Sigfried Giedion

The excerpt from the writing Bauen in Frankreich, Bauen in Eisen, Bauen in Eisenbeton (Building in France, Building in Iron, Building in Ferroconcrete) by Sigfried Giedion, though broken up into many sections, has a cohesive theme that is written throughout the piece. Giedion’s main point conveyed is the juxtaposition between many parallel elements, all in relation to the changing architectural field in the nineteenth century: the ideas of the individual versus the collective, the ability to industrialize a process and retire the more rudimentary method of handcrafted form, and the struggle to create a uniqueness when conformity was desired. The layout of the piece, graphically, is arranged in a standard format but breaks away from the consistency…

Pierre Francastel and Sigfried Giedion were both analytical in their accounts of industrial revolution’s impact on architecture via the usage of mass-produced material such as iron and glass. However, the two accounts indeed took very different stands on their opinion of the machine and the progression of architecture. Bibliothѐque Sainte-Geneviѐve was indisputably one of the most remarkable examples of iron and glass applications during that era, agreed by both Francastel and Giedion. However,…