Anthony Vidler's recent monograph on the eighteenth-century French architect Claude-Nicolas Ledoux (1736-1806) characterizes certain aspects of Ledoux's work as Masonic. Vidler defines Freemasonry primarily as an instrument of sociability. His recognition of Masonic imagery and intent, especially in Ledoux's Ideal City, combines with certain details of Ledoux's life to convince Vidler of Ledoux's adherence to a Masonic or quasi-Masonic lodge. / The matter remains open to debate. Vidler's view of Freemasonry does not entirely accord with its factious and ambitious condition in eighteenth-century France. Nor does he sufficiently address the public manifestation of Masonic symbolism which, despite the Order's code of secrecy, was divulged to the profane, emerging architecturally as part of Neoclassicism's stylistic revival of the antique. The weakness of Vidler's analysis becomes apparent when he overlooks Masonic symbolism in a project that does not conform to his positive image of the Order: Ledoux's network of customs houses for Paris, the project he called the Propylaea.

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The thesis project the Descendants of Ancestors explores the eccentric and strangely figurative qualities of Claude Nicolas Ledoux’s (1736-1806) architectural oeuvre.  The project focuses on Ledoux’s engravings and through careful reading (and deliberate mis-reading), transforms them into architectural characters. I regard these characters as Descendants of Ledoux, belonging to the same bloodline but unmistakably shaped by their conception in contemporary times. / Examensprojektet “the Descendants of Ancestors” undersöker de excentriska och figurala kvaliteterna i arkitekten Claude Nicolas Ledoux (1736-1806) verk. Projektet fokuserar på Ledoux gravyrer och översätter dem genom en noggrann läsning till arkitektoniska karaktärer. Jag ser dessa karaktärer som ättlingar till Ledoux, tillhörande samma släktträd men otvetydigt formade av deras tillkomst i samtiden

By the end of the eighteenth century, as imagination makes its appearance behind representation, man enters the field of knowledge and literature emerges in the world of fiction. L'Architecture of Claude-Nicolas Ledoux is too complex a work to make its mapping possible in such a short study. I therefore tried to unfold the work through the question that seemed to me to be the most revelatory of this time. The notion of caratere derived from the specific codes of a culture where representation was the foundation of a possible order. In L'Architecture, between the fictional character and his caractere is this space where representation and imagination coincide through what makes the specificity of human nature: the identity, the ability to speak, the power to act, and the perception of time.

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La Saline d'Arc-et-Senans, construite à partir de 1774 selon les plans de l'architecteClaude Nicolas Ledoux, est aujourd'hui un centre touristique et culturel reconnu, notamment depuisson classement comme patrimoine mondial par l'Unesco en 1982. Mais son histoire est avant toutcelle d'un lieu de production du sel, qui fonctionne pendant plus d'un siècle. Sur décision de la Fermegénérale, elle est construite pour répondre aux difficultés rencontrées dans l'exploitation des sourcessalées à la Saline de Salins, en particulier le manque de bois. Saline sans ressources en sel, son exploitationpose la question de son manque d'autonomie, qui explique son échec économique. Inscrite dansl'ensemble juridico-économique que représentent les Salines de l'Est, elle peine à trouver sa place surle marché du sel. Les Salines de l'Est, d'abord protégées par le monopole d'État sur le sel jusqu'à la loide 1840, sont ensuite livrées à la concurrence des entrepreneurs privés, qui tentent de réunir au seind'une société anonyme l'ensemble des concessions et mines de sel de l'Est. La Saline d'Arc-et-Senans,bien moins rentable que les autres, sans possibilité d'amélioration technique, doit fermer ses portes en1895. Elle échappe alors de peu au destin habituel des anciens lieux de production, celui de la friche.Inscrite sur la liste des monuments historiques en 1926 et rachetée par le département du Doubs en1927, elle pose la question de l'avenir des sites industriels dont l'activité cesse. Sans préoccupationspatrimoniales particulières, plusieurs projets de reconversion se succèdent jusque dans les années 1960,sans qu'aucun d'entre eux aboutisse. C'est l'intervention des technocrates de la culture qui apporte lasolution en 1972, avec la création du Centre du futur. L'identité de ce lieu, qui a été progressivementvidé de sa mémoire industrielle, est reconstruite autour de la notion de cité idéale et la Saline devientle patrimoine de l'utopie. Cette nouvelle lecture des lieux, si elle en permet la sauvegarde, montreaujourd'hui ses limites pour l'exploitation touristique de la Saline, qui peine à armer une identité cohérente auprès du public. Ainsi, en occultant la mémoire industrielle du lieu, la Saline d'Arc-et-Senansest un exemple unique de patrimoine inventé. / The Saltworks of Arc-et-Senans were built from 1774 according to the drawings of thearchitect Claude Nicolas Ledoux. Today they are a famous touristic and cultural centre, especially since they have been inscribed on the Unesco World Heritage List in 1982. However their history is before everything a history of a place where salt is produced during more than one century. Further to the decision of the Ferme générale, they were built to solve the difficulties about salt sources exploitation at the saltworks of Salins, particularly the lack of wood. Because they are saltworks without salt resources, their exploitation question their lack of autonomy behind their economic failure. They struggle to find a place in the salt market because of legal and economic frameworks of the Salines de l'Est. These latter were firstly protected by the state monopoly on salt until the law of 1840. Then they were left incompetiton with private entrepreneurs who tried to gather all the eastern salt mines within a public limited company. The Saltworks of Arc-et-Senans closed in 1895 because they were less profitable than the others and this could not be improved. They narrowly escaped usual destiny of former production places : become an industrial wasteland. In 1926, they were listed historical monument then bought by the department of Doubs in 1927. It was the time to approach the future of industrial sites whose activity stopped. Many projects of conversion suceeded each other until the 1960s with no results. A solution was found in 1972 by technocrats working in cultural fields, with the creation of the Centre du futur. The identity of this place was rebuilt with the concept of ideal city and the Saltworks became the heritage of utopia. However from a touristic point of view, they struggle today to show a coherentidentity to visitors. Because the industrial memory of this place has been eclipsed, the Saltworks of Arc-et-Senans is an unique example of invented heritage.