The Journal of Architecture

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Typal and typological reasoning: a diagrammatic

practice of architecture

Sam Jacoby

To cite this article: Sam Jacoby (2015) Typal and typological reasoning: a diagrammatic practice
of architecture, The Journal of Architecture, 20:6, 938-961, DOI: 10.1080/13602365.2015.1116104

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Typal and typological reasoning:

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architecture
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Sam Jacoby Architectural Association School of Architecture,

London, United Kingdom
(Author’s e-mail address: [email protected])

The twentieth-century accounts of typology are often both historiographically problematic

and conceptually imprecise. They reinforce an understanding of typology as mainly an inter-
changeable functional and graphic classification, and present Jean-Nicolas-Louis Durand as a
key figure of the discourse, despite him dealing with buildings according to their genre and
not their organisational and structural diagrams of typology. In contrast, one can posit that
all theories of type are foremost epistemological and discursive arguments. Although not
prescriptive in a formal sense, they are concerned with a rational synthesis of form by think-
ing through conceptual and diagrammatic organisation. This diagrammatic abstraction had
already become instrumental to architectural theory and history in the eighteenth
century, long before the modern discourse on the diagram was consolidated in the 1990s.
While the architectural diagram is regularly explained as a generic and generative descrip-
tion, it can equally be defined as a typological diagram specific to the architectural discipline
and its production of knowledge. Clarifying the concept of type as emerging in parallel with
ideas of abstraction and diagrammatic reasoning reveals a richer set of connected problems
deriving from architectural practice, pedagogy and disciplinary knowledge, which permits a
different framing of the historical discourse. This is explored by discussing its meaning for a
distinction between typal and typological reasoning, how this arises from a problem of
history and theory, and how the evolving typological discourse relates to the concepts of
invention, disposition and style. Whereas historiography commonly recognises the French
academics Antoine-Chrysostome Quatremère de Quincy and Durand, the often-overlooked
Gottfried Semper and Julien-David Le Roy were central to a modern conception of architec-
ture that developed ideas of typal and typological abstraction through historicist processes
of cultural and diagrammatic reduction.

Introduction in definition, a common ground to the debate was

The academic discourse on the architectural diagram an agreement that a new diagrammatic practice
consolidated in the 1990s. In parts motivated by the had to explain, analyse, organise and generate
technical possibilities of computational design and beyond the limits of classical representation.1 This,
analysis, it theorised design processes and problems so it is claimed, liberated architecture from imitative
of formal invention through the abstractions of the repetition, gave it autonomy (one not always
‘generative’ diagram. Despite emerging differences already historicised) and produced something

# 2015 RIBA Enterprises 1360-2365 http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13602365.2015.1116104

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entirely different if not new.2 The explanations by style, thereby consciously eradicating distinctions
key proponents of the diagram, such as Peter Eisen- between type and genre, but also type and typology.
man, Stan Allen or Robert Somol, were complicated When Giulio Carlo Argan ‘rediscovered’ the notion
by an avant-garde rejection of representational ‘tra- of type in his article ‘On the Typology of Architec-
ditions’ while, at the same time, upholding that the ture’ of 1962, he revisited its first definition by
diagram had somehow to register architectural Antoine-Chrysostome Quatremère de Quincy,
context, site, programme, history and discourse. Pre- stating that a ‘typological series’—a series of cases
dictably, typology, defined as a classificatory study of linked in their formal development—is determined
buildings with shared functional and morphological by function and configuration, and ‘has to be under-
traits, was seen as epitomising what the abstract stood as the interior structure of a form or as a
diagram was not: a restriction of generative and principle which contains the possibility of infinite
transformative reasoning by a pre-taxonomised formal variation and further structural modifications
translation of conceptual and graphic thinking into of the “type” itself’.5 Argan’s description of type as a
materiality and architectural objects.3 form of knowledge internal to architecture provides
‘Diagrams underwrite all typological theories, as a rational explanation of the relationship between
evidenced, for example, in the catalogues of an historical process and an architect’s individual
Durand’, wrote Jeffrey Kipnis, suggesting that typol- design through a specific typological solution. This
ogy does not exist without the graphic diagram.4 This explanation was understood as autonomous from
statement—whose assumptions are shared by most other disciplines, and complemented a return to
advocates of the generative diagram—reveals two questions of historical and contextual continuity in
flaws useful to the following discussion. Not only post-war Italy.
can one equally assert that a typological problem His interpretation informed the ensuing typologi-
underwrites all architectural diagrams, but also that cal discourse in Neo-rationalism, which, critical of
Jean-Nicolas-Louis Durand did not deal with typol- Modernist planning, saw the city and its elements
ogy—he abstracted buildings according to their not as a planning problem, but as one of design,
genres (function) and was unconcerned with typolo- whereby a regulating typology linked to urban
gies defined by comparable organisational and struc- morphology to analyse context, programme and
tural diagrams of buildings. In addition, one can ask if history could be mobilised.6 But, as Werner Oech-
there is more than a graphic diagram. Yet Kipnis’s slin argues, Argan was also to blame for a wide-
mistake in employing typology in an interchangeable spread misconception of typology as iconology
functional and graphic sense is common to its twen- and its deference to received forms.7 Although at
tieth-century use. first typology seemed to offer a sustainable ‘post’
The Modern Movement deliberately reduced the Modernist design practice—an analytic of architec-
nineteenth-century doctrine of type to the functional tural theory and urban science as Aldo Rossi pro-
classification of buildings to avoid its connotations of posed in The Architecture of the City (1966)—its
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failure was by the 1980s widely accepted. Typology the city through which the ‘unitary statement’ of
had become ‘a low level of theory’ providing little form and function is transformed to an open possi-
more than fixed historical answers.8 Its use by the bility of designing public architecture.
new discipline of urban design conventionalised All of these definitions of typology are largely con-
functional classification and graphic explanation sistent. The contemporary accounts of typology,
of form. such as Vidler’s, permit the firm inclusion of
Coinciding with a growing interest in design Durand in the discourse—which seems necessary
method, the spreading of the Neo-rationalist to explain a functionalist and graphic definition of
theory of typology to Europe and America also typology—but are both historiographically proble-
strengthened a focus on methodical classification matic and conceptually imprecise. The notion of
and design. This is evident in the contribution of ‘type’ formally entered architectural terminology
Alan Colquhoun, who, inspired by Tomas Maldo- only with the publication of the third volume of
nado, in ‘Typology and Design Method’ (1967) the Encyclopédie méthodique: Architecture by Qua-
was the first English-speaking theorist to examine tremère in 1825, where he presented it as an idea in
the notion of typology. Colquhoun contends that a contrast yet complementary to the model. This was
final configuration of form is never entirely an considerably later than either Durand’s Collection
outcome of scientific deduction and involves aes- and Parallel of Buildings of Every Genre, Ancient
thetic intention. This intention, if it is more than and Modern: Remarkable for Their Beauty, Their
intuition, has to acknowledge past design solutions. Grandeur, or Their Singularity, All Drawn to the
Thus, typological models as repositories of existing Same Scale (1799–1801) or the Précis of the Lec-
formal solutions and social meanings become tures on Architecture given at the École Polytechni-
necessary, but have to be adapted to a contempor- que (1802–5) that studied the abstraction and
ary context. Similarly, another important contributor derivation of buildings according to genres. Quatre-
to the English-speaking debate, Anthony Vidler, mère introduced the term ‘type’ to overcome two
reinforced the narrative that typology is a problem principles that he saw as preventing a modernisation
of defining ideal type-solutions, although he believes of architectural practice and knowledge: imitative
that this was overcome by Neo-rationalism.9 In ‘The representation and first origins. They were charac-
Third Typology’ (1976), he sketches out three uses of teristic for the Beaux-Art idea of the artistic model
typology. The first developing from an imitation of and stood for a traditional theory of the arts and
nature to a scientific classification (from Marc- their teaching. As a modern concept, type replaced
Antoine Laugier’s primitive hut to Durand’s collec- previous categories of classification, such as charac-
tions of buildings), which, second, also underlies ter and genre. Yet throughout the nineteenth
the functional classification of economic production century, its idea underwent continuous transform-
by the Modern Movement and, third, a Neo-ration- ation in meaning, perhaps due to the formal vague-
alist understanding of typology as an analytic of ness ascribed to it by Quatremère.
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However, it can be posited that all theories of type —through which arguments are conceived, struc-
are foremost epistemological and discursive argu- tured and delivered, or considered as equally made
ments. Although not prescriptive in a formal sense, up of conceptual, formal and social aspects. To
they are concerned with a rational synthesis of archi- clarify the concept of type as emerging in parallel
tectural (and urban) form by thinking through con- with ideas of abstraction and diagrammatic reason-
ceptual and diagrammatic organisation, and a ing reveals a richer set of connected problems that
concern with the discursive potential that exists in derive from architectural practice, pedagogy and dis-
the space from conception to formal realisation. It ciplinary knowledge, and a different framing of the
is a diagrammatic abstraction that had already historical discourse. Whereas historiography com-
become instrumental to architectural theory and monly recognises the French academics Quatremère
practice in the eighteenth century. This defines the de Quincy (1755–1849) and his contemporary
architectural diagram not just as a generic and gen- Durand (1760–1834), both the German architect
erative description, but also as a typological diagram Gottfried Semper (1803–1879) and the French
specific to the architectural discipline and its pro- archaeologist Julien-David Le Roy (1724–1803),
duction of knowledge. In this context, Durand’s who were central to a modern understanding of
graphic work closely relates to a problem of typol- architecture that developed from the typological dis-
ogy. The connection of type and diagram requires course, are overlooked in all key historiographical
a distinction between a conceptual (typal) and reviews.10 Similarly Le Roy’s formative influence on
formal (typological) reasoning, consistent with the Quatremère’s historical relativism, from which his
one between idea and model found under the theory of type derives, has remained unnoticed.11
rubric ‘Type’ by Quatremère. Through a typal The three inaugural theories by Quatremère,
reasoning, form acquires manifold historical, social, Durand and Semper, despite different conceptions
political, cultural and symbolic dimensions limited of type, share an understanding of form through
by but, importantly, also in excess of material abstraction. Their historicist interpretations of form
reality. The material and typological organisation of argue for a momentary autonomy that arises from
these social diagrams is in turn the concern of architecture’s constitution as an independent
spatial and graphic diagrams, which can also be formal and artificial language. In their theories and
termed typological diagrams. design studies, mimetic imitation is replaced by
To explain the premise of a typal and typological memetic, conceptual and symbolic abstraction as
reasoning and their relation to forms of abstraction, well as a diagrammatic reduction that emphasises
one has to examine how this distinction and inter- the interactions between type and diagram, abstrac-
relationship relates to a separation of history and tion and translation, and idea and model. Therefore I
theory. How theories of type are framed by problems will discuss what this means for an understanding of
of invention, disposition and style—the first three type and typology, how this arises from a problem of
principles of transformative composition in rhetoric history and theory, and how the evolving typological
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discourse relates to the concepts of invention, dispo- Critical for the historicist reassessment of architec-
sition and style. ture was Le Roy, who published The Ruins of the
Most Beautiful Monuments of Greece in 1758. In
The history and theory of architecture the book, he was the first to introduce the concept
A rising empiricism in the seventeenth and eight- of ‘history’ to architecture by distinguishing it from
eenth centuries put architecture’s widely held architecture’s theory. This clarified the difference
belief in classical authority into crisis. The need for between a theoretical system of principles, which
modernisation led French architecture to foster a Le Roy divides into three classes according to
modern canon tasked with consolidating past general and common architectural ideas, and intro-
theory and evolving practice. This relied in its duced history as the framework through which a
studies of historical precedents and contemporary development of these principles can be under-
architecture on empirical methodologies borrowed stood.13 The first class contained universal principles
from emerging scientific archaeology and dealt related to practical problems of construction and
with problems of construction, often arising from utility, the second comprised of principles of percep-
new civic structures and buildings. Recognising the tion and aesthetic judgement, and the third referred
waning of traditional explanations, Claude Perrault to principles depending on climate, available build-
therefore proclaimed at the end of the seventeenth ing materials and customs. These geographically
century: and culturally specific factors are therefore only
Hence, neither imitation of nature, nor reason, selectively accepted, but nevertheless account for
nor good sense in any way constitutes the basis the variety of styles and formal differences. History,
for the beauty people claim to see in proportion according to Le Roy, registers the development of
and in the orderly disposition of the parts of a architecture and its ‘primitive ideas’ in a series of
column; indeed, it is impossible to find any connected positivist and individual transformations.
source other than custom for the pleasure they This relativises the problem of origins, as the
impart.12 higher artistic achievement of some people and cul-
Perrault effectively declares an end to prevailing cos- tures over others is measured by a qualitative change
mological rationality and compels an historicist rela- and is not a simple question of chronology.
tivism; however, one that can explicate the relevance Le Roy analysed formal development through
of historical precedents to current practice. This con- taxonomic comparison, in order to determine rela-
ception of conventional and relative architectural tive stylistic periods and artistic achievements. He
styles required a new historiography. Thus by the thereby noticed that stylistic changes depended
late eighteenth century, the claim of classical auth- throughout antiquity on socio-cultural, geographic
ority to universality was forever destabilised by his- and climatic contexts, and described a progressive
toricism and a recognition of individual expression yet non-linear process of historical contingency and
and cultural diversity. exchange.14 But the irreversible conflict between
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representation and reason after empiricism required The Ruins was significantly revised for its second
a distinction between history and theory. When edition in 1770, incorporating an advanced argu-
history effects an architectural object, with its histor- ment of architectural history developed by Le Roy
icalness characterised by the different contexts it in the treatises History of the Disposition and Differ-
registers, it also contextualises and effects the prin- ent Forms That the Christians Gave to Their Temples
ciples of architecture, its theory. This makes a separ- since the Reign of Constantine the Great to Our Own
ation of history and theory necessary, and arising Day (1764) and Observations on the Buildings of
from a tension between them, architecture exists Ancient Peoples (1767). His idea of analysis is par-
then simultaneously as a general (theoretical) and ticularly apparent in the History that summarises
specific (historical) object that belongs both to the the evolution of churches in a comparative plate
past and present. As Le Roy explained in the through the juxtaposition of their plans and sections
second edition of The Ruins: ‘It is these differences, (Fig. 1). Evocative of a Linnaean taxonomy, the
these affinities, these successive transitions from matrix provides the arguments later adopted by all
one perfection to another that we intend to demon- claims for an evolution of architectural form: a
strate in the present essay.’15 process of methodical reduction and a diagrammatic
To synthesise a metaphysical general and a formal explanation that relies on comparison. While a
specific, means reading the architectural object as an graphic comparison of scaled plans itself is unorigi-
historical object that is judged by its presence nal, Le Roy’s use differs from earlier instances, as
(whether in the past or present), but also as belong- his interest is not size, stylistic detail or chronology,
ing to a continuous development of form. This on- but formal relationships that describe a sequence
going transformation is limited by ‘primitive original of transformation and permit their judgement.16
ideas’, which due to their persistence throughout Published to demonstrate the superiority of
history can be deemed ahistorical and as providing Jacques-Germain Soufflot’s design for Sainte-Gene-
common criteria to the abstraction of a series of viève over comparable designs, the church is
buildings deriving from them. Formal development depicted in the centre of the plate as the synthesis
is effectively seen as occurring along a typological of three developments, whose typologies are: the
line of development, with all instances sharing a cross-shaped plan, parallel rows of freestanding
comparable diagrammatic trait. Consequently, com- columns in the basilica, and the dome. Explaining
parative diagrams serve typological analysis and a the importance of graphic abstraction to the rep-
judgement of individual form against a theoretical resentation and analysis of architecture, Le Roy
possibility of form. They offer a simultaneous theor- stated: ‘A figure, even a small one, will better trans-
etical and historical analysis of form, and suggest a mit an understanding of a building and will more
separation and synthesis of the knowledge that promptly communicate its disposition than the
typal and typological reasoning make available. most thorough verbal description.’17
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Figure 1. ‘Plan des

églises les plus
remarquables bâties
depuis l’an 326
jusqu’en 1764’ [‘Plans
of the Most Remarkable
Churches Built from
326 to 1764’] by Jean-
François de Neufforge,
in, Julien-David Le Roy,
Histoire de la disposition
et des formes
différentes que les
Chrétiens ont données à
leurs temples depuis le
règne de Constantin le
Grand jusqu’à nous
(Paris, Desaint &
Saillant, 1764).
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Examining the historical changes of the temple in on development. Similarly to Le Roy, who devised
The Ruins (1770), Le Roy introduces yet another the theme and judged the competition, he claimed
important diagrammatic plate (Fig. 2). Organised in the Mémoire on the Question: What Was the
into three columns, it compares the sequential trans- State of Egyptian Architecture and What Do the
formation of Egyptian and Phoenician, Greek and Greeks Seem to Have Borrowed from It? that the
Roman, and Christian huts into temples with development of the tripartite origins of architecture
increasing size and detail. The diagram is in the cave, hut and tent was connected, despite
accompanied by an extensive text explaining the emerging sequentially and in parallel in different cul-
relationship of each instance to its precedent in the tures. But while editing the Mémoire for publication
imagined line of development that is depicted. under a new title, On Egyptian Architecture, Con-
Despite its chronological appearance, which sidered with Respect to Its Origin, Its Principles and
implies a linear development, the plate compresses Its Taste and Compared in the Same Terms with
different historical developments into one compara- Greek Architecture (1803), Quatremère radically
tive matrix, regardless of chronology. Visible differ- overturned his earlier conclusions: he proposed
ences between instances manifest the contextual now common but multiple origins within different
responses through which history inflects the theor- cultures without any developmental connections.
etical form of architecture.18 Unlike Le Roy’s positivist idea of typological develop-
Le Roy’s work asserts a productive relationship ment, it suggested an organic system of types. Archi-
between architectural form and historicity, propos- tecture had conceptually transformed from a natural
ing that form is historically specific and part of a to an artificial language with many filiations. The
larger and enduring theoretical discourse. fundamental revision emphasised a process of intel-
However, his interest is not to resurrect the past, lection through socialisation and enculturation,
but didactically to use formal abstraction and histori- which defined architecture and its knowledge pro-
cal knowledge to explain contemporary disciplinary duction as a socio-cultural appropriation unique to
enquiry. In demonstrating how invention and dispo- a society.20
sition are closely related in the development of form Quatremère’s changing understanding of origins
and can be methodically analysed and described, his coincided with his appointment in 1787 as Editor
thesis of history prepares a modern reasoning that of the first French architectural dictionary, the Ency-
Michel Foucault characterised as ‘the emergence of clopédie méthodique: Architecture (1788–1825),
history as both knowledge and the mode of being which required him to integrate architecture within
of empiricity’.19 a new classification of knowledge that placed it
amongst the fine arts.21 This meant that he had to
Invention respond to the prevalent discourse of imitation, the
Quatremère, in his winning submission for the Prix conventional framework to discuss artistic invention.
Caylus of 1785, closely followed Le Roy’s position To this debate on imitation, Johann Joachim
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Figure 2. ‘Plate 1’ by
Michelinot after Le
Moine showing the
parallel formal
development of the
temple, in Julien-David
Le Roy, Les Ruines des
plus beaux monuments
de la Grèce: considérées
du côté de l’histoire et
du côté de
l’architecture, 2nd edn
(Paris, Delatour, 1770).
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Winckelmann’s modern art history—influenced by stood only as in a sense related to the nature of an
Le Roy’s contextual reading of artworks and their abstract theory, that is, one which generalizes
taxonomic comparison—was seminal in challenging ideas.22
imitative principles, as he judged creativity as an This non-mimetic, abstract quality was exemplified
abstraction of nature and not in classical terms as a by artificial languages, especially rhetoric. As archi-
skilfulness to represent nature. Despite these pre- tecture lacks a natural ability to imitate nature, its
cedents, Quatremère faced a difficult double task. representations require abstraction, which, so Qua-
He had to establish architecture as an imitative fine tremère posited, make the principles of transforma-
art and deconstruct its means of imitation. tive composition in rhetoric available to architecture.
Through the art-historical discourse, he under- Thus, architecture equally establishes an artificial
stood architectural imitation in relation to the ideas language. Representing a paradigm, pattern and
of the ideal, resemblance, pleasure, convention standard, type provides to this language the impor-
and invention, eventually arguing against the still- tant capacity to name, define and communicate
definitive principle of origins. He concluded this in the otherwise unknown—an abstract theory. In
An Essay on the Nature, the End, and the Means this sense of generalising abstraction can Quatre-
of Imitation in the Fine Arts of 1823, in which he mère’s otherwise confusing use of ‘imitative’ be
defined imitation and invention as an intellectual understood, when stating that this communication
abstraction requiring a re-composition of reality is achieved by an imitative resemblance, in which
through a vision or artefact that is socio-culturally an abstract idea is translated into an engaging arte-
specific and conceptually ahistorical—showing the fact. An artefact that due to the limitations of archi-
influence of Le Roy. It defines the arts as a form of tectural representation is always partial (in a
typal reasoning, with their production less a formal naturalistic sense) and ‘produced with and by
than a cultural abstraction that, although limited means of elements distinct from the elements of
by the practical and technical means available to that object’, indicating that the realisation of an arte-
each art, is principally only constrained in its rep- fact is a ‘fictitious’ interpretation that simultaneously
resentation by social utility. While art is bound to a refers to and differs from the object it represents.23
permanent social contract, the production of arte- In this process, a generalisation through abstraction
facts is continuously transformed by changes in tech- becomes translatable into a generating type or con-
nology, new materials and cultural contexts. ceptual idea, which has the ability to obtain a knowl-
Developing Le Roy’s and Winckelmann’s art-histori- edge unattainable to literal representation and
cal theses, Quatremère considers imitation accord- resemblance. Therefore, the incompleteness of rep-
ingly not aesthetically but: resentation is desirable as it necessitates abstraction,
[ … ] abstractedly, that is, under a general and and a precondition to decoding a typal idea in a
theoretical, and not a limited and practical point typological model. With the work of art principally
of view, the words I may employ should be under- unconstrained in its possible form, and imitative
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resemblance signifying the abstraction of an ‘orig- ‘pre-existing seeds’ are found in formal precedents
inal type’, what becomes operative is ‘the principle and elementary principles, which as moral (intellec-
of an abstract existence, of a nature very far tual) inventions always owe an obligation to senti-
removed from the principle of identity’.24 ment and taste. Accordingly, type is ‘like a sort of
Developing in the Essay on Imitation a system of nucleus around which are assembled, and with
abstract types against which material objects are which are consequently coordinated, all the devel-
judged, Quatremère applied this conceptual system opments and the variations of form to which the
to architecture in his dictionary entry ‘Type’ of object was susceptible’.28 Although Quatremère
1825. The synonymity of the notions ‘image’ and never explicitly explained how this formal variation
‘idea’ (and ‘ideal’ as an adjective of idea) is, as he is to be derived in practice, this is a problem that,
pointed out, apparent from its etymological roots, to some extent, was developed by Durand before
with idea deriving from the Greek eidos and him.
eidolon that denote respectively a conceptual type
or Platonic Form and a physical apparition.25 Thus Disposition
in ‘Type’ he famously stated: Quatremère’s typal reasoning in which conceptual
The word type presents less the image of the thing abstraction is the basis on which to ‘invent’ a disci-
to copy or imitate completely, than the idea of an plinary diagram of knowledge is complemented by
element which must itself serve as a rule for the Durand’s preceding examination of architectural dis-
model. [ … ] The model, understood in the sense position that suggests a form of typological reason-
of practical execution, is an object that should ing. He describes architecture in functionalist terms
be repeated as it is; contrariwise, the type is an as the formal disposing of parts, and his comparison
object after which each artist can conceive of abstracted historical forms made their reduction
works that bear no resemblance to each other. to formal diagrams a means of analysis and design.
All is precise and given when it comes to the Accompanying his lectures at the École Polytech-
model, while all is more or less vague when it nique, Durand published the Collection and Parallel
comes to the type.26 (1799–1801), which in some editions included the
While models have apparent rules, type represents a Essay on the General History of Architecture by
non-prescriptive ‘idea’, ‘motif’ and ‘intention’. Type Jacques-Guillaume Legrand.29 A student of Le Roy,
organises while the model structures. And typologi- Durand was influenced in his abstraction of function
cal models serve a formal translation of speculative to graphic diagrams by the analysis of historical form
and non-material typal ideas. Contemplating the through typological comparison. But Durand owed
closely related problem of invention, Quatremère more methodologically to a comparative method
concluded: ‘Everything must have an antecedent; of classification by his teacher’s zoologist Georges
nothing whatsoever comes from nothing, and this Cuvier. This allegiance was in no uncertain terms
cannot but apply to all human inventions.’27 These asserted in Legrand’s essay, claiming that through
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structural and formal analysis a ‘natural history of utility, architecture has to be fit for purpose and
architecture might be created’.30 Corresponding to maintain economy of means. According to Durand,
Cuvier’s comparative taxonomies in which history fitness derives from solidity (the right use of
was reduced to formal and functional descriptions materials), salubrity (the right choice of site and
that lend themselves to scientific analysis, and building exposure) and commodity (the right dispo-
through which physiognomic development could sition of the building), while economy relies on sym-
be reconstructed and explained, the ambition of metry, regularity and simplicity.
the Collection and Parallel was equally to employ Durand’s design method relies on planar disposi-
history scientifically in architecture. Promising objec- tions, with a horizontal plan informing its vertical
tivity, technical drawing rather than perspectival ren- section. The disposition of a building and its elements
derings provided the means to analyse formal develops from regular grids and axes—a grid of paral-
development. With history in the natural sciences lel inter-axis determined by the efficient structural dis-
defined as rational, as directly linked to verifiable tance of two columns, according to which the building
structural development, Durand considered the elements are distributed. Subdividing the initial grid
effects of style and character on buildings as second- and omitting, adding or offsetting one axis differen-
ary cultural phenomena. In their place, structural tiates the structural elements of a building. This
relationships and, implicitly, formal complexity creates unlimited part-to-part and part-to-whole com-
became a material verification of historical progress. binations of building elements and results in a
Durand developed the ideas of the Collection and mutation of the building parti, as ‘Plate 20’ demon-
Parallel in his Précis (1802–5) by devising a design strates (Fig. 3). Despite the procedural nature of
method simple to follow and instruct. As the Précis design, fitness of the composition, according to
declares, its method applies to the design of any Durand, is also determined by the contextual require-
building. Durand’s architectural course at the École ments of ‘places, persons, sites, costs, and so on’.32
Polytechnique was therefore described as ‘the According to the method, once a plan is derived,
pursuit of certain ideas that are few in number but the sections can be developed through similar verti-
general in application, and from which all the par- cal combinations and, subsequently, plan and sec-
ticular ideas would necessarily derive’, outlining a tions determine the elevations. This sequence of
‘safe and rapid way to compose and execute build- design exposes a basic problem of the method. As
ings of all kinds, in all places, and at all times’.31 revealed in the orthographic drawings of ‘Plate
Despite Durand understanding these generative 21’, which shows supposedly a method applicable
ideas in terms of function and differentiation of to all architectural disposition, Durand’s plan-based
structure and not through structural comparison, process cannot logically justify elevational drawings
an affinity to the typological problem is evident. (Fig. 4). In order to determine these, conventions
Yet Durand justifies his generic method of design on scale and mass are needed. The elevations and
through common problems of utility. To achieve by implication the parti itself cannot be produced
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Figure 3. ‘Plate 20,

Ensemble d’édifices,
résultants de divisions
du carré, du
parallélogramme et de
leurs combinaisons avec
le cercle’ [‘Building
Ensembles, Resulting
from the Divisions of the
Square, the
Parallelogram and Their
Combinations with the
Circle’], in Jean-Nicolas-
Louis Durand, Précis des
leçons d’architecture
données à l’École
Royale Polytechnique,
vol 1 (Paris, the Author,
1802).

by the proposed design method and rely on pre- the whole is important, however, ‘when you come
cedent, as a dome is unexplained by transformations to compose yourself, you must begin with the
of a planar grid.33 whole, proceed to the parts, and finish with the
It is therefore apparent that the design method of details’.34 The design method is consequently con-
the Précis depends on a differentiation of pre- ceived as didactic and less a method of design
cedents, to which Durand admitted at the very than analysis, revealing Durand’s interest in a didac-
end. He explained in a later addition to the Précis, tic architectural project.
the Graphic Portion, that there is a difference By breaking down the general idea of the archi-
between learning to compose and composition tecture into special ideas, and those into particular
proper. When learning, a didactic analysis of part- ideas, in the graphic portion we have broken
to-part relationships and eventually of the parts to down the general ideas of buildings into those
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Figure 4. ‘Plate 21,

Marche à suivre dans la
composition d’un projet
quelconque’
[‘Procedure to Be
Followed in the
Composition of Any
Project’], in Jean-
Nicolas-Louis Durand,
Précis des leçons
d’architecture données
à l’École Royale
Polytechnique, vol 1
(Paris, the Author, 1813
edition).

of their parts, and these in turn into those of their architectural form is, however, premised on an
primary elements; then, by working back from the assumption of progression and limited to a taxon-
elements to the ensemble of the buildings—that is omy of known work, as collated in the Collection
to say, by analyzing them—we have succeeded in and Parallel. Borrowing from the sciences, Durand
forming a precise idea of them, just as we had first sees architectural knowledge as arising from a dia-
succeeded in forming a precise idea of architec- grammatic and generative understanding of
ture itself by analyzing the general idea expressed relationships. This gives architectural disposition a
by that word.35 formal freedom that, according to Durand, is
By abstracting precedents to operative diagrams, limited by society’s need for utility—defining
Durand is able to deploy received form as contingent thereby utility as a social agenda. It is this generative
and not normative to design. His abstraction of understanding of form and a functionalist con-
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ception of the social, combined with an attempt to Building (c. 1840s), and later summarised in The
find a formal grammar capable of responding to Four Elements of Architecture (1851). They consoli-
the exigencies of modern society, through which dated his ‘dressing theory’ (Bekleidungstheorie)
Durand anticipated the programme and failure of and ‘theory of material transformation’ (Stoffwech-
the Modern Movement. The adoption of his design seltheorie), through which he identified the four
method by later discourses of typology convey the elements of architecture (hearth, roof, enclosure
instrumentality and limitation that his graphic dia- and substructure) and corresponding technical arts
grams bring to the discipline. (ceramics, carpentry, textiles and masonry).37 Stimu-
lated by the anthropologist Gustav Klemm, Semper’s
Style work was essentially a cultural theory of artistic
Quatremère’s theories of invention and Durand’s invention, explaining the creative process as a modi-
exploration of disposition represent first forms of fication of elemental artistic motives through stylistic
typal and typological abstraction that make use of formal changes. This provided an explanation of the
conceptual and graphic diagrams. As complemen- relationship between a typal concept and typological
tary forms of reasoning, they became synthesised articulation through a problem of artistic design that
in Semper’s work. Interested in the relationship is not found in either Quatremère’s or Durand’s
between conception and materiality, he examined work. It also developed a concept of abstraction
how an abstract type is continuously realised in the that derived from the creative design process itself.
material and technical transformation of art-forms. Semper concluded his comparative theory of style
Semper became familiar with Durand’s didactic first in his London writings, in the early 1850s, and
teaching during his studies in the 1820s in Paris, a series of lectures held at the Department of Practi-
and witnessed a heated debate on polychromy, cal Art in London from 1853 to 1854.38 It was also in
which was first prompted by Quatremère’s The London that Semper saw his thesis of the four
Olympian Jupiter of 1814. Inspired by the problem elements of architecture represented in a ‘Caribbean
of polychromy, Semper concluded his own archaeo- hut’ from Trinidad, which was displayed at the Great
logical studies in the Preliminary Remarks on Poly- Exhibition of 1851 (Fig. 6).
chrome Architecture and Sculpture in Antiquity In his lecture ‘Outline for a System of a Compara-
(1834) and Application of Colour in Architecture tive Theory of Style’ (1853), Semper proposed a
and Sculpture (1836) with the observation that the compromise between a typal and typological
arts, specific to their cultural and political context, reading of culture and its history, whilst formulating
formally transformed artistic traditions while uphold- a theory of building based on a comparative analysis
ing elemental typal motives in idea (Fig. 5).36 of elemental types. Stylistic variations, according to
Semper’s search for the origins of architecture in Semper, were the practical means of necessary utili-
typal motives was first articulated in drafts for a tarian-material transformations in the becoming of
never-completed book, the Comparative Theory of form, disintegrating formal traditions and revealing
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Figure 5. ‘Giebeldecke
vom Parthenon zu
Athen’ [‘Pediment of
Parthenon in Athens’],
in Gottfried Semper,
Anwendungen der
Farben in der
Architektur und Plastik
(Dresden, Fürstenau &
Co, 1836).
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Figure 6: ‘Karibische
Hütte’ [‘Caribbean
hut’], in Gottfried
Semper, Der Stil in den
technischen und
tektonischen Künsten,
oder praktische
Ästhetik: Ein Handbuch
für Techniker, Künstler
und Kunstfreunde
(Munich, Bruckmann,
1863).
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in their abstraction a symbolic and cultural context. duction and their development, insights that could
Style in this way became important to the definition then be applied to design in both functional and
of a material model and made art relevant to society. conceptual terms. He was also critical of Durand’s
Semper demanded in the lecture that architecture conception of utility as simply a human function,
should follow the modern sciences and adopt a sys- as he understood it as constantly transformed by
tematic ordering of knowledge through classifi- changing ornament and technical production,
cation. Recalling his visits to the Jardin des Plantes adapting to practical and social human need.
in Paris as a student, Semper argued that the meth- Accordingly he declared that the industrial arts
odologies of natural history could equally apply to gave birth to architecture, and style obtained impor-
studies of the arts: tance in a work of art by ‘observing the limits, which
They are like those of nature, connected together are contained in and defined by the task and
by some few fundamental Ideas, which have their problem in question’.40
simplest expressions in types. But these normal Style motivates typological transformations and
forms have given and give rise to an infinite reveals underlying typal ideas through its changing
number of varieties by development and combi- means of abstraction. For example, Semper’s main
nation [ … ] Will it not be important to trace out architectural thesis of dressing illustrates a process
some of those types of the artistical forms, and of changing material abstraction, when the spatial
to follow them in their gradual progress from covering of wall and ceiling evolve from temporary
step to step up to their highest development? A textile screens into permanent and solid walls.
method, analogous to that which Baron Cuvier Throughout its material transformations, the artistic
followed applied to art, and especially to architec- motive of textile decoration was maintained, not in
ture, would at least contribute towards getting a resemblance but in idea. To Semper this intrinsic
clear insight over its whole province and perhaps relationship between typal idea and typological
also it would form the base of a doctrine of transformation is also manifest in the etymological
Style, and of a Sort of topic or Method, how to roots of the German words Wand (wall) and
invent [ … ].39 Gewand (dress), and further supported by archaeo-
Like Quatremère, Semper saw elemental types as logical evidence of a developmental link between
conceptual diagrams of invention. And appropriat- Egyptian, Assyrian and Greek polychrome styles in
ing Cuvier, he believed that methodologically a com- architecture.41 This reading of style as a conceptual
parison of material formation could clarify invention problem of abstraction and transformation that
and its relationship to problems of styles. This ‘com- effects materiality, essentially conforms to one given
parative theory’ was already discernible in Durand; by Quatremère as ‘that which is least material, that
however, Semper understood it not just as a is the conception of ideas and the art of developing
graphic analysis in the service of formalism, but as them according to a certain order’.42 Semper,
a means to analyse the motivations of artistic pro- however, focused on the interrelationship between
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type and style. Types were to him abstract and necess- position in rhetoric. Quatremère’s theory of type
ary forms, whose first materialisation is always modi- articulates the first and indispensable canon of
fied into new forms of artistic abstractions. ‘invention’ (inventio) by establishing a systematic
The Styles, which then resulted out of these sec- architectural theory of invention that defines the dis-
ondary treatments were composite Styles, which ciplinary means and principles through which coher-
partook on one hand of the types, and the con- ent arguments are generated in practice.44 Durand’s
ditions of Style, of the old materials employed method of design in turn is based on the second
for the latter, and on the other hand, they canon of ‘arrangement’ (dispositio or taxis), which
partook of the Style which suits the new selected follows once an argument or idea is strategised by
substance and manner of treatment.43 invention. Arrangement manages the relative and
Following a succession of material transformations iterative ordering of the part to the whole and
over time, the effects of type and style become organises arguments into an effective discourse
hybridised, with the original artistic motive realised stating, outlining and providing proof for a given
in different materials. Accordingly, the same case or problem. Finally, Semper’s doctrine relates
material has to be able to accommodate different to the canon of ‘style’ (elocutio) by discussing the
stylistic abstractions. Semper’s doctrine of style appropriate and effective modes to express ideas.
explicates how the translation of a generic idea Whereas invention determines what is articulated,
into a specific form can be conceived by conflating style articulates how it is communicated.
Quatremère’s metaphysical and cultural idealism The three theories considered problems of
with Durand’s deterministic and utilitarian material- historicity in the architectural work and proposed a
ism. He develops a synthesis between typal and resolution through abstraction: conceptually, dia-
typological abstraction in which formal invention is grammatically and materially. Their mobilisation of
a precondition and an outcome. Consolidating history profoundly changed the conception of archi-
theory and practice, he provides an example of tecture and revealed type as only conditionally
how an abstract, theoretical type can provoke con- autonomous, at the very moments when through
tinuous formal interpretations and material trans- the translation of typal ideas disciplinary knowledge
formations, and how a typological comparison is challenged, changed and enriched. Prompted by
makes form available to rigorous analysis. In this an eighteenth-century transformation of practice
sense, his architectural theory conceives form as and systematisation of theory, architecture became
arising from the combination of social and formal a modern discipline with its own claim to a specific
or material diagrams. knowledge, which only became possible by dis-
tinguishing it from its history. The advent of the
Conclusion notion of type in architecture in the early nineteenth
Quatremère’s, Durand’s and Semper’s theories are century was instigated by a pervasive obsession with
consistent with the principles of transformative com- origins and fundamental advances in archaeology,
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art history, anthropology, etymology, grammatology hand, formal solutions receptive to transformation
and zoology. This highlights that concepts of type and, on the other, represents a repository of knowl-
and typology are not specific to architecture, but edge. Thus, the utilisation of diagrams is essential
are interdisciplinary ideas through which knowledge to conceptualise and analyse form. Although for-
is ordered and obtained. But the instrumentalisation mative to the historical discourse of architecture,
of type and typology in architecture discloses their types do not require continuity, as evident in
conception in didactic terms, how theory and prac- Semper’s theories, and are defined by transform-
tice are imagined as an indivisible material and ations through which they effect change. As Alan
social construct. Colquhoun wrote, to ‘understand any given cul-
The eventual demise of type in the twentieth- tural situation, we must investigate its synchronic
century architectural discourse encouraged a turn structure rather than try to explain it exclusively in
to diagrams. However, as Le Roy recognised, archi- terms of diachronic development. The synchronic
tectural diagrams rely on typological production. He situation always contains traces of the past’.45
also understood that a diagrammatic function Types are an integral part of the physical-material,
depends on abstraction, an abstraction of architec- socio-political, symbolic-cultural and historical con-
tural form that considers history, context and ception of our cities and their architecture, but a
culture as discursive arguments and limits. The typo- typal and typological reasoning never just looks at
logical diagram therefore simultaneously envisions the past and is directed towards the present.
architecture as a specific object and a generic possi- While the questions arising with the concepts of
bility of objects. The diagram limits the possibilities type and historicity have defined a modern reason-
of architectural speculation without determining a ing of architecture, this was not to establish static
finite formal representation. Although diagrams norms, rather to advance continuing practice and
are instrumental to arranging and conveying knowledge. As Semper insisted, artistic progress,
relationships, as the discussed theories of type despite evolving from past traditions, only
reveal, diagrams are only intermediaries between becomes possible when traditions are disintegrated
conceptual thinking and material representation. by contemporary culture.
Diagrams contribute productively to a tension
between type and model by offering a possible syn-
thesis. Accordingly, a formal individuation is a clari-
Notes and references
fication of a typal idea through the translation of a
1. Cf formative texts such as Stan Allen’s ‘Diagrams
diagram into a possible material manifestation. Matter’, ANY, 23 (1998), pp. 16–19; Peter Eisenman’s
By abstracting common organisational and struc- ‘Diagram: An Original Scene of Writing’, in, Peter
tural diagrams of architectural cases, type can be Eisenman, Diagram Diaries (New York, Universe Pub-
analysed and projected, as anticipated by Durand lishing, 1999), pp. 26–35; Robert Somol’s ‘Dummy
and clarified by Semper. This presents, on the one Text, or The Diagrammatic Basis of Contemporary
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Architecture’, in, Peter Eisenman, Diagram Diaries Vittorio Gregotti’s Il territorio dell’architettura (Milan,
(New York, Universe Publishing, 1999), pp. 6–25. Feltrinelli, 1966) and Giorgio Grassi’s La costruzione
2. See in particular Eisenman, ‘Diagram: An Original logica dell’architettura (Padua, Marsilio, 1967).
Scene of Writing’, op. cit., p. 31. 7. Werner Oechslin, ‘Premises for the Resumption of the
3. A well-known example of this normative reduction of Discussion of Typology’, Assemblage, 1 (1989), pp.
building types is Ernst Neufert’s Bauentwurfslehre 36–53 and ‘For a Resumption of the Typological Dis-
(Berlin, Bauwelt-Verlag, 1936), which is currently in cussion’, Casabella, 509–510 (1985), pp. 66–75.
its 40th German edition and in its English translation 8. Micha Bandini, ‘Typology as a Form of Convention’, AA
as Architect’s Data in its 4th edition. Files, 6 (1984), pp. 73–82; 75.
4. Jeffrey Kipnis, ‘Re-originating Diagrams’, in Peter Eisen- 9. These include Anthony Vidler, ‘From the Hut to the
man: Feints, Silvio Cassarà, ed. (Milan, Skira, 2006), p. 196. Temple: Quatremère de Quincy and the Idea of
5. Carlo Giulio Argan, ‘Sul concetto di tipologia architet- Type’, in The Writings of the Walls (New York, Prince-
tonica’, in, Karl Oettinger, Mohammed Rassem, eds, ton Architectural Press, 1987), pp. 147–64; ‘The Idea
Festsschrift für Hans Sedlmayr (Munich, Beck, 1962), of Type: The Transformation of the Academic Ideal,
pp. 96–101; English translation, ‘On the Typology of 1750–1830’, Oppositions, 8 (1977), pp. 94–115 and
Architecture’ by Joseph Rykwert in Architectural ‘The Third Typology’, Oppositions, 7 (1976), pp. 1–4.
Design, 33 (1963), pp. 564–565; 565. 10. For example, Argan’s ‘On the Typology of Architec-
6. Argan’s article has to be seen in the context of ture’, op. cit., Rossi’s Architecture of the City, op. cit.,
Ernesto Nathan Rogers’s ‘Le preesistenze ambientali Colquhoun’s ‘Typology and Design Method’, Arena:
e i temi pratici contemporanei’, Casabella-Continuitá, Architectural Association Journal, 83 (1967), pp. 11–
204 (February-March, 1955), pp. 3–6 (English trans- 14, Vidler’s ‘The Third Typology’, op. cit., Moneo’s
lation, ‘Preexisting Conditions and Issues of Contem- ‘On Typology’, Oppositions, 13 (1978), pp. 23–45
porary Building Practice’, in Architecture Culture and Oechslin’s ‘Premises for the Resumption of the Dis-
1943–1968: A Documentary Anthology, Joan cussion of Typology’, op. cit.
Ockman, Edward Eigen, eds (New York, Rizzoli, 11. Cf the most recent, comprehensive reassessments of
1993), pp. 200–04), which formulates the concepts the work of Le Roy and Quatremère by Christopher
of continuità, and Saverio Muratori’s morphological Drew Armstrong, Julien-David Leroy and the Making
study of Venice in Studi per una operante storia of Architectural History (London, Routledge, 2012)
urbana di Venezia (Rome, Istituto Poligrafico dello and Sylvia Lavin, Quatremère de Quincy and the Inven-
Stato, 1960). They influenced the extension of typol- tion of a Modern Language of Architecture (Cam-
ogy to morphology, and a new rationality connecting bridge, Mass., The MIT Press, 1992).
architectural design strategies to that of the city. This 12. Claude Perrault, Ordonnance for the Five Kinds of
is evident, for example, in discussions by Carlo Aymo- Columns After the Method of the Ancients [‘Ordon-
nino and Aldo Rossi of typology and morphology in nance des cinq espèces de colonnes selon la
1963–65, and subsequently in Rossi’s L’architettura méthode des anciens’, 1683]; Indra Kagis McEwan,
della città (Padua, Marsilio, 1966); English translation, transl. (Los Angeles, Getty Publications, 1993), p. 52.
The Architecture of the City by Diane Ghirardo, Joan 13. This can be compared to Anthony Vidler’s description
Ockman (Cambridge, Mass., The MIT Press, 1982), of history and theory in Johann Joachim Winckel-
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mann’s work: ‘The first was the body of rules govern- 20. The cultural anthropologist Melville Jean Herskovits
ing taste, form, composition, propriety, and genre, distinguishes, in the formation of culture by the indi-
generally understood as the “theory of art”. The viduals of a society, between socialisation (a formal
second was the account of the remains of the past social integration) and enculturation (an unconscious
commonly understood as “history”, sometimes conditioning through customs that can change). Cul-
chronological, sometimes heterotypical, sometimes tural change taking place as a result of exchange
arranged by juxtaposition, similarity, or resemblance.’; between different cultures is defined as diffusion
in ‘The Aesthetics of History’, The Writings of the Walls, (when a cultural transmission is achieved) or accul-
op. cit., p. 127. turation (when a cultural transmission is in process).
14. This thesis anticipates Winckelmann’s dogma in the See Man and his Works (New York, Alfred Knopf,
History of the Art of Antiquity (1764) that all art histori- 1948; repr. 1956).
cal enquiries ought to consider the context of a work of 21. The Encyclopaedia, or a Systematic Dictionary of the
art through the culture, climate and geography of the Sciences, Arts, and Crafts (1751–72), Denis Diderot,
society that produced it. Jean-Baptiste le Rond d’Alembert, eliminated Charles
15. Julien-David Le Roy, The Ruins of the Most Beautiful Batteux’s category of the beautifying arts that pre-
Monuments of Greece [‘Les Ruines des plus beaux viously included architecture and instead positioned it
monuments de la Grèce: considérées du côté de l’his- alongside the fine arts of music, painting, sculpture
toire et du côté de l’architecture’], 2nd edn, 2 vols, and engraving.
1770; David Britt, transl. (Los Angeles, Getty Research 22. Antoine-Chrysostome Quatremère de Quincy, An Essay
Institute, 2004), p. 210. on the Nature, the End, and the Means of Imitation in
16. Ibid.: earlier comparative plates by Jacques Tarade, the Fine Arts [‘Essai sur la nature, le but et les moyens
Juste-Aurèle Meissonnier and Gabriel-Pierre-Martin de l’imitation dans les beaux-arts arts’, 1823];
Dumont, which are likely to have been known to Le J. C. Kent, transl. (London, Smith, Elder and Co., 1837),
Roy, are surveyed by Robin Middleton in his ‘Introduc- p. 172.
tion’, The Ruins, Le Roy, op. cit., pp. 90–97. 23. Ibid., p. 21.
17. Julien-David Le Roy, Histoire de la disposition et des 24. Ibid., p. 258.
formes différentes que les Chrétiens ont données à 25. Ibid., p. 212: ‘The words idea and image being synon-
leurs temples depuis le règne de Constantin le Grand ymous, some metaphysicians have proposed to deter-
jusqu’à nous (Paris, Desaint & Saillant, 1764); as cited mine their variation, by applying the word idea to
by Armstrong in Julien-David Leroy, op. cit., p. 162. notions of intellectual objects, and the word image to
18. As Le Roy explains, ‘the forms of the buildings largely those of corporeal objects.’
depend on climate and [that] the principles of architecture 26. ‘Type’, in The True, the Fictive and the Real: The Histori-
are not all so general that they do not sometimes give way cal Dictionary of Architecture of Quatremère De Quincy
before such influences’: The Ruins, op. cit., p. 229. [originally in the Encyclopédie méthodique: Architec-
19. Michel Foucault, The Order of Things: An Archaeology ture, vol 3, 1825], Samir Younés, transl. (London,
of Human Sciences [‘Les Mots et les choses: une arché- Andreas Papadakis Publishers, 2000), p. 254.
ologie des sciences humaines’, 1966], translation 27. Ibid., p. 255.
(New York, Pantheon Books, 1971; repr. 1994), p. 221. 28. Ibid., p. 255.
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29. Legrand offered to Durand in 1799 an historical and and its morals, laws and customs, and described the
theoretical text based on his planned work entitled His- houses of the South Pacific as centred around the
toire générale de l’architecture. The essay was included hearth, elevated on earthen platforms, enclosed by
with some first editions of the Collection and Parallel of walls made of wicker and covered by a sparred
Buildings and in 1809 published separately: Jacques- timber roof. As Klemm claimed, art did not originate
Guillaume Legrand, ‘Essai sur l’histoire générale de from fixed types but from a primordial human need
l’architecture’, in, Jean-Nicolas-Louis Durand, Recueil for representation that expressed itself as an artistic
et parallèle des édifices de tout genres, anciens et mod- drive: ‘We find the beginnings of art in the lowest
ernes, new edn (Paris, 1809). stages of culture, where we also encounter the begin-
30. Ibid., as translated by Anthony Vidler in ‘The Idea of Type, ning of nations, because man has the urge to manifest
op. cit., pp. 106–07. his experiences externally, and to adorn his environ-
31. Jean-Nicolas-Louis Durand, Précis of the Lectures on ment with these representations.’: in Allgemeine
Architecture with Graphic Portion of the Lecture on Cultur-Geschichte der Menschheit, I , p. 214, as cited
Architecture [Précis des leçons d’architecture données by Mari Hvattum, in Gottfried Semper and the
à l’École Royale Polytechnique, 1802–5 and Partie gra- Problem of Historicism (Cambridge, Cambridge Univer-
phique des cours d’architecture faits à l’École royale sity Press, 2004), pp. 43–44.
polytechnique depuis sa réorganisation; précédée 38. See Gottfried Semper, Die Vier Elemente der Baukunst
d’un sommaire des leçons relatives à ce nouveau (Brunswick, Vieweg, 1851); English translation, The
travail, 1821], David Britt, transl. (Los Angeles, The Four Elements of Architecture: A Contribution to the
Getty Research Institute, 2000), p. 77. Comparative Study of Architecture (1851), in Gottfried
32. Ibid., p. 126. Semper: The Four Elements of Architecture and Other
33. This contradiction is pointed out by Leandro Madrazo Writings, by Harry Francis Mallgrave, Wolfgang Herr-
in ‘Durand and the Science of Architecture’, Journal mann (Cambridge, Cambridge University Press,
of Architectural Education, 48.1 (1994), pp. 12–24. 1989), pp. 74–129, Wissenschaft, Industrie, und
34. J-N-L. Durand, Précis, op. cit., p. 180. Kunst (Brunswick, Vieweg, 1852); English translation,
35. J-N-L. Durand, Partie graphique des cours d’architec- Science, Industry, and Art, in Gottfried Semper: The
ture, D. Britt, transl., op. cit., pp. 185–6. Four Elements of Architecture and Other Writings,
36. Semper uses ‘motif’ and ‘motive’ interchangeably in his pp. 130–67 and Theorie des Formell-Schönen (ca.
English writing, indicating without much differen- 1856–59), Semper Archive MS 179, fols. 1–46;
tiation an artistic motif and motivation. However, English translation, ‘The Attributes of Formal Beauty’,
given his particular interest in technological and cul- in Gottfried Semper: In Search of Architecture by Wolf-
tural motivations for the production of artefacts, I use gang Herrmann (Cambridge, Mass., The MIT Press,
‘motive’ to emphasise this rather than a concern with 1984), pp. 219–44.
motifs. 39. Gottfried Semper, ‘Outline for a System of a Compara-
37. Semper’s idea of the four elements was indebted to tive Theory of Style’ (1853): MS 122, fols. 5–6, in the
Gustav Klemm’s anthropological work the General Semper Archive, Eidgenössische Technische
Cultural History of Mankind (1843–52), which coined Hochschule, Zurich. Reprinted in Gottfried Semper,
a modern concept of culture as formed by society ‘London Lecture of November 11, 1853’, edited with
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a commentary by Harry Francis Mallgrave and preface 43. Semper, MS 122, fols. 30–31, repr. in ‘London
by Joseph Rykwert, in RES: Anthropology and Aes- Lecture’, op. cit., p. 16.
thetics, 6 (1983), pp. 5–31; pp. 8–9. 44. Quatremère’s library included La Rhetorique d’Aristote
40. Semper, MS 122, fol. 15, repr. in ‘London Lecture’, (Paris, 1822) with notes and an index of parallels in
op. cit., p. 11. Cicero and Quintilian: see Fournel, Bibliothèque de
41. For the etymological argument see Gottfried Semper, M. Quatremère de Quincy de l’Académie des inscrip-
Style in the Technical and Tectonic Arts; or, Practical tions et belles-lettres, secrétaire honoraire de l’Acade-
Aesthetics, Harry Francis Mallgrave, Michael Robin- mie des beaux-arts (Paris, 1850), p. 27.
son, trans (Los Angeles, Getty Publications, 2004), 45. Alan Colquhoun, ‘Introduction: Modern Architecture
p. 248. and Historicity’, in Essays in Architectural Criticism:
42. ‘Style’, in The True, the Fictive and the Real, op. cit., Modern Architecture and Historical Change (Cam-
p. 238. bridge, Mass., The MIT Press, 1981), p. 14.