Eva Eylers, Dipl.-Ing. M.A., has studied Architecture and Urban Planning at the Royal
University of Technology in Stockholm and in Hamburg where she graduated in 2002
with the diploma thesis on Thomas More’s “Utopia” from the University of Fine Arts.
After receiving a PhD scholarship from the German Academic Exchange Service in
2006, she is now pursuing her doctoral research on the relationship of the tuberculosis
sanatorium and modern urban planning at the Architectural Association in London.
Utopia by Thomas More –
An Interpretation
A registered architect in Germany, Eva has worked and taught in Milan, at the
University of Applied Sciences in Trier, and at the School of Architecture and Design at
the University of Brighton.
Genealogies
Public Lecture: 2. December 2008, 19.00
Exhibition: 2. – 8. December 2008
In 1515 the English Lord Chancellor Thomas More wrote "Utopia", a book which can be seen
in many respects as a critique on England at the time, and as an attempt to reform the
country and target the poor living conditions that had become apparent, especially in London.
More’s description of the island Utopia which is on every scale - from the structuring of the
cities, down to the organisation of the single household - rich in architectural detail, forms the
basis of my project which was initiated as the subject of my diploma work in 2002.
Seeing in More’s text not only his suggestion to reason about an ideal society, but also his
view on how to build the ideal environment for this society, the attempt was to read the
Utopia almost as an instruction handbook in order to translate the architectural descriptions
into plans and models and thus to illustrate the author’s ideas.
Utopia by Thomas More An Interpretation
Utopia constitutes, still 500 years after its first publication, a surprisingly modern
attempt at urban planning, by addressing not only the fields of health and hygiene but
by being also suggestive in social, communal and political terms. Therefore the
presentation of a contemporary interpretation of More’s ideas might open up and lead to
a number of questions of relevance for today’s architectural thinking and planning.
In "The Man without Qualities" Robert Musil wrote:
"One will object to this being a utopia! Certainly it is one. Utopias stand for about as
much as possibilities; in that a possibility is not a reality is expressed that the
circumstances with which it is currently inerwoven prevent it from being one, otherwise
it would only be an impossibility; if you now take it away from that with which it is
interwoven and grant its development, then utopia is created."
Eva Eylers
A thorough analysis of the book, together with an investigation of the influence of Plato’s
"The Republic", form the theoretical core of the project and the precondition to the draft
attempt at Utopia which resulted in eight plans and models representing the island
(scale 1: 650000), the city (scale 1: 5000), the block (scale 1: 500) and the single housing
unit (scale 1: 100).
Credits: The plans were illustrated with details of ”The Golden Age” Lucas Cranach the Elder,
(1530) © Bayerische Staatsgemäldesammlungen München, Alte Pinakothek
THE ATHENS BYZANTINE AND CHRISTIAN MUSEUM - SARCHA (School of ARCHitecture for All)