The Elements and Theory Of
Architecture

Not necersarrily. This is a commonly held misconception about the École des Beaux-Arts, so even though the style is named after the school, the school didn't teach the style and didn't recognize that style at the time. Guadet was in fact strongly opposed to teaching style and was against the use of examples by architects still alive. Since most of the Beaux-Arts architects were still alive during the writing of the book you will barely be able to find a single Beaux-Arts styled building used as example in the books. That being said the pioneers of the Beaux-Arts style were mostly trained at École des Beaux-Arts at the time that Guadet was a teacher and student there, using the principles of this book. However, the contents of this book can also lead to different styles as many pioneers in the Art Deco and Art Nouveau movements were also trained at the École des Beaux-Arts using this same content. Furthermore, the teachings could even be applied to Gothic or Romanesque revival and there are many examples of Gothic and Romanesque architecture in the book.

Hopefully soon. This depends on demand and the time I have available to work on it. Please sign up to the mailing list to signal demand to me and be the first to be notified when the new volumes are ready. 

No. In general Guadet tries to stay away from style debates. Occasionally something slips out, showing  that Guadet was liberal for his time and that he was open-minded to different styles and innovation. Many architectural pioneers (particular in Art Nouveau and Art Deco) were trained at the École des Beaux-Arts or even personally mentored by Guadet. Especially in the older parts of the book he is actively promoting innovation whereas in the newer parts he occasionally complains that traditional architecture is out of fashion. That being said you must place Guadet into his historical context and when he thinks about innovation, he thinks about Art Nouveau and the Beaux-Arts style not what we call modern today.  Also many of his principles go directly against common practices in modern architecture today but at the same time do not exclude innovation or all modern architecture.  This can make the book useful to both modernist and revivalists. It could help modernists create new styles using traditional priniciples and for revivalists this could be a guide to authentically build in the old styles without excessive copying.

In general I expect both modernist and revivalists to strongly disagree with some things that Guadet has to say about architecture, as he didn't write for these contemporary groups. Furthermore, some of the context boxes do directly address some of the style debates that Guadet's text may raise to a modern audience. In them I tried to be interpreted Guadet objectively as far as possible, trying to not let my own views shine through too strongly. The context boxes particularly often address the obvious question that Guadet raises to a modern audience about whether revival is possible.  I try to point to numerous practical problems with revival ideas but at the same time I take these ideas seriously. I believe this objective stance can arm modernists with reasonable arguments against revivalism and it can point revivalist to the pitfalls in their plans so they can be avoided.  As such I hope to continue Guadet's neutral stance in style debates  and his pursuit of truth, even though I understand that the mere existance of this new edition is in itself not completely neutral.

Ornament  falls under Guadet's principle of moral truth. That means that the ornament must align with the statement one want to give with the building. This depends on the purpose of the building, the users and the culture of the society the building is placed in. However, Guadet is blunt about buildings without ornamentation. In Volume I, Book II, Chapter 3, he states: “A people who would see nothing in architecture but utility, and who, to that end, renounce beauty, would renounce civilization itself.” He also presents many types of decoration as a kind of catologue of styles to choose from, although this is at an abstract level. Unlike previous generation of architecture books (so called pattern books) he presents no decorations to be literally copied. 

Guadet wrote for the 19th century beginner. Through language updates, context and definition boxes this edition aims to make the book accessible to the contemporary beginner. Most of the book is therefore very accessible to a contemporary general audience. The only pre-requisite that is likely to be a problem for many readers is geometrical skills. These are today no longer taught at the same depth in schools as one hundred years ago. The main challenge in this new edition was to make those sections readable and this wasn't possible in all cases. However, the vast majority of the information in the book should be easy to process for contemporary beginners and in all other cases I aimed to ensure that the most important big picture points remained easy to grasp.

This is a hobby project. I have extensive experience in technical writing and editing through my professional work as an academic, with a long publication record in the engineering discipline. Architectural history has been a long-term personal interest, and I am well read in classical architecture, history, and art history. My love for traditional architecture developed over many decades living in old European towns, including several years in a 19th-century monumental building. For these publications, I identify myself under the pen name D. Wainwright.

It's not abridged and for simplifications, generally the goal was not to remove any information. My  interventions in the main text have generally been extremely conservative. In a number of cases small clarifications are conservatively added to make the text more readable and in a few cases entire sentences were added for that reason. However, this was only done as minor language clarification, for larger clarifications context and definition boxes are used.

In a handful of rare cases (mostly in the chapter on vaults), I have omitted short passages to prevent confusion. They depend on advanced descriptive geometry (projection-based solid geometry) that is no longer widely taught to general readers. However, in most cases I decided to keep these complex geometrically descriptions in. My guiding principles here was the importance to the bigger picture and whether figures could help clarify them to a determined reader. 

No, but he is heavily biased towards French and Italian architecture. My rough estimate is that 50% of the examples are French, 40% Italian and about 10% are from other European countries and the Middle East. He does cover both medieval and ancient styles. These styles are somewhat similar throughout western countries.  So Guadet is a good source for traditional western architecture in general but he may not cover more localized styles beyond France. For traditional architecture from outside western countries he can only offer principles about looking to the past for architectural forms but no specifics.