Urban Utopia and Central European Region: Andrej Gogora
Urban Utopia and Central European Region: Andrej Gogora
Urban Utopia and Central European Region: Andrej Gogora
1, 127-134
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URBAN UTOPIA AND CENTRAL EUROPEAN REGION
Andrej Gogora*
Constantine the Philosopher University in Nitra, Faculty of Arts, Department of General and
Applied Ethics, Hodova 1, 949 74 Nitra, Slovak Republic
(Received 13 October 2016, revised 24 October 2016)
Abstract
The article analyses the issue of contemporary urban utopian discourse in relation to the
region of Central Europe. The primary aim is to analyse the main features of the present-
day urban utopian discourse and to give examples of this kind of vision of the future.
The secondary aim, a more speculative and metaphorical one, is to draw attention to the
function of urban utopias in Central European countries and to suggest the relevance of
urban utopias created in Western countries for the post-socialist urban, economic and
social conditions. The purpose of the article is to deal with the contemporary urban
utopias in order to learn something about the near future of Central European region.
1. Introduction
At the present time, urban utopias are in fashion once again. We are
observing the rapid and acute proliferation of the way of thinking that is dealing
with the concept of no-place (from the Greek - not and place) as it
was coined by Thomas More in his book Utopia in 1516. We are facing the
descendants of traditional notion of society that is planed out in a perfect and
flawless way as designed in early utopian attempts of Bacons New Atlantis,
Campanellas City of the Sun, Owens New Harmony, Fouriers Phalanstre and
*
E-mail: gogora@gmail.com
Gogora/European Journal of Science and Theology 13 (2017), 1, 127-134
so on. In our case, it is undoubtedly a current issue among the architects and
urban planners in the most developed countries and it is of great importance just
like the social urban utopias in the early 20th century (Ebenezer Howards garden
city movement, Le Corbusiers modernist idea of The radiant city, F.L. Wrights
concept of decentralized Broadacre city) as well as the utopian megastructures
in the 1960s and the 1970s (Y. Friedmans mobile architecture of The Spatial
City, Archigrams avant-garde Plug-in-City and The Walking City, Metabolisms
Ocean City and Space City, or Superstudios total urbanization of The
Continuous Monument). Nowadays, we can literally speak of the third wave of
modern urban utopias. So, what are the form and intention of the current urban
utopias? What kind of utopian discourse is generated in the field of urban
planning and architecture?
The urban utopian discourse under consideration began to grow in recent
years in more or less unorganized ways there are many scattered publications,
projects and exhibitions in the field of architecture, urban planning as well as in
visual and conceptual art, fiction, social theory and so on, processed in an
academic form, professional way or just in a personal interest. We can easily
follow up the high fermentation and shaping of these resources.
To specify this kind of utopian discourse we make a list of the most
significant examples. First of all, there is an iconic collection of the current
visions of utopian architecture and urbanism called Utopia Forever published in
2011 [1]. The projects in this book represent significant predictions of
fundamental urban change and are radically redefining our vision of everyday
life in the near future. They are coherently divided into five section: Great
Scapes consists of proposals for home building in inhospitable localities; Rising
Tides deals with the problem of rising of sea levels; Ecotopia Emerging presents
projects that apply green ecological approach to urban planning; Technology
Matters reflects impact of technological development on architecture and city
infrastructure; and finally, Skys the Limit is concerned with vertical utopian
visions above the ground. Some of the projects are just exercises in speculation
while others are technically almost feasible, some are rather ironical,
intimidating, foresightful and very lucid, other are focusing on society and
environments most urgent needs. Utopia Forever very aptly expresses the fact
that our cities and homes are not sustainable in the way we are building and
utilizing them, so we must look for solutions and ideas for our urban future. That
is the main reason why the discussion about utopias is one of the most
significant issues in contemporary architecture and urban planning.
In 2009 the prestigious journal Architecture Design prepared a special
issue entitled Architectures of the Near Future in which we can find a variety of
utopian and dystopian accounts of the contemporary architecture and life in the
city. In her editorial, Helen Castle pointed out the inherent feature of the
architects practice: No discipline has been propelled forward more by the
promise of the onward march of progress than architecture. Since the early 20th
century, architects and designers have been smitten by the novel and the new. To
this day, architecture as a discipline continues to judge itself on these terms,
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piling approbations on its star players that reflect these criteria: cutting-edge,
avant-garde, innovative, experimental and ground-breaking. [2] In this respect,
the architecture and urban planning are inherently utopian in some way.
Another example is the text-book 49 Cities published in 2010 [3], a vivid
survey of utopian urbanism and a remarkable insight into our understanding of
the metropolis developed by the New York-based Work AC studio: Today,
with the failure of the suburban experiment and the looming end-of-the world
predictions from global warming and waste to post-peak oil energy crises and
uncontrolled world urbanization architects and urbanists find themselves once
more at a cross-road, fertile for visionary thinking. Todays meeting of
intensified environmental fears with the global break down of laissez-faire
capitalism has produced a new kind of audience, one that is ready to suspend
disbelief and engage in flights of the imagination to radically rethink the way we
live. [3, p. 4] In general, the mentioned publications are the most representative
samples of present day urban utopian discourse, reflecting the questionable state
of the (urban) world and proposing radical visions of our future.
Another resource for contemporary architectural development and
innovation in the third millennium was the exhibition at Londons Barbican
Centre in 2006 and its catalogue Future City Experiment and Utopia in
Architecture 1956 2006 [4]. The exposition had demonstrated various vision of
future cities and utopian architecture that have emerged in the past 50 years
from the visionary artistic projects of Constant Nieuwenhuys, to gigantic
structures of Archigram and Superstudio, to Kisho Kurokawas Floating City
(1961), Rem Koolhaass famous Delirious New York (1978), to deconstructivists
Daniel Libeskind and Zaha Hadid as well as contemporary digitally inspired
work by Nox and Decoi. With no doubt, this is the most comprehensive review
of experimental and utopian architecture and urban planning over the last
decades.
In 2010 Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York presented the
installation called Rising Currents: Projects for New Yorks Waterfront which
consisted of visionary urban and landscape solutions for a rapid rising sea levels
resulting from the global climate change. The exhibition is composed of five
site-specific projects proposing experimental solution to the waterfront of New
York harbour. Barry Bergdoll, the Philip Johnson Chief Curator of Architecture
and Design at MoMA explained the aim: Your mission is to come up with
images that are so compelling they cant be forgotten and so realistic that they
cant be dismissed [K. Cilento, Rising Currents at MoMA, http://www.
archdaily.com/53736/rising-currents-at-moma, accessed 12.10.2016]. In this
respect, it is clear that the exhibition demonstrates the ability of contemporary
architects and urban planners to identify the problem (climate change) and to
design the potential and down to earth solution by means of an utopian idea.
Research and exhibition project Megastructure Reloaded
[http://www.megastructure-reloaded.org/] realized in 2008 is a part of the long-
term project Utopia Revisited which includes workshops, symposia, publications
and exhibitions throughout Europe from 2006 to 2011. The exposition tested the
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times since 1989. Then, it is no surprise that the avid pursuing after the wealthy
capitalist urban lifestyle has priority over the searching for an alternative future.
The post-socialist situation of the V4 countries has very specific features
grey cities stricken by the communist ideology and its remorseless urban
interventions; society traumatized by a totalitarian regime and then jump-started
by the turbo-capitalism with almost no rules and legal protection, full of
corruption and ineffective management. Considering the Central European
geopolitical perspective and its topography, there are not so many burdensome
and firsthand obstacles which would bring about the utopian reflections upon
natural disasters, energy crisis, urban sprawl, hyper-density, uncontrolled
technological progress, hedonism, excessive consumption, depopulation,
migration (until recently). Despite the global impact of these affairs, Central
Europe has not suffered yet enough from them to be obliged to urgently debate
on these topics.
Naturally, ecological, social and urban crises are present in the Central
European region. Nevertheless, the feature and scope of these threats are
relatively different from the areas referred to by todays urban utopias. In
general, it is clear that urban defects, environmental and social troubles of
advanced countries have been caused by the rapid development of
industrialization from the late 18th century to the post-industrial present times:
The global ecological crisis is a crisis of civilisation [8]. The fictional and
critical responses to these circumstances take the form of urban utopian
discourse.
Irony of the Central European countries fate is that after forty years of
socialism, they are very diligently approaching to the urban, social, economic
and technological state of the advanced western countries: CEE-10 states have
managed to grow at much faster rates than the core of the EU, increasing their
GDP levels by 40-120% over the 1995-2008 period. Rapid economic growth has
allowed these countries to substantially reduce per capita income gaps
to the EU15 countries. [CEED Report: Central and Eastern Europe
Development development, opportunities and challenges, 2011,
http://ceedinstitute.org/report/1651, accessed 12.10.2016]. In general, the basic
argument of this article is as follows: by means of V4s jumping on the
bandwagon of global economic progress the former differences between
Western and Central Europe are blurring and, in this regard, V4 is contributing
to the questionable conditions that have been the direct or indirect causes of the
increased occurrence of urban utopias.
Central Europe has always been a little behind the wealthy western
nations and they are approaching them in terms of economic growth, political
culture and quality of life in general. However, metaphorically speaking, in such
an effort they have forgotten to carefully monitor the longed-for destination. In
brief, the V4 countries are still not at the level of the western countries and in the
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process of their trying to become equal with them, western countries started, by
means of utopian thinking and other critical activities, to reassess the basic
direction and visions (see, for example, Palitefkas account on the future of
western civilization [9]). This is V4s mistake as well as a great challenge.
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serious, it would make sense to discuss and adopt most of these devices in
Central Europe as soon as possible, for there is nothing to wait for.
6. Conclusion
References
[1] L. Feireiss and R. Klanten (eds.), Utopia Forever, Gestalten, Berlin, 2011.
[2] H. Castle, Architecture Design, 79(5) (2009) 4.
[3] M. Webb and S. Jacob (eds.), 49 Cities, Work Architecture, New York, 2010.
[4] J. Alison (ed.), Future City: Experiment and Utopia in Architecture, Thames &
Hudson, London, 2007.
[5] J. Jurov, Eur. J. Sci. Theol., 12(3) (2016) 71-80.
[6] L.B. Yeates, Thought Experimentation: A Cognitive Approach, Graduate Diploma
in Arts dissertation, University of New South Wales, Sydney, 2004, 150.
[7] H.P. Segal, Utopias: A Brief History from Ancient Writings to Virtual
Communities, Wiley-Blackwell, Chicester, 2012, 13.
[8] P.F. Downton, Ecopolis: Architecture and cities for a changing climate, Springer,
New York, 2009, 4.
[9] J. Palitefka, Eur. J. Sci. Theol., 12(3) (2016) 33-43.
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