Editor’s Introduction

The translated text in this issue is a section from Eugène-Emmanuel Viollet-le-Duc’s Dictionnaire raisonnè de l’architecture française du XIe au XVIe siècle (Systematic dictionary of French architecture from the eleventh to the sixteenth century, 1854–68), in which the great theorist of the Gothic Revival in France asserts some of the central ideals of modern design. Among these are some trenchant thoughts on the use (and misuse) of plant forms, but perhaps the most important underlying principle is that of the relationship between ornament and structure, which Viollet-le-Duc felt should always be understood as part of a larger unifying scheme, “working in perfect harmony and rationality.”