Architecture utopia realism: Thematic framework

Abstract

The term or concept of realism seems to be recurring in recent theoretical inquiries, from debates in philosophy and aesthetics to those in theory and practice of architecture. Since 2000, the architectural discourse has been concerned with a wide range of related issues coming from its own post-critical debates on utopianism and realism and the possibility of an 'utopian realism', as suggested by Reinhold Martin (2005). The debates on realism resonate in the architectural theory anew as a reflection on the Manifesto of New Realism by the philosopher Maurizio Ferraris from 2011. The questions of realism vs. postmodernism, "new realism" on the ashes of post-modernism, critical and operative notions of realism and the like, have been asked both through practices of contemporary architecture and through reconsideration of the socialist realism in history and theory of architecture. The thematic issue of SAJ: Architecture Utopia Realism aims to further the ongoing discussion on the relations of architecture with realism and utopia