Architecture has had a long engagement with utopian speculation, and more recently with dystopian imagination as well. Utopianism has been criticized by architectural critics like Colin Rowe as at best naive and at worst tyrannical. This seminar surveys utopian architecture across three centuries, from Enlightenment cities, to mid-nineteenth-century socialist and free love colonies, to the dome cities and techno-utopias of the 1960s and 1970s, to contemporary "temporary autonomous zones." Particular attention will be paid to architectural and urban utopias that were more than just fantastic visions of a future world, but rather encompassed comprehensive, critical visions of social transformation—of the economy, government, gender and family relations. The course will interrogate the relationship between aesthetic and sociopolitical radicalism. Lastly, we will ask whether utopian speculation continues to be an effective aesthetic and political strategy, and consider what forms a contemporary utopia might take.

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