No Place Like Utopia has a deep theme: how modern architecture, born and raised between the wars and after with a strong sense of social and political idealism, gradually fell back in the 1960s into its ancient role as an elitist pursuit dedicated to flattering the rich and powerful.

Writers have created fictions of social per­fection at least since Plato’s Republic. Sir Thomas More gave this thread of intel­lectual history a name when he called his contribution to it Utopia, Greek for no place. With each subsequent author cog­nizant of his predecessors and subject to altered real-world conditions which sug­gest ever-new causes for hope and alarm, “no place” changed. The fourteen essays presented in this book critically assess man’s fascination with and seeking for “no place.” “In discussing these central fictions, the contributors see ‘no place’ from di­verse perspectives: the sociological, the psychological, the political, the aesthetic. In revealing the roots of these works, the contributors cast back along the whole length of utopian thought. Each essay stands alone; together, the essays make clear what ‘no place’ means today. While it may be true that ‘no place’ has always seemed elsewhere or elsewhen, in fact all utopian fiction whirls contemporary ac­tors through a costume dance no place else but here.”—from the Preface The contributors are Eric S. Rabkin, B. G. Knepper, Thomas J. Remington, Gorman Beauchamp, William Matter, Ken Davis, Kenneth M. Roemer, Wil­liam Steinhoff, Howard Segal, Jack Zipes, Kathleen Woodward, Merritt Abrash, and James W. Bittner.

"For more than half a century, Peter Blake has lived in the mainstream of contemporary architecture and art. As writer, magazine editor, critic, and practicing architect, he has numbered among his friends and acquaintances (and occasionally enemies) virtually all of the major figures of modern architecture, and a good many famous artists as well. In this crisp and lively memoir, he brings them - and the time he shared with them - vividly and memorably to life." "The anecdotes are memorable. Here is Frank Lloyd Wright (regarded by Blake as a perfect example of "the Artist as Ham," though he greatly admired his buildings) exploding at the discovery of young Blake's savage review of his Autobiography ... Bertrand Russell trying to escape visitors by hiding up a tree in Pennsylvania, as he calmly puffs away on his pipe ... Buckminster Fuller tap-dancing on a drafting table to demonstrate the metrical affinity between bebop and a new mathematical system he is working on ... Mies van der Rohe at work, stolidly gazing at a model of an ITT building while assistants scurry around making alterations ... Marcel Breuer telling how he invented his famous chair ... Philip Johnson delightedly answering a solemn question about heat loss from a visitor to his glass house: "The heat loss is absolutely tremendous" - and beaming from ear to ear." "But No Place Like Utopia also has a deeper theme: how modern architecture, born and raised between the wars and after with a strong sense of social and political idealism, in the 1960s gradually fell back into its ancient role as an elitist pursuit dedicated to flattering the rich and powerful. Only now, as Blake makes clear, can we see the beginnings of a return to its original principles." "From the push-and-pull of politics, culminating in the witch-hunts of the McCarthy period, to heady days in the magazine business, first with Architectural Forum and then with the brilliant but ultimately doomed Architecture Plus, Peter Blake has always been energetically involved with his art and with his era. No Place Like Utopia is thus doubly valuable, as a wonderfully readable historical and personal document, and a pungent commentary on where modern architecture went wrong and right."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved

The topic of utopia and its role in modernism may seem self-evident within architectural discourse. Modernism's utopic aspirations are held largely responsible for its 'mistakes' and eventual failure; its grand schemes acknowledged in retrospect as naïve and devoid of humanity, which ultimately culminated in its sterilisation. However, this reading suffers from a lack of precision due to negative perceptions of this relationship, which endangers the concept of utopia from being rendered useless in contemporary architectural discourse. Utopia is deeply rooted in political and social context- a product of the zeitgeist. Its essential purpose is to project a vision of a more ideal society, and in this way, can be viewed as reactionary to the failings of present conditions. The obsolescence of this approach can be linked to the decline of utopian thought in contemporary architecture, which has resulted in a situation that no longer projects beyond its moment. This thesis investigates the global capitalist climate of the present, where the informative function of culture has been side-lined by its commodification. The result is a society that has lost the patience and ability to gain a critical reading of any work with intended ambiguity or subtext. This cultural drift is evident in today's architecture, where there is a prevalent desire for visual seduction, with an emphasis on occularcentric representation- one that is easily brandable and readily consumable by the public. This has a reciprocal effect on the architectural content that is produced as Neil Leach explains in 'The Anaesthetics of Architecture' - "the intoxication of the aesthetic leads to an aesthetics of intoxication, and a consequent lowering of critical awareness. What results is a culture of mindless consumption, where there is no longer any possibility of meaningful discourse." How will an investigation into the topic of utopia, and its relationship with modern architecture, bring about its revival in a contemporary context, and what is the nature of this revival? This thesis will explore the conventional and revised views of utopia's role in architecture, as well as an examination of the current condition. The architectural representation of utopian projects will also be explored, in hopes to resurrect its use as a tool for progressive thinking and reigniting the sociological imagination.

One hundred kilometers from Seville, there is a small village, Marinaleda, that for the last thirty years has been at the center of a long struggle to create a communist utopia. In a story reminiscent of the Asterix books, Dan Hancox explores the reality behind the community where no one has a mortgage, sport is played in the Che Guevara stadium and there are monthly "Red Sundays" where everyone works together to clean up the neighbourhood. In particular he tells the story of the village mayor, Sanchez Gordillo, who in 2012 became a household name in Spain after leading raids on local supermarkets to feed the Andalucian unemployed.

How can we think more deeply about our travels? This was the question that inspired Emily Thomas' journey into the philosophy of travel. Part philosophical ramble, part travelogue, The Meaning of Travel begins in the Age of Discovery, when philosophers first started taking travel seriously. It meanders forward to consider Montaigne on otherness, John Locke on cannibals, and Henry Thoreau on wilderness. On our travels with Thomas, we discover the dark side of maps, how the philosophy of space fuelled mountain tourism, and why you should wash underwear in woodland cabins... We also confront profound issues, such as the ethics of 'doom tourism' (travel to 'doomed' glaciers and coral reefs), and the effect of space travel on human significance in a leviathan universe. The first ever exploration of the places where history and philosophy meet, this book will reshape your understanding of travel.

Utopia is a work of fiction and socio-political satire by Thomas More published in 1516 in Latin. The book is a frame narrative primarily depicting a fictional island society and its religious, social and political customs. Many aspects of More's description of Utopia are reminiscent of life in monasteries.