Utopics: Public Projects, Private Fantasies

This seminar investigates the consistent presence of utopian thought in architecture. The seminar provides an introduction to the traditional narratives of utopia in Plato, More, Bacon, Ledoux, Fourier, Saint-Simon, and the emergence of utopianism as a critical practice in the 1950s and 1960s including Lettrism, Situationism, Archizoom, Superstudio, Archigram, Utopie, and Metabolism. Readings include historical and contemporary theories of utopia, and complementary texts in political, psychoanalytical, social and cybernetic theory. Participants select one example for research and documentation.