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Since the treatises of Vitruvius from the 1st
century
bc
, most theories of architecture and
urban planning since the Renaissance have been
complete corpuses – even though the treatise
by Alberti, one of the most important, was left
unfinished.
1
The epoch of the conceptual freeze of
French neoclassicism, particularly as expressed in
the work of Georges Gromort, Julien Guadet and,
in a less radical fashion, by Henri Focillon,
2
coin-
cided with that of the formulation of modernism.
A considerable body of theory was produced.
It included the famous Formules d’une esthétique
moderne by Henry van de Velde (rewritten with vari-
ations since 1916), Préliminaires d’art civique mis en
relation avec le ‘cas clinique’ de la Belgique by Louis
Van der Swaelmen, Kindergarten Chats by Louis
Sullivan (1901–1902, compiled in 1934),
3
the famous
works by Le Corbusier (Towards an Architecture, 1923;
When Cathedrals were White, 1937)
4
and, of course,
the no less famous Athens Charter, the collective work
of the
ciam
in 1933.
5
A number of writings attempted
to define the place, role and means of architecture and
urban planning in today’s society. In Space, Time and
Architecture,
6
the Swiss historian Siegfried Giedion
attempted, not objectively, to assemble theories as
Françoise Choay would do later in L’urbanisme, utopies
et réalités,
7
but rather to eliminate everything that did
not lead towards what one could call the doctrinaire
approach of functionalism. Nevertheless, the ideo-
logical and political aspects of modernist theory have
undergone considerable fluctuations among the authors
themselves, as was the case with Le Corbusier,
between movements, and even between countries.
The strong socialist leanings of the 1920s faded away
in the following decade under the pressure of political
and economic events. The modern movement then
appeared to seek refuge in aesthetics and techniques.
As mentioned in the first chapter, the principal mod-
ernist theories prior to the Second World War were
called into question after 1960, but without giving
rise to a fundamentally new reflection on the future
of architecture and urban planning. Previously, a few
architects such as Auguste Perret, Louis Kahn, Adolf
Loos, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, and even to a certain
extent Frank Lloyd Wright, were often quite laconic,
content to utter cryptic and enigmatic phrases. Others,
including Oscar Niemeyer, remained very much on the
surface of things, dispensing a few generous political
generalities. Nevertheless, all of this resulted in a rela-
tive coherence, despite the inevitable contradictions
between the articles and books they wrote. It is amus-
ing to note that certain players, such as Le Corbusier,
based their theories on their projects and structures
and vice versa, while others, such as Henry van de
Velde, placed their theory above everything, as if they
saw themselves as the imperfect servants of a quasi-
religious truth.
For Philippe Samyn, there have only been two com-
plete, fundamental theoretical works since Vitruvius.
One is A Pattern Language: Towns, Buildings,
Construction by Christopher Alexander, Sara Ishikawa
and Murray Silverstein,
8
which Samyn considers to be
‘an architectural composition book’
9
and a very com-
plete overview of the syntax or grammar of the work
of architects and urban planners, and Het Plastische
Getal by Dom Hans van der Laan.
10
A Pattern Language
(which elaborates on the more limited discourse of
Alexander and Serge Chermayeff in Community and
Privacy, 1963) is an attempt at a general overview of
architectural means, as little influenced as possible
by current modes and trends or even by the state of
society. One might say that it attempts to be an apoliti-
cal tool for adapting to every form of society in every
CHAPTER 9
TOWARDS A THEORY
03-198
Fractals, 1993
The square divided into 4 right-angled
isosceles triangles, each of which is divided
into 2 triangles and so on, converges towards
an irregular octagon comprising 5 squares and
4 half-squares, making 7 squares in total: once
again, 5 and 7 around 2, 4, and 8.
03-212
Harmonic structures, 1993