Utopias and Architecture

Nathaniel Coleman first studied architecture at the Institute for Architecture and Urban Studies in New York, and continued his education at the Rhode Island School of Design. He also studied Urban Design at City University of New York and practiced in New York and Rome. He completed his PhD at the University of Pennsylvania, where Joseph Rykwert was his supervisor. He is particularly interested in how ordinary architectural elements can be fitted together to form evocative assemblages comprehensible at the moment of bodily perception, and also in the interdependency of research and teaching in architecture, landscape and urban design. Currently a Senior Lecturer in Architecture and Urban Design and a member of the Centre for Tectonic Cultures Research Group at the University of Newcastle upon Tyne, Coleman previously taught in the US.

• Introduction: Utopias & Architectures? Part 1: Conceptualizing Utopias Architecture & Orientation. Situating Utopians. Real Fictions. Varieties of Architectural Utopias. Post War Possibilities. Part 2: Optimistic Architectures Le Corbusier's Monastic Ideal. The Life Within. Fairy Tales & Golden Dust. Kahn & Salk's Challenge to Dualistic Thinking. Aldo van Eyck's Utopian Discipline. Story of Another Idea. The Unthinkability of Utopia. Into the Present.