Back to the Future: Utopias, Dystopias, and the New Mega Structuralism of 2020s

Dear Colleagues,

According to the Italian urbanist Bernardo Secchi, we need radical projects and utopias to express profound changes to society, “exploring possible futures by abandoning commonplaces.”^[1] Utopias are here interpreted as both intellectual and creative attempts to go beyond conventional and consolidated paradigms of the past, as well as the current multivalent constructed landscapes that surround us.

This Special Issue entitled “Back to the Future: Utopias, Dystopias, and the New Mega Structuralism of 2020s” is an invitation to contribute critical reflections and pondered considerations on how a new wave of visionary projects which currently inform a relevant part of the debate on city making and future practice in architectural design and urban planning. There is little doubt that the first quarter of the second millennium has witnessed a revamp and growing interest in a new radical model of cities and bold architectural ideas reminiscent of 1950-1960s when visionary projects, utopian planning, and megastructures became a relevant element of the architectural discourse.

What particularly seems to attract a great deal of attention to this trend is the coexistence of strong political agendas and evidence of a rapid transformation of natural and urban landscapes driven by climate change (which is to blame for more frequent heatwaves, rising seas, water shortages, droughts, wildfires, and desertification), overpopulation in developing countries, the unstoppable rise of an ageing society in the most opulent nations, and current complex geopolitical and economic shifts.  

We call therefore for contributions that provide critical reflections, multidisciplinary considerations, and theoretical speculations on the themes of Utopias, Dystopias, and the New Mega Structuralism through different lenses—from compact cities to high-density architecture, and rapid urbanization, as well as the design of flexible architectural spaces and the adaptability of urban forms. We look for proposals focusing on the radical and sudden transformation of the natural environment, and the exploration of new forms of urbanization in alternative habitats like the sea (marine cities and floating urban platforms) through innovative eco–urban design approaches that rely on more sustainable and energy-efficient models of construction and design.

This Special Issue will be of interdisciplinary interest, offering a new critical, historical, and cultural gaze at utopia and visionary design from different lenses to investigate our present condition—from historical examples to contemporary design-based proposals, from modern examples of megaprojects and urban architectures built in the desert or the seas, to contemporary sociopolitical urgency in the Anthropocene, highlighted by the current threats of climate change and the constraints of post-industrial and post-consumerist societies.

Reference:

^[1] Bernardo Secchi, in Elena Bilotta, Marino Bonaiuto. Fare utopia: i protagonisti raccontano la collaborazione tra scienze sociali e progettuali in Italia. (Roma: Prospettive, 2012). Quoted in  Eliana Martinelli, “Turgut Cansever in Istanbul, Identity and Utopia of Urban Design”. In Utopia and the project for the city and territory,  edited by Luca Velo,  Michela Pace (Roma: Officina Edizioni, 2018), 142-146.

Dr. Raffaele Pernice
Dr. Leonardo Zuccaro Marchi
Guest Editors

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• contemporary history/theory of architecture and urbanism
• utopian planning
• radical scenarios
• climate change adaptation
• technological innovation
• artificial habitats
• floating islands
• megastructures
• case study analysis
• sustainable design
• eco–urban design
• visionary architecture