Latent Utopias: Experiments with Contemporary Architecture
- Zaha Hadid & Patrik Schumacher
- 2003
- Princeton Architectural Press / Springer Verlag
- USA
- ISBN 10: 3211838651
- ISBN 13: 9783211838655
- Hardcover
- 302 pages
- English, German
Every age has – and needs – its utopias. The grand social drafts of the past century, their demands and impacts in terms of real history, however, have aroused suspicions of the utopia being a naive and perilous hubris. And yet the radical concepts of Le Corbusier and Frank Lloyd Wrights initially displayed an anticipative force and rationality that – with almost fifty years of success worldwide – can hardly be seen as a mistake.
Latent Utopias features experimental architectural projects both by established and up-and-coming architects. The projects are characterised by radical abstraction and strangeness. But what is the hidden meaning of these experiments? How does this “Neo-Avantgarde” relate itself to the historical Avantgarde, and what is its stance on the idea of progress? Contrary to first appearances is there still utopian potential?