ABSTRACT

This chapter examines the dual concept of imitation and invention in relationship to nature and to antiquity. From the French Enlightenment when the concept of character began to be comprehensively elaborated we will examine character in relation to a cluster of concepts that include: imitation and invention, nature and antiquity, theories regarding the origins of architectural form, meaning arising from social contexts, and personal taste. The chapter also examines the rupture between imitation and invention, the replacement of the natural paradigm by the paradigm of technique, and their effects on architectural character. The association of architecture with different theories of meaning, and the new practice of architecture as an evolving tradition based on the paradigm of imitation and invention. Prior to modernism, imitation meant that objects are made out of combinations of other objects, cities and buildings out of combinations of other cities and buildings, while invention sought to improve the rational choice made from exemplary precedents.