On my return to the UK I stopped off, in the pouring rain, at Arc-et-Senans, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, no less! Designed by Claude-Nicolas Ledoux who realised that it made more sense to build the processing plant – required to obtain salt from the natural salt springs in the Besançon/Jura region – near the fuel (wood) to power everything after the already existing one had exhausted local supplies. What exists today is a semi-circular arrangement of buildings and it was hoped it would become the beginnings of the ideal city layout, unfortunately for the architect the French Revolution prevented further development and many of his works failed to see the light of day.
Ledoux was also responsible for the design and layout of modern theatre seating; with the expensive seats up-front and cheaper seats at the back, rather than the ‘royal boxes’ that often couldn’t even see the stage! Lots of his work was never realised but to see scale models made from his architectural drawings was impressive…worth the stop-over despite the downpour.