Urban Utopias: The Built and Social Architectures of Alternative Settlements

268 Pages·2007·2.69 MB·English

by  Malcolm Miles

Urban Utopias
Utopia tends to generate a bad press – regarded as impracticable, perhaps nostalgic,
or contradictory when visions of a perfect world cannot accommodate the change
that is necessary to a free and self-organizing society. But people from diverse
backgrounds are currently building a new society within the old, balancing literal
and metaphorical utopianism, and demonstrating plural possibilities for alternative
futures and types of settlement. Thousands of such places exist around the world,
including intentional communities, eco-villages, permaculture plots, religious and
secular retreats, cohousing projects, self-build schemes, projects for low-impact
housing, and activist squats in both urban and rural sites. This experience suggests,
however, that when planning and design are not integral to alternative social
formations, the modern dream to engineer a new society cannot be realized.
The book is structured in four parts. In Part One, literary and theoretical Utopias
from the early modern period to the nineteenth century are reconsidered. Part Two
investigates twentieth-century urban utopianism and contemporary alternative
settlements, focusing on social and environmental issues, activism and eco-village
living. Part Three looks to wider horizons in recent practices in the non-affluent
world, and Part Four reviews a range of cases from the author’s visits to specific
sites. This is followed by a short conclusion in which a discussion of key issues is
resumed.
This book brings together insights from literary, theoretical and practical Utopias,
drawing out the characteristics of groups and places that are part of a new society.
It links today’s utopian experiments to historical and literary Utopias, and to
theoretical problems in utopian thought.
Malcolm Milesis Professor of Cultural Theory at the University of Plymouth, UK,
where he convenes the Critical Spaces Research Group and coordinates a research
methods programme for the Faculty of Arts.

Urban Utopias
The built and social architectures
of alternative settlements
Malcolm Miles
First published 2008 by Routledge
2Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada
by Routledge
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Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2007.
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©2008 Malcolm Miles
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All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or
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British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
Acatalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Miles, Malcolm.
Urban utopias: the built and social architectures of alternative
settlements/Malcolm Miles.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
1. Utopias. 2. Utopias—Case studies. 3. Communal living.
4. Communal living—Case studies. 5. Collective settlements.
6. Collective settlements—Case studies. I. Title.
HX806.M45 2007
307.77—dc22 2007020418
ISBN 0-203-09912-5 Master e-book ISBN
ISBN10: 0–415–37575–4 (hbk)
ISBN10: 0–415–37576–2 (pbk)
ISBN10: 0–203–09912–5 (ebk)
ISBN13: 978–0–415–37575–7 (hbk)
ISBN13: 978–0–415–37576–4 (pbk)
ISBN13: 978–0–203–09912–4 (ebk)
Contents
List of illustrations vii
Acknowledgments ix
Introduction 1
PART ONE
Histories and theories 5
1 Imagining places: literary Utopias and the far-away 7
2 Drawing lines: modernity and Utopia 22
3 Planning harmony: Charles Fourier and utopian socialism 37
PART TWO
Practices 57
4 New cities 59
5 Social Utopias 75
6 Ecotopias: frameworks 91
7 Ecotopias: practices 110
PART THREE
Horizons 131
8 Mud-brick Utopias 133
9 A barefoot society 157
vi Contents
PART FOUR
Short case studies 177
Case 1 Economy, Pennsylvania, USA 179
Case 2 Arcosanti, Arizona, USA 184
Case 3 Auroville, Tamil Nadu, India 189
Case 4 Christiania, Copenhagen, Denmark 195
Case 5 Ufa-Fabrik, Berlin, Germany 201
Case 6 Uzupio, Vilnius, Lithuania 205
Case 7 Cambridge Cohousing, Massachusetts, USA 209
Case 8 Ecovillage at Ithaca, New York State, USA 214
Case 9 ZEGG, Belzig, Germany 220
Conclusion 227
Bibliography 233
Index 248
Illustrations
Front cover The Visitor Centre, Auroville, Tamil Nadu, India
1 Charterville Allotments, Minster Lovell, one of the cottages 53
2 Milton Keynes, the oak tree in the mall 65
3 New Gourna, the mosque courtyard 141
4 New Gourna, street scene 144
5 New Gourna, recent house extension, exterior 145
6 New Baris, the agricultural cooperative 147
7 New Baris, villa, detail of roof terrace 149
8 SWRC, the old Fever Hospital 158
9 SWRC, street with post office 160
10 SWRC, solar cooker workshop 166
11 SWRC, geodesic domes and administrative building 168
12 SWRC, children at a night school 170
13 Economy, the community kitchen 179
14 Economy, the village pump 182
15 Arcosanti, the city on a hill 184
16 Arcosanti, the Modernism of cypress trees and concrete 187
17 Auroville, terrace of the Visitor Centre 190
18 Auroville, a house in improved vernacular style 193
19 Christiania, self-build, low-energy houses by the river 196
20 Christiania, preparation for a parade 200
21 Ufa-Fabrik, the organic café and bakery 201
22 Ufa-Fabrik, water treatment pools 203
23 Uzupio, road sign at the bridge 205
24 Uzupio, old houses by the river 208
25 Cambridge Cohousing, town houses 209
26 Cambridge Cohousing, the garden terace 213
27 Ecovillage at Ithaca, the common house seen from the second
phase 214
28 Ecovillage at Ithaca, a street in the first phase 218
29 ZEGG, pile of woodchips and the converted boiler house 221
30 ZEGG, the treehouse for lovers 225
31 ZEGG, ‘Another World is Possible’ 229
viii Illustrations
32 ZEGG, members of the Global Ecovillage Network at the 2004
annual meeting 230
33 ‘Mapping the Future’, Dave Beech (Freee Art Collective),
Futurology project, Walsall Art Gallery, 2004 (photo A. Hewitt
by permission of Freee) 232
Acknowledgements
Iam grateful to the Arts and Humanities Research Council for a grant which enabled
me to travel to alternative settlements in India, Europe and North America, and to
see Hassan Fathy’s mud-brick architecture in Egypt. These visits were invaluable
in adding a practical dimension to the book’s historical and theoretical reflections.
Iam especially grateful to all those I met who live in the alternative settlements
visited – the Social Work Research Centre (Barefoot College), Tilonia, Rajasthan;
Auroville, Tamil Nadu; Christiania, Copenhagen; ZEGG, Belzig, Germany; the
ecovillage at Ithaca, New York State; Cambridge Cohousing, Massachusetts;
Arcosanti, Arizona; and the Peace House, Coventry; and also to those whom I met
at the 2005 annual meeting of the Global Ecovillage Network and from other
alternative settlements such as Tinker’s Bubble in Somerset and Findhorn in
Scotland. Without the personal explanations and accounts of their principles and
daily lives I would have understood little of the alternative society that quietly
grows within today’s mainstream society. I have been fortunate, too, to be able to
rehearse some of the ideas on which the book is based in seminars in the Faculty
of Arts at the University of Plymouth. I remain indebted to my academic colleagues
–staff and research students – for encouraging me to develop a utopian strand in
my work, in particular to Sarah Bennett, Robert Brown, David Coslett, Phillip
Hawkins, Nicola Kirkham, Katy MacLeod and Robertas Mock.