Précis of the Lectures on Architecture: With Graphic Portion of the Lectures on Architecture (Texts & Documents) - Softcover

Durand, Jean-Nicholas-Louis

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0892365803 ISBN 13: 9780892365807

Publisher: Getty Research Institute, 2000

Synopsis

Jean-Nicolas-Louis Durand Durand (1760-1834) regarded the Précis of the Lectures on Architecture (1802-5) and its companion volume, the Graphic Portion (1821), as both a basic course for future civil engineers and a treatise. Focusing the practice of architecture on utilitarian and economic values, he assailed the rationale behind classical architectural training: beauty, proportionality, and symbolism. His formal systematization of plans, elevations, and sections transformed architectural design into a selective modular typology in which symmetry and simple geometrical forms prevailed. His emphasis on pragmatic values, to the exclusion of metaphysical concerns, represented architecture as a closed system that subjected its own formal language to logical processes. Now published in English for the first time, the Précis and the Graphic Portion are classics of architectural education.

About this title

About the Author

Antoine Picon is professor of the history of architecture and engineering at the École Nationale des Ponts et Chaussées, Paris, and author of French Architects and Engineers in the Age of the Enlightenment. David Britt has translated numerous books, including The Renewal of Pagan Antiquity by Aby Warburg.

Language Notes

Text: English (translation)
Original Language: French

Edition details

• Publisher: Getty Research Institute
• Publication date: 2000
• ISBN 10: 0892365803
• ISBN 13: 9780892365807
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 360