From the visionary designs to the triumph of advertising: a "speaking" architecture that has seduced the contemporary world of media.
Theorist, revolutionary architect and man of the Ancien Régime, Boullée has met with erratic treatment on the part of critics, perhaps due to the difficulties involved in fitting his art into the historical context. A visionary figure, almost unknown to historians but highly appreciated by the world of cinema and advertising, he was a man of tradition, sedentary, faithful to his masters. The most important part of his output is represented by the series of imaginary projects created to illustrate his essay Architecture, essai sur l’art: vast public buildings that propose a new architecture based on experimentation with basic geometric forms and charged with moral and symbolic meanings.
This book systematically retraces his work, in a detailed critical review based on analysis of drawings and texts.