Inhabitation, Housing and the City

Borsi, Katharina; Periton, Diana

doi:10.1080/20507828.2023.2251823

Cited by 1 publication

(3 citation statements)

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“…The creation of futuristic design plans for living in an era of climate uncertainty, including the glossy, fantastical imagery that often accompanies them, is inherently utopian and part of a long and complicated history between utopia and architecture [9][10][11] . Over the centuries, utopian design plans that imagine and visualize new assemblages of social organization, including their spatial components, have been put forward to address widespread societal challenges such as inequality, urban sprawl, pollution, and resource depletion 12,13 .…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Such neologisms are common in the utopian tradition, starting with the origin of the very word itself: 'utopia' comes from the fusion of the Greek words ou and topos, where ou means 'no' and topos means 'place'. Utopia is a noplace but this was a pun, for the similarly sounding eu-topos in Greek means the 'good' or 'happy' place 9 . Utopia is at once an ideal place, and one that does not exist.…”

Section: Introducing Climatopiamentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In either case, it is important to keep in mind the association between utopia and the inclusion of positive sociopolitical transformation as a part of the design. As many have pointed out, no one building can completely do this on its own 9,11,30,34 .…”

Section: Introducing Climatopiamentioning

confidence: 99%

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Climatopia: Risks and opportunities of climate-inspired utopic design

Carrere,

Broad,

Mach

2023

Preprint

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As climate change intensifies, architects and other design professionals are creating bold visions for future dwellings, such as green buildings, masterplanned eco-cities, and even planetary-scale sustainability measures. These climatopias, categorically different from ecological utopias of the past, are architectural and urban planning proposals for the built environment that seek to address climate adaptation and/or mitigation through new design, material and sociopolitical processes. Even if never implemented, climatopias have inspired provocative thinking for the climate crisis, and they could transform systems that no longer serve the greater good. However, as with all utopian works, climatopias have the potential to do as much harm as good. Integrating research from architectural studies, utopian studies, and adaptation science, this paper defines the concept of climatopia and analyzes eight climatopia projects around the world for their effectiveness, justice, and feasibility. Our findings reveal that climatopias have the potential to support climate resilience in planning and design schemes for the built environment when they 1) employ design, construction, and material production processes that significantly lower a project’s embodied and operational carbon, 2) are affordable and involve residents in the design and implementation processes, and 3) are designed to be built and deployed today or are designed to provoke transformational thinking about potential climate solutions. To ignore these factors runs the risk of climatopias becoming yet another chapter of failed, if not harmful, utopian experiments in the built environment.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introducing Climatopiamentioning

confidence: 99%