Landscape and Utopia

<p>This book examines three landmark utopian visions central to 20th century landscape architectural planning and architectural theory. </p><p>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. <i>Landscape and Utopia</i> 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.</p><p>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.</p>