FLASHBACK: Royal Saltworks | Saline Royale d'Arc et Senans
Entrance to the director's building | Entrée de la maison du directeur
Version Française ci-dessous
Back in February this year, I visited the Arc et Senans Royal Saltworks in the Franche-comte region of France. The complex was designed by Claude-Nicolas Ledoux in the late 18th century. It was intended as a salt processing facility for briny spring waters from the surroundings.
The complex was designed hierarchically in a semi-circular plan that was to form part of a larger city imagined by Ledoux, plan that never fully came about. It was completed at a time where traditional, labour and ressource-intensive means of production were starting to be replaced by thanks to the nascent industrial revolution, which made the saltworks obsolete almost from the beginning.
It never produced to the extent it was supposed to and about 100 year after opening, salt production permanently ceased, not being able to compete with cheaper sea salt brought by rail.
Nonetheless, Ledoux designed a very innovative complex for the time, rationalizing the organization of the salt production, housing all the workers on-site, essentially forming a self-contained community. Indeed, salt was then a very coveted commodity as it was used to preserve food and was heavily taxed by the Ferme générale. Housing all workers on-site was a way to control production and prevent the smuggling of salt outside of the facility.
Of note, at the Maison du directeur, are several architectural features that separate the building from the rest of the complex, to show its importance. The columns are made of square and cylindrical sections which create very photogenic shadow plays. The central location, unique architectural feature and the oversized oculus in the pediment makes it crystal clear how important is that building to the plan.
Ledoux’s legacy ended up being mostly made of unbuilt projects, the saltworks being on of the few built projects that still stand to this day and allows us to see how ahead of his time he was.
Director's building | Maison du directeur
Au mois de Février 2015, j’ai eu l’occasion de visiter la Saline Royale d’Arc et Senans, dans la region Franche-Comté. L’ensemble conçu par Claude-Nicolas Ledoux au 18eme siècle fut â l'origine une usine de production de sel, utilisant les sources saumâtres locales pour en extraire cette substance très précieuse.
Le projet a été conçu suivant un plan semi-circulaire ou toutes les fonctions sont hiérarchisées et placées en fonction de leur importance. Il fut conçu a l’origine comme faisant partie d’une ville conçue par Ledoux qui ne fut jamais complétée. Le complexe incorporait des méthodes de production proto-industrielles qui furent mises en place un peu trop tard, la revolution industrielle ayant commencé peu de temps après, ce qui rendit les salines obsolètes des le depart.
La saline ne produisit jamais autant que prévu et fût fermée tout juste 100 ans après sa creation, la concurrence avec le sel de mer, livré par chemin de fer, étant trop forte.
Ledoux néanmoins conçût un ensemble innovant pour son époque, rationalisant la production de sel, incluant des logements pour les ouvriers sur site pour créer une forme de commune autarcique. Le sel étant un denrée très convoitée a l’époque pour la preservation de la nourriture, il était logique de protéger les revenus de la Gabelle de la Ferme Générale en contrôlant l’accès à la saline et en limitant les allées et venues des ouvriers.
A noter, la maison du directeur qui occupe la place centrale de la Saline, comporte des éléments architecturaux qui la distingue du reste, tels que les colonnes a sections carrées et ronde ainsi que l’oculus démesuré au milieu du frontispice, mettent en evidence l’importance de cet edifice par rapport au reste du complexe.
L’heritage de Ledoux reste composé principalement de projets non-construits, la saline étant un des rares complexes qu’il a pu voir bâti. Après la chute de l’ancien regime, Ledoux se concentra sur la conception de villes idéales et de projets spéculatifs, car ayant été un architecte disposant des faveur du roi, il sombra dans l’obscurité, jusqu’a ce qu’il fut redécouvert bien plus tard, au vingtième siècle.
Covered porch of a production building | Colonnade d'un bâtiment de production.
Annex residence in the Globe and Mail
John Bentley-Mays wrote a great article on Audax's project and concept of human architecture. I discovered things I did not know about this really cool project.
Read it here.
Hoggs Hollow Residence by Makow Associates
Backyard
This beautiful home was designed by Makow Associates of Toronto, completed in 2014.
Do not let the traditional exterior fool you, it is a very contemporary house inside, filled with luxurious materials and the latest in home automation technology.
Upper level foyer
We had the opportunity to work with the Toronto-based stylist Carmen Maier who styled most of the interior shots shown here. Carmen is a dedicated stylist with an eye for details and her expertise was instrumental in bringing out the soul of the house in the photography.
Entrance / foyer
The centerpiece of the house, the foyer is a beautiful double-height space lit from above that ties the whole house together and contributes to not making it feel so large as it has a direct connection to all the living spaces on the first and second floors.
Master bedroom
It is flanked by an open staircase that makes the transition from first to second floor and enjoyable experience as the views are constantly changing as one goes up the stairs.
Kitchen
The result is a very large home that does not feel overwhelming but rather homely and inviting, in part due to the abundance of natural light and lightly colored materials.
Master Bath
We certainly enjoyed shooting this house and are hoping to do more of these in the future.
Front Facade
Tips for hiring an architectural photographer #6
This is post 6 of a series of 10, in a series detailing important aspects to hiring an architectural photographer while avoiding the most common pitfalls.
6. MINIMIZE YOUR COSTS.
A good photographer will understand your needs and help you come up with a solution that fits your budget. There are many ways to keep costs reasonable and this should be discussed with your photographer, for example:
1. Shop locally if you can. By avoiding travel expenses, you save money and promote the local economy.
2. Bundle shoots together. If you can combine several projects to be shot at the same time, your photographer should be able to give you a better deal.
3. Use fewer and better views. Carefully consider the shots you need in order to save money. If unsure, your photographer will have a good idea of what shots will best tell the story of your project. Ask them to make recommendations.
4. Keep the bottom line in mind. How much money are you likely to make with these images? How many projects can they help you win?
Greenrock rental management office, Toronto, Kohn Shnier Architects
Goldring student center by Moriyama & Teshima
Main entrance
We recently had the pleasure to shoot the new Goldring student center at Victoria college on the University of Toronto campus. Our assignment was to explore the relationship of this new project to its surroundings and emphasize the contextual importance of all the buildings one can see in this dense urban environment. The student center is surrounded by exceptional buildings such as the Isabel Bader theater (Lett/Smith), McKinsey building (Hariri Pontarini Architects) and the Gardiner museum (KPMB) among many others.
Back of house / quadrangle, looking east
Working with context as the main idea driving this shoot, it really opened our eyes the relationship this building has with its surroundings. This is one of the main motivations behind moriyama and Teshima's work and we had a lot of fun working at making this evident in our photographs.
Quadrangle
Hopefully our readers are able to get a better understanding of the project from an urban perspective and we would love to hear your thoughts in the comments section.