Henri Labrouste
Architect of the Bibliotheques sainte-Genevieve
Pierre-Francois-Henri Labrouste (1801-1875) was born in Paris, the son of Francois Labrouste, a legislator in the revolutionary and directory governments. Henri, like his four brothers attended the college sainte-Barbe. In 1819, he entered the Ecole des Beaux-Arts as a student of Vaudoyer and Lebas, competing for the Grand Prix in 1821 (placing second) and winning it in 1824 at the unusually early age of twenty-three. From late 1824 to early 1830, Labrouste studied at the French Academy in Rome. Gathering there were four like-minded architects who became a tight group of friends exploring Romanticism and rationalism together: Duban, Louis Duc, Leon Vaudoyer. Together they designed new, modern building designs which were simple, strong and often criticized. This group of architects often sent their revolutionary designs back to the Ecole Des Beaux-arts, and Labrouste was believed to be the leader and instigator in this new movement in architecture, which began to catch on among admiring students of the Ecole.
Soon after his return from Rome in early 1830, the conservative Bourbon regime was overthrown, giving rise to an outburst of Liberal and Romantic euphoria in culture and art. In late spring, a group of the most radical students in Vaudoyer's atelier- Jean Lassus, Klotz, Greterin, Dupuis, Carville, Marcel, Penavere, Dumesnil, and Petiau- presented themselves to Labrouste, asking him to open an atelier for their exploration of new architectural styles. These new styles would later be referred to as the "modern" style of architecture. Labrouste accepted hesitantly, and only after Vaudoyer had formally invited him to do so. He made a declaration of his principles:
"Let me state my thoughts, my thoughts in their entirety, in a few words. If the elements of architecture cannot remain unchanging because of our new needs and because of the new means put at our disposal by industry to satisfy them, they nonetheless cannot be handled capriciously. These elements-the veritable organs of being-are modified according to the functions they are made to serve and thus demand the selection of materials most appropriate for enabling them to satisfy these functions. The particular qualities of these materials thus exert the most direct influence on the form which is appropriate to give each element so that decoration is intimately tied to construction. The beauty of a monument resides in the expression of a harmony between needs and means used to satisfy them" {Labrouste, 1902}
Here in Labrouste's declaration of his principles, he establishes himself as a modern architect (quite possibly the very first). Labrouste explains his belief that form should follow function, and that decoration should grow out of construction, as an something of an organic counterpart. The Bibliotheques Sainte Genevieve, is no exception to Labrouste's beliefs, in such a brutally simple building, one would not expect to see decoration of any kind. Yet the beauty of the columns and arches illuminated by the natural sunlight floating in from the glass ceiling can be described as nothing less than beautiful. What truly makes this building modern is the exposure of all of it's inner workings. Never before had these materials (steel, cast-iron) been used on a construction in Paris, and never before in Paris had the interior of a building exposed so much of its structure.
