Architectural engineer and historian, France
François Auguste Choisy is in many ways the ideological link between significant
individuals such as Eugène Viollet-le-Duc and Auguste Perret and Vitruvius and Le
Corbusier; his influence on the beginnings of the Modern movement was fundamental.
Born in 1841, Choisy was the son of an architect practicing in Vitry-le-François in
northeastern France. His interests in mathematics and architecture quickly led him to the
École Polytechnique under Léonce Reynaud, author of the influential Traité d’architecture (1860; Treaty on
Architecture), and eventually to the prestigious École des Ponts et Chaussées. His
professional career as civil engineer originated in 1865, while still within the junior ranks
of the latter institution, when he was dispatched to the Rhone region; there, he began to
investigate the significance of the surrounding Gallo-Roman monuments. During the
same year he traveled to Greece, undertaking technical analyses of, among other
monuments, the Parthenon; his work on stylobate and column curvature remains
important within the study of classical architecture. Graduating second at the École des
Ponts et Chaussées in 1866, he was awarded a travel bursary that he ultimately used to
visit Italy.
In 1868 Choisy took on his official duties as engineer within the Département des
Ponts et Chaussées at Rethel, France. In 1870 he met Viollet-le-Duc, who was already
well known for his Entretiens sur l’architecture (1863–72; Commentaries on Architecture). Choisy remained with
the government department for his entire career, moving up the ranks as chief engineer
and eventually inspector general, all the while teaching architectural history at the École
des Ponts et Chaussées, the École d’Horticulture de Versailles, and the École
Polytechnique. His interests extended beyond historical studies, organizing the public
works programs for the French installations at the universal expositions in Vienna (1873),
Philadelphia (1876), Melbourne (1880), and Paris (1878, 1889, and 1900).
During his initial sojourn in Italy, Choisy began outlining his first substantial
publication, L’Art de bâtir chez les Remains (1873; The Art of Roman Building). His interpretation of Roman
building technique focused on brick masonry and vault construction; he emphasized that
material and labor thriftiness was central to Roman construction, modeling his analyses
in part on Robert Willis’s work and ultimately comparing his own observations to the
words in Vitruvius’s De architecture, libr i decem (1st century B.C.; The Ten Books on Architecture). Choisy used
a complex three-dimensional drawing technique, the plunging isometric, which allowed
for the depiction of plan, elevation, section, and interior layout within single engravings.
The work established him as an authority in classical architecture, and similar studies
followed, including L’Art de bâtir chez les Bizantines (1883; The Art of Byzantine Building), Études épigraphiques sur l’archi tecture greque (1883; Epigraphic
Studies on Greek Architecture), L’Art de bâti r chez les Égyptiens (1904; The Art of Egyptian Building), and his tour de
force, His toire de l’architecture (1899; The History of Architecture).
Comprehensive and systematic, Choisy’s 1899 architectural history book was a textual
and visual account of building methods in culture, time, and space; it included his own
1700 drawings, presenting the culmination of his lectures and studies, distilled within a
comprehensive analysis of architecture from prehistory to the end of the 18th century.
Each historical section was first contextualized within the broader work, with the
technical aspects of building following immediately afterward. Choisy’s thesis that form
follows local environmental and cultural conditions was buttressed throughout the book,
Encyclopedia of 20th-century architecture 474
underscoring his view that architecture is generated by the collective and not the
individual. To the historian, style and form derive from the creative use of materials,
labor, and ideas; architecture is the result of the adaptations of historical precedents on
the one hand and the solution to immediate problems on the other. The connection
between form and technique was thus achieved, making the influence of Viollet-le-Duc
abundantly clear. In his section on Gothic architecture, in fact, Choisy bases much of his
discussion on the work of the latter as well as on Willis’s, further elaborating their
theories and subsequently contributing to the spread of their ideas.
As with his discussion of the Gothic, Choisy refined previous theories, particularly as
they related to Greek architecture. He advanced the thesis that Greek builders did not rely
solely on symmetry and axial alignment, as previous historians had often concluded; he
noted that the ensemble of monuments interacted within more complex landscapes. He
went back to his studies of the Parthenon—a model that Le Corbusier would echo just a
few decades later. Coupled with Choisy’s translation of Vitruvius’s Ten Books on Architectu re (published
posthumously in 1909), the His toire de l’architecture served as a base text for the theory expounded in Le
Corbusier’s Vers Une Architecture (1923; Toward a New Architecture). Le Corbusier turned to Choisy’s
history book for Parthenon and Acropolis details, pointing to symmetrical buildings
arranged within asymmetrical site layouts and discussing the evolution of classical types.
Central to Le Corbusier’s thesis was that pure architecture works on an emotive level
with the viewer. He termed modénature, the act of controlling emotion by visual stimulus; the term
was translated in his Vers Une Architecture as “contour and profile.” This, of course, was directly tied to
Choisy’s notion that the Greeks used contours and profiles to arrive at their optical
corrections; Choisy borrowed from Vitruvius in his examination of moldings, adding his
own ideas relating to the use of light in controlling the viewer’s experience. Le Corbusier
in turn followed Choisy and adapted ideas on light within his theoretical principles.
In 1903, just before his death, Choisy received the Royal Institute of British
Architects’ Gold Medal for his lifetime contribution to the study of architecture and, in
significant ways, to the meaning of architectural history during the early 20th century.
François Auguste Choisy is in many ways the ideological link between significant
individuals such as Eugène Viollet-le-Duc and Auguste Perret and Vitruvius and Le
Corbusier; his influence on the beginnings of the Modern movement was fundamental.
Born in 1841, Choisy was the son of an architect practicing in Vitry-le-François in
northeastern France. His interests in mathematics and architecture quickly led him to the
École Polytechnique under Léonce Reynaud, author of the influential Traité d’architecture (1860; Treaty on
Architecture), and eventually to the prestigious École des Ponts et Chaussées. His
professional career as civil engineer originated in 1865, while still within the junior ranks
of the latter institution, when he was dispatched to the Rhone region; there, he began to
investigate the significance of the surrounding Gallo-Roman monuments. During the
same year he traveled to Greece, undertaking technical analyses of, among other
monuments, the Parthenon; his work on stylobate and column curvature remains
important within the study of classical architecture. Graduating second at the École des
Ponts et Chaussées in 1866, he was awarded a travel bursary that he ultimately used to
visit Italy.
In 1868 Choisy took on his official duties as engineer within the Département des
Ponts et Chaussées at Rethel, France. In 1870 he met Viollet-le-Duc, who was already
well known for his Entretiens sur l’architecture (1863–72; Commentaries on Architecture). Choisy remained with
the government department for his entire career, moving up the ranks as chief engineer
and eventually inspector general, all the while teaching architectural history at the École
des Ponts et Chaussées, the École d’Horticulture de Versailles, and the École
Polytechnique. His interests extended beyond historical studies, organizing the public
works programs for the French installations at the universal expositions in Vienna (1873),
Philadelphia (1876), Melbourne (1880), and Paris (1878, 1889, and 1900).
During his initial sojourn in Italy, Choisy began outlining his first substantial
publication, L’Art de bâtir chez les Remains (1873; The Art of Roman Building). His interpretation of Roman
building technique focused on brick masonry and vault construction; he emphasized that
material and labor thriftiness was central to Roman construction, modeling his analyses
in part on Robert Willis’s work and ultimately comparing his own observations to the
words in Vitruvius’s De architecture, libr i decem (1st century B.C.; The Ten Books on Architecture). Choisy used
a complex three-dimensional drawing technique, the plunging isometric, which allowed
for the depiction of plan, elevation, section, and interior layout within single engravings.
The work established him as an authority in classical architecture, and similar studies
followed, including L’Art de bâtir chez les Bizantines (1883; The Art of Byzantine Building), Études épigraphiques sur l’archi tecture greque (1883; Epigraphic
Studies on Greek Architecture), L’Art de bâti r chez les Égyptiens (1904; The Art of Egyptian Building), and his tour de
force, His toire de l’architecture (1899; The History of Architecture).
Comprehensive and systematic, Choisy’s 1899 architectural history book was a textual
and visual account of building methods in culture, time, and space; it included his own
1700 drawings, presenting the culmination of his lectures and studies, distilled within a
comprehensive analysis of architecture from prehistory to the end of the 18th century.
Each historical section was first contextualized within the broader work, with the
technical aspects of building following immediately afterward. Choisy’s thesis that form
follows local environmental and cultural conditions was buttressed throughout the book,
Encyclopedia of 20th-century architecture 474
underscoring his view that architecture is generated by the collective and not the
individual. To the historian, style and form derive from the creative use of materials,
labor, and ideas; architecture is the result of the adaptations of historical precedents on
the one hand and the solution to immediate problems on the other. The connection
between form and technique was thus achieved, making the influence of Viollet-le-Duc
abundantly clear. In his section on Gothic architecture, in fact, Choisy bases much of his
discussion on the work of the latter as well as on Willis’s, further elaborating their
theories and subsequently contributing to the spread of their ideas.
As with his discussion of the Gothic, Choisy refined previous theories, particularly as
they related to Greek architecture. He advanced the thesis that Greek builders did not rely
solely on symmetry and axial alignment, as previous historians had often concluded; he
noted that the ensemble of monuments interacted within more complex landscapes. He
went back to his studies of the Parthenon—a model that Le Corbusier would echo just a
few decades later. Coupled with Choisy’s translation of Vitruvius’s Ten Books on Architectu re (published
posthumously in 1909), the His toire de l’architecture served as a base text for the theory expounded in Le
Corbusier’s Vers Une Architecture (1923; Toward a New Architecture). Le Corbusier turned to Choisy’s
history book for Parthenon and Acropolis details, pointing to symmetrical buildings
arranged within asymmetrical site layouts and discussing the evolution of classical types.
Central to Le Corbusier’s thesis was that pure architecture works on an emotive level
with the viewer. He termed modénature, the act of controlling emotion by visual stimulus; the term
was translated in his Vers Une Architecture as “contour and profile.” This, of course, was directly tied to
Choisy’s notion that the Greeks used contours and profiles to arrive at their optical
corrections; Choisy borrowed from Vitruvius in his examination of moldings, adding his
own ideas relating to the use of light in controlling the viewer’s experience. Le Corbusier
in turn followed Choisy and adapted ideas on light within his theoretical principles.
In 1903, just before his death, Choisy received the Royal Institute of British
Architects’ Gold Medal for his lifetime contribution to the study of architecture and, in
significant ways, to the meaning of architectural history during the early 20th century.
