Lectures on Architecture Volume 1 and 2: Translated from the French of E Viollet-le-Duc by Benjamin Bucknall

Book Description

Secondhand. Good condtion. Ex library copy with bookplate, stamps, embossed stamp and some writing. Please see images for more information. Foxing, particularly to volume 2. Binding is still very good.

Eugène Viollet-le-Duc was an influential French architect and preservationist who opposed the 19th-century academic trend of pasting historical, decorative facades onto buildings without structural purpose. He uses his historical analysis of Gothic engineering to advocate for cutting-edge materials.

Volume 1 contains ten lectures that systematically trace the history of building from antiquity (including Egyptian, Greek, and Roman methodologies) through the Middle Ages. Viollet-le-Duc uses historical analysis to show how great civilisations always designed buildings that perfectly matched their societal needs and available materials.

Volume 2 focuses on applied engineering, metallurgy, and the urgent need for a new architectural style suited to the modern industrial age. Viollet-le-Duc includes precise, visionary mathematical diagrams showing how wrought iron, cast iron, and masonry can be combined.

Originally published in French as Entretiens sur l'architecture (1863), Bucknall’s landmark English translation appeared in London in 1877 and was published by Sampson Low, Marston, Searle, & Rivington.