1913 Hebrard City Plan of a Utopian 'International Center'

A curious work of ambitious, utopian, and grandiose urban planning, this 1913 scheme for an 'international center' by Ernest Hébrard appeared in the book Creation of a World Centre of Communication by Hébrard and Hendrick Christian Andersen.

A Closer Look

Reflecting modernist urban planning at its apex (also known as High Modernism), Hébrard presents a fictitious but potential seaside 'international center' or 'world city' planned with geometric precision and combining classical influences with the necessities of modernity. Moving inland from the coast at top, the city would include a natatorium (baths), two bassins de plaisance, public gardens, a stadium, cathedrals, a centre artistique, an avenue of nations leading to a building housing an international congress, administrative quarters, several residential quarters, an opera, a theater, and a central train station. In an arc surrounding this city are more gardens, including hospitals and sporting grounds, and a canal crossed at regular intervals by bridges. At bottom, the canal terminates at dock facilities adjacent to markets, stockyards, warehouses, and train stations dedicated to freight. Beyond the arc of the canal are an airport and exposition grounds, roads, and additional gardens or parks.

A World Center of Communication

This work appeared in Hendrick Christian Andersen's Creation of a World Centre of Communication, first published in 1913. Andersen and Hébrard shared interests in classical and Beaux-Arts architecture, urban planning, and modernist ambition, bordering on utopianism. Andersen's enormous work, written in part by Hébrard, posited the creation of an international capital filled with art and monumental architecture that could, through sheer beauty, overwhelm narrow national interests and usher in an era of peace and progress. This notion seems naïve, or at least ill-timed, given that it was published the year before the outbreak of World War I (1914 - 1818). Still, it is worth remembering that, in addition to rising nationalism, the Belle Époque period was also defined by economic globalization, technological progress, and international cooperation (such as the Hague and Geneva Conventions, and international bodies to manage telegraphs, railways, and mail).

Publication History and Census

This map was drawn by Ernest Hébrard, printed by Charles Wittmann, and published in 1913 in Hendrick Christian Andersen's Creation of a World Centre of Communication. The map is not independently cataloged in the OCLC, while Andersen's entire work is well-distributed in institutional collections if rare on the market.