The Architecture of Baroque Ship Sterns and Quarter-Galleries.

• Applicant: Professor Dr.-Ing. Christian Raabe, since 11/2013
• Subject Area: Architecture, Building and Construction History, Construction Research, Sustainable Building Technology
• Term: from 2009 to 2016
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 110652528

The project undertakes to describe and analyse, how the stately architecture representing the power of the absolute monarchy in France was copied and transformed in the design of baroque ship sterns and quarter-galleries. Focussing on the period from 1660 to 1789 it traces the origins of characteristic motifs and design principles of the early Rococo (Style rocaille), such as the irregularly shaped conch shell and the asymmetrically deformed wall panel, back to its first appearance in French shipbuilding during the reign of Louis XIV, more precisely in the late 1680ies and early 1690ies of the 17th century. The research attempts to throw some light on the gradual migration of maritime forms into the private architecture of the Parisian hôtel particulier. Some of these interiors, surviving in their original state, will be surveyed and laserscanned to this end. A large body of documentary material (both ship designs and architectural drawings) will be investigated, to understand the tightly knit network of relations between architects (who often worked in both fields) and building patrons, who all were, in one way or other, linked to the Marine Royale.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants
• Ehemaliger Antragsteller: Professor Dr.-Ing. Jan Pieper, until 11/2013