Ledoux, Claude-Nicolas

Born in 1736 in Dormans, Champagne; died Nov. 19, 1806, in Paris. French architect.

In his buildings, Ledoux juxtaposed the elegance of French classicism with forms marked by ascetic stereometry, thus paving the way for the Empire style. Among his works is the theater in Besançon (Franche-Comté, 1778–80). He also designed a series of 80 city gates, known as the “propylaea of Paris” (1784—89); of the six gates that were actually constructed, four have been preserved. In his design of the city of Chaux near the saltworks (Franche-Comté, from 1771, partially carried out), Ledoux developed the Renaissance ideas of an ideal city. He was the first to conceive of a single complex comprising residential, industrial, and administrative buildings. As an advocate of expressiveness in architecture, who sought to reveal the symbolic character of the most simple geometric forms, Ledoux strove to embody in some of his designs, which reflected social utopianism, the ideals of the Great French Revolution.