Realities and imaginaries about landscapes, cities and the future of concrete

Eleonora D’Agostino (SIMBDEA)

Lucrezia Eritrei (Università degli Studi di Bologna)


The perception of concrete architecture as an atypical cultural heritage, connected to “modernity” and to the “myth of never ending progress”, has resulted in the development of speculative, dystopian and hyperrealistic imaginaries.

Concrete frequently connotes societies dominated by capitalism, based on consumerism, far from "mother nature": it is perceived everywhere as a foreign body, in contrast with the environment, representing a violent break with nature. And concrete landscapes in narrative and art, furthermore, become a brutal stage for actions and characters, often representing the dark side of modern cities.

In the cyberpunk movement, rooted in the new wave of science fiction (1960s-1970s) and largely shaped in the 1980s, concrete architecture and its ruins have always appeared as the main landscape, both in utopian and dystopian storytelling.

In opposition to the classical cyberpunk aesthetic, solarpunk movement works, instead, to let post-industrial architectures become an important step to reach a sustainable lifestyle for us all: brutalist designs and high-rises still exist, but “alive” and less ecologically damaging.

The lesson will focus on the huge, persistent and recursive impact of concrete architecture upon imaginaries about the future: concrete reflects and inspires, even today, the idea of innovation and distance from past traditions.

To further investigate the topics proposed in this lesson, we recommend you look at the following resources: