UTOPIA

Definition of Utopia in the Dictionary

Oxford dictionary an imagined place or state of things in which everything is perfect. The word was first used in the book Utopia (1516) by Sir Thomas More. The opposite of DYSTOPIA.

The Merriam-Webster Dictionary of, relating to, or having the characteristics of a utopia; especially : having impossibly ideal conditions especially of social organization proposing or advocating impractically ideal social and political schemes impossibly ideal believing in, advocating, or having the characteristics of utopian socialism Collins Dictionary sometimes not capital any real or imaginary society, place, state, etc, considered to be perfect or ideal

Urban Dictionary a theoretical "perfect" realm, in which everyone is content, where things get done well by people who are happy to do them, and where all the problems which have plagued our world for millenia no longer apply. Whoever came up with the idea was drunk, stoned, tripping or insane maybe all four. A Greek word means a perfect place that does not exist. Sir Thomas More wrote a fiction on a perfect country showing what was going on in this country but did not give reasons why that could or could not happen.

Kids Dictionary an imaginary place considered to be perfect or ideal a work of fiction describing a utopia a book by Sir Thomas More (1516) describing the perfect society on an imaginary island ideally perfect state; especially in its social and political and moral aspects

Mnemonics Dictionary an idealistic (but usually impractical) social reformer a Utopian believes in the ultimate perfectibility of man of or pertaining to or resembling a utopia characterized by or aspiring to impracticable perfection

Macmillan Dictionary an imaginary place or situation in which everything in society is perfect

WordNet Dictionary a book by Sir Thomas More (1516) describing the perfect society on an imaginary island an imaginary place considered to be perfect or ideal ideally perfect state; especially in its social and political and moral aspects

Webster's 1913 Dictionary An imaginary island, represented by Sir Thomas More, in a work called Utopia, as enjoying the greatest perfection in politics, laws, and the like. See {Utopia}, in the Dictionary of Noted Names in Fiction. Hence, any place or state of ideal perfection.

Bee Dictionary ideally perfect state; especially in its social and political and moral aspects (n) an imaginary place considered to be perfect or ideal (n) a book written by Sir Thomas More (1516) describing the perfect society on an imaginary island (n) a work of fiction describing a utopia

Dictionary Central an imaginary perfect world Media Studies a representation of a perfect society, in which all citizens are happy and no social problems exist. Politics an imaginary political state where everything is as good as it could be, which gives people something to aim to achieve.

Cambridge Dictionary a perfect society in which everyone is happy

Wordsmyth Dictionary an imagined or proposed place or society that is ideal, esp. in its laws, ethics, and customs. In his vision of utopia, there would be no inequality or poverty.

Random House Unabridged Dictionary an imaginary island described in Sir Thomas More's Utopia (1516) as enjoying perfection in law, politics, etc. (usually l.c.) an ideal place or state. visionary system of political or social perfection.

Definition of Utopia in the Dictionary

Britannica Encyclopedia an ideal commonwealth whose inhabitants exist under seemingly perfect conditions. Henceutopian and utopianism are words used to denote visionary reform that tends to be impossibly idealistic. The word first occurred in Sir Thomas Mores Utopia, published in Latin as Libellusde optimo reipublicae statu, deque nova insula Utopia (1516; Concerning the highest state of the republic and the new islandUtopia); it was compounded by More from the Greek words for not (ou) and place (topos) and thus meant nowhere. During his embassy to Flanders in 1515, More wrote Book II of Utopia, describing a pagan and communist city-state in which the institutions and policies were entirely governed by reason. The order and dignity of such a state was intended to provide a notable contrast with the unreasonable polity of Christian Europe, divided by selfinterest and greed for power and riches, which More then described in Book I, written in England in 1516. The description of Utopia is put in the mouth of a mysterious traveler, Raphael Hythloday, in support of his argument that communism is the only cure against egoism in private and public life. More, in the dialogue, speaks in favour of mitigation of evil rather than cure, human nature being fallible. The reader is thus left guessing as to which parts of the brilliant jeu desprit are seriously intended and which are mere paradox. Wikipedia a community or society possessing highly desirable or perfect qualities. The word was coined in Greek by Sir Thomas More for his 1516 book Utopia, describing a fictional islandsociety in the Atlantic Ocean. The term has been used to describe both intentional communities that attempt to create an ideal society, and fictional societies portrayed in literature. It has spawned other concepts, most prominently dystopia. Catholic Encyclopedia a term used to designate a visionary or an ideally perfect state of society. The name was first used by Sir Thomas More in his work entitled De optimo reipublicae statu deque nova insula Utopia (Louvain, 1516), and has since been used as a generic term for political romances. Such a romance, to which More was indebted for many of his ideas, is Platos Republic. In this work Plato prescribes a communistic mode of life for

the guardians and auxiliaries (not for the productive classes) of the State. The superior qualities of the guardianand auxiliary class were to be maintained by the practice of stirpiculture and state control of the bringing up of children. In the Republic, the ends sought are political rather than economic. Sir Thomas More, on the other hand, does not confine his attention to the governing class but includes the whole social structure in his plan. He puts most of his narrative into the mouth of a certain Raphael Hythloday, a Portuguesetraveller, who criticizes trenchantly the laws and customs of European states, and paints in glowing colours the ideal institutions which he had observed in a five years sojourn among the Utopians. Hythloday contends that English laws are badly administered. The thief and the murdereralike are punished with death with no consequent diminution of the crime of theft. Means should be taken rather to see that men are not driven to steal. The servant class, for example, should learn trades, so that they need not have recourse to highway robbery when dismissed by their masters. Also some provision should be made for agricultural labourers that they might not follow a like profession when the arable lands wereconverted into sheep runs, a crying evil in England at that time. He contended further that most of the difficulties of European government grew out of the institution of private property. The objection is made that a nation cannot be prosperous where all property is common because there would be no incentive to labour, men would become slothful, and violence and bloodshed would result. Hythloday answers this objection by giving an account of the institutions and customs of the Utopians. New World Encyclopedia a term denoting a visionary or ideally perfect state of society, whose members live the best possible life. The term Utopia was coined by Thomas More from the Greek words ou (no or not), and topos(place), as the name for the ideal state in his book, De optimo reipublicae statu deque nova insula Utopia (Louvain, 1516). Utopianism refers to the various ways in which people think about, depict, and attempt to create a perfect society. Utopian thought deals with morality, ethics, psychology, and political philosophy, and often originates from the belief that reason and intelligence can bring about the betterment of society. It is usually characterized by optimism that an ideal society is possible. Utopianism plays an important role in motivating social and political change. The adjective "utopian" is sometimes used in a negative connotation to discredit ideas as too advanced, too optimistic or unrealistic and impossible to realize. The term Utopian has also been used to describe actual communities founded in attempts to create an ideal economic and political system. Many works of utopian literature offer detailed and practical descriptions of an ideal society, but usually include some fatal flaw that makes the establishment of such a society impossible. The Columbia Encyclopedia, 6th ed. title of a book by Sir Thomas More, published in Latin in 1516. The work pictures an ideal state where all is ordered for the best for humanity as a whole and where the evils of society, such as poverty and misery, have been eliminated. The popularity of the

book has given the generic name Utopia to all concepts of ideal states. The description of a utopia enables an author not only to set down criticisms of evils in the contemporary social scene but also to outline vast and revolutionary reforms without the necessity of describing how they will be effected. Thus, the influence of utopian writings has generally been inspirational rather than practical. Encyclopedia.com UTOPIA. The word utopia was coined by Thomas More (14781535) as the name of the island described in his Libellus vere aureus nec minus salutaris quam festivus de optimo reip[ublicae] statu, deq[ue] noua Insula Vtopia (1516). While More wrote in Latin, he based his new word on Greek. More combined topos(place or where ) with u or ou (no or not ) to create nowhere,but in "Six Lines on the Island of Utopia," part of the larger work, he suggests that the word eutopia, or good place, is a better descriptor. Thus, from the time of More's original coinage, the word utopia has been conflated with eutopia to mean a nonexistent good place. The word utopia entered Western languages quicklythe book was translated into German in 1524, Italian in 1548, French in 1550, English in 1551, and Dutch in 1553, and the word itself often entered these languages before the book was translated. In the eighteenth century, the word dystopia was first used to characterize a nonexistent bad place, but the word did not become standard usage until the mid-twentieth century. While More coined the word and invented the genre of literature that grew from the book, he was not the first to imagine the possibility of a society better than the one currently existing and to describe such a society. Examples of such imaginings can be found in ancient Sumer, classical Greek, and Latin literature, the Old Testament, Buddhism, Confucianism, and Hinduism, among other predecessors. While it is no longer possible to see utopia as a product of the Christian West, the role of utopia inChristianity has long been an area of dispute. Eden, the millennium, and heaven all have clear utopian elements, but the extent to which they can be achieved through human action is open to dispute. The Fall and the resultant emphasis on sinful human nature has led some commentators to view utopia as anti-Christian and heretical. Human beings are simply not capable of a utopia in this life. But other commentators, like the theologian Paul Tillich (18861965) and the founders of Liberation Theology, have argued that utopia is central to any understanding of the social message of Christianity.

Utopian Concept in Urban Design

The "hollow city" As part of the ongoing campaign to tackle problems linked to having too many cars in cities, Jean-Louis Maupu, an engineer and researcher at INRET, the French national transportation research institute, came up with a concept centered on public transportation to do away with the daily dependency on cars: the "hollow" city.

 His objective was to increase density without suffocating the city, by creating an interlinked public transportation system, increasing the number of cycle paths and favoring compact, contiguous and mixed areas of development. In practical terms, the hollow city is built around a network of "loops" along which light rail and bus services run, with a string of friendly, mixed neighborhoods situated as close as possible to the transit loops (no one is ever more than 250 meters from a light rail stop), leaving a large green area in the middle. The city can grow by adding new loops like an extendable honeycomb structure. The conventional roads are for cars and trucks only and run underground. Parking lots, technical areas, workshops, offices and housing units that open onto natural surroundings are arranged on several levels, offering a high degree of functional integration. While this utopian ideal would be very difficult to build from scratch, the idea of public transportation loops appears to be easily transposable to our old European cities. The Linear City Largely inspired by the Linear City concept devised and partially realized by Arturo Soria y Mata in 1882, the idea proposed by Canadian architect Gilles Gauthier aims to "bring the countryside to the city" by minimizing the surface area occupied while at the same time complying with environmental laws. His idea is to build vertical (12-32 stories) and linear tiered structures with public transportation systems underground, shops and offices on the lower levels and a variety of housing units on the upper levels, topped off with gardens and recreational areas on the roof. This arrangement could accommodate eight billion people in western-style housing and a city the size of Bordeaux would occupy six square kilometers instead of 538! The floating ecopolis Belgian architect Vincent Callebaut designed a utopian concept for an environmentally sound, selfsufficient floating city ("Lily pad") in response to the predicted explosion in the number of climate change refugees, offering developing countries new scope for construction. Capable of accommodating 50,000 people and moving with the ocean's surface currents, this extraordinary city produces more energy than it consumes. Thanks to a mix of wind, solar, water and bio mass-derived power, the floating eco-city can boast energy-positive performance with zero carbon emissions. And we have not heard the last of this idea: Vincent Callebaut's firm is already working with a team of scientists to make the concept a reality on a smaller, village-sized scale.

Garden City

Howard became one of the most prominent among the many voices calling for such cities in the late 19th century. He began promoting his own design in a book that took many forms and titles. The final title used Chicago's motto. It was The Garden City of to-morrow. He formed a Garden City Association. They bought up real estate and set out to build such cities. His model city, like so many others, had fractal geometric perfection. A central city is surrounded by farms, reservoirs, and parks. Six more cities form a perfect hexagon around that belt. And they're connected by a concentric circular railway and canal. Sense City

Sense City appealed to our senses. Its a place of pleasure and relaxation and Buddha, in case its inhabitants crave for some Zen. Sensibility is a central characteristic of Sense Citys society. The creators of Sense City applaud creativity and diversity: its a lot better to have a city which favors homosexuality and crazy geniuses than mediocrity. Plutopia The city Plutopia consists of several worlds in which work, religion, entertainment and living are separated in different spheres, much like the idea of Le Corbusier in the twentieth century

Brain City

The population of this Utopian city is bound together by ties sustained through a strong participation of its members in civil society. In Brain City, characterized by a culture of tolerance, a plethora of religious, ethnic and cultural differences exists. This is part and parcel of the vision of Utopia of its architects. Such differences are overcome through continuous debate, being at the root of a lively, yet ultimately harmonious society.

UTOPIA

AYAG, OLIVER S. BS ARCHITECTURE