Project for a metropole is an architecture plan by Étienne-Louis Boullée

Étienne-Louis Boullée

Étienne-Louis Boullée was a visionary French neoclassical architect whose work greatly influenced contemporary architects and is still influential today.- Life :...

 designed around 1781. It deals with light, as do many of his designs, as an important element. Light is a metaphor for enlightenment as is darkness for ignorance. The plan features columns spaced closer together then the canon for classical architecture

Classical architecture

Classical architecture is a mode of architecture employing vocabulary derived in part from the Greek and Roman architecture of classical antiquity, enriched by classicizing architectural practice in Europe since the Renaissance...

 would have them be placed and oversized pendentives.