Editing Étienne-Louis Boullée (section)

==Cenotaph for Sir Isaac Newton==
[[File:Étienne-Louis Boullée, Cénotaphe de Newton - 02 - Élévation perspective.jpg|thumb|Boullée, ''Cénotaphe à Newton'' (1784)|alt=]]

Boullée promoted the idea of making architecture expressive of its purpose, a doctrine that his detractors termed ''[[architecture parlante]]'' ("talking architecture"), which was an essential element in [[Beaux-Arts architecture|Beaux-Arts architectural training]] in the later 19th century. His style was most notably exemplified in his proposal for a [[cenotaph]] (a funerary monument celebrating a figure interred elsewhere) for the English scientist [[Isaac Newton]],<ref name = newton>{{Cite web|url= http://www.archdaily.com/544946/ad-classics-cenotaph-for-newton-etienne-louis-boullee|title=AD Classics: Cenotaph for Newton / Etienne-Louis Boullée|date=10 September 2014|language=en-US|access-date=4 October 2016}}</ref> who 50 years after his death became a symbol of Enlightenment ideas.<ref name = newton />

The building itself was a {{convert|150|m|ft|abbr=off}} tall sphere, taller than the Great Pyramids of Giza,<ref name = newton /> encompassed by two large barriers circled by hundreds of cypress trees. The massive, spherical shape of the building was inspired by Boullée's own study called "theory of bodies" where he claims that the most beautiful and perfect natural body is the sphere, which is the most prominent element of the Newton Memorial.<ref>Montclos Jean-Marie Pérouse de. Etienne-Louis Boullée, 1728–1799: Theoretician of Revolutionary Architecture. Thames and Hudson, 1974.</ref> Though the structure was never built,<ref name = newton /> Boullée had many ink and wash drawings engraved and circulated widely within professional circles in 1784.<ref name = newton />

The small sarcophagus for Newton would have been placed at the lower pole of the sphere. The design of the memorial was intended to create the effect of day and night. The night effect would have occurred when the sarcophagus is illuminated by the sunlight coming through the holes in the vaulting, giving the illusion of stars in the night sky. The day effect would have been provided via an armillary sphere hanging in the center that gives off a mysterious glow. Thus, [[light architecture|the use of light in the building's design]] would have caused the building's interior to change its appearance.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20160318-the-memorial-to-newton-that-would-have-eclipsed-the-pyramids|title=The memorial to Newton that would have eclipsed the pyramids|first1=Adam|last1=Proctor|first2=William|last2=Park|name-list-style=amp|access-date=21 March 2016|publisher=BBC|date= 16 March 2016}}</ref>