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European Culture, Architectural History and Theory II

By Antiola Kapaj 5084502

QUESTION 6

Robert Owen and later William Morris provide an outlook into a utopian future and both
share an interest for planning and imagining future spaces of the proposed new
societies. Consider these famous contributions to utopian literature from an architect’s
perspective. What are the main spatial characteristics of the proposed (or imagined)
utopian models? How does the ideal society materialize in the imagined (Morris’) or
proposed (Owen’s) world of future cities or rural communities? Do you find elements
which may be relevant today? Please explain with reference to both texts!

Utopia is imagined as a perfect world with no social and governmental issues. It is an

imaginary world where everyone is equal and content with daily life.

Robert Owen was a philanthropist, humanitarian and utopian and referred to as the
“Father of English Socialism”. He believed that the source of all evils was ignorance.

Owen noticed that the majority of the workers in factories in the 1800s were very
young children, as young as 5 years old, who worked for 13 hours a day in miserable
working conditions. Their education was very poor or non-existent as well.

He was strongly against the concept of young children working long hours in unsafe
conditions. He stated that the workday should be reduced in length and that working
and living conditions should be greatly improved. He believed that removing pain, fear,
and trial from human existence would allow humanity to flourish. He also believed that
well-educating children from a young age were the key to developing good human
character

Robert Owen then started a program of societal and educational reforms. One of these
was the establishment of the world's first infant school in 1816. He also established a
nursery for working mothers, free education for all of these children, universal
healthcare for his employees, and evening classes for adults. Owen also restricted
child labor to children over the age of ten.

For that reason he thought of the "Villages of Unity and Cooperation".

Each village would consist of approximately 1,200 people living in one large structure
built in the shape of a square, with a public kitchen and dining area. Each family would
have their apartment and would be responsible for their children until they reached
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the age of three. After that age the children would be raised by the community and they
would live separately from the adults. Parents would have access to them during
meals and other appropriate times.
Agriculture was the main economic source of the village.

In his novel "News From Nowhere," William Morris describes a society with no private
property, no big cities, no government, prisons or social classes. This agrarian society
simply functions because people enjoy nature and, as a result, enjoy their work. He
was against the overpopulation of big cities and wanted to create communities in the
countryside.

With the advancement of the modern capitalist society, a lot of the elements from
these utopic systems are not relatable to the current cities. With the right to private
property and the constant growth of big cities, it looks like our current communities
and their urban spaces go against these utopic ideologies.

But on the other hand, morally the ideology of better working conditions and spaces
seems to take much more importance nowadays rather than during the times Owen
and Morris imagined their imaginary systems.

The Villages of Unity and Mutual Cooperation 1817

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QUESTION 7

Explain the main idea of Ebenezer Howard’s concept of the Garden City: Why is this
concept from Garden Cities of To-Morrow. A peaceful path to real reform going beyond
the “green suburbia ideal” of most 20th-century suburbs? Do you think the ideas of
Garden Cities are relevant for contemporary planning? Provide arguments for your
point of view!

The Garden Cities concept was first introduced in the nineteenth century.

Howard's Garden Cities plan was a response to the need to improve the quality of
urban living and working conditions in London, since the Industrial Revolution and the
overcrowding of the cities.

Howard described cities and the countryside as

magnets that drew people to them for
various reasons. He identified their advantages
and disadvantages. The countryside provides
closeness with nature but a "lack of society,"
whereas the city provides social opportunities
but a disconnection with nature. Howard
concluded that neither the city nor the country
was ideal.

His solution was to create a third hybrid magnet

that would provide both town and country
advantages.

Howard's scheme had these main elements:

- a large agricultural land

- the planning of a town inside a wide rural belt

- the placement of residents, industry, and agriculture within the town

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- the restriction of the town inside the rural belt

At the center of the city would lay a garden surrounded by the city hall, a concert hall,
museum, theatre, library, hospital and six main avenues.

The garden city movement has had a significant impact on modern urban planning
standards.

For sustainable interaction, the boundaries between city and country must be
dissolved, ensuring a clean environment with less pollution and a bigger presence of
parks and open spaces, serving as a model for an ecologically sustainable society.

Howard's Garden City Principles are still relevant in modern society because he
viewed his ideology as something to be adapted to fit the urban environment rather
than something to be strictly adhered to.

Even though his belief that urban centers are unsustainable and that the concept of
common land ownership conflicts with modern planning ideals and the current
capitalistic society.

On the other hand, the concept of a garden city gained traction in urban planning,
resulting in the expansion of green spaces within urban spaces.

Garden City model

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QUESTION 1

Dystopia seems to be the “other” form of utopia going terribly wrong. Describe the
main features of a dystopian novel and illustrate how architecture contributes to its
dystopian setting. Why (and how) do novelists bring “architecture” into the story?
Explain with an example from a dystopian novel!

Most dystopia and utopian literature includes architecture as a narrative device to

reinforce the political critique of social progress. Not only does architecture play an
important role in modern utopian or dystopian writings, it is a necessary component.
Both literary utopias and dystopias present an alternate reality. One of the good
depicting examples is James Graham Ballard’s novel: High-Rise.

The high-rise itself serves as both the setting and the main subject of the novel. The
structure takes on a life of its own, not only reflecting but also merging with the human
psyche.

The novel's setting is a high-end forty-story London building occupied by the

professional classes. What was supposed to be a feat of utopian social engineering
quickly devolves into dystopian barbarism.

Ballard’s High-Rise is a clear reference to Le Corbusier’s utopian project of the

“Vertical Village”. This building includes restaurants, a swimming pool, gym, and shops,
the high-rise represents the epitome of Corbusierian planning—it is a self-sustaining
structure. Very little attention is given to life outside of the high-rise. In other words,
the building is seen as a kind of island, completely separated from London seen only
from the balconies, and offering its tenants a closed environment.

Residents of this high-rise replicate the standard social divisions in their isolation
from the outside world, with the lower class located at the bottom and the upper class
of society occupying the top floors. However, the repressive insistence on order and
stability in terms of spatial division within the system, even if it is only one building,
results in the opposite reaction from residents. They end up with regression,
corruption, extreme social divisions, and, ultimately, moral decay and chaos.

Ballard conceptualized the outcomes of placing humans in what in theory are utopian
settings—hygienic, rational, well-planned environments that are meant to promote
analogous effects in the psyche using modernist architecture philosophy. We can,
however, state that there is no guarantee. Instead, what emerges is a rather
pessimistic diagnosis of the human condition, regression, instead of evolution as a
reaction to social engineering and technological progress.
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REFERNCES:

Question 1

*Modern Wastelands: The Psychogeographical Dystopia of J.G. Ballard’s “High-Rise”

Marcin Tereszewski

*Does architecture play a significant role in modern utopian/dystopian writing? Vie

Pereira

*J.G Ballard, High-Rise, 1975

Question 6

*Bernard, Paul R., Robert Owen, and William Maclure. “Irreconcilable Opinions: The
Social and Educational Theories of Robert Owen and William Maclure.” Journal of the
Early Republic 8, no. 1 (1988): 21–44. https://doi.org/10.2307/3123663.

*Miliband, Ralph. “The Politics of Robert Owen.” Journal of the History of Ideas 15, no. 2
(1954): 233–45. https://doi.org/10.2307/2707769.

*Kinna, Ruth. “William Morris: Art, Work, and Leisure.” Journal of the History of Ideas
61, no. 3 (2000): 493–512. https://doi.org/10.2307/3653925

*Casement, William. “William Morris on Labor and Pleasure.” Social Theory and
Practice 12, no. 3 (1986): 351–82. http://www.jstor.org/stable/23556601.

Question 7

*CLARK, BRETT. “EBENEZER HOWARD AND THE MARRIAGE OF TOWN AND COUNTRY:
An Introduction to Howard’s ‘Garden Cities of To-Morrow’ (Selections).” Organization &
Environment 16, no. 1 (2003): 87–97. http://www.jstor.org/stable/26161785.

*R. Fishman, Urban Utopias in the Twentieth Century: Ebeneezer Howard, Frank Lloyd
Wright and Le Corbusier. New York: Basic Books, 1977, page 49-53

*FISHMAN, ROBERT. “The Garden City Tradition in the Post-Suburban Age.” Built
Environment (1978-) 17, no. 3/4 (1991): 232–41. http://www.jstor.org/stable/23286658.