Utopian dreams that became architectural nightmares

(Thomas) More intended his imaginary ethnography to critique the status quo by presenting a radical alternative. It was, in More’s words, “a fiction whereby the truth, as if smeared with honey, might a little more pleasantly slide into men’s minds”.

This is a quote from a great article I came by today on twitter. It's about the dangers of looking at Utopia not as a direction (as Steve Lambert recommends in my last post) but as a final destination. I highly recommend reading it.

'Bohemians, Bauhaus and bionauts: the utopian dreams that became architectural nightmares' https://t.co/UVyZuVTnnn via @melissasterry

— Imaginary Cities (@Oniropolis) March 25, 2016

The article mentions Biosphere 2, which is just making a comeback into news headlines, because on May 19-21, 2016 '500 Young Leaders will Join Experts to Focus on Solving World’s Biggest Environmental Challenges' right there at that amazing place. (Reminder to my future self: make a post about Terraforming )

So many events in honor the 500ths birthday of Thomas More's Utopia! Here's another one also mentioned in the article: The first London Design Biennale: The World re-imagines the World - Utopia by Design

By the way, best way to celebrate might be to read the actual book, you can do that here: Open Utopia - This edition of Utopia is open: open to use, open to copying, open to modification.