chy, The Revolt of the Citizen By the middle ofthe twentieth century, utopiaism and ideal-city design had displayed their dystopian aspects. Dreams of realization upon a universal scale had produced nightmare scenarios In response, the period after the Second World War, and particularly the 1960s, experienced a reaction against authority nd uniformity, Amid the explosion of urban schemes that dated frm these years, many were utopian, attempting to transcend and seeking to reverse — at east partially ~ the current dominant tend and to reinstate the individual ctizen as master of bis environment. Others wee counter-utopian, condemning the rigidity ofthe Modern Movement in projects that exaggerated its characteristics in a manner inspired by the long-standing literary tradition established by writers such as Zamyatin and OrwellLecati, gic fot rape a. data lecati, os| raeang-216 Cnsariwsehys, Hodes, 1 Seas Ansedon STRUGGLING WITH THE CHAINS oF uropia, Theyears before the second world conficthad been characterized by the crudescence of totalitarian systemsin many part ofthe world Utopia may have beenattempted inthe politica sphere butit had revealed its dystopian face. Increasingly, the ndiv- idualhad been reduced tothe level ofa pawn on a gigantic chessboard, acogina massive machine, an alienated, expendable spare part. Millions lost their fvesin the names of Communism, Nazism, Fascism. Inthe years after World WarTwo, faith nideology was profoundly shaken and the role of authority broughtinto question as citizens, hitherto subju gated to system in which they were no morethan ‘types’, soughtto reasserttheir personalities and to master theirenvironment once more. The 19605, witnessed an explosion ofselF-expression and reaction against authorityand the status quo in North America and Europe, culminating in France inthe revolutionary events of 968. In the United States, thousands ofhippies moved to California or New Mexicoto set up hundreds of alternative, inten- ‘ional communities -Drop City founded in Colorado in 1965 and Morning Star near San Francisco in 1966 being among the earliest —which rocked the teadi- tional American way of life. In many cases, private spaces were banished from these communities which privileged the collective and most often ‘ejected the nuclear family unit. The Europeans were uickto follow the American example and the most famous such community is no doubt Christiana, free commune established in 1971 within x70 ‘iltary buildingsin the heart of Copenhagen. {nthe domains of architecture and town planning, the prewar years had seen the fuits ofthe early years of heady idealism —when new worlds-just- around-the-corner were formulated with excitement ~slowly merge into a rigid solution. Madeenism’s ‘major language, the International tye’, progres- sively dominated the scene; itwas a doctrine that preached uniformity and universal applicability, ironing out spatial and temporal differences and leaving litte ifany room for change, variety oindi- vidual initiative. after the war, the pressing need for rapid and economical reconstruction on an unprece- dented scale led to the adoption ofitsethos,forits methods of mass production and prefabrication appeared tosuit the urgency ofthe situation so well, Eastern Europe and France, whase large Sarcelles estate inthe suburbs of Paris gave its nameto the term sarcllite, designating the malaise experienced by the residents of these monotonous blocks, were particularly avid consumers ofthis housing of emergency. Itwas physically more comfortable, withouta doubt, than the shanty towns and other miserable lodgings that itreplaced but none theless ‘open toctiticism by comparison with what might have been realized inits stead. Indeed, the frsteritical vices soon began to rumble, In the architectural field, the words ofjustone architect, Aldo an Eyckin 959, expressed the discontent ofa number ofhis generation regarding the functional housing going up around him “instead ofthe inconvenience of ith and confusion, we have now got the boredom of hygiene. The ‘material slum has gone —in Holland forexample~ but what has replaced it? just mile upon mile of organized nowhere, and nobody feling heis “somebody lving somewhere." The reaction against the modernist credo tookmany guises of hich only afew willbe discussed here. The Megas- tructuralists although often filing, in their colossal structures, to shed the base, domineering rigidity of their predecessors, sought to provide for greater fexibilty and freedom forthe citizen and theie schemes represent a sartofhalf-vay house between ‘wo eras. They harboured, and illustrated spatially, characteristics ofthe pre-war utopias alongside those ofthe New World, highlighting the confit between the general will and the requirements of individual members of society. Metamorphosis, already explored by the Italian Futurists, became a smajorissue at this time, particularly for groups such asthe Intemational Situationist. The reaction also found avoice in the work of those groups that soughttore-empawercitzensin the decision- making process such as the advocacy planners activein cities lke Brussels orin New York's Harlem, but their methodology is beyond the scape ofthis work. By 1975, when the critic Charles Jencks fist employed the term post-modern’ to describe the contemporary architectural tendency he observed around him, particulary in the work oF architects such as Robert Venturi, the domination ofthe avant- garde-turnedt-academicism of he Modern Movement was pendingitslastbreath. The post- modern movement rejected the tabula asa attitude and the functional zoning ofthe modernists and called fora return othe integration of historical sources and traditional forms and materials in archi- tecturaland urban design. 288 mote tc MEGASTRUCTURES: SWANSONG AND SEED. Nidokrlaay, isp, 196. Canteen Pp Pais In ceaction tothe straitacket ofthe pre-war period, the late 19508 and particularly the 1960s saw a rash of designs for alternative cities which aimed to {guarantee greater individual freedom than the utopian designs ofthe previous generation, yet which sill contained, tovarying degrees, residues ‘of Modernism. The cities proposed were actually buildings-cum-cities: single, giant structures loosely grouped under the term megastructuresand theirgenerally acknowledged ancestor dates infact fiom before the Second World War. Itisa design by LeCorbusier, who was assuredlya step ahead of everyone else all the time: the Fort Emperer project fromhis 1931 plan for Algiers. ts huge, seemingly endlesselevated superhighway shakingits way across the landscapeis packed with tworstorey homes decked out in accordance withthe desires and tates not ofthe architect but ofthe inhabitants. The megastructure was defined by Ralph Wilcoxon in 968s follows: not onlya structure ofgreatsiz, but whi sequent ‘constructed of modular units 2capable of ret oreven‘uninited extension; alsoa structure