Ideal Cities: Utopiansim and the (Un)Built Environment [Hardcover]

Ruth Eaton (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 2002

Ideal Cities presents a vast panorama spanning more than two millennia of Western attempts to invent the perfect city, cradle of the ideal society. Embracing not only architecture and town planning but also art, literature, philosophy and politics, this book takes us through the imaginary environments of a wide variety of fascinating and often controversial movements and figures, including Plato, Filtrete, Leonardo da Vinci, Thomas More, Thomas Jefferson, Claude-Nicolas Ledoux, Charles Fourier, Etienne Cabet, Robert Owen, William Morris, Ebenezer Howard, Bruno Taut, Le Corbusier, Frank Lloyd Wright, the European Situationists, the Japanese Metabolists, Archigram, Superstudio and many more. In this richly illustrated book, the author explores the ability of ideal cities to stimulate reflection and change, and suggests under what conditions they might continue to exercise their vital function in relation to the urban environment of the future. The ideal cities presented by Ruth Eaton exist for the most part in the virtual domain of ideas, treading the fine line between dream and nightmare. While it is true that notorious attempts to cross the border to reality have greatly discredited utopianism, it is good to recall - with the most famous historian of cities, Lewis Mumford - that 'a map of the world that does not include Utopia is not worth even glancing at'.

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

Ideal cities, or utopias, have been imagined in dazzling detail by philosophers, poets, architects, social reformers, religious zealots, and artists for more than two millennia, an abiding and ever-evolving vision Eaton cogently surveys in this unique, thought-provoking, and resplendently illustrated history. Utopias, Eaton explains, are most often conceived as panaceas during "times of profound social unrest"; aim for "the greatest collective happiness and harmony"; and tend toward geometrically precise and orderly designs as though mathematical balance can control nature's wildness and humanity's perversity. After presenting her working definition of paradisiacal cities, Eaton ventures forth to conduct elaborate guided tours of various utopias, many inspired by myths or religious texts. She explicates Plato's ideal city; Sforzinda, the first Renaissance utopian proposal; the urban dream of early-sixteenth-century Englishman Thomas More, who coined the term utopia; and so-called new-world utopian playgrounds. As Eaton moves into the machine age, plans for ideal cities (Le Corbusier presides) grow more and more ambitious, extreme, and morbidly entrancing. Eaton's sophisticated, jam-packed interdisciplinary commentary is, frankly, demanding, but well worth the effort. Donna Seaman
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Review

Beautifully illustrated. Remains a cross between a scholarly study and a sumptuous presentation volume. -- Choice, D. Stillman, Emeritus, University of Delaware, March 2003

Eaton's sophisticated, jam-packed interdisciplinary commentary is, frankly, demanding, but well worth the effort. -- Booklist

[A] visual smorgasbord. . . . a monument to the excellence of European book manufacturing [with] a superb text. -- Institute for Urban Design

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 255 pages
• Publisher: Thames & Hudson (September 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0500341869
• ISBN-13: 978-0500341865
• Product Dimensions: 11.2 x 9.3 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.9 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,585,425 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars BEAUTIFULLY PRESENTED, YET GENUINELY INFORMATIVE, August 27, 2009

By 

Steven H. Propp (Sacramento, CA USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Ideal Cities: Utopiansim and the (Un)Built Environment (Hardcover)

Can one design an "ideal city"? A virtual metropolitan utopia, where all residents can live in peace and harmony? Well, many people throughout history have thought so, and designed detailed plans for creating such a city; and in some cases, these plans have even been put into place (not always according to the exact specifications of the designer, however).

Ruth Eaton's book is a wonderful (to call it "richly illustrated" is an understatement) presentation of this dream. Although there were some depictions of the earthly "ideal" in, say, the Middle Ages (usually contrasted with the glories of Heaven), it was with the Renaissance that such dreams really began to multiply, even as the concept of "utopia" in literature (e.g., Thomas More's Utopia," Francis Bacon Essays and New Atlantis) began to develop. Everything had its place, from the vast quarters for the king, to the church.

The book then traces the ideal being exported to the New World (often with new cities being planned along a rigid 'grid' design), and finding a fertile ground with the rise in the 19th century of genuine utopian thinkers such as Charles Fourier and Robert Owen, who actually built utopian communities. The desire to reject the growth of "urban squalor" in the designs of men like John Rushkin and William Howard, as well as the advent of progressive architectural designs by men such as Frederick Law Olmstead (Frederick Law Olmsted: Designing the American Landscape (Universe Architecture Series)) and Ebenezer Howard (Garden Cities of To-morrow) are covered. The work of later architects such as le Corbusier, and of course Frank Lloyd Wright, are also surveyed. Paolo Soleri's Arcosanti is also briefly mentioned.

While the coverage of these topics is not "deep," and persons desiring detailed coverage of specific areas will have to look elsewhere, this book is a sumptuous introduction to this topic, and is even suitable as a "coffee table book" for the casual reader.