In J.N.L. Durand, the positive imitation is considered as impossible and the analogical imitation is refused, but that of the Ancients is present in their base, not as the purpose of the architecture but as an auxiliary element subordinate to the notions of economy (economic) and suitability (convenance), which is also expanded and applied homogeneously even to the elements, their combination, distribution and composition of city. For him, even if the notion of imitation is transformed into that of subordinate imitation of the Ancients, it is regarded as a moment of the inter-textual mouvement of meanings in the urban architecture, both within the relation of diachronic correspondance and in the synchronic context, that is not concerned with the distance, and therefore is supported by a kind of typological consciousness.
