Arquitectura Viva 250: Useful Utopias marks the journal's 250th issue by reframing utopian thinking not as escapism but as a disciplined, optimistic response to the compounding crises of economic decline, epidemic, war, and climate emergency.
About This Book
This special edition of Arquitectura Viva takes the utopian tradition seriously — not as nostalgia for unbuilt dreams, but as a framework for thinking through housing, the city, and the collective conditions of contemporary life. Luis Fernández-Galiano surveys evolving conceptions of the ideal city, alive to the threats that have always shadowed such visions. The collective Dogma regrounds the urban villa as a viable housing typology through the lens of commoning. And economist James Bradford DeLong charts a long twentieth century in which humanity strained toward its own utopias of freedom and prosperity. Together, these three voices make a case for architecture's capacity to propose, not merely respond.
Key Features
- 88 pages of essays, urban proposals, and critical commentary across the ideal city, housing typology, and modern economic history
- Contributions by Luis Fernández-Galiano, the collective Dogma, and James Bradford DeLong
- Published by Avisa
What You'll Discover
- Fernández-Galiano's critical survey of ideal city concepts and the dangers that have historically undermined them
- Dogma's proposition for urban villas as grounded, commoning-based alternatives to conventional housing models
- DeLong's thesis on the long twentieth century as a pursuit of utopias of freedom and material prosperity
- How utopian architectural thinking reorients itself in the face of climate emergency, economic precarity, and geopolitical instability
About the Author
[Details available upon request]
Specifications
- Format: Softcover
- Pages: 88
- Dimensions: 300 x 240mm
- Language: English
- ISBN: 2141256
- Publisher: Avisa
- Publication Date: [Details available upon request]
Perfect For: Architects, urban theorists, and housing researchers with an interest in utopian urbanism, collective housing models, and the intellectual history of the ideal city.