Albert Robida’s Eighteen-Story House

Illustration from Albert Robida’s science fiction novel Le Vingtième Siècle, or The Twentieth Century, from 1883. Robida shows an eighteen-story house with various domestic scenes throughout the building and myriad residents communicating to each other.

The above illustration was drawn by Albert Robida for his 1883 novel Le Vingtième Siècle, or The Twentieth Century. The novel describes a future vision for Paris in the 1950’s, focusing on technological advancements and how they affected the daily lives of Parisians. Here he shows what an apartment building might look like.

The building stands tall at eighteen stories, with a central tower element crowded in by various box-like additions that poke out from its four walls. It’s a bustling hive of activity littered with various domestic and commercial scenes. There’s a florist, or Fleurs, a laundromat, or Blanchisseuse, and a factory for art and antiques, or Fabrique d’Objets d’Art & Antiquities, among others. People shout from one window to another amid the crooked chimneys and external stairs. There’s a distinctive verticality to the entire scene.

Robida stacks individual boxes on top of and next to one another into a hodgepodge of architectural forms that seem disjointed, yet somehow charming at the same time. I’m reminded of Grant E. Hamilton’s fantastical vision for an apartment house of the future. Hamilton was making a cautionary statement about the effects of unchecked density, but Robida’s vision seems less cynical. There’s a sense of community here, with all the window-to-window interactions taking place, and the light-hearted feel to the image gives off positive vibes. It’s a fun idea, rendered with a bit of whimsey.

Check out other cartoons dealing with verticality here.