Journal of Architectural Education

ISSN: 1046-4883 (Print) 1531-314X (Online) Journal homepage: http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/rjae20

History of Architectural Education through People

Jean Labutut

To cite this article: Jean Labutut (1979) History of Architectural Education through People,
Journal of Architectural Education, 33:2, 22-24

To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/10464883.1979.10758617

Published online: 02 Jan 2014.

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Download by: [University of California, San Diego] Date: 23 March 2016, At: 19:26

HISTORY OF
ARCHITECTURAL EDUCATION
THROUGH PEOPLE
Downloaded by [University of California, San Diego] at 19:26 23 March 2016
A few months after my decision to be-
come an architect, and while I was in bed
with typhoid fever, my uncle (the doctor)
reassured me: "Either you die or you re-
main an idiot." So here I am, at the age of
eighty, asked to testify relative to the "His-
tory of Architectural Education Through
People," acting as a participant, not as an
art historian, and while still a student-for
the more one knows the more one wants to
learn.
After beginning the study of the Ar-
chitecture at the Ecole des Beaux Arts et
des Sciences Industrielles in Toulouse,
France, I went to Paris, entering the
Atelier Laloux in the fall of 1917 and was
admitted to the Ecole Superieure des
Beaux Arts in February 1918.
The following month, answering the call
from the Army, I went to Versailles in a
regiment of engineers specializing in rail-
ways and bridges. Part of our training took
place on the Grand Canal of the park of
Versailles, the anchors disturbing the
water and bringing up from the bottom au-
thentic 18th century pestilence.
After wartime experiences and graduat-
ing as Sergeant, I returned in the fall of
1919 to the Ecole and the Atelier Laloux,
eager to take full advantage of a unique
type of architectural education. It con-
sisted, first, of the duties to be performed
at the Ecole. Second, using part of my free
time, I worked for different architects on
an hourly wage, sometimes for weeks-an
action known as faire la place in order to
learn office experience and the practical
side of the profession. Third, using
another part of my free time, I worked for
advanced students in order to analyze their
22 point of view and method-an action
known as negrifiage.
This procedure led to the accumulation
of special mentions, medals and prizes, re-
ducing my time at the Ecole. It led to my
being among the few French students
selected to take part in the competitions
organized by the Academic des Beaux Arts
of the Institut de France, winning in 1922
the first competition and the title of
Laureat de 1'Institut de France. Those
competitions were not accessible to
foreign students, and the selection of can-
didates as well as the judgments were dif-
ferent from the competitions organized by
the Ecole de Beaux Arts. This is a fact ig-
nored or forgotten by art historians writing
about the "Architecture of the Ecole des
Beaux Arts," without distinguishing the
difference between the Ecole and the In-
stitut, Without the powerful and indepen-
dent institution of the Institut de France,
the influence of the Ecole des Beaux Arts
would have been greatly reduced.
While confinement to traditional forms
was still very much in vogue, fresh air was
producing an effect. For example, the pub-
lication of the Cite lndustrielle by Tony
Garnier and, as early as 1920, a public lec-
ture by Le Corbusier attracted uS,-as did
the work of Auguste Perret, the published
viewpoint ofMies Van der Rohe, and later
the hangars of Orly by Freyssinet which
provoked the statement from my Patron
Victor Laloux, while looking at the
hangars, "That is great architecture."
Changes in architectural education were
taking place. In 1924, while I was one of
the ten finalists in the competition for the
Grand Prix de Rome, the program was
"Un Institut de Botanique Generale," bas-
ically a landscape problem. Inspired by the
JEAN LABUTUT, FAIA. began the study 0/
architecture in his nat ire Toulouse and went to the
Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris for aduanced studies.
He joined the faculty 0/ Princeton U niuersity in
1928 and served then as professor 0/design until
bis retirement in 1967. In 1976 he became tbe first
recipient oftbe ACSA/AIA Award/or Excellence in
Architectural Education.
work of the landscape architect ]CN
Forestier and by the Cite I ndustrielle of
Tony Garnier, my buildings were of rein-
forced concrete, the first time in a Grand
Prix de Rome competition.
My solution to that problem was the rea-
son for a call from Havana, Cuba, in 1925
and the beginning of a great partnership
with] C N Forestier, with whom I worked
in France, Cuba, Spain and Portugal. It
gave me the opportunity to practice ar-
chitecture, urban planning and landscape
architecture. That trinity of one substance
was to be my approach from then on while
practicing and teaching.
In 1926, upon my return from Havana, I
was again a finalist in the competition for
the Grand Prix de Rome. After nine bal-
lots for the First Prize, I was classified
Premier Second Grand Prix de Rome.
In 1927 I received a call from the
American Summer School of Fontaine-
bleau. It was the first of twenty years of
contact with that school which culminated
in my tenure as Director. 1927 was a
memorable summer during which educa-
a
tion pied d'oeuvre was emphasized to guide
my American students through some of
their works.
It was also in the fall of 1927 that I re-
ceived a call from Princeton University.
January 18, 1928 was the beginning of my
contact with graduate students. I was to
remain in charge of candidates for the pro-
fessional degree for forty years, stimulat-
ing their creative power, and, according to
their potentiality, being more demanding
of the most gifted while leading all of them
toward the inexhaustible field of architec-
tural applications.
In 1928, 0 bligations in Paris, Princeton,

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Piazza ,,"d["lId.
Fontainebleau, Spain and Cuba required
five crossings of the Atlantic or the equiva-
lent of six weeks at sea, with a special draft-
ing board in my trunk.
1928 was the year in which I started to
analyze the impact of the influence of
French architectural education upon ar-
chitects in the United States of America.
The greatest surprise and shock was the
way French architectural education was in-
terpreted by some schools, and in particu-
lar by the Beaux Arts Institute of Design.
It was, in short, only a simulation.
The reason was in the fact that, while in
France, foreign students were in direct
contact only with the Ecole and were
therefore unable to participate in the sys-
tem of advanced education offered
through the competitions of the Insrirut de
France. They missed the best opportunity
to realize the importance of permanent
values, whatever the architectural physical
forms, from traditional to modern.
I was also a witness to facts resulting
from unassimilated Beaux Arts education.
I remember a statement of my patron
Victor Laloux ro an American architect, a
former student of the Ecole des Beaux
Arts, who had shown us his unsuccessful
solution in a competition-s-convinced that
he had been victim of an unfair judgment:
"My young man you are getting old." The
young man was sixty, the patron was
eighty-five.
In 1929 the Washingron Federal Trian-
gle was only a model. "Let Paris be Paris,
let Washingron be Washingron" was my
answer ro the two architects, former stu-
dents of the Ecole who were in charge of a
part of the Triangle. One was in love with
the Place Vend6me in Paris, the other with
the Place de la Concorde. One was doing a
circular Place Vend6me, the other a
semicircular Place de la Concorde. At one
point the circular and semicircular forms
were connected like a kind of architectural
Siamese twins. As a result, a slope of the
common roof was ro be partially covered
with slates as were the roofs of the
buildings around Place Vendorne. The
other side of the same roof was to be cov-
ered with roman tiles as the roofs of the
buildings facing Place de la Concorde.
That conflict was the reason I was calJed as
referee. My answer was to no avail. The
one roof with two different slopes was
built perhaps as a symbol of the two-party
system. That was the only justification I
found one day, while flying over it. But it is
a proof of the consequence of learning
without assimilation, without intentional
forgetfulness before creating.
Those two alumni from the Ecole re-
membered the forms and nor the content.
The content was the main factor in the
competitions of the Institut de France.
They were unable to folJow the four indis-
pensable steps which are "learn, assimilate,
forget, create."
This was also the case for a projected
museum in a neo-classic form. The design
finished, one of the two partners decided
ro check the quality of their solution by
going to Athens and taking a look at the
Acropolis. The partner at home received
the folJowing cable: "Nothing ro change"
- again an example of the triumph of form
over content, an example of degeneration
of common space.
No wonder there was a demand for a
new approach to architectural education.
No wonder the modern movement was
progressing. The forced emigration from
Germany toward the USA acted as a con-
firmation of the modern movement, but
the neglect ofhisrory which was being used
as a stimulant and as a source of permanent
value was, once again, the reason for the
dominance of form over content. That ne-
glect of history, that neglect of analysis of
the past, was a revolt against the past which
had been used for roo long as a refuge
rather than as a stimulant. That neglect of
the past was equivalent ro throwing the
baby away with the bath water.
It is wise to step back before leaping inro
the future-but only if one does not forget
to jump forward after stepping back. The
past should be an example of what nor ro
do in another epoch, on another site, in
another climate, for another client. A
modern building recently designed, com-
pleted or nor, is as much in the past and
susceptible of analysis as any older one.
As a direct structural expression, for
example, one can analyze the Palace of the
Sports in Rome by Nervi, where struc-
ture alone contributes ro the richness of
the value of space. To the admirable struc-
tural precision of the solid by a Nervi in
Italy, by a Torroja in Spain, by a Freyssinet
in France, one can also add the admirable
structural precision of the free space by
Bernini in the piazza Navona in Rome-
giving ro forms the maximum aesthetic
radiation reaching the observer in motion.
Piazza Navona is a magnificent example
of contradiction in architecture which I
used as a laboratory ofstructural space d ur-
ing my four appointments as Architect in
Residence at the American Academy in
Rome in 1953, 1959, 1964 and 1968. It
was also the reason for a lecture at the
Centre D'Etudes Saint Louis de France in
Rome. The title was "A Message of Ber-
nini ro Modern Architects," because Ber-
nini has much ro say ro the architects of
today by his precision in the structure of
free space in motion, roo often ignored or
neglected.
Interpreting lines of vision as spatial
structural lines, we folJow the sequences
from the proper approach to the Piazza
Navona by Corsia Angonale. From this
approach we see successively one to four
vertical elements of the piazza:
1) A rower of the church of Saint Agnes,
2) That rower and the dome of the church,
3) That rower, the dome and the obelisk
of the fountain of the four rivers,
4) That rower, the dome, the obelisk, and
the second rower of the church; before
reaching the piazza itself.
Walking along the entire perimeter of
the piazza, one sees the pink obelisk of
Dornitian against the sky as if resting on
the pink roofs surrounding the piazza,
while the white marble below the obelisk
remains with the inundated part of the
piazza, the molding under the obelisk
melting with the roof lines and with mold-
ings on the buildings around the piazza.
That separation between the white marble
and the pink granite of the obelisk is
further accentuated psychologicalJy by the
expression of motion below the obelisk
which itself appears as a rocket on the
launch pad at the time of the firing. Even a 23

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Author's Jkel,.h of tbe spectacle 0" FOII"tai" Lae«.
tormented palm tree adds to the sensation
of the firing. No mere weight, the obe-
lisk-rocket is going up by the power of
Bernini as a member of the family of cos-
monauts. As anticlimax, if one digs men-
tally in the invisible forms of the fountain
of the four rivers, one will find the basic
structure of an Eiffel Tower resting com-
fortably on four legs, while the visible
forms express the launching of a rocket in
the space age. The richness of space in
Piazza Navona remains unparalled in our
rime and a challenge for future organizers
of spact:.
From Bernini to Nervi, from disruptive
pattern to direct structural expression,
from mannerism to functionalism-this
was the range of choice for graduate stu-
dents at Princeton. Whatt:ver their choice,
each problem was a search for permanent
values whatever the form. My only partici-
pation was to build confidence and en-
thusiasm while waiting for the student's
ideas; emphasizing, even glorifying those
worthy of development, but keeping them
their ideas-s-nor mine.
I used to emphasize the importance of
reasons for a solution to the problem by
stating: "For unity-ten forms for one rea-
son; for quality-ten reasons for each
form."
There is, for example, the cast: of so-
called "modern" stained glass windows-
but composed as in medieval time, to be
seen only from inside and only by daylight.
To be truly modern it should instead be
composed to be seen by day and night from
inside and from outside. This means four
basic reasons instead of one-even before
considering other physical and psychologi-
cal reasons in order to reach a thoroughly
modern expression of greater quality. One
24 example approaching such a modern qual-
iry is the windows by Marc Chagall for the
synagogue of the Hadassah Hebrew Uni-
versity Medical Center at Ein Kerern out-
side jerusalem.
The climax of graduate studies at
Princeton was the thesis for the profes-
sional degree (MFA) which allowed stu-
dents to do individual research and design
a problem of their choice. Among perma-
nent architectural values expected in their
solution, as well as their justification by re-
search, wert: composition of sequential
events along path of motion, imaginative
structural dements appropriate to the free
spaces thus created, expression and inte-
gration of mechanical equipment, control
of weathering by appropriated profiles,
control of light, illumination and color by
day and night, etc.
Having practised architecture, urban
planning and landscape architecture since
1926, those fields of endeavor were also
projected to my students. As a result, for
example, one former student, W C Ballard
(MFA 1932), was Chairman of the City
Planning Commission in New York, while
another, M C Brance (MFA 1936), was
President of the City Planning Commis-
sion in Los Angeles.
At Princeton, 1 was successful in pro-
moting the creation of rhe Bureau of
Urban Research in 1941, the PhD Degree
in Architecture in 1949, and the building
of the Architectural Laboratory in 19'50.
The Bureau of Urban Research was the
manifestation of an interdisciplinary or-
ganism in the field of surroundings or
physical environment. Under the sponsor-
ship of the School of Architecture, the
Department of Economics and Sociology,
the School of Engineering, and the De-
partment of Politics, the Bureau of Urban
Research provided a mechanism for the
coordination of information, research and
development in the field of Urban Plan-
ning. It led to the present School of Ar-
chirecture and Urban Planning.
The creation of the Architectural labo-
ratory was an important addition to the
School of Architecture. A unique feature
of the laboratory was a workshop with in-
door and outdoor observation areas. This
was an important step in the development
of architectural education. It was designed
for research in architectural expression,
projects being developed and rested under
actual conditions of natural and manufac-
tured light and under weather conditions.
An observation hall contained a system of
mobile scaffolds, ceiling and floor tracks,
and blocks and tackles which allowed the
greatest flexibility in the manipulation of
the dements under observation.
The PhD Degree in Architecture re-
quired a candidate to be not only an ar-
chitect of quality but also an architect-
scholar. Their qualifications were based on
the quality of their thesis for the profes-
sional degree (MFA), and on t h e i r
achievements during the period since re-
ceiving that degree. Between 19'51 and
1967 (the year of my retirement) six can-
didates received the PhD Degree in Ar-
chitecture.
Complementary to my duties as Direc-
tor of Graduate Studies in Architecture-s-
and as a source of inspiration through re-
search and application-I welcomed
commissions as architect, as consultant,
and, for ten years, as chairman of a mu-
nicipal planning board. Among my most
unusual commissions, and one I received
with great enthusiasm, was a call in the fall
of 193 7 to be the architect in charge of
fountains and fountain spectacles for the
New York World's Fair of 1939-40 on the
Lagoon of Nations and Fountain Lake. My
compositions for the spectacles were a case
of the application of science to a new type
of aesthetic expression. On the Lagoon of
Nations it became a series of popular sym-
phonies of sight and sound and of fire and
water, composed at a scale commensurate
with an unlimited number of spectators
under a ceiling defined by' searchlights.
The dements consisted of water, light, gas
flames, smoke, fireworks and music. It was
a cast: where the architect worked on one
side with five specialized engineers in hy-
draulics, light, sound, fireworks and gas
flames; and on the other side with the
composer of the music, which acted as ar-
mature for the visual effects.
Knowing the capability and limitations
of the physical elements, I composed the
specracles, giving titles, synopses, dia-
grams, and sketches of the important mo-
ments of each spectacle to the composer of
music. The spectacles were: The Spirit of
George Washington, The World and The
Cathedral, From Clay to Steel, The Story
of Three Flowers, The Hunt, and The
Garden of Eden. Members of the Inrerna-
tional Brotherhood of Electrical Workt:rs
Local No .~ were in charge of the two
keyboards. One night the jet of water
symbolizing Eve refused to appear due to a
faulty valve. I was at that moment near the
keyboard when I heard the worst possible
insults being hurled against Eve by the
union member in charge. These fountain
spectacles were the expression of a wed-
ding of monumental architecture with
monumental music, with monumental
numbers of spectators attending the cere-
mony.
Such experience confirms the fact that
new technics an: the source of new ar-
chitectural expression. This fact leads to
more diversity being available to the ar-
chitect. But diversity can lead to extremes,
as for example the Beaubourg Art Center
in Paris which gave birth to the "Intestinal
Style." As usual, the range of choice will be
from the simplest form, rich in meaning, all
the way to "superrnannerisrn."
Whatever the problem, the following
definition of architecture in prescription
form will remain: "Organization of space,
limire d by matter in equilibrium, ex-
pressed by the precise relation of forms
under natural and/or manufactured light,
for the physical, psychological and spiritual
needs of man." (Shake well before using).