Looking for Utopia
Call for an exhibition concept
For the city-wide ‘Utopia’ project in 2016, Stad en Architectuur is inviting architects, designers,
researchers and critics to devise an exhibition concept on the theme of architectural and spatial
utopias, starting out from our present perspective on the buildings of the future. This architectural
exhibition will be held in conjunction with the historical ‘Looking for Utopia’ exhibition, which is being
put together by the Illuminare Study Centre for Mediaeval Art (KU Leuven) in association with M.
Background
In 2016 it will be 500 years since the English humanist Thomas More’s work Utopia was published in
Leuven by Dirk Martens. It was the most influential book ever printed in this university city. On the
occasion of this anniversary, M is holding an exhibition, in association with KU Leuven, on the
depiction of the world in the period around 1516. It will examine not only the intellectual and cultural
context in which the publication came about, but also the West’s special fascination with remote and
alien worlds. It will show the portrayal of the Earthly Paradise and all sorts of ideal dream-worlds. The
quest is rounded off with the artistic search for the ideal human form and the possibility of changing
th
the world, notions prevalent in the early 16 century. The question is whether the dream ever came
within reach.
Thomas More and architectural utopias in history
“However, there are many things in the commonwealth of Utopia that I rather wish, than hope, to see
followed in our governments.” [Thomas More, Utopia, Leuven, 1516]
Utopias are not fantasies. They are visionary conceptions of a better future that cannot simply be put
into practice, but are devised and intended to give a direction to change. Architectural and urban
planning utopias are not built just like that, but they do have the aim and intention of guiding, directing
and influencing what is actually built. The starting point must be a strong and critical awareness that
things sometimes go wrong, and that change is therefore essential. The statesman and intellectual Sir
Thomas More (1478-1535) wrote his Utopia against the background of Renaissance humanism and at
a time when the modern state (the England of Henry VIII) was being born. The First Book of More’s
Utopia is a sharp critique of England at the start of the sixteenth century.
In the Second Book, More wished to make clear how to remedy this, with ‘the commonwealth of
Utopians’ as a founding example. For More it was a pipe dream and he does not seem very hopeful,
as is apparent from the closing words of the book (see quotation above). Marie H. van der Zeyde
concluded that ‘More the idealist is however no less real’ … ‘the realism that More preaches
throughout Utopia: the realism that dares to free itself of its own advantages and preconceptions and
truly deploy all its powers for the common good’.).
Thomas More’s Utopia underlies a long series of idealistic concepts of a better society which have
manifested themselves more than anywhere in the field of architecture and urban planning. These
concepts are not ready-to-use pattern books for solving urban planning problems and responding to
assignments, but rather starting points and lines of thought for better architecture and urban planning.
There is of course always the danger that idealistic concepts are deployed in an authoritarian manner,
to achieve objectives other than those of a better built environment for a better society for everyone.
This is also what makes so relevant Thomas More’s critical sense and fundamental humanism, on
which his followers in Utopia have to be judged, and also those who in the name of utopian, futureoriented thinking engage in design and also actually build. It is the intellectual power of Utopia to
critically test ideal and reality, built reality and dreamed ideal against each other.
The setting and location of the architectural exhibition
The realm of architectural utopias, from historical examples to recent futuristic plans, is infinitely large
in terms of numbers and extremely varied in significance. In the context of this exhibition the intention
is deliberately not to present historical plans (the visions of Etienne-Louis Boullée, and Claude-Nicolas
Ledoux’s La ville idéale de Chaux to Tony Garnier’s La cité industrielle and Le Corbusier’s La ville
contemporaine or La ville radieuse; from Charles Fourrier’s Phalanstère Jean-Baptiste Godin’s
Familistère to Frank Lloyd Wright’s Broadacre City and Constant (Nieuwenhuys)’ New Babylon).
Several past exhibitions have already done this.
The intended starting point for this exhibition is the present situation and the problems we are currently
concerned with, and to try to outline a perspective of the scenarios for the future that exist at the
moment.
Our aim is to zoom in on visionary designs that respond to such current issues as the ecological
agenda, the advancing urbanisation of open space, urgent demographic problems, an increasing need
for participation, the search for new social models, etc.
In this sense, the exhibition shares the same perspective as Thomas More’s book 500 years ago. On
the basis of a critical analysis of the problematic initial situation, the focus will be on utopian scenarios
for the future that take shape at various levels.
The content selected can cover a broad spectrum, even taking this restriction into account. Current
utopian scenarios are set at several different levels and they suggest the possible scope of the
exhibition:
1. The ‘transient’ utopia: the passing incidents, events and festivals that design a counter-world on an
ad hoc basis and make them a reality for a limited period.
“In this context Utopia functions as a laboratory for the development of new patterns of thought and
perspectives on reality, a free space whose fantasizing activities are closely related to its
unrealizability.” Marie Lauberg
Here the utopia we find is a snapshot, transient and highly personal, in surroundings without form or
architecture (e.g. Your blind passenger / Olafur Eliasson) or the experienced utopia, the temporary
experimental society based on radical self-expression, participation and the ability to manage for
oneself, in the form of an intense desire (such as Burning Man / Black Rock Desert, Nevada).
The digital world also makes ‘tangible’ the virtual nature of utopia as a ‘good place’ (eu-topos) and
‘non-place’ (ou-topos). In such environments as Second Life the mental construction of the utopia first
acquires ‘substance’ and can be guided by one’s own intervention. In this case, the real world and the
virtual world combine to make a hybrid form of utopia.
2. Real urban and landscape experiments: the rather small-scale but real plans that tackle a number
of the crucial problems of our times for a limited group of people at a specific location and with limited
scope.
These real plans and experiments provide solutions for a number of the crucial problems of our times,
for a limited group of people at a specific location and with limited scope. Their starting point usually
lies in an ecological agenda, in the issue of using renewable energy, the reduction of CO 2 emissions,
the optimisation of land and material use, etc. These experiments often go hand in hand with other
social concepts, the achievement of greater communality or the integration of alternative forms of
ownership, etc.
Although the need for new concepts in this area have in the meantime become plain common sense in
our global world, the threshold is still too high to really consistently change course. Just as in Thomas
More’s day, economic interests and political relationships put the brake on the implementation of
innovative ideas.
This is precisely why projects that do succeed in this are so inspiring: those which in spite of
everything actually put into practice ideas whose principle is utopian. Experiments of a small to
medium scale are cropping up everywhere, all with the ‘germ of utopia’ in them, and although they are
not intended to provide an all-embracing solution to our social problems they do bring to life a small
part of the utopia of a better world. And together they signal a powerful foreshadowing of a utopian
world. The list of such experiments and model projects is encouragingly long, and includes both
bottom-up and top-down initiatives.
3. The futurist mega-plans that present an all-inclusive architectural and urban planning concept for
actual or imaginary cities and real new towns and for a very large mass of people.
The explosive growth of cities that took place in Europe in the 19th and 20th centuries is now being
repeated on a much larger scale in Asia against the backdrop of technological progress and rising
prosperity. Countries such as China are developing at lightning speed from an agrarian to an industrial
society. Cities are expanding into large metropolises that have to house several million people and
provide work for them. There is hardly any time for organic evolutionary growth; new cities for millions
of inhabitants have to be built extremely quickly. In the light of the huge environmental problems in
these cities, there is great awareness of the need for urban development that does not exhaust nature
but is in balance with it. Many architects, a striking number of them European, see in this an
opportunity for large-scale planning concepts, and for designing the eco-cities of the future.
The brief
For the city-wide ‘Utopia’ project in 2016, Stad en Architectuur is inviting architects, designers,
researchers and critics to devise an exhibition concept on the theme of architectural and spatial
utopias, starting from our present perspective on the buildings of the future.
The exhibition concept is founded on a strong, critical awareness of current spatial conditions. It offers
an interpretation of a number of problematic agendas, in the area of architecture and space and also
in relation to the ecological, economic and social agendas, and surveys a number of utopian scenarios
that give direction to changes in these agendas. The presentation is not simply a confirmation of
utopian concepts, but also critically questions them. The perspective of a better built future that thus
arises is simultaneously nuanced, familiar and surprising, and shows aspects of reality but also
broadens them to embrace a utopian dimension.
The exhibition concept is emphatically not intended only for a professional public of architects and
urban planners, but is to communicate to a broad public about the backgrounds and meanings of
visionary architectural images. To do this it will make use of a powerful, low-threshold and highly
communicative exhibition design. The size of the exhibition takes account of the available exhibition
space of maximally 180 m².
The submission entered consists at the very least of:
- a clearly formulated vision of the assignment
- an indication of actual themes and the associated approaches (spatial, cultural, historic, etc.)
- the specific focus envisaged within the broad range of utopias (e.g. temporary utopias, real
experiments, mega-plans, etc.)
-
images that demonstrate how this vision will be communicated by means of a powerful exhibition
design
an indication of the installations or audiovisual resources to be used
ideas that outline how the exhibition concept can be supplemented with educational projects
a short description of the education, background and experience of the people who will be
responsible for the implementation of the exhibition concept and also clarification of any intended
cooperation with other disciplines
Schedule
Stage 1
Submission of summary of exhibition concept. Deadline 22 April 2014.
Stage 2
By mid-May 2014 Stad en Architectuur will select from the submissions a curator (or team of curators)
who will be invited to further develop the form and content of the exhibition concept. This will result in
a presentation of the exhibition that includes the concept for its content and also design drawings for
the layout and the various forms of communication. This presentation will be passed on to all the
parties involved and will serve for fund-raising and additional grant applications. A fee of € 8.000 is
provided for this process.
Deadline mid-September 2014.
Stage 3
As from summer 2015 the curator (or team of curators) will work on the execution and production of
the exhibition in close collaboration with a team of experts appointed by Stad en Architectuur. He, she
or they will be assisted by a team of coordinators from Stad en Architectuur and also the appropriate
support from Museum M.
Practical information for submissions
- The final date for submission of the exhibition proposal is 6pm on 22 April 2014. The submission
must be sent on paper and by e-mail to Stad en Architectuur, attn. Petra Griefing, Rijschoolstraat
4/201, 3000 Leuven. E-mail: [email protected]. Submissions larger than 2Mb will
be sent via the external server WeTransfer.
- The submission will not be more than 5 pages long (incl. layout, possible title page, etc.) in Dutch
or English. The page format is A4, portrait. The proposal may consist of text and images, black &
white and/or colour, and is to be submitted in the form of a PDF document.
About Stad en Architectuur
Stad en Architectuur vzw is an association based in Leuven that promotes Belgian architecture by
means of debates, talks and exhibitions and since 2009 has cooperated with Museum M and arts
centre STUK in Leuven when organising its activities. Stad en Architectuur makes it possible to see,
experience and discuss a stimulating architectural scene. In this way it inspires a broad audience and
thus creates the greatest possible public involvement.
(www.stadenarchitectuur.be)