Visionary Reason

Plan for the Newton Memorial – 1784

This unique sketch, drawn on the eve of the French Revolution, was by Etienne Louis Bouley, an architect active from the end of the absolute monarchy through the revolutionary period. He left behind many of these enormous, impossible-to-realize architectural plans, earning him the nickname "the visionary architect."

During this period, the sensual Baroque architecture that symbolized the debauchery of the French kings and aristocrats was rejected, and a more rigorous style of architecture suited to the Age of Enlightenment, known as Neoclassical architecture, was born as a reaction to this.

Bouley's architectural design was also in the vein of neoclassicism, and was based on the Enlightenment idea of ​​pursuing the sublime through human reason.

Inside the memorial. The 150m-high dome represents the universe, with a celestial globe placed symbolically.

This sketch is nothing less than Bouley's praise of Newton and his ancestor's achievement, the sublimity of reason that revealed the laws of the world.

The overwhelming scale, extremely simple geometric shapes, and symmetrical composition of the monochrome works, neatly rendered on paper, evoke a sense of the power of imagining architecture for a new era, while also creating a sense of unease in the viewer.

This anxiety may be caused by the suffering of turbulent times, that is, the sense of emptiness that comes from the belief that the collapse of order is inevitable and that there is no future other than to cling to the light of enlightenment.

The memorial hall stands as if embodying detached reason. Surrounded by rows of cypress trees planted in an unnatural succession, the enormous dome casts a large shadow. While skillfully evoking the sublimity, it also exudes an image of death...or rather, the sublimity is revealed precisely through the impression of death.

Perhaps unintentionally, he was also visioning the fragility of rationalism, the underlying theme of modernity that has continued from the age of the revolution to the present day, and even the way in which it has become a sacrifice for the sake of the sublime.