HARTAIXX2016-V012900
Summary
TLDRThe script discusses the radical and transcendent architectural project 'Cenotaph to Newton' by Étienne-Louis Boullée, which manipulates light and darkness to evoke the sublime. The design features a spherical structure symbolizing the cosmos, with a complex processional space guiding visitors from darkness to the illuminated tomb of Newton. The project emphasizes the architect's role in creating light and space, reflecting on humanity's place in the universe, and serves as an educational tool for students, illustrating the enduring impact of Boullée's visionary ideas on modern architecture.
Takeaways
- 🌌 The project 'Cenotaph to Newton' by Étienne-Louis Boullée is a radical and emblematic work that explores the manipulation of light and darkness to evoke the sublime in architecture.
- 🌍 The design of the 'Cenotaph to Newton' is unprecedented, featuring a complete globe that symbolizes both the Earth and the Universe, emphasizing our metaphysical place within it.
- 🏛 Boullée's architecture is characterized by abrupt transitions from lightness to darkness, and from narrowness to vastness, aiming to manipulate human responses to space.
- 🌳 The use of nature in the 'Cenotaph to Newton' is innovative, with concentric rings of funeral cypresses creating a natural Elysium that blurs the line between landscape and architecture.
- 📜 The building's processional space is complex and is best understood through its section rather than its elevation, guiding visitors through a journey of descent and ascent to reach the sacred center.
- 🕋 The experience within the 'Cenotaph to Newton' involves a dramatic play of light and darkness, with the building oscillating between day and night through the ingenious use of pierced globe skin to recreate star patterns.
- 🌟 Boullée's work theatricalizes the oscillation between the subject (the person in the building) and the object (the cosmos), and between inside and outside, Earth and Sun.
- 📚 The drawings of Boullée's visionary projects were pedagogical tools intended for students at the academy, illustrating ideas about buildings rather than actual constructions.
- 🏙 The legacy of Boullée's designs continues to influence modern architecture, as seen in Le Corbusier's urban planning for Chandigarh and the use of monumental forms to evoke the sublime.
- 🏛️ Aldo Rossi's architecture of death also reflects the neo-Enlightenment attitude, where architecture, geometry, and philosophy converge to create an image of transcendence, directly inherited from Enlightenment architects.
- 🎨 Boullée's architectural imagination underscores the importance of ephemeral or unbuildable architecture, challenging the boundaries of what is deemed possible in architectural design.
Q & A
What is the main theme of the project 'Cenotaph to Newton'?
-The main theme of the 'Cenotaph to Newton' project is the manipulation of dark and light to create a transcendent effect, exemplifying the sublime in architecture.
How does the 'Cenotaph to Newton' project relate to the concept of the sublime in architecture?
-The project embodies the sublime by using abrupt passages from lightness to darkness and narrowness to hugeness, designed to evoke strong human responses to the space.
What is unique about the design of the 'Cenotaph to Newton'?
-The design is unique in its unprecedented radicalism, featuring a complete globe that serves as a double emblem of the earth and the universe, reflecting our metaphysical place in the cosmos.
How does Boullée use nature in the 'Cenotaph to Newton' project?
-Boullée ingeniously incorporates nature by using a succession of double concentric rings of funeral cypresses, turning the building into a natural Elysium and blurring the lines between landscape and architecture.
What is the significance of the processional space in the 'Cenotaph to Newton'?
-The processional space is significant as it guides the visitor through a journey of descent and ascent, culminating in the sacred center marked by Newton's tomb, symbolizing a transcendent experience.
How does the building manipulate light to create a theatrical effect?
-The building manipulates light by piercing the skin of the globe, allowing daylight to filter in and recreate the patterns of the stars, theatrically illuminating the interior to mimic a night sky.
What philosophical concept is Boullée referring to with the 'Cenotaph to Newton'?
-Boullée refers to the Copernican revolution and the displacement of the earth as the center of the universe, emphasizing the idea of the sublime and our place in the cosmos.
How does the 'Cenotaph to Newton' reflect Boullée's architectural imagination?
-The project reflects Boullée's architectural imagination by combining geometry, philosophy, and the concept of infinity to create an image of transcendence and challenge our perception of space and the universe.
What was the intended purpose of Boullée's drawings for the 'Cenotaph to Newton'?
-The drawings were intended for pedagogical purposes, serving as examples for students at the academy to illustrate ideas about buildings rather than actual buildings.
How has Boullée's architectural imagination influenced modern architects?
-Boullée's imagination has influenced modern architects by inspiring them to evoke the sublime through monumentality, geometry, and the juxtaposition of the archaic and the futuristic, as seen in projects like Le Corbusier's Chandigarh and Aldo Rossi's architecture of death.
What is the significance of the pyramidal form in Boullée's and other architects' work?
-The pyramidal form signifies a connection to both ancient and futuristic concepts, representing the promise of technology and a neo-enlightenment attitude in architecture that combines geometry, philosophy, and the pursuit of transcendence.
Outlines
🌌 The Sublime Architecture of the Cenotaph to Newton
This paragraph discusses the radical and transcendent nature of Étienne-Louis Boullée's 'Cenotaph to Newton'. It highlights the project's unprecedented use of a complete globe as a design, symbolizing the cosmos and the earth's place within it. The building's manipulation of light and dark spaces creates a dramatic experience of the sublime, eliciting a human response to the vastness of the universe. The structure's processional space is revealed through its section rather than elevation, guiding visitors through a journey of descent and ascent to the sacred center, marked by Newton's tomb. The ingenious use of light, filtering through the globe's skin to recreate the night sky, theatricalizes the oscillation between the observer and the cosmos. This architectural feat is a testament to Boullée's belief in the architect's ability to create light and space, challenging our perception of our place in the universe.
🏛 The Legacy of Boullée's Visionary Architectural Imagination
The second paragraph delves into the legacy of Boullée's visionary designs and their pedagogical purpose for students at the academy. These drawings, while not intended to be built, emphasize the significance of architectural imagination and the ephemeral nature of unbuildable architecture. The paragraph connects Boullée's work to contemporary architects like Lucca Buzia, who evokes the sublime through urban planning, and Aldo Rossi, who uses pyramidal forms to create a transcendent image. The architectural imagination of Boullée, where geometry, philosophy, and the desire to understand the world collide, is seen as a direct inheritance from Enlightenment architects, illustrating a continuous thread of thought and creativity in the field of architecture.
Mindmap
Keywords
💡Cenotaph to Newton
💡Sublime
💡Manipulation of Light and Dark
💡Processional Space
💡Pedagogical
💡Ephemeral Architecture
💡Unbuildable Architecture
💡Architectural Imagination
💡Transcendence
💡Cosmos
💡Enlightenment Architects
Highlights
The radical and out-of-control nature of the project 'Cenotaph to Newton', which exemplifies Goulet's interest in the manipulation of dark and light to produce a transcendent effect.
The unprecedented radicalism of the complete globe as the first design of its kind, symbolizing the cosmos.
The idea that buildings can be dark and gloomy yet produce sublime effects by calculating abrupt passages from lightness to darkness.
The use of nature in the design, with concentric rings of funeral cypresses, blurring the lines between landscape and architecture.
The complex processional space of the building revealed in the section, with a journey from the sides to the sacred center.
The experience of entering a seemingly infinite dark corridor leading to a transcendent space marked by Newton's tomb.
The ingenious manipulation of light and dark within the building, creating an oscillation between day and night.
The architectural claim that architects create light, demonstrated by piercing the globe's skin to recreate star patterns with daylight.
The theatrical oscillation between the subject and the cosmos, inside and outside, and Earth and Sun.
The mapping of the universe's structure to challenge our sense of belonging and place within it.
The description of the monument's interior as a vast sphere with no beginning or end, evoking the mechanism of the sublime.
The performance of infinity in architecture, a concept new to the field.
The legacy of Boullée's designs as visionary drawings for a recreation of society and public edifices.
The pedagogical intention behind Boullée's drawings, intended for students at the academy to exemplify architectural ideas.
The influence of Boullée's architectural imagination on contemporary architects, such as Lucca Buzia's plan for Chandigarh.
The architectural imagination where geometry, philosophy, and the sublime collide to create an image of transcendence.
The direct inheritance of this architectural attitude from Enlightenment architects, who aimed to reshape the world around them.
Transcripts
now the historical
between the real and the ideal does not
apply in the case of the last project
that I want to talk about which is
completely radical and in some sense out
of control this is a project in which
the manipulation and of dark and light
actually manufactured Goulet's most
emblematic project it's called the
Cenotaph to newton it exemplifies
Goulet's interest in how buildings that
are dark and gloomy can produce the
transcendent effect in other words
produce the sublime and how architects
can actually calculate abrupt passages
from lightness to darkness to narrowness
to hugeness as it were in order to
manipulate human responses to space the
first thing to note is the the
unprecedented radicalism of the image of
the complete globe this is the very
first design of its kind the subject is
equally grandiose it is nothing less
than the order of the cosmos think back
to the medieval image of the city and
the universe and all the kinds of
properties or characteristics that we've
enumerated so far that relate to a
sublime architecture are reunited in
this project that literally transforms
the sphere that sphere that central
sphere into a double emblem of the earth
from the outside and the universe from
the inside only to stress our very
precarious metaphysical place in that
universe lastly boule ingeniously put
nature to work instead of using columns
he imagined an ascending succession of a
double concentric rings of funeral
cypresses trees in other words which
turned the building into a kind of
natural Elysium and conflate landscape
and architecture
now the building has a deeply complex
processional space and this is revealed
in the section
rather than the elevation which cuts
through the center of the building what
you do is that you enter from the sides
and you experience buried architecture
boules is imagining forcing us to
navigate downwards and then proceed down
a long dark and seemingly endless or
infinite corridor and then transcendence
is suggested at the end we climb a
stairs in darkness and when you emerge
into the space you're emerging into the
sacred center as it were which is marked
by a platform on which is Newton's tomb
and this is where we see this absolutely
ingenious manipulation of light and dark
and the how the building literally kind
of oscillates between day and night
remember boo lays claim that the
architect creates light what he did was
to imagine piercing the skin of the
globe so that during the day light would
come in would filter in to recreate the
patterns of the stars the constellations
themselves in other words daylight here
theatrically illuminates and creates the
inside effect of a night sky brightly
lit up by the Stars by doing so what
boule is in fact somehow theatrical
izing is an oscillation between the
subject the person in the building and
the object then cosmos itself between
inside and outside between Earth and Sun
he's also displacing and this is where
he's referring to Newton of course the
drama of the Copernican revolution of
the idea that the Sun actually displaced
the earth as the center of the universe
this is the idea of the sublime the
structure of the universe is mapped out
before our eyes
only somehow to shake to it's very
foundation our sense of where we belong
what is our place in that universe this
is belays descriptions with the drawing
before your eyes you would see what
would have been deemed
possible you would see a monument in
which the spectator would find himself
transported in the air and carried on
the mist of clouds in the immensity of
space the interior form of this monument
is that of a vast sphere into which you
arrive at the center of gravity by an
opening in the podium on which is placed
the tomb just as in nature no matter
where you look you see only a continuous
surface which offers no beginning and no
end and which the more you peruse it the
larger it becomes this is of course the
mechanism of the sublime and here for
the first time I think we have an
architecture that actually performs
infinity so to conclude how would we
think of the legacy of bullaes designs
of this approach the so called these
visionary drawings that were conceived
for a recreation of society that were
conceived to illustrate an entire
typology of public edifices it's
important in this context to realize
that boule actually made these drawings
for students their pretext is
pedagogical they were intended for the
students at the academy and served to
exemplify ideas about buildings not
actual buildings this kind of
architectural imagination underscores
the importance of ephemeral or
unbuildable architecture of architecture
on paper and the extraordinary thing is
to see how one continues to track it
down to our moment
take for example Lucca buzias plan for
the city of Chandigarh whose urban grid
he also set up in front of a mountain
range to evoke the sublime that we see
in blue lace city of the Dead and then
if you look at the rooftop of the Palace
of the Assembly local music played with
the possibility of quote unquote seeing
God by means of the sheer monumentality
of those forms that emerge both from
something deeply archaic
you have the pyramid and something
deeply futuristic the promise of
technology in this case carried forth in
the suggestion of nuclear power which is
alluded to by the truncated cone or
finally with someone like the Italian
architect Aldo Rossi whose own
architecture of death relied on the
pyramidal form this time in plan what
one critic dubbed the neo enlightenment
attitude in his work and what I think he
meant by this is an architectural
imagination in which architecture
geometry and philosophy collide and
coalesce work in concert to create an
image of transcendence this is an
attitude or an architectural imagination
that was directly inherited from
enlightenment architects who were trying
to remain the world around them
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