Director’s House at the saltworks of Arc-et-Senans, (Besancon, France), 1775-9, NeoClassicism

Director's House at the Saltworks of Arc-et-Senas

The Director’s House at the Saltworks of Arc-et-Senans was designed by architect Claud Nicolas Ledoux near the Besancon in France. The building is from the NeoClassical period, and it’s production began in 1775 and was completed in 1779. The Saltworks was the first civic campus set to standardize the production of salt. The entire compound also provided housing for the workers, contained a tax collecting facility, as well as a place of worship. Ledoux had this Ideal City of Chaux. The semicircular saltworks was one of the first industrial architectures that also combined production with worker’ housing. He also extended the idea of an architectural “physiognomy” to symbolize the social intention.

The high roofed evaporation sheds were built like agricultural buildings and finished with ashlar. The Director’s House in the center of the Saltworks was a low roofed and pedimented, and exhibited Classical porticos throughout. A portico is a structure consisting of a roof supported by columns at regular intervals. The walls of the salt sheds were relieved by grotesque ‘spouts’. These spouts were a symbol of the saline solution but was also a symbol that showed that productive system and labor forces had an equal process.