Utopian Influences

Ruth Eaton’s, Ideal Cities, is a great literary example of geometry and its role in architecture.  In this writing, the ideas of geometry are applied to utopian concepts, but first she defines the word “idea” and “city” from different cultures.

Idea:  English/ French:  intellectual conception or representation

           Platonic philosophy:  what is seen not by the physical but by the mental eye

City:  English/ French:  federation of tribes grouped under common political and religious institution

 Off of these descriptions, she goes into Plato’s utopia (following up on Mumford’s writing on post 1).  First impression on her description of Plato’s society is pretty great in my book just from one quote that turns me a bit bias; “’Nobody untrained in geometry may enter my house,’ that dominated the entrance to Plato’s Academy.”  On first reading this, I instantly pictured Plato as a Gandalf character in the realm of reality.  “You shall not pass!!”  For any who know me personally, any reference or hint at Lord of the Rings nerd speak becomes something I desire to learn more about.  Same applies for Star Wars and most other futuristic films and writings.  

Anyways… I became enthralled by the reading pretty quickly.  Eaton goes on to say that, “…during the renaissance the architects sought to steal the mantle from the philosophers…”  This, to me, shows an obvious leap in maturity for the architect; tacking spatialism at the mental and emotional level.  “The natural workings of the real world are henceforth to be subjected to an uncompromising intellectual exercise, supposedly aligned with the mechanics of the universe, in a string of ideal-city designs.”  To explore metropolitan utopia, medians of utopian plans decided it’d be best to test scenarios in multiplications.  Eaton also covers More’s utopian ideals (touched, again, in post 1).  In order to see if his idea of utopia would indeed work, it must fit within any site constraint.  In order to justify this, his master plan consisted of 54 almost identical cities in an isotropic arrangement.  “…54 cloned cities on an island will generate, before long, thousands across the surface of a planet, as the very term ‘international Style’ was later to betray in the twentieth century.”  She then turns the narrative from ideas of utopia to artistic representations of dystopia within the cultures of both Plato and More.  “[T]hey portrayed visions of a ‘dystopia,’ a utopia gone wrong, where the dream has turned to nightmare and the dark, totalitarian side of the coin predominates.”  This gave me the sense (as the last post did) of an Ayn Rand societal portrayal; much like Atlas Shrugged.  As the conversation continues onward through, I believe she is emphasizing utopia reflecting natural geometry; not in the sense of squares and spheres, but in the sense of natural landscapes.  “…they are protected symbolically and physically from pernicious outside influences either by natural barriers, such as stretches of water or mountain ranges, or by man-made fortifications or greenbelts.”  Overall, I believe she is arguing that utopias are formed within specific geological atmospheres with emphasis on communal rulings and laws.  She then plays on the influences of religion parallel to geometric qualities.  One of her first quotes within this section of reading comes off as quite depressing; “The freedom they enjoy from the burdens of pain, hunger, insecurity, conflict or, indeed, death itself provide powerful visions, capable of alleviating the drudgery and suffering of reality.”  The depression continues with, “The legendary king of the city of Uruk in ancient Sumeria makes the journey to the idyllic land of Dilmun in search of Ut-Napishitim, the survivor of the Babylonian flood, in order to discover the secret of eternal life, but learns that this is the privilege of the gods’ favourites alone, and that the sad, shadowy existence of the dead is the inevitable destiny of most mortals.”  This talk of failed utopian searches and manifestations is quickly silenced by the ideals of utopian geometry.  “Through the history of utopian design, geometrical patterns appear and reappear and the legacy of the two basic forms – the circle and the square – will become evident in the places now under consideration. “  She then goes on to explain how the geometry of the circle (or sphere) is a heavenly manifestation due to the skill involved in free-hand creation of this geometric shape.  Forms of earth are squares, hexagons, triangles, etc. (any shape involving angular components of the circle).  “The circle is a representation of the heavens while the square is that of the earth.”  This also ties into geometric metaphor manifestation; for example, the heavens are a circle because of the scale of pure perfection and its unrealistic nature (an object that is not held with ease).  The earth is that of the square because, for one, earthly possessions have a sense solid reality, meaning that earth (or dirt) is a solid, massing object, that is easily held in one’s arms (a crate).  

Christian Thomsen and his writings in, Visionary Architects, focuses more on the religious influences on utopian design.  My description will not be as extensive as Eaton’s, but vital in its underlying philosophical understanding of functional utopias.  His idea, similar to Ruth’s, is that an overpowering force influences utopian design (mostly in relation to Babylon).  One of his first quotes makes me think directly of cyberspace design (to be discussed architecturally in later posts about designing cyberspace [presentation 1]).  “Frequently, political, economic, or personal difficulties prevent the execution of some carefully planned project, which is then relegated to the realm of fantasy.  In this case we speak of an ‘architectural vision’ rather than of ‘visionary architecture’…In architecture, too, we now justify talk about ‘virtual architectures,’ something that only a short time ago sounded like castles in the air, a contradiction in terms.  Cyberspace, for instance, is architecture, possesses an architecture, contains an architecture.”  Maybe in further discussion with the writer, one could argue that utopian society could be achieved through cyberspace dimensional studies, I.E. spatial performances and efficiencies of the internet’s mapping (current studies being explored in competition entry for architectural evolution).  To generalize (apologies for lack of depth on this topic, but more to come through studies on this subject), the idea of Thomsen’s utopia is to manifest from individual churches becomes valid through plan layouts.  These layouts (based on utopian Babylon) encompass the ideas of religious moral hierarchy.