ABSTRACT
Leroy’s embrace of hybridity as a means to interpret the history of Christian church architecture and his attempt to derive the principles of Greek temple architecture from the structural logic of early wooden construction placed his work into close dialogue with the Essai sur l’architecture of Marc-Antoine Laugier, a text he cited appreciatively on a number of occasions. It would be a mistake, however, to see Leroy’s work as merely an amplification of Laugier’s ideas. Leroy’s search for universal principles of architecture through the study of history contrasts absolutely with Laugier, who based his theory of architecture on the classical principle of mimesis. The centrality of this idea to Laugier’s thought is emphasized on the frontispiece of the 1755 edition of his Essai sur l’architecture, which presents a reclining female figure turning away from a pile of architectural fragments as she directs the reader’s gaze towards a structure comprising four vertical supports growing straight out of the earth (Figure 4.27). Nature, she proclaims, not the debris of history, should guide architects. Laugier made the little rustic hut into the centerpiece of his theory, the conceptual model architects should have in mind as they ponder their compositions. Skills and techniques might improve or degrade over time, but the aesthetic quality of design resided in the more or less successful imitation of nature through the correct use of the orders.
