UTOPIA

NOW
OR
NEVER:
Architecture, Urbanism, Praxis, & Theory (1945 - 1989)
Mathieu-Louis Aoun
UTOPIA
NOW
OR
NEVER:
Architecture, Urbanism, Praxis, & Theory (1945 - 1989)

Mathieu-Louis Aoun
Utopia Now or Never by Mathieu-Louis Aoun.
© 2020 Mathieu-Louis Aoun.

All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be reproduced

in any form without permission from the author.

To reference any portion of this book:

Aoun, Mathieu-Louis (2020), Utopia Now or Never. pp. 1 - 101.

Publication and Illustration Design: Rawan Deeb
About Me, I’m an Architect, Designer and CELTA certified
teacher. Design and Linguistics have become a passion of
mine, because they are used to communicate a certain idea.
Every design composition be it graphical, or architectural has
its own Grammar, Syntax, and Vocabulary. My job is to know
how to piece them together to create the right resonating
concept. I work as a freelance designer and consultant,
using my skills and know-how to come up with different
designs.

https://www.behance.net/rawandeeb
Hotel Kyjev (1973), Bratislava. All rights reserved.
 Un fort vent de liberté
souffla sur notre pays, si
dévastateur et, en même
temps, si créateur, que rien
ne devait plus être tout à
fait semblable à ce qui
avait existé auparavant. La
vie a changé ou, si l'on
préfère, nous avons
changé la vie.
- Daniel Guérin, 6 September 1973

A strong wind of freedom

blew across our country, so
devastating and yet so creative
that nothing would remain
exactly the same as that which
had existed before. Life had
changed, or rather, we had
changed life.

- Daniel Guérin, 6 September 1973

10
The Utopia of Collective Housing:
Architectural and Ideological Discourse in the Rise and Fall of Socialist
Housing (1948 - 1989)

21 Revolution & Architecture:

Le Carré Bleu, Controspazio, & Team 10 (1968 - 1969)

31 Idealized Utopia:
French Cinema and Urbanism in Los Angeles (1967 - 1972)

45 Architecture and Utopia:

The USSR in Le Carré Bleu (1967)

50 Eastern-European Architects in Algeria (1963 - 1989)

59 Humanism, Urbanism, & Utopia:

Constantin Brodzki, Paul Nelson, and Oskar Nikolai Hansen (1965 - 1975)

65 Mobile Architecture & the Spatial City:

Yona Friedman on Urbanism (1975)
70 The Original No-Stop City:
Los Angeles in Jacques Demy's 1969 "Model Shop"

76 Marxism, Eurocommunism, and Architectural Theory:

Gramsci, Poulantzas, & John F. C. Turner (1957 - 1979)

84 Theory of Praxis and Marxism:

Architectural Formations in pre-Liberalization and post-Normalization
Czechoslovakia (1948 - 1978)

95 Anarchy, Radicalism, Utopia:

Gruppo 9999, UFO, Gruppo Strum, & Gianni Pettena (1968 - 1972)

Happiness is also
determined by things
which never were and
never will be

- Wladyslaw Tatarkiewicz, 1966

Utopia 2018. MLA. All rights reserved.
Mobile
Architecture
and the
Spatial City:
Yona Friedman and
Urbanism (1975)

Berlin without its Nordic

sky and invigorating
cold, a soft Berlin of leafy
Linden trees…

- Max Frisch “Berlin Journal”, 1973-1974

B y 1975, the Hungarian-born French architect and urbanist Yona Friedman had
gained international notoriety through his books Mobile Architecture and Toward
a Scientific Architecture. In both works, Friedman had espoused radical tenets and
principles advocating architecture decided “by the occupant”1 through infra-
structures “neither determined nor determining”.2
1 Grubinger, Eva.
Sculpture Unlimited.
The notion of dwellers taking direct control over their housing preferences and Sternberg Press,
2011. pp.16
characteristics, an argument similarly extolled by John Turner in his 1972 Free-
dom to Build, Dweller Control of the Housing Process, is a recurring theme in 2 Grubinger, Eva.
Friedman's collective writings. In a 1975 article published in the architectural Sculpture Unlimited.
journal Le Carré Bleu, Friedman reiterates the notion that “a building or a city Sternberg Press,
2011. pp.16
cannot be conceived by someone other than the inhabitants themselves. The
role of the architect must be reduced to that of a technical adviser”.3 The 3 Friedman, Yona.
comparability and resemblance between Friedman and Turner's doctrine, a Le Carré Bleu 1/75.
prominent concept of the 1970s, is indisputably irrevocable. Feuille International
d'Architecture,
1975. pp.1-18
Similarly to the Italian groups Archizoom and Superstudio, Friedman had
expressed a utopian vision of cities and urban agglomerations unburdened by 4 Friedman, Yona.
Le Carré Bleu 1/75.
socioeconomic borders and obstacles. In creating the ideal city, Friedman Feuille International
calls for the realization of infrastructures that “must not impose obstacles, d'Architecture,
borders, (and) interior limits so as to not impose a structure of groups, organi- 1975. pp.1-18
zations, etc. to the future inhabitants”.4 Friedman's words similarly reflect
5 Stauffer, Marie
Archizoom's description of its No-Stop City, portrayed as an urban agglomera- Theres. Utopian
tion "without entrances or exits and which is as lacking in differentiated Reflections,
spaces as it is in significant landmarks. The total homogeneity of the finish is Reflected Utopias:
Urban Designs by
intended to effect complete equality amongst the city's inhabitants”.5 Archizoom and
Superstudio.
In the 1975 article published in Le Carré Bleu, Friedman equates his vision of Architectural
Association London,
the urban utopia with the classical city square. Describing in great detail the 2002. pp.27
model city, he states: “I would like to allow myself the luxury, for once, to speak
of a utopia...where I would want to live, myself, personally speaking”.6 For 6 Friedman, Yona.
Le Carré Bleu 1/75.
Friedman, the notion of utopia stems above all from a sentiment of safety and
Feuille International
security. The city square, and its stimulating labyrinthine connections, offer d'Architecture,
the architect this urban safety. Friedman states: 1975. pp.1-18

65
Berlin. All rights reserved
7 The Place de la
Concorde in Paris.

8 Both squares
are situated in Paris.

9 Camillo Sitte
(1843-1903) was
an Austrian
architect and urban
theorist. He is
remembered for his
1889 book “City
Planning According
to Artistic
Principles”.

10 Friedman,
Yona. Le Carré Bleu
1/75. Feuille
International
d'Architecture, Berlin. All rights reserved
1975. pp.1-18

11 Friedman,
Yona. Le Carré Bleu “I very much like squares: either the very open squares (like the Concorde),7 or
1/75. Feuille the very closed squares (like the Place des Vosges or Place Vendôme).8 I like
International
d'Architecture, them “regular” or “irregular” (in the sense of Camillo Sitte)9. What attracts me to
1975. pp.1-18 squares is their contrast to roads (halls, labyrinths, etc.)...In short, I very much
like roads and squares for I very much like this artificial mini-world that is the
12 The location of city composed of roads and squares. Because this artificial mini-world is artifi-
the Centre Pompi-
dou in Paris. cial, I very much like to feel protected: protected from nature, from the rain, from
the sun, from the wind”.10
13 Les Halles was
the central food For Friedman, the ancient covered passages represent the optimal urban
market of Paris
before it was compound between the external elements and domiciliary comfort. Friedman
demolished in 1971; states:
it was replaced by
an underground
shopping mall called “I therefore like when a portion of the squares and roads are protected, separat-
the ‘Forum des ed from nature: that is to say when the roads and squares are covered,
Halles’.
sheltered. Not too much: just enough for me to not get wet, to be able to walk in
the shade, to not slosh in the snow (for, evidently, I am a pedestrian: I do not
know how to drive)”.11

67
Friedman subsequently attempts to illustrate his vision through existing 14 The Centre
Parisian projects. He uses the examples of the Place Beaubourg (currently Pompidou.

Place Georges Pompidou)12 and Les Halles.13 For both projects, he would
15 Friedman,
have wished, according to his utopian ideals, for the Parisians to have been Yona. Le Carré Bleu
consulted directly on the final design and scope of both projects. He further- 1/75. Feuille
International
more would have argued for both realizations to become covered squares,
d'Architecture,
stating: 1975. pp.1-18

“I would have suggested, during the Plateau Beaubourg competition, to keep 16 In the original
text the french word
the square intact and to cover it with an umbrella roof. This roof would have “ajouré” is used,
contained the Centre14 (museums, etc.) which was the subject of the competi- which translates to
tion. For Les Halles, I would have suggested the application of the same 'pierced with holes
in order to let light
technique: covering the greatest surface area...with a “roof”, meaning an airy through'.
spatial structure, laid on pilotis every 50 meters roughly. The empty space
contained in this “roof” could house – on two levels, for example – certain 17 Friedman,
services, offices, boutiques, etc. On the ground floor, the surface covered by Yona. Le Carré Bleu
1/75. Feuille
the umbrella would be left to the free initiative of the Parisians: from a International
theater to an antique market to a meeting spot akin to Hyde Park Corner, d'Architecture,
everything would have been accepted and possible”.15 1975. pp.1-18

18 A public park
Friedman is perfectly contemporary in comprehending and utilizing the located in Paris.
tenets of the nascent eco-green movement of the 1970s. His utopian aspira-
tions entail a degree of concern for the role nature and the environment have 19 Friedman,
Yona. Le Carré Bleu
in the ideal city/town. Regarding his vision for an urban 'umbrella', Friedman 1/75. Feuille
states: “the umbrella is sufficiently “open”16 in its own conception, so that in International
every place where a tree can grow it can be planted: it could (therefore) d'Architecture,
1975. pp.1-18
exceed over the umbrella”.17 He similarly envisions an “accidental terrain, a
sort of precipice reforested with a lake in its depths (the precedent exists in 20 Friedman,
the Buttes-Chaumont18)”.19 Yona. Le Carré Bleu
1/75. Feuille
International
In concluding his thoughts, Friedman importantly emphasizes the role d'Architecture,
citizens, denizens, and residents must have in the day-to-day realities and 1975. pp.1-18
exchanges they maintain with the city they inhabit. For Friedman the
21 Friedman,
seasoned architect and urbanist, a salutary utopia stems in part from the Yona. Le Carré Bleu
conception of a “covered public square whose use is left to the initiative of 1/75. Feuille
the citizens”.20 Fundamentally, “designing a city is a task that is no longer International
d'Architecture,
incumbent upon the professional but (upon) the inhabitants of said city”.21 1975. pp.1-18

68