Is it necessary to talk about utopia? Do we need architectural ideas - imprinted with plans or words - when they do not correspond to a workable project? Can architectural research be enriched with elements of fantasy or should it only serve the logic of reality?
The concept of utopia has always varied between different eras and individuals. Sometimes utopian visions may seem dangerously tangible / achievable, but mostly, they are considered a simple, elusive fantasy. Trying to realize visions, based on a blueprint/ plan, history has taught us that a utopian idea can easily be transformed into a dystopian state.
The last century was probably one of the most powerful eras of utopian thought. The Industrial Revolution gave great hope to mankind about solving problems and inequalities with the help of logic and technology. Radical architects of this era promoted a pioneering thought, along with a technological utopianism, giving new dimensions to the extremely elastic notion of utopia.
In the 21st century, a time when practicality and production are fueled by widely accepted capitalism, what is the significance of utopian ideology when the feeling of the end of history prevails?
It worths of studying and judging the utopian dimension of an architecture that began and ended reconciled with the prospective that it would remain mere designs, drawing from its relation to reality, even if it was never realized, because it transcended social, economic, cultural conditions of its time.
According to Lewis Mumford, the history of utopia is the other half of the history of mankind. The scene of human activities has always been more or less the same, no matter how many changes the planet has undergone over the years. Everything that happened, however, is only half of our history, since we live in two worlds at the same time: the external-material one and the internal-of our mind.
