Amid the cultural and political ferment of 1960s France; a group of avant-garde architects; artists; writers; theorists; and critics known as "spatial urbanists" envisioned a series of urban utopias--phantom cities of a possible future. The utopian "spatial" city most often took the form of a massive grid or mesh suspended above the ground; all of its parts (and inhabitants) circulating in a smooth; synchronous rhythm; its streets and buildings constituting a gigantic work of plastic art or interactive machine. In this new urban world; technology and automation were positive forces; providing for material needs as well as time and space for leisure. In this first study of the French avant-garde tendency known as spatial urbanism; Larry Busbea analyzes projects by artists and architects (including the most famous spatial practitioner; Yona Friedman) and explores texts (many of which have never before been translated from the French) by Michel Ragon; the influential founder of the Groupe International dArchitecture Prospective (GIAP); Victor Vasarely; and others. Even at its most fanciful; Busbea argues; the French urban utopia provided an image for social transformations that were only beginning to be described by cultural theorists and sociologists.
#4461612 in eBooks 2014-06-24 2014-06-24File Name: B00LER28XU
Review
8 of 8 people found the following review helpful. Disappointment that this version only contained 1/2 of the bookBy DoubleMThe book was wonderful; right up to the point when I realized that it only contained the first half; without it being apparent on the information available. There are several volumes of this particular title; but the information does not relate which volumes are necessary to get the whole book. AND; the whole book is very expensive - I wonder why? I love Mary Elizabeth Bradden; and most of the Victorian women writers; but the format of this particular book is an insult to the reading public.
