The city of the future as a projection of the human spirit

Abstract

Architecture has been said to be. the endeavour to harmonize the environment with man; to make that environment a direct projection of the spirit. But humankind are not static. They continually find ways in which to better understand their environment. Already they have moved into big city agglomerations which since the beginning of the twentieth century have fed on new ideas of industry. Three possible futures, films Things to Come, Metropolis, and Bladerunner, are chosen to investigate the positive or negative possibilities of an environment based purely on one or two aspects of the human character. All three films showed conflict with the environment, yet in two of them the environment was accepted in disregard of other human values. Three arcitectural fantasies have also been investigated. The first, Sant'Elia, accepts the pulses of modernity, but reduces the human to an electric pulse. Bruno Taut, the second, would have humanity blend into the cosmos under sparkling glass roofs. The people would first need to submit to a political dictatorship of artists. The third, Adolf Hitler, would have all the worlds people at his feet. Humanity would be reduced to grains of sand in Berlin, his replicated universe. It appears that extreme environment scenarios such as these cause a reduction or loss to the spirit even if they appear comfortable. It is generally accepted that conflict with the environment gives us greater understanding of ourselves. It is also accepted by many that now the twentieth century has arrived technology is already a fact. There is no going back. We have become mass people - and that is reflected in our environment.