9 utopian architectural projects

Attempts by architects to create utopian communities usually have one distinguishing

feature – they are not utopian and they fail. As such, they make great settings for
dystopic fiction, such as the slightly kitsch and creepy Portmeirion in the Kafkaesque
Prisoner TV series or Seaside, Florida in the Truman show.
Some uptopias have been built and failed, such as Soleri’s semi-inhabited Arcosanti
and some were only half realized, such as Disney’s Progress City, which ended up
being watered down as Epcot. But possibly the most insane of all is Le Corbusier’s
utopian vision for Paris which consisted of bulldozing the city of lights and replacing it
with what resembles the worst projects in the South Bronx. It says a lot for the
profession that the vision of arguably the world’s most famous architect was to
destroy what is arguably the world’s most beautiful architecture.

Posted by David Galbraith

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Progress City – Walt Disney Utopia
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Frank Lloyd Wright – broadacre city
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Ebenezer Howard Garden City, 1902
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Portmeirion, Wales
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Seaside, Florida
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Arcosanti, Arizona
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The Phallic Oikema in Ledoux's Plan for the utopian
town of Chaux
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Charles Fourier's Phalanstere

9
Le Corbusier's utopian plan to demolish Paris