Promises and Disappointments in the Representations of Innovation in Architecture

Goods lifts were crucial to the project of the Hôtel des Postes. The consequences of their failings were the most obvious, as well as paradoxical, indication of this. They were fundamental issues for the actors involved when the project was launched. They were still central to the reputation of the building at the time of its completion, but by mainly because of the delays they caused to its opening. This paper intends on shedding light on the vast range of representations of technical innovation in architecture. By measuring the discrepancy between the designers' “faith in the powerful means of modern mechanics” and the disappointment linked to the technical failure, the aim is to identify the factors at play in these representations, which involved the identity of the protagonists as well as the context.