Publisher's Synopsis
Claude-Nicolas Ledoux's engraving 'Coup d'oeil du tha tre Besan on' in which the architect's building is seen reflected in the eye of a viewer, is the centre piece in this intellectual archaeology. Rodolphe el-Khoury's close reading of Ledoux's celebrated icon uses it to excavate the foundations of architectural transparency, Modernism's most potent and lasting 'invention' which is here traced back to an intellectual milieu that precedes the industrial revolution's glass and steel building technology.
