Ever since the creation of the first state, people have been obsessed with the idea of creating an ideal society. A state in which there is no poverty, disease and inequality is such an old dream of enlightened humanity that it is difficult to say when it first appeared. For such fantasies and projects at the end of the Middle Ages, a special term appeared - “utopia”. It was taken from the eponymous work of Thomas More - "The Golden Book, as useful as it is funny about the best state structure and the new island of Utopia", in which "Utopia" is only the name of the island. For the first time. in the meaning of "model of an ideal society" this word is found in the travel book of the English priest Samuel Perches "Pilgrimage" (Pilgrimage, 1613). The adjective “utopian” is also used there for the first time. This became the specificity of the ideal world models - when creating a utopia, real conditions and historical prerequisites were not taken into account. It is all the more interesting today to look at projects of the past, which demonstrate the hopes of the most enlightened people of the past.
The birth of utopia
In most cultures and religions, there is a strong myth about the distant past, in which humanity lives in a primitive and simple state, but at the same time, being in a state of perfect happiness and satisfaction. The earliest written mentions of utopias are recorded in ancient heritage, for example, in the treatise "Golden Age" by the ancient Greek poet Hesiod, written in the 8th century BC. In a poetic treatise, the poet suggests that before the present era there were others, more perfect, the very first of which was the Golden Age - the time of harmony and universal brotherhood.
Religions and Utopias
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Another of the most persistent and oldest utopias on earth is the dream of an afterlife and the ideal of paradise. Judaism, Christianity and Islam have a clear idea of how things are "on the other side" and usually paradise is just an ideal society. The Garden of Eden has all the signs of utopias, including those that time has stopped there and no changes have occurred for thousands of years.
Spring peach blossom
Spring Peach Blossom - A fable by Chinese poet Tao Yuanming, written in 421 AD, describes an ideal society in which people lead an ideal existence in harmony with nature, without establishing any external contacts.
New harmony and utopian experiments
With the advances of the industrial revolution, the prospect of achieving utopia seemed real, especially in countries like the United States. The number of utopian communities increased dramatically in the late 1800s. Usually they were created on the basis of certain religious or ideological ideas. One such community was called the New Harmony and was founded by the Welsh industrialist Robert Owen. The community grew into a whole city, which in 1825 became a real center of achievement in the field of education and scientific research, but ultimately, a wrong economic approach destroyed a promising undertaking.
Utopian technologies
The scientific and technological utopias that flourished in the early 19th century gave rise to many fantasies about the amazing technology of the future. These utopian flying machines were depicted in a French postcard issued in the 1890s.
Ville radieuse
Ville Radieuse is an unrealized project designed by the French-Swiss architect Le Corbusier in 1924. Le Corbusier idealized the very idea of a city, filling it with high-rise residential buildings and an abundance of green spaces.
Broadacre city
In 1932, American architect Frank Lloyd Wright saw plans for Ville Radieuse and conceived his own utopia, with farmers and open spaces. In his utopia, he exploited the idea of mixing urban and agricultural spaces. Lloyd Wright's city was designed to house 10,000 people and used only the resources that it produced itself. The Broadacre was never built, but used the forward-looking principles of local food production and is still a source of inspiration for architects to this day.
Speer's Nazi Utopia
The architect Albert Speer was one of the closest friends of Adolf Hitler and, as the "first architect of the Third Reich", was developing the reconstruction of Berlin in a very futuristic way. The capital of Germany was to become a huge metropolis with a mass of skyscrapers, huge avenues and gigantic stadiums. The defeat of the Nazis in 1945 put an end to Speer's endeavors.
Buckminster Fuller's vision of a floating city
Buckminster Fuller, an inventor and architect, has developed a number of futuristic urban designs throughout his career. The most notable of these was the concept of a city that would sit on giant floating platforms in the ocean.
Seward's success
In 1968, oil was discovered in Prudhoe Bay in Alaska. This caused a real construction explosion in the northern state. "Seward's Success" is the working title of the domed city to be built near the field. The city's project included office space, retail space, residential areas, sports facilities, and a monorail system for the movement of residents.