This document summarizes architectural movements and theorists from the 19th century including Structural Rationalism, Art Nouveau, Viollet-le-Duc, and John Ruskin. Structural Rationalism rejected past styles in favor of new forms using modern materials honestly like iron. Art Nouveau embraced new technologies but aimed to elevate craftsmanship. Viollet-le-Duc was a French architect who advocated for restoring buildings to a hypothetical completed state and emphasizing rational construction. He influenced Art Nouveau through his writings and designs using iron. John Ruskin's book The Seven Lamps of Architecture analyzed architecture's moral duties including sacrifice, truth, and power.

1. 19th CENTURY - STRUCTURAL RATIONALISM:
• Complete rejection of past styles and also a search for new forms of
ornament which could be an expression of their own time.
• Effect of the French Theorist Eugene Viollet- Le- Duc who proposed a new
rational approach to architecture based on rediscovering Gothic principles of
constructing ribbed vaults , only using iron. Iron should be used honestly and
left exposed rather than hiding it by fake materials.
ART NOUVEAU MOVEMENT:
• A modern movement started in Europe around the start of the 20
th
Century.
• Art Nouveau was in many ways a response to the Industrial Revolution. Some artists and
architects welcomed technological progress and embraced the aesthetic possibilities of
new materials such as cast iron.
• Others deplored the shoddiness of mass-produced machine-made goods and aimed to
elevate the decorative arts to the level of fine art by applying the highest standards of
craftsmanship and design to everyday objects.
• Affected by the theories of Structural Rationalism (Viollet- Le- Duc ), John Ruskin ( Gothic
ideas) and the Arts and Crafts movement.
VIOLLET LE DUC:
 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.
 His philosophy was "to restore the building to a state of completeness that may
never have existed."
 Basic intervention theories of historic preservation are framed in the dualism of the
retention of the status quo versus a "restoration" that creates something that
never actually existed in the past.
 Viollet-le-Duc advocated that restoration is a "means to reestablish [a building] to a finished state, which
may in fact never have actually existed at any given time.“
 His architectural theory was largely based on finding the ideal forms for specific materials, and using these
forms to create buildings.
 His writings centered on the idea that materials should be used 'honestly'. He believed that the outward
appearance of a building should reflect the rational construction of the building.
 In Entretiens sur l'architecture, Viollet-le-Duc praised the Greek temple for its rational representation of its
construction. For him, "Greek architecture served as a model for the correspondence of structure and
appearance." According to him-“In architecture there are two necessary ways of being true. It must be
true according to the program. To be true according to the program is to fulfill exactly and simply the
conditions imposed by need. And it must be true according to the method of construction. This is to employ

2. the materials according to their qualities and properties, purely questions of symmetry and apparent form
are only secondary condition in the presence of our dominant principles.”
 For Viollet-le Duc , these principles clearly precluded the architectural tradition of French Classical
Rationalism. In place of an ‘abstract’ international style he advocated a return to regional building.
 His illustration to the Entretiens, which in some aspects anticipated Art Nouveau, ostensibly indicated the
kind of architecture that would evolve from his principle of Structural Rationalism. He preffered not only
models but also methods which would free architecture from the eclectic irrelevancies of historicism.
 In this way, his Entretiens came to serve as an inspiration to the avant garde of the last quarter of 19th
century. His methods penetrated to those European countries where French cultural influence was strong
but tradition of classicism was weak. Eventually his ideas spread even to England, where they influenced
men such as Sir Gorge Gilbert Scott, Alfred Waterhouse and even Norman Shaw. Outside France his thesis,
in particular its implicit cultural nationalism, had its most pronounced impact on the works of Antonio
Gaudi, Victor Horta, and Hendrik Petrus Berlage.
 Viollet-le-Duc, formulated model of architectural history linking the frank expression of building
construction and materials to the progressive march of history. He was increasingly aware of the impact of
new materials like iron and plate glass. He felt that the nineteenth century must try to formulate its own
style by finding forms appropriate to the new techniques, and to altered social and economic conditions. In
several unbuilt projects for new buildings, Viollet-le-Duc applied the lessons he had derived from Gothic
architecture, applying its rational structural systems to modern building materials such as cast iron.
 Main restorations
o Vezelay Abbay, France
o Holy Chapell, Paris
o Notre Dame, Paris
o City wall of Carcassone, France
o Pierrefonds castel, France.
(Reconstruction for Napoleon III) Viollet le Duc let his imagination run to rebuild this castel near in the
north of Paris.
Vezelay Abbay, France (1840-1861) Notre Dame, Paris

3. Chateau de Pierrefonds (restored 1857-1885) The fortified city of Carcassonne
The walled town of Carcasonne (restored 1853-1879)
Publications:
Throughout his career Viollet-le-Duc made notes and drawings, not only for the buildings he was working
on, but also on Romanesque, Gothic and Renaissance buildings that were to be soon demolished. His notes
were helpful in his published works. His study of medieval and Renaissance periods was not limited to
architecture, but extended to furniture, clothing, musical instruments, armament, geology and so forth.All
this work was published, first in serial, and then as full-scale books, as:
• Dictionary of French Architecture from 11th to 16th Century (1854–1868) (Dictionnaire raisonné
de l'architecture française du XIe au XVIe siècle) - Original (French) language edition, including
numerous illustrations.
• Dictionary of French Furnishings (1858–1870) (Dictionnaire raisonné du mobilier français de
l'époque Carolingienne à la Renaissance.)
• Entretiens sur l'architecture (in 2 volumes, 1863–72), in which Viollet-le-Duc systematized his
approach to architecture and architectural education, in a system radically opposed to that of the
École des Beaux-Arts, which he had avoided in his youth and despised. In Henry Van Brunt's
translation, the "Discourses on Architecture" was published in 1875, making it available to an
American audience little more than a decade after its initial publication in France.
• Histoire de l'habitation humaine, depuis les temps préhistoriques jusqu'à nos jours (1875).
Published in English in 1876 as Habitations of Man in All Ages. Viollet-Le-Duc traces the history of
domestic architecture among the different "races" of mankind.
• L'art russe: ses origines, ses éléments constructifs, son apogée, son avenir (1877), where Viollet-
le-Duc applied his ideas of rational construction to Russian architecture.
•
• Unbuilt projects
• In several unbuilt projects for new buildings, Viollet-le-Duc applied the lessons he had derived
from Gothic architecture, applying its rational structural systems to modern building materials
such as cast iron.
• He also examined organic structures, such as leaves and animal skeletons, for inspiration.
• He was especially interested in the wings of bats, an influence represented by his Assembly Hall
project.

4. • Design for a concert hall, dated 1864, expressing Gothic principles in modern materials; brick,
stone and cast iron. Entretiens sur l'architecture
•
• Concert hall plan, sketch by Viollet-le-Duc
• Viollet-le-Duc's drawings of iron trusswork were innovative for the time. Many of his designs
emphasizing iron would later influence the Art Nouveau style, most noticeably in the work of
Hector Guimard. His writings inspired some American architects, including Frank Furness, John
Wellborn Root, Louis Sullivan, and Frank Lloyd Wright
•
Plan for a vaulted hall,sketch by Viollet-le-Duc
Sketch for market shelter design

5. "I thought [Viollet-le-Duc's] Raisone was the only sensible book on architecture in the world. I
later obtained copies for my sons. This book alone, enabled us to keep our faith in architecture,
in spite of architects."
—Frank Lloyd Wright
 Viollet-le-Duc has concerned itself with the modern political circumstances that surrounded the formation
of a theory and practice of national monument preservation.
 Historians of medieval architecture, in particular, have long decried the heavy hand of Viollet-le-Duc's
restoration, at times involving such a thorough changing of the confused palimpsests of the passage of
time to achieve his famous paradoxical dictum that "to restore an edifice is not to maintain it, repair or
remake it, it is to re-establish it in a complete state that may never have existed at any given moment in
the past."

6. JOHN RUSKIN: (8 February 1819 – 20 January 1900)
• John Ruskin was the leading English art critic of the Victorian era, also an art
patron, draughtsman, watercolourist, a prominent social thinker and
philanthropist.
• Ruskin’s developing interest in architecture, and particularly in the Gothic
revival, led to the first work to bear his name, The Seven Lamps of
Architecture. (1849).
• It contained 14 plates etched by the author. The title refers to seven moral categories that Ruskin
considered vital to and inseparable from all architecture: sacrifice, truth, power, beauty, life, memory and
obedience. All would provide recurring themes in his work.
• The 'Lamps': The essay was published in book form in May 1849 and is structured with eight chapters; an
introduction and one chapter for each of the seven 'Lamps‘, which represent the demands that good
architecture must meet, expressed as directions in which the association of ideas may take the observer:
1. Sacrifice dedication of man's craft to God, as visible proofs of man's love and obedience.
2. Truth: handcrafted and honest display of materials and structure. No fancy
facades hiding poor construction. No wood pretending to be stone.
3. Power : buildings should be thought of in terms of their massing and reach
towards the sublimity of nature by the action of the human mind upon them
and the organization of physical effort in constructing buildings. A building is
a shape, a mass. Its immensity in comparison to man has its own effect apart
from its ornamentation. The architect’s job is to display this shape to its best
effect.
Ruskin considers setting and view and line. A building set on a hill can have its
mass well displayed. That same building with massive mountains as the
backdrop may not seem so consequential.
Surround it with buildings and you may find that you can never get your self in a position to see the
whole.
4. Beauty :aspiration towards God expressed in ornamentation drawn from nature, His creation.
Here John Ruskin refers to skin and ornamentation. He draws heavily on nature, because nature is our
school master for beauty. Therefore art in our buildings should be imitative of the forms and lines and
shapes we see in nature. If a column seems beautiful it is because we see them all around us in the
stems of plants. If a pointed arch is pleasing to the eye it is because that shape was first pleasing as
the shape of a leaf. He also castigates some ornamentation that is not imitative of nature, such as the
Greek Key, a running spiral design common in some Greek architecture.
5. Life: buildings should be made by human hands, so that the joy of masons and stonecarvers is
associated with the expressive freedom given them. Here John Ruskin refers to skin and
ornamentation. He draws heavily on nature, because nature is our school master for beauty.
Therefore art in our buildings should be imitative of the forms and lines and shapes we see in nature.
If a column seems beautiful it is because we see them all around us in the stems of plants. If a pointed
arch is pleasing to the eye it is because that shape was first pleasing as the shape of a leaf. He also

7. castigates some ornamentation that is not imitative of nature, such as the Greek Key, a running spiral
design common in some Greek architecture.
6. Memory:buildings should respect the culture from which they have developed. Buildings (and houses)
should reflect the culture and what went on before. They in turn will inform the culture that follows.
John Ruskin was not a big fan of innovative disruption. Even gradual change is something to be
distrusted. In some ways he was the ultimate cultural conservative.
7. Obedience:no originality for its own sake, but conforming to the finest among existing English values,
in particular expressed through the "English Early Decorated" Gothic as the safest choice of style. “The
architecture of a nation is great only when it is as universal and as established as it language”. John
Ruskin asserted that England should have one school of architecture, a type of Gothic that was
peculiarly English.
• Ruskin's theories of architecture, and his emphasis on the importance of the Medieval Gothic style. He
praised the Gothic for what he saw as its reverence for nature and natural forms; the free, unfettered
expression of artisans constructing and decorating buildings; and for the organic relationship he perceived
between worker and guild, worker and community, worker and natural environment, and between worker
and God.
• The Stones of Venice
• is a three-volume treatise on Venetian art and architecture by English art historian John Ruskin, first
published from 1851 to 1853.
• The Stones of Venice examines Venetian architecture in detail, describing for example
over eighty churches.
• He discusses architecture of Venice's Byzantine,Gothic and Renaissance periods, and
provides a general history of the city.
• Ruskin's strong rejection of Classical tradition in The Stones of Venice typifies the
inextricable mix of aesthetics and morality in his thought. For Ruskin, the Gothic style in
architecture embodied the same moral truths he sought to promote in the visual arts. It expressed the
'meaning' of architecture—as a combination of the values of strength, solidity and aspiration—all written,
as it were, in stone. He also argued that no new style was needed to redress this problem, as the
appropriate styles were already known to man. The 'truest' architecture was therefore, the older Gothic of
medieval cathedrals and Venice.
• Ruskin associated Classical values with modern developments, in particular with the demoralising
consequences of the industrial revolution, resulting in buildings such as the Crystal Palace, which he
criticised. Ruskin's distaste for oppressive standardisation led to later works attacking Laissez-faire
capitalism which he considered to be at the root of it. His ideas provided inspiration for the Arts and Crafts
Movement.
• Ruskin's belief in preservation of ancient buildings had a significant influence on later thinking about the
distinction between conservation and restoration. Ruskin was a strong proponent of the former, while his
contemporary, Eugène Viollet-le-Duc, promoted the latter.
• For Ruskin, the "age" of a building was crucially significant as an aspect in its preservation: "For, indeed,
the greatest glory of a building is not in its stones, not in its gold. Its glory is in its Age, and in that deep
sense of voicefulness, of stern watching, of mysterious sympathy, nay, even of approval or condemnation,
which we feel in walls that have long been washed by the passing waves of humanity.”

8. • QUOTES:
• “No architecture is so haughty as that which is simple.”
• “Essence of architecture consisted not the necessary aspects of a building but those features that were
unnecessary. Decoration was what distinguished architecture from mere construction.”
• Architecture is something more than utilitarian and indicates a spiritual aesthetic and beneficial context.
• Goodness of spirit and greatness of architecture go together. Good architecture could result only from the
efforts of good man working in the context of a healthy society.
•

9. QUATREMÈRE DE QUINCY:
21 October 1755 – 28 December 1849
• French ,archaeologist, architectural theorist,
• a Freemason,
• an effective arts administrator
• influential writer on art
• Quatremère did not write a formal treatise; instead, he was commissioned to write the
first formal dictionary of architecture.
• What does writing a dictionary accomplish?
1.A need for clarification and careful distinctions between meanings of words that had overtime, accrued
multiple ambiguous meanings and connotations.
2. For the first time, instead of writing for a patron or institutional privilege, Quatremère writes for the
public.
3. In an age of expanding readership and scholarly academic professionalism, the dictionary was easily
produced and equally a readily consumed object.
• In 1791-92 he orchestrated the conversion of the Church of Ste-Geneviève in Paris (under the direction
of Jean-Baptiste Rondelet) into the Panthéon, infilling the windows to give it the character of a
mausoleum.
• He was the first director of Ecole des Beaux-Arts,
• Quatremère de Quincy was the author of numerous articles and books. Between 1788 and 1825 he edited
the Encyclopédie Méthodique, to which he contributed much of the text. His Dictionnaire historique de
l'Architecture was published in 1832-33.He wrote biographies of several artists: Antonio
Canova (1823), Raphael (1824) and Michelangelo (1835).
I D E A O F I M I T A T I O N
• Quatremère believed that architecture was imitative of nature in two ways:
1. In the details of nature – like the certain characteristics of an individual
2. In nature as a collective whole – like refering to a specific species

10. • In regards to Laugier’s hut:
o Architecture has no direct model in nature that can be concretely considered an origin.
o The hut is merely the beginning, not an origin because a certain distance had
o to be traveled in architectural theory to arrive at it.
o Influence should be seen, not in a material sense, but in a metaphorical one.
• Nature offers three kinds of materials:
o Earth – when made into bricks, ranks among stone.
o Stone – projections and cornices received their form from imitating wood
o Wood – offers a vast array of analogies, inductions and free assimilations
• O R I G I N S O F A R C H I T E C T U R E
• Quatremere acknowledged the importance of Laugier's theory by dedicating an entry to the word
'Cabane' in the first of the three volumes of his Encyclopedie Methodique, published between 1788 and
1825. In this entry, Quatremere included some excerpts of Laugier's Essai, along with other passages from
Vitruvius' account of the origins of architecture
• Quatremere admits that there cannot be only one model from which all architecture is derived.
• Quatremere was weil aware that there were styles in architecture that did not evolve from the Greco-
Roman model, like Egyptian or Chinese. He considered though that every style began with a first model
whose form had been the result of necessity (besoin), meaning that the form of those models had been
determined by the conditions of the place, like climate, productions of the country, and the Iifestyle of the
inhabitants
• Quatremere proposed then three different primitive models from which every architectural style would
have derived:
1. Hut –
• Post and lintel construction
• Transposed into stone and became a model for Greek architecture post and lintel construction
2. Cave
• Heavy dark interiors marked religious architecture of the Egyptians
3. Tent
• Light and mobile structure shows traces in wooden structures of the Chinese.
• Each of the three types originated as shelter for a kind of people in a particular place, all bound by the
laws of necessity, through use, climate, or country.
• According to Quatremere, the character of the first model determined the characteristics of the style.
Thus, he thought that Greek architecture is superior to all others because it started from a superior model,
the primitive hut. By the same token, he considered Egyptian architecture inferior to the Greek because it
derived from a less sophisticated model, the cave. And he dismissed Chinese architecture on the grounds
that the model on which it was based, the tent, had too few things to imitate.
• A R C H I T E C T U R E & L A N G U A G E
• TYPE –is an object with respect to which each artist can conceive works of art that may have no
resemblance to each other
• MODEL – is an object that should be repeated as is
• CHARACTER – implies something more expressive than type.
• Quatremère distinguishes three meanings of architectural character:
1. Essential Character – natural character, the purest simplest essence of something

11. 2. Distinctive Character – refers to a building’s dominant quality
3. Relative Character – two parts
• Ideal – art of architecture metaphysically considered
• Imitative – allows for sensuous ideas through manipulation of forms
*Relative character is much like that of ideal beauty and imitative beauty
• Within Quatremere's Encyclopedie Methodique, character is an active engagement in the process of
altering the relationship between appearance and meaning. It is less concerned with the state of an
object, but with the qualities and the impressions that imitation engenders in the public. An object put
through a successful process of imitation engages the moral and intellectual interests of the public with
strong character. Strong character can be sensed in the singularity and distinctiveness of an object.
• Quatremére de Quincy tried to define the concept of type by comparing ‘model’ and ‘type.’ He defined
‘model’ as a mechanical reproduction of an object and ‘type’ as a metaphorical entity. The model is a form
to be copied or imitated: “all is precise and given in the model”. Type, on the contrary, is something that
can act as a basis for the conception of works, which bear no resemblance to one another: “all is more or
less vague in the type”.
• The architectural ‘type’ was at once ‘pre-existent germ,’ origin and primitive cause. With Quatremére de
Quincy’s work, the idea of type was explicitly and systematically theorized for the first time in the history
of architecture.
• The Oxford dictionary definition of type reflects this understanding: “by which something is symbolized or
figured, anything having a symbolical signification, a symbol, or emblem.” The term Typology was used to
refer to the study of types; the comparative analysis and classification of structural or other characteristics
into types. Typology referred to the study of sets that are recognizable through the coherence determined
by the repetition of a single cultural type.
• P O E T I C O R D E R
• Quatremère’s last theory is a metaphysical one that distinguishes the source of rules, namely principles.
• Principles are considered to be simple truths from which many lesser truths or rules are derived.
• Quatremère’s four classes of rules (first two are based on nature and the second two are based on
conventions):
1. Reason or “the nature of things” - The theory of art in architecture – imitation, invention,
principles, rules
2. Constitution of the soul, mind, and senses - Beauty in architecture – symmetry, eurythmy,
proportion, ordonnance
3. Authority of precedents - Retrieval of traditional knowledge – antique, restoration, restitution
4. Even habit and prejudice - Theoretical parameters influencing renewal within tradition –
indissociable couples imitation and invention, conventions and genius.
• Quatremère de Quincy’s dictionary is composed according to criteria of historical, metaphysical,
theoretical, elementary or didactic, practical reference.
• Differential levels of theory:
1. Didactic – instucts the architect about the rules and percepts of the profession.
2. Practical – informs the architect of all that has been achieved in architecture in the past.
3. Metaphysical – fundamental essence and spirit behind the architecture of a period.

12. GOTTFRIED SEMPER: 29
(November 1803 – 15 May 1879)
• Gottfried Semper was a German architect, art critic, Architectural historian, a
professor of architecture,
• He designed and built the Semper Opera House in Dresden between 1838 and 1841.
• Developed ideas about technology, architecture and history.
• Leading exponent of renaissance revival.
• Author of Four Elements of Architecture and several books on style and theory.
• Leading architectural theorist of 19th C on polychromy and polychromy in antiquity.and professor of
architecture, who designed and built the Semper Opera House in Dresden between 1838 and 1841.
•
• These are colored depictions from Semper’s early travels around Europe.
• Details that are depicted come from own investigations around the temple.
• Ideas based on influences from Hittorf
• Believed paint was used on classical buildings as a protective material(Greek, Etruscan, Egyptian)
• There is proof that paint still exists on these buildings
• Statues from cultures were polychromatic instead their current monochrome appearance
• Colour had symbolic associations
• Color is an expression of artistic freedom
• Works in Architecture
• Semper designed works at all scales, from a baton for Richard Wagner to major urban interventions like the
re-design of the Ringstraße in Vienna. Leading exponent of renaissance revival.
• Dresdon
1. Hoftheater-1841(destroyed by fire in 1869)
2. Villa Rosa- 1839 (destroyed in WWII)
3. Semper Synagogue-1838( destroyed during Kristallnacht 1938)
4. Opeheim Palace-1848)
5. Painting Gallery –(1848)
6. Neus Hoftheater (Semperopera) Zurich- 1864
• Zurich
1. Polytechnical School (ETH Zurich)-1864
2. Observatory – 1864

13. 3. Winterthur
4. City Hall – 1864
• Vienna
1. Muncipal Theater -1888
2. Museum of Art HISTORY -1889
3. Natural History Museum - 1891
In 1838-40 a synagogue was built in Dresden to Semper's design, it was ever afterward
called the Semper Synagogue and is noted for its Moorish Revival interior style.The
Synagogue's exterior was built in romanesque style so as not to call attention to itself.
• Dresden, Interior of the first Hoftheater (Semper Oper)
• The first opera house Semperoper around 1850
• The Semperoper is the opera house (Saxon State Opera) and the concert hall of the (Saxon State Orchestra). It is
also home to the Semperoper ballet. The opera house was originally built by the architect Gottfried Semper in
1841. After a devastating fire in 1869, the opera house was rebuilt, partly again by Semper, and completed in
1878. The opera house has a long history of premieres, including major works by Richard Wagner and Richard
Strauss.
• The building style itself is debated among many, as it has features that appear in three styles; Early Renaissance
and Baroque, with Corinthian style pillars typical of Greek classical revival. Perhaps the most suitable label for
this style would be eclecticism, where influences from many styles are used, a practice most common during this
period. Nevertheless, the opera building, Semper's first, is regarded as one of the most beautiful European opera
houses.
•
• Semper's (second) Dresden Opera House as it is today
• When the first opera building was burnt down in 1869, King John, on the urging of the citizenry, commissioned
Semper to build a new one. Semper produced the plans, but left the actual construction to his son, Manfred.

14. • it was built in Neo-Renaissance style
• The building is considered to be a prime example of "Dresden Baroque Revival" architecture.
• Publications
• He published Die vier Elemente der Baukunst (The Four Elements of Architecture) in 1851 and Wissenschaft,
Industrie und Kunst (Science, Industry and Art) in 1852.
• These works would ultimately provide the groundwork for his most widely regarded publication, Der Stil in den
technischen und tektonischen Künsten oder Praktische Ästhetik, which was published in two volumes in 1861
and 1863. (Style in the Technical and Tectonic Arts; or, Practical Aesthetics)
•
• Semper wrote extensively about the origins of architecture, especially in his book The Four Elements of
Architecture from 1851,
• THE FOUR ELEMENTS OF ARCHITECTURE:
• Published in 1851, it is an attempt to explain the origins of architecture through the lens of anthropology. The
book divides architecture into four distinct elements: the hearth, the roof, the enclosure and the mound. The
origins of each element can be found in the traditional crafts of ancient 'barbarians':
1. Hearth
2. Roof
3. Enclosure
4. Mound
• Hearth was the first element created: "The first sign of settlement and
rest after the hunt, the battle, and wandering in the desert is today, as when the
first men lost paradise, the setting up of the fireplace and the lighting of the
reviving, warming, and food preparing flame. Around the hearth the first groups
formed: around the hearth the first groups assembled; around it the first
alliances formed; around it the first rude religious concepts were put into the
customs of a cult." "Throughout all phases of society the hearth formed that
sacred focus around which took order and shape. It is the first and most
important element of architecture. Around it were grouped the other three
elements: the roof, the enclosure, and the mound. The protecting negations or
defenders of the hearths flame against three hostile elements of nature."
• Enclosures (walls) were said to have their origins in weaving. Just as

15. fences and pens were woven sticks, the most basic form of a spatial divider still seen in use in parts of the
world today is the fabric screen.
• Only when additional functional requirements are placed on the enclosure (such as structural weight-
bearing needs) does the materiality of the wall change to something beyond fabric.
• The mat and its use in primitive huts interchangeably as floors, walls, and draped over frames was
considered by Gottfried Semper to be the origins of architecture.
• Sempers Four Elements of Architecture were an attempt at a universal theory of architecture.”
• The Four Elements of Architecture was not the classification of a specific typology but rather was more
universal in its attempt to offer a more general theory of architecture.”
• Rather than describing one building typology as being the beginning, he considers what assemblies and
systems are universal in all indigenous primitive structures.”
• The Four Elements of Architecture as an archeologically driven theory stressed functionalism as a
prerequisite to intentionality
• Semper continues to explore the four elements more closely in subsequent works such as Der Stils
Style in the Technical and Tectonic Arts; or, Practical Aesthetics
• A richly illustrated survey of the technical arts (textiles, ceramics, carpentry,
masonry),
• Semper's analysis of the preconditions of style forever changed the interpretative
context for aesthetics, architecture, and art history.
• Style, Semper believed, should be governed by historical function, cultural
affinities, creative free will, and the innate properties of each medium.
• Thus, in an ambitious attempt to turn nineteenth-century artistic discussion away
from historicism, aestheticism, and materialism, Semper developed in Der Stil a
complex picture of stylistic change based on scrutiny of specific objects and a remarkable grasp of cultural
variety.
• anyone trying to understand Wrights use of concrete as a textile, Frampton's tectonic culture, or Arup's
sensible methods of construction. It's all here and more.
• Zürich period (1855 - 1871)
The City Hall in Winterthur
• Later life (from 1871) Vienna
• Semper was assigned to submit a proposal for locating new buildings in conjunction with redevelopment
of the Ringstrasse.
• In 1869 he designed a gigantic 'Imperial Forum' which was not realized.
Das Polytechnikum 1865

16. • The National Museum of Art History and the National Museum of Natural History were erected, however,
opposite the Palace according to his plan, as was the Burgtheater.
• In 1871 Semper moved to Vienna to undertake the projects.
• During construction, repeated disagreements with his appointed associate architect (Karl Freiherr von
Hasenauer), led Semper to resign from the project in 1876.
• In the following year his health began to deteriorate. He died two years later while on a visit to Italy and is
buried in the Protestant Cemetery, Rome.
•
The (new) Burgtheater
• The theatre was moved to a new building on the Ringstrasse which had been designed by Gottfried
Semper und Karl Hasenauer and opened its doors to the public in October 1888.
The redesign of the Ringstrasse in Vienna