Reading architectural utopia(nism)s: A proposal

Abstract

The writings of urban theorists who have studied utopias that propose a counter-space as the basis for a counter-society go back to very early periods in history. However, works dwelling on the influence of such theoretical constructs on actual space, in forms of architectural outputs per se, are comparably new. Since the revival of the very first theoretical work on the relationship between utopia and architecture, barely a century has passed. During this period, such theory has developed and expanded rapidly. However, due to the lack of any structure to provide a comparable base, the theory has not indicated a consistently constructed developmental growth, yielding a great accumulation of unintegrated knowledge, impossible to be comprehended in totality. The aim of this text is to provide a method intending to facilitate the integration of architectural utopian discourse and its physical counterparts into a whole. To this end, a conceptual framework through which architectural utopianisms can be discussed unbound by any specific utopian moment or any specific definition of the concept of utopia is proposed. This departs from the fact that there are different patterns of tidal relationship between utopian programs and utopian impulses in forms of architectural production, some of which are almost totally disregarded. By providing this critical apparatus to explore the varieties of such patterns, it is intended to develop a basis to uncover certain resilient approaches which may potentially feed into the current architectural thinking and practice.