Embodied Utopias Gender, Social Change and the Modern Metropolis

Utopia has been considered a dirty word in recent architectural scholarship. The essays in this volume reassess utopian projects - masculinist, feminist, colonist and progressive - of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, they survey the present dystopian landscape and look at the future potential of the embodied approach to the urban landscape. With contributors from a wide range of fields including architecture, urban planning, art, art history, philosophy and gender studies" Embodied Utopias" makes important contributions to the ongoing dialogue between the theory, history and practice of architecture and urban design.

Utopia has become a dirty word in recent scholarship on modernism, architecture, urban planning and gender studies. Many utopian designs now appear impractical, manifesting an arrogant disregard for the lived experiences of the ordinary inhabitants who make daily use of global public and private spaces. The essays in Embodied Utopias argue that the gendered body is the crux of the hopes and disappointments of modern urban and suburban utopias of the Americas, Europe and Asia. They reassess utopian projects - masculinist, feminist, colonialist, progressive - of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries; they survey the dystopian landscapes of the present; and they gesture at the potential for an embodied approach to the urban future, to the changing spaces of cities and virtual landscapes.

Section 1. Introduction. Section 2. Civilization/Degeneration: Desire and Repulsion in the Modern City. Section 3. At Home in Public. Section 4. Esprit de Corps and Esprit Decor: Domesticity, Community and Creative Autonomy in the Building of Female Public Identity. Section 5. Embodying Urban Design. Section 6. Haunting the City. Section 7. The Time of Architecture. Index.

Rebecca Zorach, Amy Bingaman, Lise Sanders