Undoubtedly among the most absurd projects ever conceived, the cenotaph of Newton was thought of end of the 18th century by the French architect Étienne-Louis Boullée. A huge, tall sphere 150 meterssurrounded by 3 rows of cypresses arranged on high bases. A colossal work designed to celebrate the experimental science through geometry. But why was it never made? Simple, at the time the project was considered impossible from a technical point of view, although over time it continued to be studied, so much so that it is still considered one of the cornerstones of architecture today.
The Newton’s cenotaphlet’s say it straight away, rather than representing a place to house the mortal remains of the illustrious scientist, it should have represented a real monument to reason and to the sublimity and greatness of the English genius, who, we remember, rests in Westminister Abbey in London.
The cenotaph should have consisted of an enormous, tall sphere 150 meters, inside which the architect Boullee he would have obtained, through the skilful use of holes on the spherical surface, a very particular and singular feature play of lights. In particular, during the day, darkness would have reigned inside the sphere and, through holes on the surface, the patrons would have looked over their heads, obtaining the same effect obtained by observing the starry vault, with all the constellations and the various celestial bodies. At night, however, one would be lit inside the sphere spherical lampsymbolizing the Sun at the center of the Solar System.
Let us now try to understand why such a complex, but also fascinating, project has never been realised.
A hollow sphere, like the one conceived by the designer, would have exercised gods horizontal loads, in the equatorial area, truly enormous. This would have required the underside of the sphere to be made with one tens of meters thicktotally losing the spherical image initially conceived. Today such a problem would easily be solved through the use of construction technologies such as the steel and the prestressed reinforced concrete – but at the time, as you can imagine, this was not possible. More specifically, it would be made starting from an internal frame, made of steel tubes or other highly resistant and, above all, lightweight material.
