Realizing Utopia Through Architecture
Abstract Throughout the history, producing ideas about society, equal and peaceful system have been existed. These dreams have brought humanity to the 'utopia'. The word Utopia, which has been interpreted in many ways, but in general it defined as the feeling of displeasure for the present time and the desire to change it with an imaginary view of a better future. Utopia sometimes offers brand new lifestyle designs and sometimes offers solutions to existing period’s problematic conditions or emphasize new potentials of that period. Every utopia is an architectural design as much as it is a social design. In the search for ideal social order, architects proposed urban forms and shaped cities through utopias. Most utopias have realized through an urban form, and most city plans have been designed with utopian thought. In every period, utopia has played a great role in the planning of ideal cities; and also it has influenced the present forms of cities with projections of the future. Due to circumstances of each century, different utopias have emerged and every utopia became a guide to the next ones. Over the centuries changes have been emerged in science, nature and society as well as all the components interacting with them. Utopias, which are intended to emerge as ideal societies and are planned as imaginary designs, have also undergone a great differentiation when they have been examined in terms of both meaning and content. According to this, we can open a discussion on definition and content of the utopia that we accepted in general. Can the utopias have a meaning beyond being the ideal city or society? Can we speak of a utopia that emphasizes the innovations of the period rather than being alternative to the problems and lacks of it? Can utopias be realized instead of being a nonplace? Can we define that designing an ideal that has not yet been achieved with the available possibilities as a utopia, instead of designing an imaginary ideal? Finally, does the utopia mean pushing the boundaries of creativity? Beside the searching of answers to these questions, this paper is an attempt to analyze the relationship between architecture and utopia by emphasizing effects of utopias in the creation of ideal society through architecture. This study also aims to explain the meaning of the utopia and historical development process in architecture and urban design. The genesis of different utopias are tried to be explained with the guidance of examples and lastly contemporary utopias has been investigated through a recent example, that of Dubai, with the particular focus on its rapid development because of the intention of creating utopia as a world city.
Keywords: Utopia, Ideal City, Ideal Society, Imaginary Architecture, Urban Utopias
Realizing Utopia Through Architecture “The core of the utopia is made by desire, desire for living different and better life." (Levitas, 2010) Since its existence, humanity develops itself intellectually by producing ideas to create solutions for its own dissatisfaction about the time and condition of that period. The dreams about ideal society and system have always emerged from this reason, and it has brought humanity to the 'utopia'. The word Utopia, which has been interpreted in many ways, comes from the Greek "topos" means place and "eu" means non; it literally means either absent or good place (Reiner, 1963). The state of being a "good" or "non" place of utopia includes two opposing ideas. Being a good place means that the place physically exists; on the other hand, being non-place means when the utopia realized it is going to lose the meaning. It is not possible to determine the first appearance of utopia. Utopias have been mentioned on the Sumerian clay tablets, Old Testament and the eighth century BC Hesiod's poems. The first time of using the word “Utopia” was for describing the ideal country by Thomas More in 1516. This concept has been developed in many disciplines; and it is in relation to many fields from literature to mythological myths. Many written sources about the utopia have inspired the architecture. Architecture is inevitably emphasized in all utopias and dystopias. Every utopia is an architectural design as much as it is a social design. According to those, which are two different approaches, it turns out that the architecture is considered as a tool for representation from the utopian’s viewpoint and moreover the utopia gains existence to the architecture from architect’s viewpoint (Rouillard, 2003). Coleman says, "There is no utopia without architecture" but at the same time it means that there is no existence to the architecture without utopia. Projects that seem to be impossible to realize due to social, economic or technological reasons and which force the boundaries of logic and reason, considered as utopian architecture. These projects generally aim to create ideal social order and offer solutions to existing period’s problematic conditions by changing the city and alongside changing the life. We can also call them imaginary architecture. In 1919 Walter Gropius, one of the most important theoreticians and a member of rationalist architecture, offered this approach; "Build in fantasy, untroubled with technical difficulties." Utopia sometimes offers brand new social designs, such as in traditional utopias, and sometimes offers solutions to existing period’s problematic conditions or emphasize new potentials of that period, as in post-industrial utopias. Filarete's Sforzinda, which created in Renaissance period, offers the ideal social order and ideal design for the city. But in the twentieth century’s utopia, Ron Herron’s Walking City, has been created due to technological developments and new lifestyle which comes with digitalization. The goal is always to create a better new world, but most of these projects could not be implemented. However; by the development of possibilities, some suggestions that seem utopian for their own period, can become realizable in the future. Beside Leonardo's Golden Horn bridge or many other city proposals which have stayed as utopian ideas, Chandigarh and Brasilia are examples of utopias which have been realized.
“Do people make the place... or does a place make the people?” According to Hetherington, “To be able to order space was to be able to order society… It is the architect who becomes the shaper of society.” In the search for ideal society order, architects proposed urban forms and shaped cities through utopias. Utopian thought, in general, may be defined as the feeling of displeasure for the present time and the desire to change it with an imaginary view of a better future (Soydemir, 2011). Mumford defines utopia as the search for an escape from existing difficulties and struggles, or as an attempt to restructure that provides the future conditions for salvation. One of the most common characteristics of utopias is that they are often considered in terms of the city forms since its first appearance. On the basis of “every utopia is an architectural design” theory which we claimed before, it can be said that inside a "utopia", the "city" holds an important place. Most utopias have realized through an urban form, and most city plans have been designed with utopian thought. To give examples, Plato’s Republic, More’s Utopia or Campanella’s The City of the Sun, they all explain a city in terms of its detailed form and its social organization. Utopia has given its first products in the field of architecture at the Renaissance. In this period, designers such as Alberti, Filarete and Leonardo da Vinci revealed examples of ideal urban design by setting up symmetrically arranged urban plans in pure geometric forms. Social events have provoked utopia. For example, the Renaissance or the Second World War period brought new thoughts to the utopia, as well as new perspectives. Utopias, which were previously more related with the ideal social order and the concepts of society, have changed their focus to living quarters and housing, because of problems such as needs for shelter and housing deficit that emerged after the Second World War. Utopias of the early-twentieth century aimed to find answers to the problems of modernization. Howard, Wright and Le Corbusier questioned ‚what is the ideal city for the twentieth century, and revealed the following answer: ”The city that best expresses the power and beauty of modern technology, and the most enlightened ideas of social justice.” In the post-modernist era, the idea of “perfect society can only exist with the creation of perfect built infrastructure” explains why architects have often dreamed about megastructures and how to order this imaginary society. Like the walking city designed by Ron Herron in the 1960s, architects have assumed that megastructures can solve major crises in remote areas. When it comes to the present time, with the advent of technological developments, the spaces that have been imagined for the future have changed. Today, utopia expresses unlimited possibilities of digital and virtual worlds, instead of ideal urban or social designs. “What happens when we build a utopia?” According to changing conditions and players of the periods, utopias’ aims has been differentiating from previous versions but and every utopia becomes a guide to the next ones. Instead of the social approaches of the early-twentieth century, contemporary utopias are created with the aims of achieving a world city status, taking market share and becoming a center of finance. In contradiction to previous versions, most of the contemporary urban utopias have been realized as actual projects. Dubai is taken as the most significant example of this situation. The construction of the city from nothing is reminiscent of the innovative ideas in urban planning in the early-twentieth century. Dubai’s specific dream was to emerge as a world city -which is also an intention of creating utopia- alongside actualizing the transformation of infrastructure with the intention of controlling the flow of capital and becoming a commerce, service and entertainment center of the region. (Soydemir, 2011)
“Dubai ‚tends to be everywhere and nowhere. It is more like a diagram, a system of staged scenery and mechanisms of good time.� (G. Katodrytis) Over the centuries, changes have been emerged in science, nature and society as well as all the components interacting with them. Utopias, which are intended to emerge as ideal societies and are planned as imaginary designs, have also undergone a great differentiation when they have been examined in terms of both meaning and content. We can say that Palmanova and Walking City or Garden-city and Dubai are utopian projects which have been designed for very different purposes. According to this, we can open a discussion on definition and content of the utopia that we accepted at the beginning. Can the utopia have a meaning beyond being the ideal city or society? Can we speak of a utopia that emphasizes the innovations of the period rather than being alternative to the problems and lacks of it? Can utopias be realized instead of being a nonplace? Can we define that designing an ideal project that has not yet been achieved with the available possibilities as a utopia, instead of designing an imaginary ideal? Finally, does the utopia mean pushing the boundaries of creativity? As a result of all these questions and research, we can say that the notion of utopia can not be defined as a general way and it will continue to establish itself in other forms by renewing itself as long as the world continues to progress.
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