Urban Utopias of the 19th Century PDF Lecture Notes 2023/2024

Department of architecture and urban planning 3thyear License Architecture (2023/2024) Lecture n° 8: Urban utopias of the 19th century The birth of social and urban utopia (pre-urban planning) Dr. HAFSI FZ...

Department of architecture and urban planning 3thyear License Architecture (2023/2024) Lecture n° 8: Urban utopias of the 19th century The birth of social and urban utopia (pre-urban planning) Dr. HAFSI FZ 1  The context Environmental and social conditions of the liberal period of capitalism in the 1. half of the 19. century - industrial development, migrations from the countryside to the towns, new industrial cities and unprecedented urban extensions; - miserable environmental and social conditions: pollutions from factories, pollution of the ground, water, air and natural landscape, inadequate sanitation, lack of refuse disposal, cholera epidemics, exploitation of the workers; - decline of traditional handicraft for industrial mass production; - the estrangement of the worker from its work and production; - disorder and overcrowding,, traffic congestion; - uncontrolled development of the cities because of the private ownership of land; Paris before Haussmann: degradation of living conditions due to the consequences of industrialization  The context The chaos that accompanies industrial development and its cohort of industrial and commercial cities gives rise to protests and new urban perspectives. Among these founding texts, F. Choay distinguishes two stages, two purposes: 1- those which are linked to town planning and, before them, 2- those which are linked to pre-urban planning. Pre-urban planning : designates “a set of texts and achievements due to social political thinkers of the 19th century, whose approach, marked by utopia, anticipates and prefigures that of urban planning”. These are therefore contributions prior to the appearance of the word “urban planning” itself. Starting from the same observation of a dramatic social and urban crisis, these utopians gradually diverged in a varity of responses: 1- The progressives (Charles Fourier, Robert Owen or Jean Baptiste Godin) favored the invention of new urban forms accompanying the growth of industry and making full use of technical progress. 2- The culturalists (William Morris, Camillo Sitte) defended the idea of maintaining the social bonds which had been spontaneously woven in traditional towns and villages. 3- Naturalists (Henry David Thoreau, Ralph Emerson), the majority in North America, proposed the escape from cities and the return to quasi-village urban forms. Figure 1 shows the main urban planning theories and their implementation across a set of very different urban forms. Figure 1: Connection between utopian thoughts, urban theories, and urban forms. (Choay, 1979) The progressive model (industrialist utopias): Progressive pre-urbanist authors who - for the most part inspired by socialism. Socialist utopia gained popularity thanks to the works of Saint- Simon, Fourier, Marx, etc. These are the socialist utopians who wish to resolve the "social question," arising from the industrial revolution, the proletariat, and the exploitation of workers. Socialist utopians dictated, in their own way, formal solutions in response to the chaotic city of industrialization. Socialist utopias question the role of the organization of the city. They will design ideal city forms which they will sometimes attempt to actually implement. The individual seems alienated (lost) to them and they believe in a universal man-type. To this end, progressives advocate rationality, the use of science and technology. The progressive model (industrialist utopias): According to the progressive vision, progress, necessary to improve living conditions. Rationality leads to the separation of functions (thus announcing the movement functionalist of the 20th century). The city must be based on a simple, visible and readable layout. Beauty will result from this logical organization: it will be geometric. Hygiene leads to an open spatial organization, with voids, vast circulation routes, green spaces. Housing can be either collective (Fourier) or individual (Proudhon, Owen, Richardson). Overall, despite its faith in man and in progress, the progressive model of the pre-urban planners has a repressive aspect. It offers a framework of great rigidity, imposes values and lifestyles.  A)-2- ROBERT OWEN (1771-1858) AND HIS “New Harmony” Robert OWEN was a socialist. He is considered the “founding father” of the cooperative movement and the creator of a colony named NEW HARMONY in the UNITED STATES in 1824. Owen advocated labor legislation, limiting the necessary work to support the life of the community to three hours a day (and was at the origin of the first law passed in 1819 in England), the abolition of the division of labor and the creation of "cooperation villages". The English industrialist Robert Owen is convinced that the Improvement of the human being results from careful education and the quality of his environment so he found the ‘new harmony”. New Harmony is an experimental urban approach for the development of a new form of organization of human life in common.  A)-2- ROBERT OWEN (1771-1858) AND HIS “New Harmony” the New Harmony project, of relatively small scale, was planned for 2000 inhabitants. His community includes urban-type services, but located in a rural environment. In architectural terms, it is an autonomous community in the shape of a parallelogram (Figure 2). Established on a terrace, it had a greenhouse at its center. The four sides were occupied by houses with schools and "conversation rooms“ and gymnasiums at the corners. Various buildings served as dining rooms or housed other autonomous activities. The community also had a theater, reading rooms, a library, an observatory, laboratories, and a museum, exhibition halls, a printing house, kitchens and laundries, botanical garden, baths…etc. and in the corners there are located near the schools. The towers, for their part, serve to illuminate the establishment but also include clocks and smoke evacuation chimneys. Finally, the whole has underground circulations for the supply of goods. A)-2- ROBERT OWEN (1771-1858) AND HIS “New Harmony” Figure 2: the New Harmony , Owen  A)-1- CHARLES FOURIER (1772-1857) and the “PHALANSTÈRE” Fourier is a French philosopher, In 1832, he published the work “Le Phalanstere”. To make work attractive, Fourrier advocates the creation of “phalanstères”, grouping around a hotel community where 810 men and 810 women live (the Phalange) in 400 hectare estate, cultivated land and industrial buildings, a setting where perfect harmony can be achieved. The “Phalanstery” is defined as the central experimental device intended to demonstrate, through practice, the validity of this theory of the social world. The urban form of the Phalanstere is a group of housing around a central covered courtyard serving as a space for community life. Architecture thus places itself at the service of society in order to optimize economic performance. It is about rationally arranging the living space in order to harmonize work with personal development and to develop private activity in coherence and cohesion with public activity.  A)-1- CHARLES FOURIER (1772-1857) and the “PHALANSTÈRE” A phalanstery is a societary palace, resembling the Palace of Versailles, with a main body for quiet activities and two wings that hierarchically accommodate other activities essential to social life, all set in greenery. It contains arcades, large galleries for holding meetings, large specialty rooms (opera, workshops, kitchens), private apartments, and numerous public halls. heated corridors, large dining rooms, and pleasant rooms. Figure 3: the “PHALANSTÈRE”, Fourier A)-3- JEAN- BAPTISTE GODIN (1817-1888): Godin is a former artisan designer of a new system for manufacturing cast iron stoves who became a boss philanthropist. A follower of social ideas inspired by Fourier, he is sensitive to the difficult working, living and housing conditions of the working class. He built his Familistère intended for the families of factory workers and associated them with a form of cooperative management of the company. The Familistère of Guise built in Guise (Aisne, France) which was a Palace offered to his workers. The site extends over about 20 hectares. It contains 500 apartments, for 2,000 inhabitants. Nearby: the school and the theater, temples of knowledge, the laundry-swimming pool, a building dedicated to body health. A)-3- JEAN- BAPTISTE GODIN (1817-1888): Figure 4: the “Familistère”, Godin  B- THE CULTURALIST MODEL: Oppositely to the progressive movement, dominated by the rigor of geometric lines. The search for irregularity, asymmetry, heterogeneity, is characteristic of the of culturalist utopians Unlike progressive thinking, the culturalist model looks to the past. While the progressive current is mainly French, the culturalist current is concentrated in England. This mouvement conceives the city as the reflection of a culture, the city and its inhabitants constitute an organic unity threatened by the consequences of industrial development. Culturalists turn to the city inherited from the past, the medieval city in particular, in any case pre-industrial. In complete opposition to the progressives' faith in the contributions of industrial modernism, they want to revive the cities of the past or return to this tradition. they favor spiritual needs over material needs. People are and must remain different, as are buildings. The culturalist pre- urbanists, unlike the progressives, did not attempt to put their ideas into practice.  B- THE CULTURALIST MODEL: The model is characterized by a certain number of principals:  the culturalist model city is well circumscribed, within precise limits; it contrasts with the surrounding natural spaces;  its dimensions are modest, inspired by those of medieval cities;  it presents no trace of geometry: irregularity and asymmetry are the mark of organic order, which translates the creative power of life. We easily find here the difference between French gardens and English gardens...;  art has the same importance as hygiene;  in terms of construction, no prototypes: each establishment must be different from the others, both in terms of its public buildings and its individual residences.  B- 1-Augustin Welby Northmore Pugin (1812-1852): Architect who was one of the promoters of the English neo-Gothic. Pugin confronts "the marvelous superiority" of the architecture of the Middle Ages to "the miserable state of architecture today". He shows nostalgia for a medieval golden age that was much better than its degraded modern counterpart. At the heart of Pugin's book,Contrasts(1836) he established a “parallel between the noble buildings of the 14th and 15th centuries and similar contemporary buildings”, where he showed how the factory can replace the church as the monument around which the city is organized. Figure 5: drawings by Pugin showing two contrasting cities (1440 and 1840). Ilo denounces “the decadence of taste” of the industrial city. B- 3- John Ruskin (1819-1900): Art critic and professor, he criticized the architecture of his time, but also the industrial society which produced it, and denounced the remedies of the progressives, in particular Fourier's phalanstery. He advocated diversity, asymmetry, respect for tradition. Ruskin was very critical of industrial society which, according to him, reduced man to a simple machine. The ideal for Ruskin is a harmonious feudal society where the spiritual aspect still exists. Figure 6: Ruskin's drawings revealing his admiration for medieval urban forms B- 5- Camillo Sitte (1843-1903) Camillo SITTE is an Austrian architect and architectural theorist. he is the initiator of culturalist town planning. He devoted part of his life to analyzing in situ and carrying out surveys of old urban forms. His major work, "Urban planning according to its artistic forms", originated in Sitte's anger at the "massacre" of Vienna by the remodeling plan (the ring). He stands out for a new way of thinking about the city, which goes against the progressive approaches of his contemporaries. Sitte deplores the disappearance of public life from outdoor spaces, referring to Greek and Roman public spaces such as baths, porticos, markets, etc., which, according to him, represent places of sociability. In addition, traffic routes must be hierarchical and abandon geometric principles to oppose the curve to the straight line, thus destroying the perspectives for a more romantic structure of space. For Camillo SITTE, town planning is a social art. He thus describes many cities, particularly in Italy, by a transcription in a simple plan, with the footprint of the street blocks, monuments and public space. Thus the city must be built around places classified into three fundamental types: - cathedral square - marketplace - civil square The main heir of Camillo SITTE is Ebenezer HOWARD. Figure B- 5- Camillo Sitte (1843-1903) Figure 7: on the left the city of Vienna in 800, on the right after the destruction of the ramparts and the extension project in the mid -19th century. This project (the ring) adopts Haussmannian urban planning, arousing the discontent of Camillo Sitte. B- 6- Raymond Unwin (1863 -1940) : Raymond Unwin, the author of a classic and foundational book on urban planning (1863-1940), can be considered a precursor of Anglo-Saxon urban design. He is a strong advocate for "organic" urban layouts, picturesque qualities, and the consideration of terrain and views. For him, this necessitates starting any urban planning work with an assessment of the physical conditions in which the project will take place, as well as taking social constraints, such as circulation, into account. He aligns with the anti-Haussmannian culturalist perspective that developed at the end of the 19th century. Unwin is thus close to the romantic urban art of German Camillo Sitte (1843-1903). Furthermore, Unwin embeds his aesthetic concerns within the anti-capitalist visions of utopian socialism: he is in line with the Arts and Crafts movement of William Morris (1834-1896), drawing inspiration from the ideas of John Ruskin (1819-1900) on residential communities and from the garden city theory of Ebenezer Howard (1850- 1928). He advocates for a reasoned vision of city planning, where proper design is seen as a tool for social reform and hygiene. B- 6- Raymond Unwin (1863 -1940) : Figure 8: Plan of the Hampstead Garden City, Raymond Unwin B- 6- Raymond Unwin (1863 -1940) : Figure 9: Individual plot layout in the garden city of Letchworth, Great Britain. Unwin, R. (1909) Town Planning in Practice  B- 6- Raymond Unwin (1863 -1940) : Table 1: Comparison between culturalist and progressive urban utopias Criteria Progressive Model Progressive Model Strong utopian dimension: Strong utopian dimension: invent the efficient city, Utopia (Imaginary) rediscover the "beautiful past "determine the ideal type of totality" human settlement" "Recreate a dead past," Radical historical break with the Temporalities nostalgia for the past past Promote the individual based Social Structure Restore organic communities on a universal model, "standard needs" free from alienation Dissociation of nature/city (with Nature Association of nature/city intermediate forms) Rejection of technology, Promotion of technology, Technique "ideology of culture" "ideology of progress" "Differentiated modes of Functionalism, zoning, occupation" based on locations, normative order, context-free, Urban Morphology enclosed and limited groups, thoughtful entities ("units"), inspired by ancient forms create a new city Promotion of standardization, Aesthetics Ugliness of the industrial world geometry  C- THE NATURALIST MODEL: The naturalist movement was a literary, artistic, and philosophical movement that emerged in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Naturalists believed that the natural world was the source of all knowledge. Naturalists were critical of the industrial city for a number of reasons. They believed that the city was a place of alienation and isolation, where people were cut off from nature and from each other. Naturalists often portrayed the city as a dark and dangerous place. They also believed that the city was a place of poverty and squalor, where people were exploited and dehumanized. In their works, the city is often a setting for crime, violence, pollution and environmental degradation. The naturalist movement's critique of the industrial city had a profound impact on American culture. It helped to raise awareness of the problems of urban life and inspired efforts to reform the city. Naturalsits formulated few proposals on the ideal city. Strongly inspired by the naturalist movement, it is mainly anti-urban or pro-village which is based on a symbiosis between the needs of the city and those of the countryside. Naturalist urbanism comes from this school of thought, its only figure is the American architect Frank Lloyd Wright.  C- 2- Henry David Thoreau : (1817-1862): Henry David Thoreau is recognized as one of the early great thinkers of ecology. A disciple of Emerson, Thoreau believed that humanity is inherently part of nature, existing within it long before belonging to human laws. He envisioned nature as a completely free and wild space, contrasting it with the limited freedom and culture of urban life. Thoreau argued that a person is fundamentally a dweller or an integral part of nature rather than merely a member of society. He maintained that while nature represents true freedom, society embodies an illusion of freedom, as its institutions often lead to subjugation, leaving individuals without the space or time to dream. He advocated for the isolation of individuals in nature, as it fosters an environment conducive to self-cultivation, free from the distractions and illusions brought about by industrialization, technological progress, and material possessions. In a precursor to what is now called "degrowth" or "voluntary simplicity," Thoreau identified four essential needs for human life: food, shelter, clothing, and fuel. He asserted that only after securing these basic needs can individuals approach life's true challenges with a free mind and a genuine chance for success.  C- 1- RALPH EMERSON (1803-1882): American writer and philosopher. He is the founder of American naturalism. According to Emerson, nature is the source of three fundamental elements: truth, goodness and beauty. He thinks that man can only be strong if he is in contact with nature. C- 3- PATRICK GEDDES (1915): Patrick Geddes is a socialist, environmentalist and urban planner. His remarkable work “Cities in Evolution is the basis of a new discipline: Regional planning. At the beginning of the 20th century, the ideas of Patrick Geddes were at the origin of one of the first theories of regional planning, a field of knowledge where its influence is widely recognized.. In 1915, proposed a star-shaped form of urban establishments whose objective was to bring nature into the city. Geddes believes that city design must take into consideration the environment and natural resources and that the “river basin” is a natural environment conducive to city planning and urban development. Following a landscape approach, he based his graphic model of the “Valley Section”; also called Valley Plan of Civilization. It represents a longitudinal section of a developed valley, and reflects a geographical dimension relating to the economic and social progress that Geddes wants to promote. C- 3- PATRICK GEDDES (1915): Figure 8: Diagram of the Valley Section(Geddes, 1925). It demonstrates how human occupation takes place in the natural environment.  C- 3- PATRICK GEDDES (1915): His fascination with the organisation of human societies and their spatial manifestation in the city and country led him to develop a highly individualistic theory of societies and cities. Figure 9: The Valley Section and its social types: in their native habitat and in their parallel urban manifestations.