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MANILA, Philippines - Who is the 18th century French architect who is known as one of the earliest exponents of French neoclassical architecture and for his utopian town planning for the ideal city of Chaus?
He was born on March 21, 1736 in Doarmns sur Marne, the son of a modest merchant from Champagne. His mother and godmother encouraged him to develop his drawing skills early on. Sassenage funded his studies in Paris. When he left he college at the age of 17, he took employment as an engraver but four years later studied architecture under the tutelage of Jacques Francois Blondel, for whom he maintained a lifelong respect.
He later trained under Pierre d’Ivry and Jean Michel Chevotet, two eminent Parisian architects who designed in both the restrained French Rococo manner and in the Greek phjase of early neoclassicism. Under their tutelage, he was also introduced to classical architecture — in prarticular the temples of Paestum, which along with the works of Palladio were to influence him greatly. These two master architects introduced him to their affluent clientele.
In 1762, he was commissioned to redecorate the cafe Godeau in rue Saint Honore. The result was an interior of tromp l’oeil and mirrors. Pilasters painted on the walls were interspersed with alternating Pier glasses and panels painted with trophies of helmets and weaponry, all executed in bold detail. In 1969, this interior was moved to Musee Carnavalet.
With his reputation established with his designs of chateaus and hotels, he went on to more ambitious designs like the Hotel Montnorency which has a facade in the ionic order above a rustic ground floor .
He was later commissioned to with the modernization of the Eastern Saltworks. The initial building work was conceived as the first phase of a large and grandiose scheme for a new ideal city. Entrance is a large doric portico inspired by the temples at Peastum. The alliance of the columns is an archetypal motif of neoclassicism.
The entrance building opens into a vast semicircular open air space that is surrounded by 10 buildings, which are arranged on the arc of a semi circle. On the arc is the cooper’s forge and the forging mill. On the straight diameter are the workshops for the extraction of salt alternating with administrative buildings.
The significance of this plan is twofold, the circle, a perfect figure, evokes the harmony of the ideal city and theoretically endorses a place of harmony for common work, but it recalls contemporary theories of organization.
For a brief period in the 1920s, the salt works were reused but eventually closed due to competition. For the following decades, the salt works lay in decay until they were named a world heritage site by UNESCO and refurbished as a local cultural center.
Around the time of the salt works, he formalized his innovative design ideas for and urbanism and architecture intended to improve society, of a cite ideal charged with symbols and meanings
In 1775, he presented the first drafts of the town of Chaux, centered on the royal saltworks. He died on Nov. 18, 1806.
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Last week’s question: Who is the 20th-century Jewish German architect known for his expressionist architecture in the 1920s, as well as for developing a dynamic functionalism in his projects for department stores and cinemas?
Answer: Erich Mendelsohn
Winner: Francia Aurelia of Pandacan, Manila
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