Impossible Worlds [Hardcover]

Stephen Coates (Editor), Alex Stetter (Editor)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 1, 2000

This book brings together visions of utopia from around the world, from the lowly caravan to grand city plans, and looks at the ideas and aims of the people who created them. For some, the possibilities offered by a technologically advanced future have led to the design of vast megastructures such as Arata Isozaki's 'Clusters in the Air'. Others have attempted to combine innovation with tradition in "planned communities" like the picture-perfect Seaside, in Florida. Some are motivated by money or politics, others by faith or philanthropy, like the factory owners who built houses and schools (but no pubs) for their workers in suburban Britain. All share a conviction that a better world is not impossible. "Impossible Worlds" features historical essays, case studies and new photography, as well as contributions by artists, philosophers and architects

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

Utopias abound in literature and philosophy, but in architecture, the most tangible and utilitarian of the arts, the quest for paradise rarely gets off the drawing board. Impossible Worlds surveys sundry architectural utopias, ranging from tranquil 19th-century garden suburbs to a hyperkinetic TotalCity of the future. The editor and contributors, all architects and/or academics, aim to tantalize with the enormous scope of two centuries of visionary planning, but they end up merely skimming the deep waters of utopian movements and theory. They also miss their mark with two baffling, wordless photo essays and a quirky selection of projects a crackpot scheme for a floating Caribbean city-state is featured, but there is no mention of Broadacre City or Arcosanti. This likable, lightweight, and quixotic mixture of the laudable and the laughable never manages to support its thesis that utopian ideals eventually trickle down to inspire real-world design. Robert Fishman's Urban Utopias in the Twentieth Century is a more narrowly focused but far more solid examination of the utopian phenomenon. Attractively illustrated but an optional purchase. David Solt‚sz, Cuyahoga Cty. P.L., Parma, OH
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 192 pages
• Publisher: Birkhäuser Basel; 1 edition (October 1, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 3764363177
• ISBN-13: 978-3764363178
• Product Dimensions: 10.1 x 10.1 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.8 pounds
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,090,511 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)