"Otlet and Le Corbusier shared remarkably similar language in their works on architecture and the organization of knowledge" #readingToday

Otlet often spoke of his bibliographical work in architectural terms as well. Otlet and Le Corbusier shared remarkably similar language in their works on architecture and the organization of knowledge, using terms like "plan," "standardization," and "synthesis" to characterize their respective visions of an idealized future. 22 Otlet saw parallels between the modernist revolution in architecture and the possibilities for reinventing the book, which he at one point described as an "architecture of ideas." In the years that followed, architecture would play an increasingly important role in Otlet's thinking about organizing the world's information. Indeed, he came to see the Mundaneum as both an architectural plan and a metaphor for a new, enlightened form of civilization.

Cataloging the World, Alex Wright