No Place Like Utopia

Abstract

The topic of utopia and its role in modernism may seem self-evident within architectural discourse. Modernism’s utopic aspirations are held largely responsible for its ‘mistakes’ and eventual failure; its grand schemes acknowledged in retrospect as naïve and devoid of humanity, which ultimately culminated in its sterilisation. However, this reading suffers from a lack of precision due to negative perceptions of this relationship, which endangers the concept of utopia from being rendered useless in contemporary architectural discourse. Utopia is deeply rooted in political and social context- a product of the zeitgeist. Its essential purpose is to project a vision of a more ideal society, and in this way, can be viewed as reactionary to the failings of present conditions. The obsolescence of this approach can be linked to the decline of utopian thought in contemporary architecture, which has resulted in a situation that no longer projects beyond its moment. This thesis investigates the global capitalist climate of the present, where the informative function of culture has been side-lined by its commodification. The result is a society that has lost the patience and ability to gain a critical reading of any work with intended ambiguity or subtext. This cultural drift is evident in today’s architecture, where there is a prevalent desire for visual seduction, with an emphasis on occularcentric representation- one that is easily brandable and readily consumable by the public. This has a reciprocal effect on the architectural content that is produced as Neil Leach explains in ‘The Anaesthetics of Architecture’ – “the intoxication of the aesthetic leads to an aesthetics of intoxication, and a consequent lowering of critical awareness. What results is a culture of mindless consumption, where there is no longer any possibility of meaningful discourse.” How will an investigation into the topic of utopia, and its relationship with modern architecture, bring about its revival in a contemporary context, and what is the nature of this revival? This thesis will explore the conventional and revised views of utopia’s role in architecture, as well as an examination of the current condition. The architectural representation of utopian projects will also be explored, in hopes to resurrect its use as a tool for progressive thinking and reigniting the sociological imagination.