ARCHITECTURE AND DYSTOPIA

Dario Donetti, Marco De Michelis, Oliver Elser, Dominique Rouillard, Marco Biraghi, Marie Theres Stauffer, Maddalena Scimemi, Simon Sadler, Massimiliano Savorra, Anthony Vidler A homage to the 1973 publication Architecture and Utopia by Manfredo Tafuri –echoed in the title– this book is devoted to the radical experiences of the 1960s and to their consequences for the most recent developments in contemporary architecture. How to define a unified “dystopian” method of design, i.e. a common ground for an architecture that, by its very nature, seems to resist systematization? Are the most recognizable architectural expressions of this theoretical framework –characterized by brazen displays of technology and structures of overwhelming scale– merely isolated cases, albeit of particular iconic power? Or do they belong to a wider landscape of antirational architectural projects? And to what extent are these disturbing expressions premised on the utopian tradition or, better yet, the conceptual model of “negative thought”? The goal of this book is to respond to such questions, thus initiating an open dialogue about the legitimacy of this critical category.