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Georg Pezolt, Castle Anif, Salzburg, 1838-48.
Freed from the chains of
classical models, the castle-villa is one of the first examples of
picturesque experiment inspired by the Middle Ages.
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CASTLES AND THE GOTHIC REVIVAL
The castle, that most evocative and mysterious seting of the
medieval world, fascinated novelists from the late 18th century
onwards. Horace Walpole, man of letters and collector of art and
armour, was one of its greatest enthusiasts. Sir Walter Scott
described how Walpole's villa at Strawberry Hill, London, was
gradually transformed into a feudal castle by the addition of
towers, turrets, galleries, corridors, friezes and fretworked
ceilings, castellated walls, and pierced windows; inside, the walls
were decorated with bossed shields, armour, bucklers, and jousting
lances, typical accoutrements of chivalry. Gothic castles provided
the setting for such novels as Walpole's The Castle of Otranto
(1764) and Sir Walter Scott's Ivanhoe (1819) and Castle Dangerous
(1831). Throughout 19th-century Britain, numerous castles were built
in the image of those in the stories of Scott and Walpole: Harlaxton Manor in Grantham, Lincolnshire, by Anthony Salvin
(1831-37); Cardiff Castle by William Burges (1865); and Scarisbrick
Hall in Lancashire (1837-45) by AWN Pugin. In Continental Europe,
Stolzenfels was built on the Rhine, designed by Karl Friedrich
Schinkel (1836); Anif in Salzburg (1838-48) by Georg Pezolt; the
medieval-revival Borgo in Turin by Valentino (1882); the Chateau de
Pierrefonds (1858-67), in the outskirts of Paris, by
Eugene-Emmanuel Viollet-le-Duc; and Chateau de Challain-la-Potherie
(Maine-et-Loire, 1847—54) by Rene Hode.
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VIOLLET-LE-DUC
Eugene-Emmanuel Viollet-le-Duc (1814-79) was given his first
important commission at the age of 24: the restoration of the church
of Sainte Madeleine at Vezelay, France. He went on to restore the
Sainte Chapelle, the Parisian burial place of Capetian kings, and
then the cathedral of Notre-Dame. Later, he worked on buildings in
Narbonne, Saint-Denis, Chartres, and Carcassonne. Viollet-le-Duc had
two guiding principles: firstly, to be true to the original building
during restoration (this proved to have disastrous consequences when
practised by less discerning disciples); secondly, based on his
observations of Gothic architecture, to ensure that a building
displayed the technical virtuosity of the design. This latter
principle was put into practice extensively during the 19th century.
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Anthony Salvin, Harlaxton Manor, Grantham, Lincolnshire,
1831-37.
In addition to Gothic Revival, English architecture derived
inspiration from
the late Renaissance style of Elizabeth I and James I.
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BARON HAUSSMANN
The Parisian-born Baron Georges-Eugene Haussmann was largely
responsible for the transformation of his home town into an
exemplary modern city. At the behest of Napoleon III, who wanted a
capital as grandiose as his ambitions, Haussmann was the first town
planner to rip out the historic centre of a great city, replacing it
with wide streets and avenues. He expelled the working class
inhabitants from the centre of Paris and created a series of
entirely new districts. His Paris of the Third Empire would become a
model for major cities all over Europe and America.
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John Soane, Bank of England
(detail of waiting room),
London, 1788-1805.
The tasteful, elegant style of Soane's interiors
was achieved by his original reworking of more purist forms of classical
ornamentation.
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Town Planning
The mapping out of land development and the application of the new
discipline of urban planning were factors in controlling the
expansion of large urban areas. Regulatory systems transformed the
appearance of some of the most important European capital cities,
not least Paris. In Notre-Dame de Paris (The Hunchback of
Notre-Dame, 1831), Victor Hugo wrote: "I am not without hope that
Paris, viewed from a montgolfier balloon, shall one day greet the
observer with such sumptuous lines, such opulence of detail, such
diversity of aspects and with that certain something of greatness in
simplicity, of the unexpected in beauty found in a chessboard."
Baron Georges-Eugene Haussmann, Prefect of the Department of the
Seine from 1853 to 1870, promoted and prepared his plan for Paris,
outlining the picture of a modern city where wide, straight
thoroughfares would physically and aesthetically link its most
imposing buildings and monuments. Long boulevards were to cross at
star-shaped roundabouts (ronds-points) to create rectilinear visual
axes and attractive vistas. Haussmann's aim was to give the city a
comprehensively modern image, to make the most of its heritage of
great monumental establishments, and to improve the state of
buildings and movement of traffic along new roads. The changes to
the street plan were carried out in three stages. The first phase,
from 1854 to 1858, consisted of essential work, of which half to
two-thirds of the overall cost was subsidized by the state. This
included extension of the Rue de Rivoli, the Boulevard Sebastopol/Saint-Michel, the axis running from Chatelet to the Hotel de Ville,
and the
Avenue de l'Imperatrice to the Bois de Boulogne. The second phase,
from 1858 to 1868 and beyond, comprised the construction of streets
radiating outwards from important road junctions, including the
Chateau d'Eau, the Etoile de l'Arc de Triomphe, and the Place du
Trocadero. The third phase saw the completion of a network of
streets running through areas such as Les Halles, the Opera, the Rue
Lafayette and Rue de Rennes, Boulevard Saint-Germain, Parc Montsouris, and Pare des Buttes-Chaumont. The objective of these
measures was to integrate parts of the old city into the new layout.
This entailed the demolition of certain buildings, and the
absorption of those parts of the city that were compatible with the
new layout.
The result of these changes was a triangular block, formed by the
subdivision of the urban fabric along the new radial thoroughfares.
The problem of developing these central avenues had to be tackled
first; the facades of the buildings had to fit in with the overall
character of the neighbourhood and with the general appearance of
existing buildings. Town halls, schools, museums, theatres,
hospitals, and other public places were inserted into the urban
setting and linked and integrated by well-planned routes. In
England, a population explosion accompanied the Industrial
Revolution, and the consequent phenomenonal growth of London meant
that civil engineers and legislators had to cope with a
fast-changing city. Between 1840 and 1914, the population of London
doubled, while that of Greater London trebled; in the years 1820 to
1914 the radius from the heart of London's built-up area extended
out from 5 to 15 kilometres (2 to 6 miles). Growth of the outer
suburbs was stimulated by the further extension of the railways and
was additionally encouraged by the opening of the first underground
railway svstem in 1863. The city grew through the construction of
housing estates, terraces of houses designed in a similar style,
planned on a mass scale, and covering very large areas at a
phenomenal rate. These estates, however, were often built by
speculative builders (this was the case at least until 1888 when the
London County Council was established), especially in the
working-class districts where the overcrowded and insanitary
conditions appalled educated people and writers such as Charles
Dickens. This started the debate on the question of London's
suburban development, which eventually led Ebenezer Howard to write
his Garden Cities of Tomorrow at the end of the century, setting out
an original proposition for coping with urban expansion. This was
the new town - a self-contained satellite town that benefited from
both urban and rural amenities. His ideas were first put into
practice in the early 20th century by architects and town planners
such as Raymond Unwin and Barry Parker, who laid out the first
garden city, Letchworth in Hertfordshire, in 1902. One of the most
important examples of 19th-century town planning was Barcelona, the
design for which was drawn up by Ildefonso Cerda in 1859. Expansion
of the city was to take the form of a rectangular grid about 22
blocks wide, incorporating the oldest, central district of the city,
the Barrio Gotico, and crossed by two large, diagonal arterial
roads.
The plans for ensanche ("the widening") or expansion are illustrated
in Cerda's Teoria general de l'urbanizacion published in 1867.
The
problem of integrating the older urban fabric with the modern city
was solved by the Ring system in Vienna, Cologne, Leipzig,
Copenhagen, and other northern European cities. This interesting
solution meant that the new road system could be accommodated
without destroying the original town plan. In Vienna, the medieval
fortifications of the city wall enabled Christian Friedrich Forster
(1797-1863) to create a belt around which he built the new city; the Ringstrasse, or circular highway, was bordered by parkland along
parts of the sloping banks of the fortifications, while new public
buildings, such as a theatre, a library, museums, galleries, and
markets, were erected along the outer edge. In 1817, Karl Friedrich Schinkel (1781-1841) drew up a town-planning scheme for the centre
of Berlin that laid down the criteria for the construction of public
buildings (some of which he designed himself). It also contained
plans for the improvement of road and waterway links, including
changes to the Spree canal and its banks. Leon von Klenze
(1784-1864) and Friedrich von Gartner (1792-1847) were involved in
the expansion of Munich, building the Ludwigstrasse as well as the
Odeonsplatz, Briennerstrasse. and Konigsplatz. Plans for redefining
the image of Italian cities ranged from Neoclassically inspired town
plans by Giovanni Antonio Antolini (1756-1841), Luigi Cagnola
(1762-1833) and Luigi Canonica (1762-1844) to the work of Giuseppe
Poggi (1811-1901), who aimed to turn Florence into a modem
metropolis. Enrico Alvino (1809-72) provided a new layout for parts
of Naples, and Giuseppe Valadier (1762-1839) reorganized the Piazza
del Popolo in Rome.
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An engraving by Champin of the Champs-Elysees in the middle of the
19th century.
Pushkin Museum, Moscow.
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Ildefonso Cerda, plan for enlarging the city of Barcelona, 1859.
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John Nash, Regent Street, London, 1814-20.
The regularity of planes and
the uniformity of style in this London
street constitute a fine example
of early 19th-century town planning.
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Karl Friedrich Schinkel, Schauspielhaus, Berlin, 1818-21.
This building
represents a rationalist reworking by Schinkel of a classical Greek
construction.
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Giuseppe Valadier, reorganization of the Piazza del Popolo, Rome,
1813-20.
The piazza solves the problem of linking the city proper with
the
system of ramps on the east side leading up to the Pincio.
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Henri Beyaert, interior view of the first kursaal, Ostend, 1852.
Favourably situated on the North Sea coast, Ostend became one of the
most exclusive spas in Europe. The first kursaal (casino), an indoor
recreational complex containing rooms for dining refreshment, and
gambling constructed of wood and stucco with a cast-iron frame, could be
disassembled. At the disposal of the War Department, which prohibited
the erection of permanent structures on the coastal strip, it was
demolished in 1865.
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HOTELS, SPAS, AND CASINOS
As the habits and lifestyles of city dwellers changed during the
19th century, certain places outside the main cities became very
popular as venues for social and leisure activities. Visiting
holiday and seaside resorts, taking the waters at spas, and gambling
at casinos were among the new" pastimes adopted by the prosperous
middle-classes. Countless "grand hotels", cafes, spas, and casinos
were built during this era. The spa towns of Evian, Aix-les-Bains,
Vichy, and Vittel in France; Montecatini, Fiuggi, San Pellegrino,
and Salsomaggiore in Italy; Baden Baden and Wiesbaden in Germany;
Bath in England; and Karlsbad in Bohemia all developed around
buildings provided specifically for visitors.
Spas and seaside resorts offered numerous other attractions:
casinos, theatres, and dance and concert halls, which in the case of
Charles Garnier's Monte Carlo Casino (1878-79) were all
accommodated in one building. The architecture of these resorts was modelled on the Neoclassical style, with a predominance of
colonnades, pediments, and entablatures. Later, the stvle became
more eclectic, often with Oriental touches. At the end of the
century, the widespread use of iron and glass took over, heralding
the Art Nouveau style. The success of the coastal resorts — such as
Cannes, Nice, the Venice Lido, and Beaulieu-sur-Mer on the
Mediterranean, Biarritz and Saint-Malo on the Atlantic, and
Deauville,
Dieppe, Calais, and Brighton on the Channel — was not only owing to
the draw of attractive surroundings and a healthy environment, but
also to the range of amenities and the level of comfort guaranteed
by the large hotels. These grand establishments offered the height
of luxury: lifts, central heating, room service, reading rooms,
spacious reception areas, music rooms, and gambling or games rooms,
as well as gardens and promenades outside.
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Marianske Lazne, colonnade of Marienbad, Bohemia, 1884-89.
The covered
promenade, often constructed of iron and glass,
was one of the most
fashionable meeting places in late-19th-century spa cities.
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New Doctrines
With these changes to city layouts and the growth of many European
capitals, it became necessary to reassess the provision and siting
of certain public buildings. Thought had to be given to new
buildings in which to house government assemblies and administrative
and financial institutions, as well as educational establishments,
cultural centres, and hospitals. If Balzac was correct in stating,
as he did in La Fausse Maitresse, that "architecture is the
expression of custom", then the town plans and architectural styles
of the 19th-century city expressed the need for display on the part
of an increasingly prosperous middle class. The stylistic complexity
of 19th-century architecture, in which classical forms were entwined
with references to archaeology and reminders of past styles (such as
Gothic), also exploited new materials and technology. The result was
a vast and varied inventory that could be used in the complex
planning involved in redefining city spaces and new buildings in
response to the needs of a modern society. Jean-Nicolas-Louis Durand
(1760-1834) was among the first to realize the importance of
reformulating a planning praxis that had to include a classification
of the type and history of buildings built in the past. In his
Precis des lecons d'architecture (1802-05), he identified specific
types of public buildings (town halls, stock exchanges, law courts,
libraries, museums, markets, abattoirs, theatres, hospitals,
prisons, and others) and private buildings (including town houses
and rented accommodation) with designs that took the form of
"horizontal schemes" (plans) and "vertical schemes" (elevations).
Although Durand's lessons helped a succession of 19th-century
architects to make a choice when it came to changing the face of the
city, Eugene-Emmanuel Viollet-le-Duc (1814-79), in his Dictiounaire
raisonne de l'architecture francaise, showed how stylistic vagaries
could be rationally explained by changing construction methods.
After visiting Italy, many Englishmen, such as George Gilbert Scott
(1811-78), Edmund Street (1824-81), William Burges (1827-81), and,
notably, the critic John Ruskin (1819-1900), returned home to write
about what they had seen. Their ideas had a considerable influence
on contemporary architects and planners, as they stressed that the
essential principles of architectural practice include memory of,
and, by extension, obedience to the styles of the past. In The Seven
Lamps of Architecture (1849), Ruskin advocated a revival of the
Gothic style, which he considered to be the supreme reflection of Nature. He explored this concept further in
The Stones of Venice,
published in three volumes between 1851 and 1853, in praise of
Venetian Gothic.
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GREAT EXHIBITIONS
The "great exhibitions", organized by various cities from the
mid-19th century onwards, were open to a wide, international public.
As the decades progressed, truly universal themed exhibitions
proliferated alongside those of a more local character. The
exhibitions played a significant role in the rapid expansion of
industrialization and the stimulation of international trade and
commerce - the life-blood of modern Western civilization. In
addition to their symbolic value as temporary unifiers of different
geographical areas and cultural spheres, the exhibitions often
provided opportunities for
architectural experimentation. For example, the first "universal"
event, the "Great Exhibition of the Works of Industry of All
Nations" held in London in 1851, was to prove significant for the
development of modern architectural techniques. Crystal Palace,
built for the exhibition and the first structure of its kind, found
international favour, inspiring a succession of exhibition buildings
around the world: New York in 1853; Munich in 1854; Paris in 1855,
1867, 1878, and 1889; Vienna in 1873; Philadelphia in 1876; Sydney
in 1879; Melbourne in 1880; Antwerp in 1885, and Brussels in 1888.
Not only were these events showcases for industry, technology and
mass production, but they also bore witness to the burgeoning world
of decorative arts and the practical application of new aesthetic
criteria — later known as the applied arts.
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The Coalbrookdale Gates at the Great Exhibition in
London, 1851.
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The Machinery Building at the Philadelphia international
Exhibition, 1876.
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THE CRYSTAL PALACE
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Joseph Paxton, Crystal Palace, 1851
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Erected in Hyde Park in 1851 to house the first international
exhibition, the Crystal Palace was the brainchild of Joseph Paxton
(1803-65). He was a landscape gardener at Chatsworth in Derbyshire,
England, and based the design for the great
glass palace on the construction methods that he had developed for
his greenhouses. Standard panes of glass set in wooden frames were
inserted into a skeleton of iron girders, and guttering was designed
to collect internal and external moisture, which then flow-eel away
down hollow cast-iron columns.
The five-aisled Crystal Palace had a floor space of 563 metres
(1,848 feet) by 121 metres (407 feet) and was built entirely of
mass-produced, factory-made sections that were assembled on site.
Taking less that six months to complete, it was considered the
first, and most significant, example of prefabrication to be used in
architectural construction.
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An interior view of the Crystal Palace at its original
opening.
This was destroyed by a fire in 1936.
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