France the country is famous for many things from romance and the romantic Eiffel Tower, from Gourmet food to cheese and high fashion to the French Revolution, the country is one remarkable place on the entire earth, and the architecture of the Eiffel Tower is magic for more than hundred years and the romance of Paris is widespread across the boundaries and continents, the country gave us many things from the manifesto of communism to the wonder of the world but most importantly the nation shows us how to live with the glory of all amazing architecture and just enjoy the life.
Here we are going to discuss the art and the architectural culture of France during various time durations and the philosophy behind it along with the impact it created.
Medieval Architecture
In the time between pre-Romanesque and the Renaissance, medieval architecture was one of the most famous architectural styles of the time, all the amazing architecture built in between the medieval ages is called medieval architecture, from civil buildings to militaries most of the official buildings accepted medieval as one of standard architecture style and still we can witness some of the glimpses of medieval in European regions like any other famous architecture of the world.
The style highly influenced Romanesque and Gothic architecture as it came after the two ancient architectural styles, from the usage of Gothic arches with lights and tall buildings to wide opening windows and flying buttresses, medieval architecture is a mixture of two Roman architectural styles.
Strasbourg Cathedral in Strasbourg, France is one of the greatest living medieval architecture today and if you ever get a chance to look at it, surely it’ll blow your mind with the rich structure of the cathedral and will amuse you with all the elements of medieval architecture.
Rocco Architecture
The 17th-century architecture is a clear definition of the French taste and how they love to live with decorations and the fashion of the time, Rocco is more than just architecture, it is a design concept used in arts and paintings too, the highly decorated style is from the baroque architecture or even called as late baroque architecture for the royal look and the usage of ornaments to decorate the building.
The purpose of Rocco’s architecture is to make people feel comfortable with its luxury and to feel all the light and the ornaments like a high-priced jewelry shop, the usage of scrolling curves, Gliding, and white colors made an attraction to the viewers.
The walls, ceilings, and Moldings across the building are constructed and decorated with numerous curves and formatted in shapes like and c and other natural shapes, the colors used mostly in the Rocco style are ivory white, gold, and pastel, and the placement of French furniture gave it the look of luxury and more mirrors are placed to reflect the decorations.
Hotel de Soubise in Paris is an exceptional architecture built in the Rocco architectural style, with ivory white in color and grand structure it is one heaven to be explored in Paris along with the Eiffel Tower, the royal hotel is a great monument to showcase the glory of Rocco architecture style.
Neo-classic Architecture
The Greek rival architecture was a revolution against classical architecture, Greek architecture spread like wildfire for the grandeur structure of the architecture, though the architectural style looks rich and royal the simple geometry form used as the core architectural characteristic, the influence of Roman details was highly displayed in the neoclassical architecture.
Rather than using colored walls with decorations neo-classism referred to blank walls with white or other pale colors but mostly white, the architecture is highly accepted by the people of America and we can see more neo-classism in the capital city of the United States.
Most of the iconic government buildings of the world are made of neo-classical architecture for their simplicity and formal structure, In the 19th century the architecture was at a peak, and even today it acts as a reference for future architectures.
Limestones and marbles were some of the elements most commonly used in neo-classical architecture, marbles were imported from various parts of the world. Hotel des Monnaies in Paris is constructed using a neo-classical architectural style the 17th-century building with faded white color is one of the finest buildings in the entire of Paris, we can witness the grandeur scale of the neo-classical architecture and all the credit goes to Jacques Denis Antoine.
Beaux Arts Architecture
Beaux-art architecture is another French country with exceptional architecture, more than just architecture, Beaux-arts was even used as a syllabus in French art schools between the 18th and 19th centuries, it is considered one of the very important French styles and it introduced modern architecture with features of renaissance, gothic and neoclassical architecture mixed.
Like a cocktail party in the modern pub with more elements and characteristics of hundreds of years of architecture and to form a new one from it, the beaux arts become famous for the usage of iron and glass with ancient architectural philosophies, the world saw something new in the architecture and then adapted to it very soon.
The architecture spread quickly to America as they loved the trend more and the French made it a trademark architecture of the nation, even today we can witness most of the amazing buildings in Paris made of beaux architecture and it played a very important role in taking the French architecture to the entire world across boundaries and continents.
As of the 19th century, Paris has been recognized as one of the most stylish cities in the world with high fashions and rich architectural history, The grand Palais at Winston Churchill Avenue in Paris is a grand display of beaux architecture to the entire world, with high decorations and usage of the exact amount of glass to impress peoples from various countries it is one fine exhibition hall ever made in history with the most amazing architecture of its century, we can witness more scents of Greek architecture and the influence of Greek decorations all over the building
Modern Architecture
After the end of World War 2, the world witnessed many things from advanced technology to the improved version of many things, architecture too witnessed advancement at the end of World War 2, and the birth of modern architecture is still the greatest revolution ever made in architectural history.
The usage of glass and iron was never in the concept of architecture till the 19th century, modern architecture introduced an entirely new feature of architecture and changed the entire world to follow its characteristics, today you can see almost every piece of architecture from the 20th century and after is made and use glass and steel as one of the core components of the architecture, that’s what the modern architecture did to the world.
Most of the official buildings constructed after the Second World War were constructed using the modern architectural style, for its formal look and neat structure it impressed most people all over the world.
Centre Pompidou in Paris is an admirable modern architecture building, there are more than twenty modern architectural buildings in Paris and France but this is one remarkable for the raw structure like without makeup it shows the true color of modern architecture.
Contemporary Architecture
While the world witnessed magic through modern architecture, contemporary architecture showed them a step further of what architects and architecture can do by making contemporary architecture, the freedom of architecture is called contemporary where an architect can do anything he wishes to do and give it life.
To date, it is one of most amazing architecture ever made in human evolution, the form style and unimaginable creativity with the usage of curved lines are some of the definable characteristics of contemporary architecture, steel, and glass were highly used and most of the building had more than seventy percent of material as glass alone.
Contemporary architecture showed the possibility of art to the world, it made an impact all over the world, and in France, It made a step stronger, The Louis Vuitton Foundation in Acclimatation Garden in Paris is an unbelievable contemporary architecture and it is built by frank Gehry himself, the design concept is a highly admirable one.
Likewise, France had witnessed many architectural styles during various times of history and still had some of them like old precious pearls, renaissance, art nouveau, art Deco, and regional architectures dominated France for the time of their ages.
Conclusion
The rich fashion country had many architectural philosophies in the history of France and importantly Paris, the country is widely known for high fashion and romance but it also has an amazing architectural history during times, to conclude it is a country of art which spread widely and attached to the root of the nation and like the melody in front the Eiffel tower, the country has many songs in form of architectures surrounded.
