Items related to Ideal Cities
The book presents a vast panorama of Western attempts to invent the perfect city, cradle of the ideal society. This work embraces not only architecture and town planning but also art, literature, philosophy and politics. It takes us through the imaginary environments of a wide variety of fascinating and often controversial movements and figures such as Plato, Filarete, Leonardo da Vinci, Thomas More, Thomas Jefferson, Claude-Nicolas Ledoux, Charles Fourier, Etienne Cabet, Robert Owen, William Morris, Ebenezer Howard, Bruno Taut, Le Corbusier, Frank Lloyd Wright, the International Situationists, Archigram, and many more. Ideal cities presented by Ruth Eaton exists for the most part in the virtual domain of ideas, ignorant of specific contextual conditions. Attempt to cross the border into reality have risked engendering the discredit of utopianism. However, as the American architectural critic, Lewis Mumford (-1895) recalled, "a Map of the World that does not include Utopia is not worth even glancing at...". This publication thus, richly illustrated, appreciates the ideal city's ability to promote reflection and stimulate change in the real world and Ruth Eaton suggests under what conditions it might continue to exercise this vital function in relation to the urban environment of the future. In het Nederlands De Ideale stad - Utopia en de (niet) gebouwde omgeving href="http://www.aup.nl/do.php?a=show_visitor_book&isbn=9789061534730>ISBN 978 90 6153 473 0
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Ideal cities, or utopias, have been imagined in dazzling detail by philosophers, poets, architects, social reformers, religious zealots, and artists for more than two millennia, an abiding and ever-evolving vision Eaton cogently surveys in this unique, thought-provoking, and resplendently illustrated history. Utopias, Eaton explains, are most often conceived as panaceas during times of profound social unrest; aim for the greatest collective happiness and harmony; and tend toward geometrically precise and orderly designs as though mathematical balance can control nature's wildness and humanity's perversity. After presenting her working definition of paradisiacal cities, Eaton ventures forth to conduct elaborate guided tours of various utopias, many inspired by myths or religious texts. She explicates Plato's ideal city; Sforzinda, the first Renaissance utopian proposal; the urban dream of early-sixteenth-century Englishman Thomas More, who coined the term utopia; and so-called new-world utopian playgrounds. As Eaton moves into the machine age, plans for ideal cities (Le Corbusier presides) grow more and more ambitious, extreme, and morbidly entrancing.
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- ISBN 10 9061534755
- ISBN 13 9789061534754
- BindingHardcover
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