Joelho #07 Learning from Modern Utopias

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With the crisis of modernism, modernist utopias came to be seen as the cause of fragmentation, suburbanization, and dehumanization of the city, and as a tool in the hands of real estate speculation. However, modernist utopias were critical visions committed to social, humanistic, and technical research for the improvement of living conditions in the industrialized city. On one hand, the modernist attempts to reconcile urban difficulties raised by industrialization and the creation of a new post-industrial social condition cannot be denied. On the other hand, it can be argued that the problems the contemporary city faces have much in common with those that gave rise to modern utopias. Therefore, it is expected that connections will be found between these utopias and contemporary urban design strategies. The challenge posed by Joelho for this issue is to explore these connections.