VIEWS ON BORDERS, DIVISIONS AND THEIR ROLE IN ARCHITECTURAL THEORY OF THE FRENCH ENLIGHTENMENT, AS ILLUSTRATED BY THE PROJECT OF THE NEW CITY WALLS OF PARIS OF 1785
The architecture of the French Enlightenment is in many ways the architecture of divisions and separations. Since E. Kaufmann, the pioneer of studies of the “Enlightenment architecture” it was viewed as “autonomous architecture”. Kantian autonomy was supposed to influence its form, to cause the phenomena of the separation of the pavilion. Other forms of divisions, however, were not as readily accepted. This is exemplified by the notorious “Enceinte de Paris” of 1785. The new city walls caused a popular protest. We can see the roots of this outrage in the pre-revolutionary political climate, but it arguably had a deeper level. The protest was against the limiting role that defined what was considered the city, and what was not. The border forced the city dwellers to separate Paris from its surroundings, pitting the city against non-city (village, nature) where this separation previously did not exist or was much more gradual. The phenomena of borders and divisions in the thought of the Enlightenment era is analyzed in the article in the context of two projects of the “Enceinte de Paris”, a broad and somewhat obscure ideal project of M.-A. Laugier and famous toll barriers by C.-N. Ledoux. The analysis highlights the duality of the Enlightenment views on borders in architecture: they were considered essential to define and rationalize an object (especially an object as complex as the city), but people were mindful of their artificial character, especially when it came to rigid as opposed to gradual separations.