French Architecture

In the late 60s, the German architect Hans Walter Müller made a project for an extraordinary church in France, both due to the material used and due to its short life-span: the inflatable church at Montigny-lès-Cormeilles. That project simply reaffirmed the author´s anti-system attitude, certifying the huge interest raised by such structures back then, in particular, thanks to their eventual implementations in the field of architectural creation.

Rencontre entre Catherine II, pour qui l'architecture n'est pas seulement une affaire de prestige mais une oeuvre personnelle, et de l'architecte parisien, cousin de Blondel, ayant passé par le voyage d'Italie... L'article examine le rapport entre le projet de l'architecture "à la française" et sa réalisation pétersbourgeoise.

Une visite, effectuée en 1656 lors de l’achat du domaine de Meudon par Abel Servien aux héritiers de la Maison de Guise, permet de préciser la nature des travaux menés dans la seconde moitié du XVIe siècle, notamment ceux exécutés sur les dessins du Primatice. L’intervention de ce dernier ne se borna pas en effet à la seule grotte que Vasari mentionne, non sans exagération, et qui au demeurant n’a pas été achevée, mais elle porta aussi sur le château : création de galeries terrasses dans la cour, des décors de la galerie dans l’aile droite, de la grande salle et d’un petit studiolo peint sur le thème d’Aristote.

Autrefois cantonnées aux principaux centres-villes, les Maisons du
Peuple deviennent, après la Première Guerre mondiale, un accessoire indispensable aux nouvelles municipalités qui se développent à la périphérie des villes. Ce processus est à mettre en parallèle avec les évolutions et changements survenants dans la structure même de la vie urbaine. Les Maisons du Peuple étaient en effet des hybrides d’architecture et d’intention, utilisées afin d’apporter une certaine homogénéité entre
le caractère architectural et urbain des centres-villes et l’identité des banlieues de circonscription. Les Maisons du Peuple deviennent donc
un sujet idéal pour étudier la façon dont les architectes et urbanistes modernes entretenaient le réseau complexe de relations entre l’esthétique, la technologie, la politique et le mécénat. Une analyse synthétique des stratégies architecturales et urbaines déployées afin de faire des Maisons du Peuple un élément déterminant dans l’établissement des nouveaux centres municipaux en périphérie de Paris est proposée ici. Car des efforts des architectes ne résultent pas uniquement une approche des Maisons
du Peuple comme marqueur identitaire politico-social, mais aussi des tentatives de donner forme aux positions culturelles d’avant-garde et à la modernité elle-même.

THE POSSIBLE APPLICATION OF MODERN STAGE TECHNOLOGIES IN THE RECONSTRUCTION OF ARMENIAN AUDITORIAL HALLS WITH SCENIC SECTIONS

The present book is the first research in the history of design in
the Republic of Armenia, which discusses and investigates local and
overseas auditorial halls with stage/scenic sections, and offers a variety
of innovative methods to modernize the mentioned buildings and their
stage sections.
The research consists of an Introduction and three parts (“Soviet
Armenian Architectural Premises with Scenic Sections and their
Documentation”, “The Transformation of Auditorial Halls: Scenic
Technologies and Design in International Parallels”, “Auditorial
Premises with Scenic Sections Inherited from Soviet Armenia:
Reconstruction and Creative Design”). Each part (with the exception of
the last one) is divided into sub-parts. The investigation is summed up in
the Conclusion, which is followed by a list of references to numerous
professional sources. The Appendix is an integral and important part of
the investigation. It presents the results of the documentary work carried
out in the research: lists, listings, illustrative tables, schematic
explanatory notes, as well as samples of documents.
The objective of this study is to investigate the above mentioned
legacy of Soviet Armenian architecture, as well as a number of foreign
auditorial halls with scenic sections in an attempt to find possible ways,
methods and options of facilitating the renovation and modernization of
the Armenian auditorial halls with scenic sections.
The research presents the list/documentation of Armenian
auditorial halls with scenic sections located in different cultural clubs,
schools, universities, libraries and other institutions. A historical
overview for each premise precedes the documentation.
The listing of the premises is a serious and time-consuming task.
Nevertheless, it has been carried out through a scrupulous study and analysis of a wide variety of archival and library materials, on-site visits,
mapping surveys, documents and other documented sources provided
by different administrative bodies. Research based on computer
graphics and 2D or 3D design observations has been carried out as well.
As an ultimate result of the listing, the current state of the given
premises, the spheres of their functioning today, major architectural
peculiarities, designing features and other details have been singled out.
The next phase following the documentation of the premises under
consideration includes on-site surveys, data collection, measurement and
estimation of scenic sections of auditorial halls, description of the
current state of their design.
The on-site investigations and observations have been carried out
not only in the Republic of Armenia but also in other countries. The
premises studied in Armenia include Kanaz House of Culture, Echmiatsin
House of Culture, Palace of Culture of Railwaymen, Club in the Village
of Gndevaz, Young Armenians’ Centre (Hayordats Youth Centre) in Nor
Nork District, Young Armenians’ Centre (Hayordats Youth Centre) in the
City of Echmiatsin, Young Armenians’ Centre (Hayordats Youth Centre)
in Arabkir District, National Academic Theatre after G. Sundukian, State
Russian Dramatic Theatre after K. Stanislavski, State Musical Comedy
Theatre after H. Paronyan, State Puppet Theatre after H. Toumanian,
State Dramatic Theatre after V. Achemian, Yerevan School No. 134,
American University of Armenia, Children’s National Library after
Khnko-Aper, Union of Architects (House of Architects). The National
Opera House in Lyon (France) and the Grand Theatre in Geneva
(Switzerland) are also included in the list of on-site investigations. The
auditorial halls, the scenic sections and the design of the following
premises have been studied online: Dresden Opera House (Germany),
Thomas L. Wells Public School in Toronto (Canada), Canada Water
Library in London (UK).
Most thoroughly have been investigated and discussed the
methodology and principles of modern design with the intention of
discerning possible and right ways of modernizing the technologies and
design of the mentioned Armenian premises. The investigation of prestigious foreign auditorial halls with scenic
sections and ways and methods of application of modern technologies in
them, have served a good basis for finding solutions referring to
technological and design adaptation of Armenian auditorial halls with
scenic sections.
Being evaluated highly by the State Science Committee of the
Ministry of Science and Education, RA and international experts, the
present investigation has been granted a financial award within the
frames of the “Post Graduate Research Support Program-2012” project.
The results of the investigation and possible solutions proposed
concerning renovation of Armenian auditorial halls with scenic sections
have been summed up in the Conclusion. Around ten modifications have
been mentioned to enable the adaptation of the mentioned premises.
The list of references includes over 80 research books by different
authors in Armenian, Russian, English and French languages and a
dozen of archival materials in addition to dictionaries, encyclopedias,
professional journals, as well as web sites.

ВОЗМОЖНОЕ ИСПОЛЬЗОВАНИЕ СОВРЕМЕННЫХ СЦЕНИЧЕСКИХ ТЕХНОЛОГИЙ В РЕКОНСТРУКЦИЯХ ЗРИТЕЛЬНО-СЦЕНИЧЕСКИХ ЗДАНИЙ В АРМЕНИИ

Книга является тем первым научным исследованием в истории
дизайна Республики Армения, которое рассматривает и исследует
ряд помещений зального типа в республике и предлагает
актуализировать и модернизировать помещения зального типа и их
сценические части.
Исследование состоит из предисловия, трех глав («Помещения с
составляющими зального типа архитектурного наследия Советской
Армении и их фактография», «Трансформация залов здания
зального типа, технологии сценических частей и их дизайн в
международных параллелях», «Помещения зального типа, унаследо-
ванные от Советского Союза, перестройка их сценических частей и
художественный дизайн»), которые (кроме третьей главы) имеют
подразделы. В работу включены заключение, а также ссылки к
представленному множеству источников. Важными и неотъемлемыми
частями диссертации являются приложения, которые включают
списки, иллюстративные таблицы, схематичные объяснения, а также
образцы документов.
Важной целью исследования является изучение сценических
частей и предложение возможных путей и вариантов модернизации
этих помещений.
В первой главе представлен подробный перечень помещений
зального типа в Армении (клубные, культурные, школьные,
вузовские, библиотечные и другие помещения), которому
предшествует исторический очерк о каждом сооружении зального
типа.
Составление перечня является серьезным процессом,
требующим много времени. Оно было осуществлено на основе
исследования множества архивных и библиотечных материалов, местных посещений, документов и других материалов,
предоставленных разными административными структурами.
Выполнены также компьютерные, графические, двухмерные,
трехмерные дизайнерские работы. В результате составления перечня
окончательно выяснились существующее состояние указанных
помещений, сферы их деятельности, основные архитектурные и
дизайнерские функции и другие подробности.
На этапе документации, который следует за этапом составления
перечня вышеуказанных помещений, были выполнены исследо-
вания, сбор документально-библиографической информации, изме-
рение зальных частей, описание нынешнего состояния зальных
частей и другие работы.
Местные исследования и наблюдения были выполнены в
помещениях Армении и других стран, имеющих зальную и
сценическую часть. Это Дома культуры Каназа (Ереван),
Эчмиадзина, Дом культуры железнодорожников, Клуб села Гндеваз,
Молодежные центры «Айордац» в Нор Норке, Эчмидзине, Арабкире,
Национальный академический театр имени Габриела Сундукяна,
Государственный Русский драматический театр имени Константина
Станиславского, Государственный театр комедии имени Акопа
Пароняна, Государственный кукольный театр имени Ованнеса
Туманяна, Государственный драматический театр имени Вардана
Аджемяна, Ереванская средняя школа № 134, Американский уни-
верситет Армении, Детская национальная библиотека имени Хнко-
Апера, Дом архитекторов, Национальный оперный театр Лиона,
Женевский Большой театр. Были выполнены также виртуальные
дизайнерские исследования в следующих помещениях зального
типа: Дрезденский оперный театр, школа Томаса Уэльса в Торонто,
Библиотека Канада Уотр в Англии.
Подробнейшим образом были исследованы и изучены методика
и основы дизайна с целью модернизации указанных помещений с
правильным и возможным применением сценических технологий.
Исследования известных международных помещений зального
типа и новейших сценических технологий также могут стать основой для адаптации возможных дизайнерских технологий к помещениям
зального типа и их сценических частей в Армении.
Тема удостоилась денежного вознаграждения в рамках
программы «Поддержка исследований аспирантов-2012»,
инициированной Министерством образования и науки Армении,
пройдя экспертизу международных экспертов.
Результаты исследования основных проблем, предложенные
решения обобщены в заключении, где указано около десятка
необходимых изменений, с помощью которых возможно
модернизировать помещения зального типа и их сценические части в Армении.
В списке использованной литературы представлено около 80
научных трудов на армянском, русском, английском, французском
языках, более десятка архивных материалов, словарей,
энциклопедий, профессиональных журналов, а также веб-сайтов.

For ordinary people, the impact of the Reformation would have centred around local parish churches, rather than the theological debates of the Reformers. Focusing on the Calvinists, this volume explores how the architecture, appearance and arrangement of places of worship were transformed by new theology and religious practice.

Based on original research and site visits, this book charts the impact of the Reformed faith across Europe, concentrating in particular on France, the Netherlands and Scotland. While in some areas a Calvinist Reformation led to the adaptation of existing buildings, elsewhere it resulted in the construction of new places of worship to innovative new designs. Reformed places of worship also reflected local considerations, vested interests and civic aspirations, often employing the latest styles and forms of decoration, and here provide a lens through which to examine not only the impact of the Reformation at a local level but also the character of the different religious settlements across Europe during the late sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.

The pensionnaires produced not only the “envois” – official watercolor drawings in large format, well known and widely studied – but also preparatory drawings and many “personal” drawings, some of which represent, in a similar way, the same subjects. The opportunity to compare numerous albums, in particular thanks to several new digital archives, provide a broad overview of the phenomenon. It is possible to trace almost identical copies, sometimes to the point of complete uniformity of some travel portefeuilles. The phenomenon of “exchanges”, and the resulting copies, has been explained, in some cases, by the collaboration between the pensionnaires, who work together in the preparation of the envois.
Yet is it possible to consider copying as a practice determined purely by convention, even when referring to private drawings? First of all, how the drawings reproducing monuments and places were selected to be copied? Were the copies made by the apprentice architects in Paris before the trip, or only after arriving in Rome? Why the work was carried out with so much care and precision, when the private drawings were not intended to be displayed in public and were therefore not subject to any judgment?
Starting from the analysis of the “private” drawings and travel notebooks of the French architects, who operate between the end of the First Empire and the beginning of the July Monarchy, the contribution will answer these questions. Furthermore, by presenting the results of a research on the didactic methods and knowledge practices of Italian archaeological sites and monuments, the contribution aims to understand the dissemination of the images of Italy, and to evaluate how the drawings, through direct observation or serial reproductions, have provided multiple suggestions, useful in the professional and academic future of the French architects.

The small city of Nancy, France, is arguably the center where Art Nouveau architecture had the most lasting impact. Nancy’s Art Nouveau was a divergent form of modernity that was defined by regionalism and a distinct sense of place, which its proponents championed as the key elements of an authentic architecture, allowing Nancy to challenge Paris as the dominant French artistic center in the two decades before World War I. Most of Nancy’s architects were graduates of the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris, and grounded in the language of classicism and its associated professional standards. Much of Nancy’s Art Nouveau had a conservative character that garnered praise from the national architectural press. Nancy’s architects were also disciples of Emile Gallé, the founder of a regional association of artists, industrialists, and designers called the Ecole de Nancy, dedicated to the promotion of Art Nouveau. Nancy’s architects freely collaborated with other artists of the Ecole on their buildings, and a sense of pride in their province led them to study local flora, the and regional legends and politics, using the iconography of plants and narratives to make architecture legible to a wide public. The rooting of the work of Nancy’s architects in their region and the alliance they formed with local industry were successes that Parisian Art Nouveau architects were never able to match. Consequently, in Paris, Art Nouveau was quickly discarded, while in Nancy it was celebrated as an integral piece of regional identity and an important national achievement until 1914.

This article presents a geometrical analysis of Bourges Cathedral, based on the application of computer-aided design (CAD) techniques to the results of a recent and highly precise laser survey. This analysis reveals that the cathedral's original designer developed a tightly interlocking and strikingly unified design, in which the five-fold subdivision of the chevet ground plan set proportions that would be vertically extruded into an elevation that can be inscribed both within a square and within a series of progessively smaller equilaterial triangles. These results contribute to an ongoing debate about the use of ‘ad quadratum’ and ‘ad triangulum’ geometries in Gothic architecture, and they provide new evidence for the geometrical coherence of Gothic cathedral design. In methodological terms, meanwhile, this discussion demonstrates the potential of CAD-based geometrical analysis for the study of precisely surveyed medieval buildings.

La première moitié du XVIIIe siècle, fut une remise en cause violente et virulente de la tradition vitruvienne, qui ne manqua pas de déchainer les critiques.
Le nouveau répertoire ornemental, mouvementé, sans contours ni noms précis, qui se développe alors, la "Rocaille", fut marqué par une spontanéité d’inspiration libérée de toute règle formelle et par la liberté, sous toutes ses formes.
Ses créateurs vont ainsi chercher leur source d’inspiration dans la Nature : monde végétal (feuillages, palmettes, fleurs, etc.), monde minéral (coquilles et coquillages, volutes déformées, roches, mousses, écumes, etc), et monde animalier (poissons, dauphins et oiseaux, singes, etc.)…
L’objet de cette communication sera de questionner la mise au point et l’évolution de ce nouveau répertoire ornemental, puisant son inspiration dans la Nature, proche, mais aussi lointaine, voire fantasmée .

At the 40th anniversary of its inauguration, the Pompidou Centre represents by no doubts one of the most relevant achievements within the history of construction of the past century. Its realisation is the result of a unique joint venture between a young group of architects led by Renzo Piano and Richard Rogers and the engineering team Structure 3 of Ove Arup composed, among the others, by Peter Rice, Edmund Happold and Lennart Grut. One of the key parts of the whole structure is the joint supporting the 48-meter span floor, realized in the form of the gerberette and fabricated in the special technique of steel cast.

The first solution employed to solve the joint consisted of a friction collar supporting moving floors made of lattice girders, a powerful translation of the principle of flexibility the competition entry was rooted in. After renouncing to further develop the moving floor solution, architects and engineers undertook new studies in order to solve the connection between floors and the vertical structures. The lattice girders solution left the place to a composite Vierendeel truss joint to the vertical structure by the means of a secondary horizontal beam anchored to the internal and external poles of the façade. The complexity of the solution and the new restrictions imposed by the project’s budget led to another setback and further research were needed. The numerous solutions attempted in 1972 included the reduction of the Vierendeel truss, the transformation of the external poles into pre-tensed cables, the abandonment of the Vierendeel and the adoption of a cantilevered beam anchored to the vertical poles. Once identified as the definitive structural breakthrough, this cantilevered beam was submitted to a process of refinement and improvement that turned a first steel composite element into the monolithic sculptural piece that nowadays so distinctively characterizes the structure of the Centre Pompidou: the gerberette.

In the last decades the value of this breakthrough seems to have overshadowed the complex process laying behind it. The aim of this contribution is both to reposition the gerberette as an arrival point of a complex evolutionary path and therefore to deepen each of the relevant stages which preceded and led to the gerberette’s design and fabrication.  To achieve these objectives this contribution will resort to unpublished material preserved in public archives and private collections and will profit of a series of interviews with the protagonists of Beaubourg’s design and construction.

Mattia De Rossi (1637-1695) spent two long periods in Paris: the first was from June to October 1665, together with Gian Lorenzo Bernini; he returned in the spring of the following year and stayed for about a year, with the job of perfecting Bernini’s final project for the Louvre. After returning definitively to Rome in July 1667, Mattia De Rossi continued to work as a Bernini assistant. As from the end of the decade, however, he also had his own professional career. Immediately after the election of Pope Clement X (Emilio Altieri) in 1670, Prince Gaspare Altieri and his wife Laura Caterina Altieri, the niece of the new Pope, decided to start expansion works on their palace in Piazza del Gesù, which had initially been built by Giovanni Antonio De Rossi in the 1650s. The new building works were entrusted to the same architect, but he was this time joined by Mattia De Rossi. Contrary to what was believed until now, the second stage of building works on the Altieri palace did not end in 1676, when Giovanni Antonio De Rossi left the project, but continued until 1679, under the direction of Mattia De Rossi. New research carried out on the Altieri Archives has revealed that, during this three-year period, Mattia designed and built the portal on Via Santo Stefano del Cacco, as well as the decorative panoplies atop the large doors leading off the large staircase to the apartments on the ground floor and second floor. It was not just the dating that led to these works being attributed to Mattia De Rossi. Both the external portal and the two internal doors are in fact completely out of character for the repertory of architects working in Rome in the second half of the 17th century, while they appear very similar to a number of works that Mattia had the opportunity to see and appreciate in France. Mattia De Rossi’s contributions to the Altieri palace are therefore the first case in which, in the architectural decoration of a Roman late-Baroque building, an architect chose to import French models: a significant indication of the artistic translatio imperii that was about to take place between the two capitals.

Stone Ceilings and Flat Vaults in France (1480-1550)
Between the 15th and 16th centuries, horizontal stone coverings appeared in France, in the form of ceilings and flat vaults, using slabs resting on supporting rib-groined vaults or keystone flat arches (straight vaults) and mixing Flamboyant and Renaissance features. This article concentrates on a number of examples to be found in Normandy and Central France, dividing them into two groups: stone caisson ceilings (real or false); flat slab vaults on diaphragm, parallel and radiating arches, both filled and openwork, identifying a relationship between the typologies and geometry of the spaces covered as well as between typologies and geographical locations.

The rather small quantity of exegetic works on Lequeu is characterized by a variety of topics which perfectly fits with the quick changes of contents within his designs. It is hold to be true that a remarkable vacancy is characterized by the lack of inquiries lead with design and representation tools, which happen to be the main methodology adopted in the current study. Specifically, an analysis was made of the shape and geometries of the drawing of the mausoleum of Lars Porsenna which, together with a hypothesis of digital reconstruction, highlighted the independence of the relationships between the production of images and the control of forms within the poetic of Lequeu.

La quantità, piuttosto esigua, di scritti esegetici sulla figura di Lequeu è caratterizzata da una pluralità di temi che ben si sposa con i repentini cambi di contenuto all’interno dei suoi disegni. Si ritiene che un vuoto consistente sia caratterizzato dall’assenza di indagini effettuate mediante gli strumenti del disegno e della rappresentazione, mezzi che costituiscono la principale metodologa utilizzata nello studio proposto. Nel caso specifico della tomba di Lars Porsenna si è attuata l’analisi della forma e delle geometrie generatrici che unita ad una ipotesi di ricostruzione digitale hanno evidenziato l’indipendenza dei rapporti tra la produzione di immagini e il controllo della forma all’interno della poetica di Lequeu.

The intention of Le Corbusier's Poème de L'angle Droit is the creation of a poetic language, which weaves together, in a meaningful bind, individual and cosmic consciousness. Written over seven years between 1947 and 1953, the Poème's language marks a distinct shift in the work and thinking of the architect Le Corbusier.

The essay focuses on two patrician buildings in Rome, designed in the 1670s and 1680s, and highlights their as yet unidentified affinities with important hôtels particuliers built in Paris a few decades earlier. The first is Palazzo Muti Papazzurri in piazza della Pilotta, built by Mattia De Rossi between 1675 and 1678; the unusual open courtyard flanked by wings, the portal with coupled columns, and several decorative elements are all inspired by French models such as the Hôtel de La Vrillière, which De Rossi had seen while staying in Paris. The author then identifies several similarities between the Hôtel de Beauvais in rue Saint-Antoine and the second building, Palazzo Mancini al Corso, built in 1687 based on a design by Sebastiano Cipriani. The similarities between the two buildings, explained by Cipriani’s sojourn in France, are seen in relation to the important role played by the Hôtel de Beauvais in the life of Filippo Mancini, the nephew of Cardinal Giulio Mazzarino.

Lo que podemos considerar como una primera globalización –entre mediados del siglo XIX y el estallido de la Primera Guerra Mundial- generó un dinámico intercambio de ideas, personas, productos y servicios entre diversas partes del mundo.  Este fenómeno estuvo acompañado por el surgimiento de varias ciudades emergentes en el escenario mundial que fueron el objeto de análisis que interesó inicialmente a quienes organizamos el evento del cual este libro es sólo un reflejo parcial.
Teniendo en cuenta la importancia de ese rico intercambio para nuestra propia historia y para una historia global de la ciudad y la arquitectura, hemos querido retomar en este volumen el hilo de los problemas y temas que confluyen en esta compleja relación centro-periferia desde una perspectiva centrada en la difusión de las ideas beaux-arts en esta parte del mundo. A partir de esta mirada que se apoya en el espíritu de eventos anteriores, es posible imaginar no una relación unívoca, producto de una forzada dependencia cultural urdida desde las metrópolis centrales, sino un intenso intercambio entre realidades diversas. En ese contexto, puede pensarse en la existencia —alrededor de 1900— de un nuevo ambiente cultural en el cual las ideas migraron y se transformaron, los saberes se ensamblaron con las realidades locales para producir una importante cantidad de intervenciones urbanas, proyectos y edificios. Testimonios híbridos que no tienen una relación tan directa con los estándares europeos como podría suponerse, y que necesariamente deben formar hoy parte del acervo arquitectónico y urbanístico global.

Art Nouveau design is one of the principal markers of the identity of the French city of Nancy, which became internationally renowned as one of the most important centres for the development of this artistic style around 1900. Like other strands of the style, especially in Spain, Germany and parts of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, Art Nouveau in eastern France has been linked to longstanding regionalist sentiments that resisted centralised Parisian control over local affairs typical in nineteenth-century France. This article examines the evolving bank architecture in central Nancy, a major facet of the introduction of art nouveau in its urban environment, to show that the construction of the city’s modern character was a negotiated process that involved careful planning among financial institutions, architects and decorative artists. The design and erection of modern banks in Nancy in the first decade of the twentieth century balanced generalised architectural principles emanating from the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris with the employment of highly symbolic regional naturalist motifs and architectural elements. This strategy fulfilled a variety of communicative functions to appeal to a civic populace whose identity was multivalent and shifting with the era’s political climate, particularly with regard to the nearby ‘lost provinces’ of Alsace-Lorraine in the aftermath of the Franco-Prussian War.

Aujourd’hui disparue, la demeure de campagne que Charles Le Brun se fit bâtir à Montmorency reste mal connue. Richement ornée et agrémentée d’un jardin avec ses fontaines, ses grottes et ses parterres, cette maison de peintre était d’une grande somptuosité. Grâce aux dessins, aux estampes, aux archives et aux témoignages qui ont pu être réunis, cet article rend compte de l’histoire du lieu, de l’aspect général de l’habitation et de ses jardins et enfin de la vie du peintre dans cette maison de plaisance qu’il habita les dernières années de sa vie. Apparaissent ainsi en filigrane ses goûts et ses ambitions dans cette création toute personnelle.

Longtemps négligé, le rôle des Gondi apparaît comme primordial pour l’histoire de Saint-Cloud. Ce sont eux qui donnèrent le tracé général du domaine que l’on retrouve encore aujourd’hui et fixèrent l’implantation des bâtiments.
La période de Monsieur reste centrale. Le château construit par Le Pautre subsista malgré les remaniements et les adjonctions jusqu’à sa destruction. L’intervention de l’architecte a été sous-estimée. Il fut l’auteur de l’ensemble, même si quelques libertés ont pu être prises par Girard après sa mort en 1679. Deux grandes campagnes apparaissent. Un premier projet, pour une petite maison, durant les années 1660, pendant laquelle l’architecte fit en même temps office d’entrepreneur et put s’appuyer sur une équipe bien constituée qui le suivait sur bon nombre de ses chantiers. Puis, dans les années 1670, à la demande de Monsieur, Le Pautre repensa complètement l’ensemble pour construire un vaste château en U, qui fut achevé par Girard. L’intervention d’Hardouin-Mansart sur le chantier apparaît circonstancielle, liée à des problèmes de distribution que Girard n’avait pas su résoudre.
Les sources ne nous ont permis que d’ébaucher le rôle du Régent, mais des travaux furent bien envisagés et parfois menés à son époque, sous la direction d’Oppenord, dont le nom n’avait jamais jusqu’ici été associé à Saint-Cloud : un nouveau salon pour l’aile du Midi, dont subsiste une ébauche d’Antoine Coypel, et la création d’un appartement pour la duchesse d’Orléans au rez-de-chaussée du château. Enfin, le rôle de Contant d’Ivry a pu être précisé. Son intervention ne se borna pas aux jardins et aux cadres de festivités comme le pavillon de La Brosse, mais doit aussi être envisagée pour les appartements du château, la serre, la salle de comédie et le nouveau salon aux décors peints par Pierre.

Résumés analytiques
Profitant de la forte déclivité du terrain de la partie basse vers la Seine, qui n’avait fait l’objet précédemment que d’aménagements sommaires, c’est là, dans le « jardin bas » que les efforts de Jean-François de Gondi, le nouveau propriétaire, se portèrent, lors d’une importante campagne de travaux dont le projet est à situer vers 1627-1628 et l’achèvement en 1636.
L’allée du Mail fut totalement réaménagée et agrémentée de bassins, en son centre et à son abord du côté de la pente où prirent appui la Cascade et le Grand jet. À l’extrémité de l’allée fut construite la fontaine du bout du Mail, pour laquelle le nom du concepteur, Francini, est connu par un acte de 1628. Mais la complexité du programme hydraulique, où elle venait s’insérer, ainsi que des différentes pièces d’eau, permet d’attribuer la paternité de l’ensemble à l’un des Francini, Tommaso ou Alessandro, si ce n’est aux deux. Toutefois, ils avaient l’habitude de travailler sous la direction d’un architecte. Un nom, raturé, apparait dans l’expertise réalisée en 1636. Il serait, toutefois, possible d’y lire celui de l’architecte Augustin Ier Guillain.

English Summaries
The article presents the new hydraulic installations that Jean-François de Gondi had undertaken at Saint-Cloud from about 1627. Benefitting from the steep slope of the land toward the Seine in the lower part of the property, the new owner wished to endow the lower garden with a large complex of fountains. Their construction seems to have been finished in 1636. The Allée du Mail was completely reworked and adorned with basins, in the center and on the sloping side where the Cascade and the Grand jet took their support. At the end of the alley was built a fountain conceived by “Francini”, whose name is mentioned in a document dated 1628. The complexity of the hydraulic program and the conception of the different waterworks invites an attribution of the installation to one of the Francini, either Tommaso or Alessandro. The name of an architect appears in an evaluation dated 1636. Scratched out and difficult to read, it may be the name of the architect Augustin Ier Guillain.

Article écrit en collaboration avec D. Lauvernier.
Publié dans 'Construire avec le corps humain/Bauen mit dem menschlischen Körper', sous la dir. Sabine Frommel, Eckhard Leuschner, Vincent Droguet, Thomas Kirchner, avec la collaboration de Raphaël Tassin et Claudio Castelletti, Rome/Paris, Campisano/Picard, 2018, vol. II, p. 155-170.

Un contrat d’échange de terrains, en partie bâtis, dans le quartier neuf de la place Vendôme, entre les héritiers d’Antoine Crozat et le financier François Castanier, en 1741, comprend en annexe un marché par lequel le second s’engageait, en dédommagement, à faire construire pour les premiers, à ses frais, une nouvelle basse-cour, dont les dessins, eux aussi joints à l’acte, avaient été donnés par Pierre Contant d’Ivry.