Arrangement, by this word is meant the division of the entire terrain on which a building is erected, for whatever use this may be; because it is not enough that the main body of the building be advantageously and conveniently arranged , it is also necessary that dependent structures be located not only relative to their functions but that they also be properly situated according to their purpose and their relationship with the main building and its various occupants: such are kitchens, offices, stables, sheds, as well as poultry-yards and, in a country house, barns, granaries, etc.

That kingly palaces be so arranged that the avenues, forecourts, courtyards, colonnades and porticos harmonize with the wings of the building intended for princes and ministers, and combine to form an impressive entirety with the palace that proclaims at one and the same time both the genius of the architect and the magnificence of the monarch who had it built.

That sacred structures be grand, sized according to the number of parishioners they must contain, flanked by wings of lesser size, and arranged with public and private chapels, sacristies, charnel houses, etc.; and in contrast, that those intended as abbeys and convents for men or women be smaller as to the sanctuary, but provided with nearby buildings relative to the number persons who will live there.

That public buildings, such as city halls, courts, exchanges and others be so arranged that citizens can be under shelter, in order to meet and to wait conveniently for the hours when they will receive their audience, money, etc.

That buildings for merchants have their storerooms close to their counters, and that their exposure reflect the type of merchandise that they must contain; similarly, that individual buildings intended for artisans be arranged in a manner appropriate to their class: the location of their shops, studios, yards, etc., is more important than splendor.

After these general considerations, there are a comparable number of particular rules, such as the diversity of terrain, which is infinite; and although one can say, in praise of French Architects, that arrangement in France is raised to the highest degree of perfection , it is no less true that it is difficult to give precise precepts for this part of Architecture → : nearly all our modern authors who have dealt with this art, and who have wished to address it, have thus given us descriptions of their buildings rather than rules that can instruct us. Let us add that despite the number of beautiful buildings that embellish Paris and its outskirts, it is less easy to acquire the art of arranging the buildings than that of decorating [their façades], the interior of these edifices being nearly always closed to view, something not true of their exteriors. Besides, in addition to decoration, this part of the art of building is subject to volatile and unregulated imagination, it being the case that our young architects, accustomed to indiscriminately imitating the mediocre as well as the beautiful in their art, produce an ensemble that is poorly reconciled, believing that comfort, service corridors, formal walkways, and symmetry can be sacrificed to a few ingenious forms; others, believing they are provided with superior imagination, rebel against the rules of conventional behavior, the creative spirit, they say, never acts better nor more happily, than when freed of all restraints. This reasoning, which is all too common in most of these supposed geniuses, makes us sense the difference between those who have a rationale for what they do and those who believe their work is guided by a prolific and brazen genius; because for the one or two extraordinary geniuses who might be seen in a century, and who by their natural gifts develop a coherent approach without the help of theory and rules, one sees a thousand who, by presumptuous experimentation with the arrangement of perverted forms, authorize those still less capable to imitate them. Every reasonable mind must feel, however, that these rare and singular geniuses, who are so uncommon, succeed only because they inadvertently produce a harmonious layout, that rapport between the parts and the whole which alone has the right to be called beauty and without which they would not have succeeded; and that if these same geniuses had been aided by the doctrine and rules of their art, their productions would have been even better.

To come, then, to appropriate arrangement , there are general laws that cannot be avoided, and that alone lead to the theory of arranging buildings to be used as masters' dwelling places. With regard to those intended for servants, such as kitchens, offices, sheds, etc., we will speak of them in their turn. These general laws concern the arrangement , form and purpose of rooms for service, comfort and polite society.

Those for service seem to have a certain and real basis in nature, because it is essential that an edifice raised for the preservation of men be provided with rooms necessary not only to the social condition of the master who has it built, but also to the number of his servants and those of visitors who make up his society or family. From this principle is born the diversity even of structures built for the same purpose, and of the various stories stacked one upon the other when the conventions of social status or the interests of the family make it necessary to build in a narrow space, either because of nearby structures or the proximity of the dwelling to that of persons of higher social standing with whom they are in contact. It is in these instances that the skill of the architect always has new ways to reveal itself, as he seeks to unify these necessary things and relate them directly to those stemming from construction and decoration, these three elements having always to proceed together.

That which is concerned with comfort is also important, having as objective the general orientation of the building, its location and its arrangement , and above all its connecting passages; so that rooms for [informal] entertaining, formal receptions, those intended for rest, study, are sufficiently supplied with service corridors, and domestics can do their work without troubling their masters. It is in such arrangement that are found the comforts of life, which naturally cause us to cherish what is appropriate and avoid anything that might discredit us.

With regard to the goal of social interaction, it seems more difficult to reduce this to rules, it being more difficult to determine whether what pleases us in this aspect of building proceeds from something real that takes its origin in nature, rather than from preconceptions or habit; to clarify this, we must examine whether works of art give rise to principles that we subsequently accept as natural, or whether all the things that please us in these works stem only from our fertile imagination or from long-held customs; because often in France we see in arrangement rules of decorum that vary from those of other peoples, given the diverse customs, due to variations in climate, that must be followed if we are to conform to different mores and lifestyles. Without contradiction, it is this goal of decorum that creates all the difficulty and all the value of Architecture → ; it is this goal that not only determines the character of interior decoration, but subordinates this same decoration to what is outside; it is this, again, that imposes symmetry in the placement of keystones, the location of chimneys, the proportion of rooms (as much with regard to their height as to their area) and windows, the whole being related to construction: considerations that must be united, and that are not nearly so important in rooms designated for service and comfort.

After these general laws, in order to become familiar with those for particular rooms , see the definition, the use, and the properties of each room in the plans explained in the Plates [[3] Third Part, [4] Fourth Part, [5] Fifth Part, [6] Sixth Part, [7] Seventh Part].