William Carroll

Professor Watson
Module 4 Notes & Reflection
March 16, 2023

Notes Portion

➢ Architecture and Urban Space

○ Modernist - Expansiveness, interconnectedness, and efficiency defined the
function of the city. The start of buildings using “less” material to achieve “more”
■ The advancements made with iron to construct more massive and
efficiently built bridges.
○ Traditional - Intimacy within the locale - allowed for funds to be distributed
within the community - architecture largely represented expressive and
ornamental built space.
➢ Modern vs. Traditional materials and visual forms
○ Materials
■ Traditional Materials allowed for locality, expressiveness, and intimacy.
■ Glass allowed for the mass allocation of light - virtually altering interior
spaces
■ Cast-Iron columns allowed for expansive space and reformation of
traditional precedent
■ Modern materials were fire resistant, adding to the resiliency and
preservation of traditional buildings.
● Ex:) Henri Labrouste, Bibliotheque Nationale. (And other
libraries)
○ Used cast iron columns and arches to create expansive
spaces.
○ The design of these iron pieces were intricate and beautiful,
emphasizing what was predominant in the space.
○ “Iron allowed him to respond to the project’s requirements:
offering the best conditions possible for natural lighting in
the reading room and guaranteeing the collection’s
preservation by protecting it most specifically from the risk
of fire.”1
○ “Iron had already been tested on a fairly large number of
public buildings, particularly in England, France, and
Russia, and commented upon in scholarly publications
accompanied by descriptions and figures.”2
○ Visual Forms
1 Bertrand Lemoine, “Labrouste and Iron,” inHenri Labrouste: StructureBrought to Light, eds. Corinne Bélier, Barry Bergdoll, and Marc Le
Cœur(New York: Museum of Modern Art, 2012), 181
2 Bertrand Lemoine, “Labrouste and Iron,” inHenri Labrouste: StructureBrought to Light, eds. Corinne Bélier, Barry Bergdoll, and Marc Le
Cœur(New York: Museum of Modern Art, 2012), 182
 William Carroll
Professor Watson
Module 4 Notes & Reflection
March 16, 2023
■ Radical new buildings and the exploration of the built form
● Gustave Eiffel - 1010 ft. Eiffel Tower
■ John Sloane and the Bank of England - J.M. Gandy’s atmospheric
renderings highlighted the level of achievement of top-lighting. A
traditional approach through beauty, reinvention of the classics, and
traditional concepts of space. - his works were interpreted as “ancient
ruins” - shows that level of appreciation
■ Palladio and the appreciating of antiquity to create beautifully harmonic
space that symbolizes the virtue of education and environment.
● “Jefferson planned for the design of each pavilion to serve a
didactic purpose, informing students about the best of architecture
from antiquity. He called this extraordinary complex an
“academical village…”3
■ The house, coated with ancient, mildewed whitewash, looked very squat
next to the tall Louis XIV mansions, and had only three front windows,
square, and without shutters, were decorated merely with an iron railing,
two crossed bars”4
■ The Modern (Ladies’ Paradise)
● “It was a giant fairground display, as if the shop were bursting and
throwing its surplus stock into the street.”5
➢ Pros and Cons of industrialization and mass production
○ Pros -
■ Advancements in building construction
● Balloon frame (BAT)
○ Replaced the traditional method of wood framing which
was highly inefficient.
● Skeletal construction in concrete and wood
○ Ferroconcrete (BAT)
● Glass and Iron manufacturing
■ “time-space compression” - allowed for cities to be interconnected
○ Cons
■ The production of mass-cheap goods (Found w/n the Ladies’ Paradise)
■ The loss of local businesses and endeavors
● “...Madame Baudu… her eyes fixed on the monster…”6 (While
looking at the blossoming and lively Ladies’ Paradise)

3 Émile Zola, selections from The Ladies Paradise[1883], tr. Brian Nelson(Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, 2008), 7
4 Émile Zola, selections from The Ladies Paradise[1883], tr. Brian Nelson(Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, 2008), 5
5 Émile Zola, selections from The Ladies Paradise[1883], tr. Brian Nelson(Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, 2008), 17
6 Buildings across Time, 402
 William Carroll
Professor Watson
Module 4 Notes & Reflection
March 16, 2023

Reflection