Architecture of the periphery: Considering Claude-Nicolas Ledoux's barrieres as gateways between the city and countryside

At the end of the eighteenth century, the architect Claude-Nicolas Ledoux (1736-1806) constructed sixty-two sets of unique barrieres (1785-89) to encircle the city limits of Paris. They were to function as tollgates, collecting taxes on food and merchandise entering the capital. Prior research has focused on Ledoux's unusual typology for these tollgates. This thesis seeks to reveal them in a different light, beyond their fiscal function. Due to their monumental architectural character and location on the periphery of the city, they can equally be considered as city gateways.; The barrieres are first analyzed as gateways within the context of Parisian urban planning. Ledoux's plan and monumental design for his structures parallels a continual desire to embellish the capital with grand entrances to announce the city and define its boundaries. Next, the typology of Ledoux's barrieres is examined, comparing and contrasting them to the French tradition of city gateways. Ledoux's structures do not follow the triumphal arch type, which was established by the first permanent Parisian portes of modern times by Francois Blondel (1617-1686). Instead, the barrieres resemble a pavilion-type structure constantly recombined in various configurations. A closer study of Ledoux's architectural education helps to explain their unusual typology. A consideration of English architecture as an influence further aids in the understanding of his structures as gateways.; Also noted in this thesis is the historiography relating to Ledoux's barrieres, which ranges from the scathing criticism of Ledoux's day to near adulation of "modernists" and "post-modernists" of the present The relationship between the countryside and city and how Ledoux's architecture mediates on the periphery of these two environments is also addressed throughout this study. The barrieres emerge as versatile monuments in themselves, functioning like triumphal structures in the city and like follies in a garden. Moreover, the flexible nature of Ledoux's typology is emphasized; a typology that allowed him to develop an unprecedented and original amalgam of tollgate, triumphal gate and folly.