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HISTORICAL HERITAGE : THE OPTIONS Jan. 11, 2014

  • St Germain en Laye sous Louis XIV

  • Magnet 1950

  • Le Plan Voisin de Le Corbusier

  • Magnet 1749

  • Versailles Grille Royale

  • Magnet 1820

  • Magnet avant démolitions

  • Magnet après démolitions

  • Magnet le campaniile

  • Magnet gargoouille

    • THE ARCHITECT AND THE QUESTION OF RESTORATION by Philippe JARD 

    Just like Rome, our Historical Heritage was not created in one day….

    Very few buildings were built in one go, suffering few alterations afterwards, like Vaux le Vicomte Castle which nowadays aspect is that of September 5, 1661 when d’Artagnan came to arrest its owner Fouquet and when all works were suddenly stopped.

    Our ancestors, when building, did respect their architectural heritage. Don’t we often see a Gothic choir added to a roman nave? The renaissance aisle of a building facing a Classical one ? The financial aspect was definitely significant but as Louis XIV who wanted to keep his father’s  outmoded hunting lodge within the walls of Versailles or the Maurist at St-Germain-des-Prés who never hesitated in keeping the Virgin Chapel and the gothic refectory built by Pierre de Montreuil in the  XIIIème century, they were really willing to protect history… 

    Working on a historical building : demolition, reconstitution or restitution ?

    Saint Germain-en-Laye : this middle-age castle, rebuilt by François I was then extended by  Louis XIV with the creation of new appartments. The turrets  were destroyed and the new appartments gave  a bulky look to the building.  Later, Eugène Millet, a  disciple of Violet le Duc, was ordered its transformation into a museum. He could either keep the castle as it was or give it back its looks of the Renaissance, this second option was choosen though Louis XIV’s architect was Jules-Hardouin Mansart!

    Let’s imagine that one the place des Vosges pavillions in Paris is entirely destroyed…. Should it be rebuilt the original way ? Or should it, like place Dauphine, be rebuilt according to the architectural trends of the moment ? The answer now seems obvious but what about yesterday and tomorrow ? Don’t forget that the historical districts of Paris could have been destroyed if Le Corbusier’s Voisin Plan had been achieved, a crazy project ? Undoubtedly but not much worse than Haussmann’s plan… Baudelaire wrote : « The old Paris no longer is ; a city now changes faster than the heart of a mortal » what would then be our Paris today ?

    « Giving back Versailles its Royal gate, means restoring the sacred place for absolute power its  symbolic aspect » : Jean-Jacques Aillagon, recently appointed as the Castle curator thus justified the several million euros works, partly financed by a private company. This gate, designed by Jules Hardouin-Mansart at the end of the  XVIIth century was linked to two pavillions, several meters back from  the present façade.  During the second half of the XVIIIth century,  Ange-Jacques Gabriel, Louis XVth’s architect, kept trying to launch his main project of a drastic alteration of the façade on the City side.  The works, suspended in  1774, were aimed at rebuilding according to the taste of the moment some buildings considered old-fashioned and left aside part of the gate, the one which is still connected to an ancient pavillion rebuilt in … 1820 by  Louis XVIII’s architect, Alexandre Dufour, thus responding to Gabriel’s pavillion. 

    The gate was definitely not destroyed by the hatred of revolution but as a result of  the evolution of the building. Within such changing circumstances, proper to the History of the castle, what should be the basis of a reliable reconstitution ?  

    The same problem arises when considering the reconstruction of the Tuileries Palace or the St Cloud Castle just like Hohenzollern castle, a perfect copy of the « Prussian jewel » destroyed by the commmunist regime in 1950.

    Those examples really mean something to us because they are part of our own history. European countryside is rich and the architect questioning on minor buildings has to be the same. 

    Let’s take the typical example of the restoration of a castle in a region dear to Georges Sand, the Vallée Noire in Berry. Its construction and alterations lasted some five centuries. Like many countryside castles, very little information is available and only two  XVIIIth and XIXth centuries prints  and a 1950 postcard will guide the architect. 

    Which period should then be priviledged ?

     The XVIth Century ? But during the summer of 1626, Louis XIIIth promulgated three edicts.  One against luxurious clothing, the second one against duels, the last one ordering the demolition of some fortresses. Right at that period, our castle is loosing it defensive upper floor. .. Does it have to be restituted or reconstituted ? 

     The XVIIIth Century ? Far away from Versailles’s rich court, the addition of this very rural aisle would require demolishing  all the XIXth Century additions to restore its orginal aspect. 

     The XIXème century ? It is the period of drastic changes, this fortress becoming a fairy tale castle.  This is the option taken with the demolition of all XXth century additions that linked the Castle to the Chapel and a reconstitution of the Main porch, the finial, the bell tower and the gargoyles, the way a Violet Le Duc would have. 

    Restitution or reconstitution ?

    A restitution is a virtual image or a model showing the missing parts. The reconstitution belongs to the real world and results from the analysis of archeological findings and written or illustrated documents. It is not aimed at reaching a perfect revival of the original but allows a legitimate subsitute. Were it called restitution, it could become falsification. 

    Philippe JARD - HISTORICAL HERITAGE ARCHITECT

     

    Philippe JARD, the child who built the City around the train…

     

    Because there was no electricity in the maid’s room of the Rue des Saints Pères, in Saint-Germain-des-Prés, that he was allowed to use as a play room, he spent his time designing and building, with matches and glue, the landscape of his electric train condemned to remain immobile…

    The now well-known Hôtel particulier that faced his parent’s appartment clearly drew Philippe’s curiosity, a curiosity now become passion….

    Both the little train and its circumstance finally led him to Chaillot…

     

    Several careers are offered in France to the 800 architects graduated from Chaillot:

    -          Architecte des bâtiments de France, 250 architects, salaried by the State,

    -          Architecte en Chef des Monuments Historiques, 40 civil servants receiving fees, the only ones allowed to touch State owned protected buildings,

    -          Architectes du Patrimoine, some 250 of them established in their own agencies and allowed to work on protected privately owned buildings.

    Philippe chose this option and works within JARD, BRYCHY Architecture that develops totally contemporary projects as well as subjects closely linked to Historical Heritage. He then tries to give them a new life with the proper integration in our present time, either as a purist or through more daring options…

    JARD BRYCHCY ARCHITECTURE    www.jbarchi.fr     01 53 33 85 85

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