Items related to Topologies: The Urban Utopia in France, 1960-1970

Topologies: The Urban Utopia in France, 1960-1970 - Hardcover

 
9780262026116: Topologies: The Urban Utopia in France, 1960-1970
View all copies of this ISBN edition:
 
 
Amid the cultural and political ferment of 1960s France, a group of avant-garde architects, artists, writers, theorists, and critics known as "spatial urbanists" envisioned a series of urban utopias--phantom cities of a possible future. The utopian "spatial" city most often took the form of a massive grid or mesh suspended above the ground, all of its parts (and inhabitants) circulating in a smooth, synchronous rhythm, its streets and buildings constituting a gigantic work of plastic art or interactive machine. In this new urban world, technology and automation were positive forces, providing for material needs as well as time and space for leisure. In this first study of the French avant-garde tendency known as spatial urbanism, Larry Busbea analyzes projects by artists and architects (including the most famous spatial practitioner, Yona Friedman) and explores texts (many of which have never before been translated from the French) by Michel Ragon, the influential founder of the Groupe International d'Architecture Prospective (GIAP), Victor Vasarely, and others. Even at its most fanciful, Busbea argues, the French urban utopia provided an image for social transformations that were only beginning to be described by cultural theorists and sociologists.

"synopsis" may belong to another edition of this title.

Review:
"Busbea's superb synthesis of France's urban utopia in the 60's is the first attempt to map out the entire era that made the future city a cultural reality. Like a phantom limb, the topological model that it offers never quite existed as such, but its presence can be felt all the more keenly that it extends rhizomatically beyond the architectural avant-garde that has long claimed to embody it."
-- -Sylvere Lotringer, Professor of French Literature and Philosophy, Columbia University, and Editor of Semiotext(e)
Synopsis:
The utopian vision of spatial urbanism - an avant-garde architectural phenomenon that blended technology, leisure, and culture - is examined as a reaction to modernism and official government building and planning in the embattled cultural context of 1960s France. Amid the cultural and political ferment of 1960s France, a group of avant-garde architects, artists, writers, theorists, and critics known as "spatial urbanists" envisioned a series of urban utopias, phantom cities of a possible future. The utopian "spatial" city most often took the form of a massive grid or mesh suspended above the ground, all of its parts (and inhabitants) circulating in a smooth, synchronous rhythm, its streets and buildings constituting a gigantic work of plastic art or interactive machine. In this new urban world, technology and automation were positive forces, providing for material needs as well as time and space for leisure.

In this first study of the French avant-garde tendency known as spatial urbanism, Larry Busbea analyzes projects by artists and architects (including the most famous spatial practitioner, Yona Friedman) and explores texts (many of which have never before been translated from the French) by Michel Ragon, the influential founder of the Groupe International d'Architecture Prospective (GIAP), Victor Vasarely, and others. The projects of the Spatial Urbanists were in large part a response to the government's planning policies, its Kafka-esque bureaucracy, and its outdated institutions, which they considered the first obstacles to the implementation of their radical urban designs. But even though the Spatial City was conceived as progressive, by the end of the 1960s some critics had begun to question its ideological foundations. "Topologies" maps the literal and metaphorical topologies of spatial urbanism, describing and documenting its projects and locating it within an international network of experimental architectural practice that also included the Situationist International, Archigram, the Metabolists, Architecture Principe, Superstudio, and others.

Even at its most fanciful, Busbea argues, the French urban utopia provided an image for social transformations that were only beginning to be described by cultural theorists and sociologists. The designs of spatial urbanism anticipated the ambivalence that would greet the arrival in France of capitalist modernity and globalization, marking both the apex and the end of the technological optimism of the postwar years.

"About this title" may belong to another edition of this title.

  • PublisherThe MIT Press
  • Publication date2007
  • ISBN 10 0262026112
  • ISBN 13 9780262026116
  • BindingHardcover
  • Number of pages320
  • Rating
Buy Used
Condition: Good
Connecting readers with great books... Learn more about this copy

Shipping: £ 2.97
Within U.S.A.

Destination, rates & speeds

Add to Basket

Other Popular Editions of the Same Title

9780262518109: Topologies: The Urban Utopia in France, 1960--1970 (The MIT Press)

Featured Edition

ISBN 10:  ISBN 13:  9780262518109
Publisher: MIT Press, 2012
Softcover

Top Search Results from the AbeBooks Marketplace

Stock Image

Busbea, Larry
Published by The MIT Press (2007)
ISBN 10: 0262026112 ISBN 13: 9780262026116
Used Hardcover Quantity: 1
Seller:
HPB-Red
(Dallas, TX, U.S.A.)

Book Description Hardcover. Condition: Good. Connecting readers with great books since 1972! Used textbooks may not include companion materials such as access codes, etc. May have some wear or writing/highlighting. We ship orders daily and Customer Service is our top priority!. Seller Inventory # S_370018356

More information about this seller | Contact seller

Buy Used
£ 14.23
Convert currency

Add to Basket

Shipping: £ 2.97
Within U.S.A.
Destination, rates & speeds
Stock Image

Busbea, Larry
Published by MIT Press (MA) (2007)
ISBN 10: 0262026112 ISBN 13: 9780262026116
Used Hardcover Quantity: 1
Seller:
ThriftBooks-Atlanta
(AUSTELL, GA, U.S.A.)

Book Description Hardcover. Condition: Good. No Jacket. Pages can have notes/highlighting. Spine may show signs of wear. ~ ThriftBooks: Read More, Spend Less 2.17. Seller Inventory # G0262026112I3N00

More information about this seller | Contact seller

Buy Used
£ 17.48
Convert currency

Add to Basket

Shipping: FREE
Within U.S.A.
Destination, rates & speeds
Stock Image

Larry Busbea
Published by MIT Press (2007)
ISBN 10: 0262026112 ISBN 13: 9780262026116
Used Hardcover Quantity: 1
Seller:
Books Puddle
(New York, NY, U.S.A.)

Book Description Condition: Used. pp. 240, Map (Some Col.). Seller Inventory # 26693406

More information about this seller | Contact seller

Buy Used
£ 34.37
Convert currency

Add to Basket

Shipping: £ 3.16
Within U.S.A.
Destination, rates & speeds
Stock Image

Busbea Larry
Published by MIT Press (2007)
ISBN 10: 0262026112 ISBN 13: 9780262026116
Used Hardcover Quantity: 1
Seller:
Majestic Books
(Hounslow, United Kingdom)

Book Description Condition: Used. pp. 240 137 Illus., Map (Some Col.). Seller Inventory # 8203073

More information about this seller | Contact seller

Buy Used
£ 33.52
Convert currency

Add to Basket

Shipping: £ 6.50
From United Kingdom to U.S.A.
Destination, rates & speeds
Stock Image

Busbea, Larry
Published by The MIT Press (2007)
ISBN 10: 0262026112 ISBN 13: 9780262026116
Used Hardcover Quantity: 1
Seller:
dsmbooks
(Liverpool, United Kingdom)

Book Description Hardcover. Condition: Like New. Like New. book. Seller Inventory # D7F7-5-M-0262026112-6

More information about this seller | Contact seller

Buy Used
£ 58.75
Convert currency

Add to Basket

Shipping: £ 25
From United Kingdom to U.S.A.
Destination, rates & speeds