| The writing of the French architectural theorist and critic Cesar Daly (1811-1894), editor of the influential Parisian journal, the Revue generale de l'architecture et des travaux publics, may be considered to be representative of the ambivalence of the supposed 19th century dialectic between scientism and metaphysical idealism. For Daly the physical and representational needs of society expressed in architecture were always and forever inextricably linked by the universal and permanent pattern of History. Although it was his fundamental thesis that the human sensibility was more important than any other consideration in the creation of architecture, his theory is paradigmatic of the contemporary ideology which attempted to define and systemise the expressive role of architecture according to rational scientific principles, and resulted in the concept of architecture as a prescriptive and predictive process.;Given the separation of architectural form and content, presence and meaning, and the consequent challenge to the possibility of shared experience initiated in the Enlightenment which is still an inherent part of our contemporary architectural thought, it is crucial to re-examine the architectural theory of the 19th century as the origin of the modern condition. This thesis is a critical examination of Daly's collections of polemical articles from the Revue as artifacts of architectural knowledge, through an analysis of their form and content in relation to other significant 19th century architectural texts. |
