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Date
Title
Source
Description
Tags
W5392
20.10.2012
Pieterjan Grandry
WWW
Absence stimulates the need for completion and the design of these ideas is what makes the intangible absent concrete. Talking about absence in an urban spot (the incomplete tower of Antwerp’s cathedral), one might think of utopia. Utopia is the non-pla ...

Absence stimulates the need for completion and the design of these ideas is what makes the intangible absent concrete. Talking about absence in an urban spot (the incomplete tower of Antwerp’s cathedral), one might think of utopia. Utopia is the non-place (translating literally from Greek), it is a place that is not meant to become realistically possible. Utopia is the eternal absent. On the other hand, utopia attracts though, and though makes things happen. It is possible to design a detailed utopia, but can never realize it in the same way as the design, or even if this is feasible, it will not functions the same, and if it functions the same, then it is not a utopia anymore. I will give an example; to create architecture, architects make first drawings, which are quite often ideal representations, projections of thoughts and wills of a free mind. In the building process or when it is habituated realistic factors interfere and destroy small or big parts of the ideal situation. In this sense, this first representation becomes a utopia. Sounds sad, but the conclusion is that utopia isn’t just something that will never exist, it is a tool to start making things exist. Utopia has been inspired by religious, sociological, political, economical, architectural, technological, ecological factors or interrelation of them. It is based on Plato’s Republic where equality and general pacifistic attitude reign. Communism is a form of economical utopia; world peace a political utopia; Heaven might be a form of religious utopia; artificial intelligence and cyborg culture as mean to eternal or upgraded life are some sort of technological inspired utopia. Le Corbusier’s “Ville Radieuse” is an urban utopia that tries to purify the cities’ chaos with a clean, calm and powerful architecture. Certain utopias belong to certain ages, but that doesn’t mean that each era has one and only utopia. Superstudio’s concepts on the ‘60s bring on the architectural scene a utopia of static megastructures, while Archigram’s Walking city of the same era describes a utopia of a whole movable city. A possible way to create a utopia is to generate a focus in something absent .Empty or abandoned city spots, are places where urban utopia is being born. A missing tower is a potential place to give birth to a utopia. The project “designing absence” is seeking for the contemporary utopia. The basis seems to be architectural. However, the requirement of one single image, gave the participants the freedom to project their most bizarre thoughts. There is a reason why it was decided to realize this concept as an international brainstorm and not as individual project. This fragmented design composes the pattern of today’s expectations and wills. The built of an archive of 455 representations about the missing tower give a more complete image of the contemporary utopia, rather than one single design. Every single project added an input to the character of the contemporary utopia. We cannot name 455 characteristics, but we could name some. Today’s utopia is sustainable and green, sci-fi, illusionary, conceptual, romantic, insulting, symbolic, never the same or not continuously present, it is digital, it is a game or it is playful, a step to the future, miniature but also mega scale, mirrored or inverted, mysterious, formalistic, intangible.

Absence stimulates the need for completion and the design of these ideas is what makes the intangible absent concrete. Talking about absence in an urban spot (the incomplete tower of Antwerp’s cathedral), one might think of utopia. Utopia is the non-pla ...

Absence stimulates the need for completion and the design of these ideas is what makes the intangible absent concrete. Talking about absence in an urban spot (the incomplete tower of Antwerp’s cathedral), one might think of utopia. Utopia is the non-place (translating literally from Greek), it is a place that is not meant to become realistically possible. Utopia is the eternal absent. On the other hand, utopia attracts though, and though makes things happen. It is possible to design a detailed utopia, but can never realize it in the same way as the design, or even if this is feasible, it will not functions the same, and if it functions the same, then it is not a utopia anymore. I will give an example; to create architecture, architects make first drawings, which are quite often ideal representations, projections of thoughts and wills of a free mind. In the building process or when it is habituated realistic factors interfere and destroy small or big parts of the ideal situation. In this sense, this first representation becomes a utopia. Sounds sad, but the conclusion is that utopia isn’t just something that will never exist, it is a tool to start making things exist. Utopia has been inspired by religious, sociological, political, economical, architectural, technological, ecological factors or interrelation of them. It is based on Plato’s Republic where equality and general pacifistic attitude reign. Communism is a form of economical utopia; world peace a political utopia; Heaven might be a form of religious utopia; artificial intelligence and cyborg culture as mean to eternal or upgraded life are some sort of technological inspired utopia. Le Corbusier’s “Ville Radieuse” is an urban utopia that tries to purify the cities’ chaos with a clean, calm and powerful architecture. Certain utopias belong to certain ages, but that doesn’t mean that each era has one and only utopia. Superstudio’s concepts on the ‘60s bring on the architectural scene a utopia of static megastructures, while Archigram’s Walking city of the same era describes a utopia of a whole movable city. A possible way to create a utopia is to generate a focus in something absent .Empty or abandoned city spots, are places where urban utopia is being born. A missing tower is a potential place to give birth to a utopia. The project “designing absence” is seeking for the contemporary utopia. The basis seems to be architectural. However, the requirement of one single image, gave the participants the freedom to project their most bizarre thoughts. There is a reason why it was decided to realize this concept as an international brainstorm and not as individual project. This fragmented design composes the pattern of today’s expectations and wills. The built of an archive of 455 representations about the missing tower give a more complete image of the contemporary utopia, rather than one single design. Every single project added an input to the character of the contemporary utopia. We cannot name 455 characteristics, but we could name some. Today’s utopia is sustainable and green, sci-fi, illusionary, conceptual, romantic, insulting, symbolic, never the same or not continuously present, it is digital, it is a game or it is playful, a step to the future, miniature but also mega scale, mirrored or inverted, mysterious, formalistic, intangible.