Eugène Emmanuel Viollet-le-Duc is widely celebrated as a draughtsman, architect, and restorer of medieval buildings. A national hero in France, Viollet-le-Duc tends to be plucked out of the complex nexus of colonialism and nationalism which molded much of his thinking. Indeed, Viollet-le-Duc’s friendship with Arthur de Gobineau, who wrote the Essay on the Inequality of […]

A lecture duet by Ralph Ghoche (Barnard College) and Estelle Thibault (École nationale supérieure d'architecture Paris-Belleville), moderated by Martin Bressani (McGill University) Inspired by thirteenth-century gothic architecture, Eugène Emmanuel Viollet-le-Duc understood ornament as the medium through which the vital energies of the living world became visible. Ornament distilled the anatomical logic of the plants or […]