Topologies -- The Urban Utopia in France, 1960-1970 by Larry Busbea, MIT Press '07, $24.95, 239 pages, ISBN #0262026112. Index, source notes, no bibliography, b&w and color glossy images sprinkled through text.
"During the 1960s," writes author Larry Busbea, "a group of avant-garde architects, theorists, and critics who would come to be known as 'spatial urbanists' envisioned a series of possible future cities." In his new book, the University of Arizona art historian reconstructs these urban utopias, "which wholeheartedly embraced the promise of technology and automation.
"Taken together, they pointed to a city that was to float above the earth, all its constituent parts moving in synchronous rhythm. Automation would be harnessed to provide for citizens' material needs, and color and light would all be synthesized into a unified, constantly changing spectacle."
