Presentation1 2

ISHANT ANANDDEVENDER SINGH

Metropolitan Church

Étienne-Louis Boullée

Etienne-Louis Boullée was a visionary French neoclassical architect whose work greatly influenced contemporary architects and is still influential today. Developing a distinctive abstract geometric style inspired by Classical forms. His work was characterized by the removal of all unnecessary ornamentation, inflating geometric forms to a huge scale and repeating elements such as columns in huge ranges.

Architecture, Essai sur l'art……. drawings of projects for public buildings he designed between 1778 and 1788: churches, palaces, courts, assemblies, theaters, libraries, museums, city gates, memorial arches, bridges, lighthouses, cemeteries, cenotaphs…

“Why does the regular shaped figure emphasized at first sight?

Because its faces are regular and recurrent and because its form is simple...We distinguish them thanks to the image of order that their regularity and symmetry suggest... The regularity sets the beauty of form; symmetry, order, and overall beauty; variety produces various levels by means of which they are diversified to us ... Proportion is an effect that arises from regularity, symmetry and variety…The harmony of the bodies is born from the combination and the perfect conjunction of all its proportions….”

Theatre exterior

Cenotaph Boullee

“Greatness is directly related to beauty and, under different meanings, it is the same whether objects are pleasant or horrifying. Looking grand in anything means revealing superior qualities”

“the image of greatness satisfies us in every aspect because our soul, eager to extend its joys, seems ready to embrace the Universe”

Bibliotheque Nationale

Hôtel Alexandre

Four Corinthian columns embedded against a recess in the wall plane create an entry

Flanking doors in the corners of the courtyard have isolated architraves embedded in the wall above their plain openings

Oval bull's-eye windows

CENOTAPH FOR ISSAC NEWTONBasically, the building is a large sphere that represents both the land and Newton’s discoveries. Its access can be gained through the base and, despite its size, only a small area of such base can be occupied. Its surface is skillfully perforated, so that sunlight can enter during the day and create the picture of the night sky. At night a great source of artificial light in the center portrays the daytime image .   

Light represents Newton, lighting the knowledge of mankind

Perforated roof gives night sky view during day

“To produce sad and dark images it is necessary to present architecture by means of a completely bare wall, as I intended in some funerary buildings, showing a picture of sunken architecture by means of low proportions and buried into the ground; in short, give shape, by means of light absorbing materials, to the dark image of an architecture defined by the shadow effect. This type of shadow-integrated architecture is an artistic discovery that belongs to me ... 

Play of light and shadow

Metropolitan Church

• http://www.etsavega.net/dibex/Boullee_Newton-e.htm

• http://myhomepage.ferris.edu/~norcrosa/18thcWebsite/PPT/Utopian.pdf

• http://hanser.ceat.okstate.edu/4073%20pages/boull%C3%A9e.htm

• http://www.printmag.com/design-inspiration/etienne-louis-boullee-architect-of-big/

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%89tienne-Louis_Boull%C3%A9e

REFERENCE