practice as widespread as the use of pilasters. Laugier is especially vehement about putting columns on pedestals as columns are the legs of a building and pedestals are like stilts that it sits on. While this might seem like nitpicking or pretension, he then segues into something more profound with regard to the fact that the Greeks used pedestals for their columns and even Vitruvius wrote of it. “Any device—even if approved by great men—which is either contrary to nature or cannot be convincingly explained is a bad device and must be proscribed” (21). He goes on to state that things which were in poor taste when they were implemented remain in poor taste even if they become well-precedented and popular. This marks Laugier’s largest departure from typical classicism. Despite how highly he may speak of Greek architecture, it is not that Greeks were infallible and perfect but that they closely followed nature. The Greeks were just as prone to what he felt was poor taste. ! This is only the beginning of how Laugier’s Essay is unlike Leon Battista Alberti’s De Re Aedificatoria. Alberti’s work embodies the Renaissance ideal that classical architecture allows a rebirth of much more than just ancient buildings but culture, philosophy and lifestyle. Laugier simply believes that the Greeks had the right idea in keeping their architecture close to the natural model but does not go so far as to agree with every decision they made and does not think it needs to be expanded on. Alberti and Laugier admire much of the same thing but Laugier cuts out the middle-man of the ancients and admires the natural model directly where Alberti views it through the lens of the ancients. ! There are similarities between Laugier and Alberti. Both feel that the beauty of a building is objective and not in the eye of the beholder. They also both value the model of nature (though Alberti less directly and literally than Laugier). They also both right to guide architects of the future towards the right designs (though Laugier uses more negative reinforcement—pointing out flaws—where Alberti describes what he admires). These surface Dan Turkel! Reading Response #2! Intro to Architecture Laugier similarities mask overt philosophical differences. Ultimately Alberti prioritized form over function; “[t]o have satisfied necessity is trite and insignificant...when the inelegance of a work causes offense,” (Alberti, 156). Architecture had immense social connotations in the Renaissance realm of thought and Alberti was well aware of this. Classical architecture meant the glory and wisdom of the ancient Romans and good taste in a building reflected on and idealized the patron. Laugier feels the form put above function causes ridiculous and absurd side effects. Even when he seems to split hairs over the usage of certain motifs, it is because he feels they do not conform to the natural model of the house of branches or come from unavoidable structural necessity. Laugier can even appreciate beauty in Gothic architecture because he feels that in a Church, Gothic architecture had been better implemented because any classically inspired church ended up feeling heavy where the Gothic ones felt airy, majestic and natural. This is not a concession that Alberti would make. ! Laugier’s ability to critique the ancients and appreciate Gothic style marks that his focus lies much more in the architecture itself than in its social impact and historical connotations. Laugier bases his essay on the idea that architecture should be about beauty from the natural model first and small exceptions from necessity next, and no other allowances. This utilitarian mindset is one that Alberti would surely see as underly-focused on aesthetics and preoccupied with the metaphor of the natural shelter but Laugier seems to genuinely believe—and perhaps it is his downfall—that that which does not represent a piece of that natural model cannot help the building be beautiful. Dan Turkel! Reading Response #2! Intro to Architecture Laugier Works Cited Alberti, Leon B. On the Art of Building in Ten Books. Trans. Joseph Rykwert, Neil Leach, and Robert Tavernor. Cambridge, Mass: MIT. Print. Laugier, Marc-Antoine. An Essay on Architecture. Trans. Wolfgang Herrmann and Anni Herrmann. Los Angeles: Hennessey & Ingalls, 1977. Print.