This book examines three landmark utopian visions central to 20th century landscape architectural, planning, and architectural theory.
The period between the 1890s and the 1940s was a fertile time for utopian thinking. Significant geographic shifts of large populations; radically altered relations between capital and labor; rapid technological developments; large investments in transportation and energy infrastructure; and repetitive economic disruptions motivated many individuals to wholly reimagine society – including the connections between social relations and the built environment. Landscape and Utopia examines the role of landscapes in the political imaginations of the Garden City, the Radiant City, and Broadacre City. Each project uses landscapes to propose a reconstruction of the relationships between land, labor, and capital but - while the projects are well-known – the role played by landscapes has been largely left unexamined. Similarly, the radical anti-capitalism that underpinned each project has similarly been, for the most part, left out of contemporary discussions. This book sets these projects within a historical and philosophical context and opens a discussion on the role of landscapes in society today.
This book will be a must-read for instructors, students, and researchers of the history and theory of landscape architecture, planning, and architecture as well as utopian studies, cultural and social history, and environmental theory.
Author(s): Jody Beck
Series: Routledge Research in Landscape and Environmental Design
Publisher: Routledge
Year: 2022
Language: English
Pages: 188
City: London
Cover
Half Title
Series Information
Title Page
Copyright Page
Table of Contents
Preface
Acknowledgments
1 Why Utopia? Why Landscape?
The Garden City
The Radiant City
Broadacre City
Landscape in Utopia
Conclusion
Notes
Bibliography
2 Landscapes as Political Media
Politics
Landscapes as Political Media
Landscapes as Political Media Role #1: Structure of Resource Distribution and Access
Landscapes as Political Media Role #2: Political Imagination
Landscapes as Political Media Role #3: Form-Of-Life
Conclusion
Notes
Bibliography
3 When the Social Order Was a Public Question
Capital
Progress and Poverty
Looking Backward: 2000–1887
Fields, Factories, and Workshops
Conclusion
Notes
Bibliography
4 Land, Capital, and Labor
The Garden City
Capital in the Garden City
Labor in the Garden City
Land in the Garden City
The Radiant City
Land in the Radiant City
Capital in the Radiant City
Labor in the Radiant City
Broadacre City
Land in Broadacre City
Labor in Broadacre City
Capital in Broadacre City
Conclusion
Notes
Bibliography
5 Technology
Electricity
Transportation
Building Technology
Technologies of War, Political Will, and Landscape
Conclusion
Notes
Bibliography
6 Food and Agriculture
Agriculture and Food in the Garden City
Food and Agriculture in the Radiant City
Agriculture and Food in Broadacre City
Conclusion
Notes
Bibliography
7 Leisure
Leisure in the Garden City
Leisure in the Radiant City
Leisure in Broadacre City
Conclusion
Notes
Bibliography
8 Freedom, Cooperation, and Authority
Cooperation, Freedom, and Authority in the Garden City
Cooperation Is the Foundation of Freedom
Authority Is Derived From Cooperation
The Individual Is a Free Member of the Collective
Authority, Freedom, and Cooperation in the Radiant City
Authority and Where It Comes From
Cooperation Required By Authority
Authority and Cooperation Are Justified By the Freedom They Make Possible
Collective and Individual Freedom
Freedom, Cooperation, and Authority in the Broadacre City
Freedom Leads to Cooperation
Authority Derived From Freedom and Cooperation
Individual Dominant Concern But Aim Is Healthy Collective Body
Conclusion
Notes
Bibliography
9 History, Nature, Agency; and So, What Next?
Nature
Nature and Human Nature in the Garden City
Nature and Human Nature in the Radiant City
Nature and Human Nature in Broadacre City
History
The Garden City in History
The Radiant City in History
Broadacre City in History
Agency
Agency Required as the Preconditions of Utopia
Agency Required for the Implementation of Utopia
So, What Next?
Notes
Bibliography
Afterword
Index
