Utopian architecture
Since Antiquity, man has dreamed of constructing the "ideal city". Projects to embellish and to improve the lay out of urban spaces came into being in the 18th century with the social and political aspirations of utopian thought. As cities became more industrialized in the 19th century, the social issues in relation to architecture had to be considered more urgently. How to negate the harmful effects of progress, how to establish harmonious relations between the social classes, how to reconcile the city and the countryside...were part of the issues to be addressed. The first garden-city projects came into being and at the end of the century, the construction of council housing began for the first time.
The 20th century witnessed the emergence of the term "urbanism". Under the influence of utopian thought and the 19th century utopias, urbanism defined itself as the science of the use of space in the city. It is important to cite the ideas of Tony Garnier, Le Corbusier and Peter and Alison Smithson amongst others, the work of the CIAM (the International Congress of Modern Architecture), and more recently the art, and the messages it conveys, of Yona Friedman.
