Good taste
Theory, drawing, facade
Livre d’architecture was written in 1745 by French architect German Boffrand. Germain Boffrand was one of the main creators of the precursor to Rococo called the style Régence, and in his interiors, of the Rococo itself. In his exteriors he held to a monumental Late Baroque classicism with some innovations in spatial planning that were exceptional in France.
The texts in the book are split in two columns and are side by side. On one side the text is in French and on the other side the same content in Latin. The book is divided in two parts. The firsts part is only in written form and theoretical. There he repeats his discussion at the Academy of 1734 on good taste in architecture. He also introduces the theme of character into the French architectural discussion. The sign language of the house on the outside and on the inside should reflect the character and position of the residents or the way it is used. He thus provides the foundations for the central ideas of revolutionary architecture.
The second part is about his own work, which correspond to his ideas of good taste and architectural character. In this part, drawings are dominating the pages. Every work starts with the name of the building followed by the introduction and room list of the building. On the next pages you will find a ground plan and a section or a front view. When you look through his work you will see that he mostly did monumental buildings such as Fortresses, Hotels and Palaces. This shows us that his customers were from the upper class. The drawings have no dimensions on them. In some sections you can see some construction details. However, they do not seem so important, as they are only shown for a few special structures as dome roofs. You can tell by the drawings, that he places great value on facades, as they appear almost in every drawing. In his illustrations he works with light and shadow to give the building more realism. The ground plans are kept simple and very understandable. The walls are filled black and the stairs are drawn in thin lines.
With these points mentioned above, I assume, that one important purpose of the book is to show French architecture of his time to the world.