REFLECTION ON AN ORDINARY CULT DEVOTIONS TO RURAL ARCHITECTURE, FROM THE WORK OF THE ENCYCLOPAEDISTS TO THE GLOBALIZATION ERA: FRANCE, A CASE APART.

Foundations: ideology & dialect. The modern cult of monuments in France and Europe. From the Napoleonic wars to post World War II : the « As it was before » aesthetic ideology. Modern architecture & urbanism statements and receptions. Dominant thought and pretence, a new way of thinking the past. Contemporary universe and its scenery : between Disney and Blade Runner. Rural Heritage and State Policies. The landscape subjecting to tax: from the “doors and windows” tax to the fiscal policy of the general inventory. The “Everything must go” policy: to preserve or to tax; Philibert Vasserot and Gabriel Davioud’s works . The critical fortune of the “1425 Works”: an alternative to war & defeat, plotting France to replace the (STO) forced labour service in Nazi Germany. The Glorious Thirties. from the Models Policy to its reversal, i.e. “Do not damage France”. Rural Heritage and Industrial Policies. The Neo-Regional Style. The Policy of Products and Know-how. From the Cottage Hit Parade to the land shortage Local Culture and Off Soil Culture. Dogmatism as a conservatory of fuzziness : “Diary of an English Traveller across the Corpus of French Rural Architecture”. The mythology of the “true dwelling” : the guilty practices. Rural Housing as architectural standard. Conclusion. Two Visions : Everything changes / Nothing changes. To accept History / To refuse History, understanding the present.