Lexie Lehmann

Introduction to Architecture

Professor Michael Waters, TA Hasbrouck Miller

Analyzing the Parthenon through Laugier’s Essay on Architecture

Marc-Antoine Laugier’s Essai sur L’Architecture, republished in 1755, outlines the French Jesuit

priest’s theory of “structural rationalism”. Structural rationalism is the idea that architecture should

be determined by its constructive, material, and programmic logic (Waters). Laugier believes that

the Greeks did the best job of emulating structural rationalism; he writes: “Architecture owes all that

is perfect to the Greeks” (Laugier 8). Further, because the Greeks were able to achieve this “stage of

perfection” … there is no other way for consecutive architecture styles to progress in any other way

than to “imitate or decline” (Laugier 8).

One of the most iconic Greek buildings in the canon of Classical architecture is the Athenian

temple, the Parthenon. The Parthenon aligns with Laugier’s ideology in that it employs Laugier’s

three fundamental elements of architecture: column, pediment, and entablature; however, the

Parthenon slightly diverges from structural rationalism in a few minor ornamental details, such as

the entasis of its columns.

Laugier begins his description of structural rationalism by arguing that architecture’s most

beautiful qualities should be derived from nature. He begins his essay by describing the savage man,

who constructs a primitive hut to provide shelter and security away from the exterior world. The

three fundamental parts of a building are explicitly linked to the primitive hut: branches form the

columns that keep the hut upright, while an entablature with a pointed roof or pediment form the

hut’s ceiling. Laugier would enjoy that the basic composition of the Parthenon is built around these

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three simple components. The Parthenon is entirely supported by columns and is topped by an

entablature and pediment in a traditional post-and-lintel fashion. Additionally, Laugier would enjoy

that the Parthenon’s columns are spherical and that they do not sit on a podium. Moreover, the

Parthenon does not employ other structural choices that Laugier deems “useless” because they are

unnatural or unnecessary, such as arches or piers (Laugier 23).

Laugier’s accolades of another building, the French Maison Carrée, demonstrate his favor towards

a simplistic architectural style. In his Essai, Laugier celebrates the beautiful ancient monument of the

Maison Carrée in Nimes. Laugier writes that “everything here [in the Maison Carée] accords with the

true principles of architecture”: a rectangular with columns that support an entablature and roof that

is closed at both ends by a pediment (Laugier 13). This combination produces a building that is

striking for its “simplicity and nobility” (Laugier 13). In comparison, the Parthenon is constructed

quite similarly, with several columns that collectively support an entablature ceiling and pointed

pediment.

An ornamental detail that Laugier would take issue with would be the slight swelling of the

Parthenon’s columns. In architecture, the term “entasis” refers to a convex, curved column that

swells about one third of the way up of its shaft. Laugier despises the ornamental detail of entasis; he

writes: “to give a swelling to the shaft at about the third of its height instead of tapering the column

in the normal way” is not justified by anything as nature, and therefore indicates an architectural

fault (Laugier 18). In the Parthenon, entasis is used to make the temple appear larger. Entasis is also

used to serve an engineering function that contributes to the columns’ strength.

Nonetheless, the example of the Parthenon demonstrates several of Laugier’s key tenets, with

the exception of a minor ornamental detail like entasis. It is likely that the Parthenon was therefore

one of the “excellent models” to which Laugier refers in the Introduction of the text (Laugier 8).