Tracing the Integrations of Race and Style Theory in Nineteenth-century Architectural Style Debates: E. E. Viollet-le-Duc and Gottfried Semper, 1834-1890

This research locates the racial frameworks produced by the integration of race and style theory in Gottfried Semper (1803–1879) and Eugene Emmanuel Viollet-le-Duc's (1814–1876) organic conception of style. Each architect-writer established a conception of style that emulated the organic principles of nature: Semper's theory of the Four Elements produced a starting point for the morphological development of ornament in history; and Viollet-le-Duc identified the rational logic of structure in Gothic buildings that emulated the internal organization of the body. Furthermore, each architect also alluded to the generative principles of race theory that were prevalent in the nineteenth-century: Semper's conceptualization of type and degeneration in architecture paralleled the definitions of race types in biology; and Viollet-le-Duc's emulation of ethnographic principles was evident in his narration of the transformation of primitive race types through conquest and intermarriage. In order to explore the implications of Viollet-le-Duc and Semper's mention of race theory, this research maps the generative principles of the race sciences inaugurated in the nineteenth century onto the natural organic models each architect constructed to locate the racial frameworks that were produced in their architectural theories. 

Davis,Charles L.,,II. 2009. Tracing the integrations of race and style theory in nineteenth-century architectural style debates: E. E. viollet-le-duc and gottfried semper, 1834-1890. Ph.D. diss., University of Pennsylvania.