Ideal Cities: Utopianism and the (Un)Built Environment

by Ruth Eaton

Description

Ideal Cities presents a vast panorama spanning more than two millennia of Western attempts to invent the perfect city, cradle of the ideal society. Embracing not only architecture and town planning but also art, literature, philosophy and politics, this book takes us through the imaginary environments of a wide variety of fascinating and often controversial movements and figures, including Plato, Filtrete, Leonardo da Vinci, Thomas More, Thomas Jefferson, Claude-Nicolas Ledoux, Charles show more Fourier, Etienne Cabet, Robert Owen, William Morris, Ebenezer Howard, Bruno Taut, Le Corbusier, Frank Lloyd Wright, the European Situationists, the Japanese Metabolists, Archigram, Superstudio and many more. In this richly illustrated book, the author explores the ability of ideal cities to stimulate reflection and change, and suggests under what conditions they might continue to exercise their vital function in relation to the urban environment of the future. The ideal cities presented by Ruth Eaton exist for the most part in the virtual domain of ideas, treading the fine line between dream and nightmare. While it is true that notorious attempts to cross the border to reality have greatly discredite show less

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ParadigmTree 35 reviews

A large coffee table sized book that is just as valuable for its interesting text as it is for its beautiful collection of images. Utopian cities and fantastical architecture from antiquity to the 20th century are showcased. This book might be of interest to anyone who enjoys utopian literature, art history, futurism, urban studies, architecture, or who is just curious about places that were never more than dreams.

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