--- title: "Meaning & Key Takeaway of: The vision shared by both [French…" description: "\"The vision shared by both [French utopian] Charles Fourier and Robert Owen was for an entire town to fit into one structure. Owen's design for what he ..." image: "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/474/christine-jennings-20527_architecture_the-vision-shared-by-both-french-utopian_2339372.jpg" --- # The vision shared by both \[French utopian\] Charles Fourier… ![“The vision shared by both [French utopian] Charles Fourier and Robert Owen was for an entire town to fit into one structure. Owen's design for what he called a "parallelogram" was essentially to have a whole city in one building, laid out around a huge quadrangle. Fourier's scheme was to build a…” quote by Christine Jennings](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/474/christine-jennings-20527_architecture_the-vision-shared-by-both-french-utopian_2339372.jpg) [Download](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/474/christine-jennings-20527_architecture_the-vision-shared-by-both-french-utopian_2339372.jpg) [Open image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/474/christine-jennings-20527_architecture_the-vision-shared-by-both-french-utopian_2339372.jpg) > “The vision shared by both \[French utopian\] Charles Fourier and Robert Owen was for an entire town to fit into one structure. Owen's design for what he called a "parallelogram" was essentially to have a whole city in one building, laid out around a huge quadrangle. Fourier's scheme was to build a massive Versailles-like structure that he called a "phalanstery." In both cases they had these architectural dreams that we now recognize as pretty unappealing.” [Christine Jennings](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/christine-jennings/) ## About This Quote This interpretation was drafted with AI assistance. It is one reading of the quote, not the author's own explanation. Utopian architects imagined single‑building cities, but their grand designs clash with human scale and practicality. **In simple terms:** Grand city designs ignore practicality. Key Takeaway Consider scale and livability. Themes urbanism utopia design Mood critical analytical Type historical philosophical When to use this quote - city planning - housing projects - community design Key Concepts architectural theory social engineering Questions to Reflect On - Would a single‑building city improve community? - What practical alternatives exist? A Different Perspective Such massive structures may be unsustainable. ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ No ratings yet [Architecture](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/architecture/) [Cities](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/cities/) [Design](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/design/) [Dream](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/dream/) [Dreams](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/dreams/) [Fourier](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/fourier/) [Parallelogram](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/parallelogram/) [Schemes](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/schemes/) [Structure](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/structure/) [Utopian](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/utopian/) [Versailles](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/versailles/) [Vision](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/vision/) ## Related quotes > [But we must not underestimate the potency of the mathematical process of abstraction. 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I had to read a lot of it, and it's not that much fun. But they're fascinating to me…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/christine-jennings/utopian-fiction-is-really-boring-i-had-to-read-a-lot-of-it-and-it-s/) [Christine Jennings](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/christine-jennings/) > [The fatal flaw of most utopian visions is that they're fundamentally static, and that's not a comfortable place for humans to live. Fourier was…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/christine-jennings/the-fatal-flaw-of-most-utopian-visions-is-that-they-re-fundamentally/) [Christine Jennings](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/christine-jennings/) > [There are two instances I studied in which a community moved, amazingly, into an preexisting village built by other, earlier communalists. The Rappites were…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/christine-jennings/there-are-two-instances-i-studied-in-which-a-community-moved/) [Christine Jennings](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/christine-jennings/) > [The religious and irreligious are agreeing with each other almost all the time. Their rhetoric is the same, and their plans are the same.…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/christine-jennings/the-religious-and-irreligious-are-agreeing-with-each-other-almost-all/) [Christine Jennings](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/christine-jennings/) > [These weren't college kids on acid. They were preachers, and bankers, and farmers, and the salt of American society subscribing to ideas that now…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/christine-jennings/these-weren-t-college-kids-on-acid-they-were-preachers-and-bankers/) [Christine Jennings](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/christine-jennings/) > [The thought was, 'We're going to go to California, where the soil is black and ten feet deep, and there are no rocks, and…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/christine-jennings/the-thought-was-we-re-going-to-go-to-california-where-the-soil-is/) [Christine Jennings](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/christine-jennings/) > [But if you'd only ever lived in small wooden house in the middle of wilderness, it sounded much better. Especially because it provided intense…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/christine-jennings/but-if-you-d-only-ever-lived-in-small-wooden-house-in-the-middle-of/) [Christine Jennings](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/christine-jennings/) > [Atheist isn't really the right word because they tended to believe in some sort of Enlightenment, capital 'N' Nature kind of god. But these…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/christine-jennings/atheist-isn-t-really-the-right-word-because-they-tended-to-believe-in/) [Christine Jennings](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/christine-jennings/) > [I was really interested in 20th century communalism and alternative communities, the boom of communes in the 60s and 70s. That led me back…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/christine-jennings/i-was-really-interested-in-20th-century-communalism-and-alternative/) [Christine Jennings](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/christine-jennings/) > [Because the utopian's worldview was framed around moving toward this perfected future, it helped stimulate the private exertions that add up to social progress.…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/christine-jennings/because-the-utopian-s-worldview-was-framed-around-moving-toward-this/) [Christine Jennings](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/christine-jennings/) > [The thing that had fueled these utopian communities was a literal belief, and not just a general sense of optimism, that the earth was…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/christine-jennings/the-thing-that-had-fueled-these-utopian-communities-was-a-literal/) [Christine Jennings](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/christine-jennings/) > [ They \[Oneida people\] didn't want to fix problems one at a time. 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You don't list the problems of…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/christine-jennings/utopians-don-t-say-the-world-s-corrupt-women-make-less-money-people/) [Christine Jennings](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/christine-jennings/) > [don't think I should be in the business of making big pronouncements about where we are now, but I would say that dissatisfaction is…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/christine-jennings/don-t-think-i-should-be-in-the-business-of-making-big-pronouncements/) [Christine Jennings](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/christine-jennings/) > [The secular utopians basically said the exact same thing, they just took the Bible out of the equation. 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