University of Virginia Library

1. L'ARCHITECTURE VIVANTE

A description of any of these volumes necessarily entails an understanding
of the physical makeup of the underlying review. L'Architecture Vivante was published
quarterly, from Autumn 1923 to Winter 1933, in forty two fascicules in
portfolio form. Each began with a series of half or full sheets (45 cm × 54cm for the full sheets), folded once or twice respectively, to form loose signatures
of fouror eight pages. These were left uncut by the publisher, and often by
the purchasers as well. These pages, typically numbering sixteen per fascicule,
contained commentary by Badovici, texts by featured architects, and a wealth
of documentary drawings showing plans, elevations, sections, and detailsof the
works illustrated in the photographic plates that followed. The plates themselves,
typically numbering twenty-five per fascicule, were luxuriously printed

on heavy bristol board – single sided, and usually just one image per sheet –
using heliography, an expensive and lustrous process revived from the late 19th
century. Drawings were sometimes included among the plates, and were occasionally
colored using the pochoir stencil process.

Each fascicule, or issue, came in a paper portfolio cover, dated according
to the season (printemps, été, automne, hiver); these dates were repeated on each
individual plate of that issue as well (fig. 1.1, plate 1). But each pair of fascicules
(printemps/été, automne/hiver) was intended to be joined together to make a single
volume, with numbering in both the text section and plate section continuous
across each pair. A subscriber to the review had an option to purchase, at a cost
of 10 francs per year (above the yearly rate, which grew from 100 francs to 150
francs across the lifespan of the review), a cardboard portfolio cover showing the
combined dates, and issued with the second fascicule of each pair (fig. 1.2). 7

To take an example: in the Autumn of 1924, after taking a subscription, your
first issue of the review arrives. It is in a paper cover, which is dated automne
mcm xxiv. Inside, the first four-page signature contains a one-page sommaire,
listing the contents of the present fascicule, followed by three pages of advertisements.
Another four-page signature contains the unpaginated front matter:
half-title, publisher's page, title, and a final blank page – but here the title page
is dated automne – hiver mcm xxiv. The following signatures, of eight and four
pages, are numbered from 5 to 16, and contain the issue's three texts, plus six
pages of documentary drawings. Next are the plates, numbered 1–25, and all dated automne mcm xxiv. Three months later the next issue arrives, also in a
paper cover, this one dated hiver mcm xxiv. Inside, again, is a loose signature
containing this issue's sommaire and advertisements. It is followed by two eight-
page signatures numbered 17–32, with texts and drawings, and including a table
of contents covering the texts, drawings, and plates of both fascicules. The plates
that follow are numbered 26–50, and are dated hiver mcm xxiv. The paper-
covered cardboard portfolio cover for the combined volume, which you have
purchased, matches the fascicule covers typographically, but is dated automne –
hiver mcm xxiv. With this in hand, you now discard the two paper covers along
with the sommaires and their associated advertising pages. The sixteen pages of
text from the first fascicule are joined with those of the second to make a continuously
numbered run of thirty-two pages, with a combined title page at the front
and a combined table of contents at the rear. The fifty plates are then inserted
consecutively, and the volume is complete.

The reassembly of the fascicules into volumes creates a problem for designating
the location of any particular text or plate, especially since the fascicules
often remained unintegrated. Badovici's own numbering system didn't help: each
fascicule was given a sequential number, from 1–42, as well as the ordinal year
of the review, from first to eleventh (the Spring 1925 issue, for example, was

numbered "troisième année, numéro 7"). But this appeared only on themasthead
of the sommaire; when this was discarded to create full volumes, the numbering
system disappeared. The volume spines gave the sequence in a new manner: the
calendar year followed by I or II, to designate the first (printemps/été) or second
(automne/hiver) volume of that year. To further complicate matters, the numbering
of the fascicules didn't begin until the third year, with number 7; the four
fascicules of 1928 are incorrectly designated "cinquième année," repeating that of
1927; and the first three fascicules of 1931 are numbered 35–37, instead of 31–33
as they should have been. There are other anomalies. The Spring and Summer
issues of 1929 were issued together, in a single paper portfolio cover bearingboth
dates; no sommaires were necessary, as the table of contents at the end of the text
was sufficient, which also meant that these issues were unnumbered, although the
numbering of the following issues took them into account. The same is also true of the Spring and Summer issues of 1932. The Autumn1930 issue contained the
entire text of the completed volume, again leaving no reason for the sommaires and
their numbers; the Winter 1930 issue consisted solely of its 25 plates.

The numbering of the individual fascicules was certainly an afterthought by
Badovici, perhaps in recognition that many of the issues sold were not being collated
into volumes, as intended. And considering that almost half of them were
either unnumbered or misnumbered, it seems prudent to locate an article in,
say, volume II of 1929, rather than number 26. In the 1976 Da Capo reprint of
the review, this is the method taken in compiling a new comprehensive index,
even though the twenty-one original volumes have been condensed to five. 8 This
method makes most sense with the earlier volumes, where the variety of projects
shown makes their incorporation into a larger volume more natural. It also works
in certain later volumes, where both fascicules followed the same theme. But in
many cases the numbering of individual issues makes a clearer distinction of how
the review was received. Number 26, mentioned above, was dedicated entirely
to Eileen Gray and Jean Badovici's house, E.1027; all subscribers and bookstore
purchasers received a publication single-mindedly devoted to this narrow topic,

and many kept it as such. Those who placed it into the 1929 II portfolio created
a different publication, half of which was now devoted to a survey of new German
buildings.

There is one last characteristic of the quarterly fascicules to mention, as it
bears some importance in sorting out the dates of some of the extraits. Placed in the
center of the back cover of each paper portfolio is the emblem for Éditions Albert
MorancÉ. From the first issue until the end of 1931, this consisted of an Egyptian
lotus blossom and volute, arranged within a circle, and intertwined with serifed
letters forming the monogram eam. At the start of 1932, the emblem changed to
a more abstract design: a black bull's-eye encircled the words Éditions albert
morancÉ, with the monogram eam superimposed in crosshatched, blocky, sansserif
letters. This device is an adaptation of the one used in 1930 for the back cover
of the E.1027 extrait, which will be discussed later on.