Jean-Nicolas-Louis Durand

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Jean-Nicolas-Louis Durand (1800)

Jean-Nicolas-Louis Durand (born September 18, 1760 in Paris , † December 31, 1834 in Thiais ) was a classicist French architect , architectural theorist and professor of architecture.

Live and act

Durand was born in Paris to a shoemaker. He studied at the Académie royale d'architecture and worked as a draftsman for the revolutionary architect Étienne-Louis Boullée from 1776 . In 1779 and 1780 Durand won second prize at the Prix ​​de Rome , and in the years after the French Revolution various prizes in architecture competitions followed, but this did not result in any structural implementation. However, through his competitive successes, he was able to recommend himself for a teaching position. In 1794 he first became a draftsman at the newly founded École polytechnique in Paris, where he was given a chair in architecture from 1795. With a modular system based on a square grid, Durand developed an egalitarian design method for all important building types. He always presented his schematic type drafts, which he summarized in a kind of building catalog, in terms of floor plan, elevation and section. In Durand's imagination, the new architecture he had developed should be built on the same grid for all building tasks. As a purely rational system that has freed itself from artistic whims and architectural decoration, this architecture should be valid for all people, at all times. Durand saw the main goal of architecture in the highest degree of economy and practicality and offered the right solution for every building task. He was particularly interested in public buildings. For example, he developed the rotunda motif as a central element for the museum building type. An approach that finds direct structural implementation in Schinkel's Altem Museum in Berlin (1830).

At the École Polytechnique, Durand trained engineers until 1830 and taught them his typologically ordered, strictly geometric design. With his teaching, Durand advanced to become one of the most important theorists of his time.

Between 1802 and 1805 Durand published his architectural type theory as a textbook under the title “Précis des leçons d'architectures données à l'École Polytechnique” (outline of the lectures on architecture given at the polytechnic school). Through reprints and translations, this publication became one of the most important architectural treatises of the time. Durand succeeded in creating the theoretical basis of a standardized, modular architecture that is assembled from serially manufactured parts.

An important follow-up project to this new approach is the Crystal Palace built from modular prefabricated parts for the 1851 World Exhibition in London by Joseph Paxton .

In Germany, especially classical architects such as Friedrich Weinbrenner , Karl Friedrich Schinkel , Gustav Vorherr and Leo von Klenze were strongly influenced by Durand's design methodology. Gustav Vorherr, like his successor, Leo von Klenze, traveled to Paris to attend lectures at the École Polytechnique Durands. Clemens Wenzeslaus Coudray , who could also be named as the architect of the Weimar Classic , had studied with him.

Aftermath

The design, developed on a geometric grid and completely rationally shaped, was an important reference for the architecture of functionalism of the 1920s in the 20th century. In addition, the "Bauordnungslehre" conceived by Ernst Neufert (1900–1986) in 1936 was influenced by Durand's theories. Architects like Oswald Mathias Ungers (1926–2007) and his “rational architecture” also refer to Durand's teaching.

criticism

The architect Gottfried Semper (1803–1879) described Durand as a “checkerboard chancellor for a lack of ideas”.

The "objectification of the design process" sought by Durand ignores the discussion of a specific place and the "human world of experience".

Quotes

  • "The arrangement is the only purpose of architecture."
  • "Above all, in order to be functional, a building must be durable, clean and comfortable."

Publications

buildings

  • 1788: Maison Lathuille on rue Faubourg-Poissonnière, Paris
  • around 1810: event building (pavilion) in avenue René-Panhard, Thiais

literature

  • Antoine Picon: From "Poetry of Art" to method: The Theory of Jean-Nicolas-Louis Durand, in: Jean-Nicolas-Louis Durand, Précis of the Lectures on Architecture, Los Angeles 2000
  • Fritz Neumeyer (Ed.): Source texts on architectural theory; Munich: Prestel Verlag 2002, p. 198 ff
  • Hanno-Walter Kruft: History of Architectural Theory; Munich: Verlag CH Beck 2004, p. 310 ff
  • Henry Russell Hitchcock: The Architecture of the 19th and 20th Centuries; Munich: Aries Verlag 1994, p. 47 ff
  • Werner Szambien: Jean-Nicolas-Louis Durand 1760-1834. De límitation à la norm, Paris 1984

Individual references / comments

  1. ^ Fritz Neumeyer (Ed.): Source texts for the theory of architecture; Munich: Prestel Verlag 2002, p. 198
  2. ^ Klaus Jan Philipp: The Reclam Book of Architecture; Stuttgart: Reclam-Verlag 2006, p. 304
  3. ^ Hanno-Walter Kruft: History of the architectural theory; Munich: Verlag CH Beck 2004, p. 311
  4. ^ Hanno-Walter Kruft: History of the architectural theory; Munich: Verlag CH Beck 2004, p. 312
  5. ^ Fritz Neumeyer (Ed.): Source texts for the theory of architecture; Munich: Prestel Verlag 2002, p. 198
personal data
SURNAME Durand, Jean-Nicolas-Louis
BRIEF DESCRIPTION French architect
DATE OF BIRTH September 18, 1760
PLACE OF BIRTH Paris
DATE OF DEATH December 31, 1834
Place of death Thiais