0:00:02 > 0:00:05Utopia. That good place.
0:00:05 > 0:00:07A hope, a dream,
0:00:07 > 0:00:10always tantalisingly just out of reach.
0:00:11 > 0:00:14Utopia has been imagined a thousand different ways.
0:00:19 > 0:00:21Yet when people try to build a utopia,
0:00:21 > 0:00:24they struggle and very often fail.
0:00:24 > 0:00:25I want to explore why.
0:00:27 > 0:00:29We'll encounter experimental communities
0:00:29 > 0:00:31searching for greater meaning in life,
0:00:31 > 0:00:34utopian ideologies and plans for the masses
0:00:34 > 0:00:37that didn't leave space for the individual.
0:00:38 > 0:00:40And utopian architects with a faith
0:00:40 > 0:00:44that humanity's lot can be improved through better design.
0:00:44 > 0:00:48To practise architecture, you're planning for the future,
0:00:48 > 0:00:51you're looking far ahead.
0:00:51 > 0:00:55This is about how utopias either adapt or else they crumble.
0:00:55 > 0:01:01It's about the clash of grand utopian visions and very human flaws,
0:01:01 > 0:01:05our craving for community versus our desire to break free.
0:01:05 > 0:01:11It's about what happens when you dare to turn utopian dreams into reality.
0:01:26 > 0:01:29The term utopia, meaning no place or good place,
0:01:29 > 0:01:33was coined by the Tudor statesman and philosopher Thomas More.
0:01:36 > 0:01:41In 1516, More dreamt up a fictional society where there was no private
0:01:41 > 0:01:45property, an early welfare state, and communal meals.
0:01:46 > 0:01:50More's utopia is ambiguous and satirical,
0:01:50 > 0:01:53but also decidedly monkish.
0:01:58 > 0:02:02MONKS SING
0:02:04 > 0:02:10More suggests that an ordered way of life is an important part of utopian living.
0:02:12 > 0:02:16Here at Belmont Abbey near Hereford, this search for harmony is captured,
0:02:16 > 0:02:20it seems to me, in the repetitions of the monks' plainsong.
0:02:24 > 0:02:27MONKS SING
0:02:31 > 0:02:37For us, a monastery is a good place in which to live,
0:02:37 > 0:02:41and in which to really attempt
0:02:41 > 0:02:43the ideal of monastic life.
0:02:43 > 0:02:44And we aim for that.
0:02:44 > 0:02:46And then very often there's the reality,
0:02:46 > 0:02:49which is not quite on the same level, as it were.
0:02:50 > 0:02:51We struggle.
0:02:51 > 0:02:54HE SINGS
0:02:57 > 0:03:0218 Benedictine monks live here with a code that lays down all the
0:03:02 > 0:03:04fundamentals of how they live their daily life.
0:03:07 > 0:03:09The big decisions are made for them,
0:03:09 > 0:03:13freeing up their minds to think and to explore deeper questions
0:03:13 > 0:03:15about existence and meaning.
0:03:17 > 0:03:19We spend a great deal of our time reading
0:03:19 > 0:03:24and meditating the Scriptures, praying,
0:03:24 > 0:03:30and trying to live according to the teaching and the example of Jesus Christ.
0:03:30 > 0:03:31And, of course, Thomas More
0:03:31 > 0:03:35would've done the same in his own way, in family life.
0:03:37 > 0:03:42For him, the family was like a small monastery - living in community,
0:03:42 > 0:03:45sharing everything, loving one another.
0:03:48 > 0:03:53A communal way of life, sharing space and food and wealth.
0:03:53 > 0:03:59By extolling monkish equality as the key value
0:03:59 > 0:04:02of a radical new society,
0:04:02 > 0:04:05More was being incredibly political,
0:04:05 > 0:04:08in an age of kings and queens.
0:04:13 > 0:04:14In the years that followed,
0:04:14 > 0:04:18other religious thinkers came up with new ways of living and put them
0:04:18 > 0:04:20into practice in the real world.
0:04:22 > 0:04:24Persecuted in Europe,
0:04:24 > 0:04:28many radical Protestant sects found a more welcoming home for
0:04:28 > 0:04:31their communities in the wide expanse of the New World.
0:04:33 > 0:04:36From the Mayflower pilgrims to the Quakers,
0:04:36 > 0:04:39America became a testing ground for their utopias.
0:04:45 > 0:04:47I've come to Canterbury, New Hampshire.
0:04:47 > 0:04:52Believe it or not, this was once a home to America's most radical utopians,
0:04:52 > 0:04:56an extraordinary experiment that ultimately failed.
0:05:00 > 0:05:03Hard-working and hard-worshipping,
0:05:03 > 0:05:06the Shakers got their name as Shaking Quakers
0:05:06 > 0:05:09because of their ecstatic movement and dancing during worship.
0:05:16 > 0:05:20Canterbury, like other Shaker villages on America's east coast,
0:05:20 > 0:05:22is now a living museum,
0:05:22 > 0:05:24a place for a fun family outing.
0:05:25 > 0:05:28Yet the Shakers' way of life could hardly be more alien
0:05:28 > 0:05:32to modern American values of aggressive individualism.
0:05:35 > 0:05:38The Shakers were pacifist and communalist,
0:05:38 > 0:05:41and - way ahead of their time -
0:05:41 > 0:05:44believed in equality between the sexes.
0:05:46 > 0:05:49They were founded in the 18th century by Ann Lee,
0:05:49 > 0:05:53who had a vision that Christ would reappear in female form.
0:05:55 > 0:05:57At their peak in the mid-19th century,
0:05:57 > 0:06:00some 18 Shaker communities like Canterbury
0:06:00 > 0:06:03were home to over 5,000 converts,
0:06:03 > 0:06:05sharing open space, good food,
0:06:05 > 0:06:07accommodation and education.
0:06:10 > 0:06:14I think that two of the words that guided them
0:06:14 > 0:06:17were union and order.
0:06:17 > 0:06:22And by union they meant the idea that,
0:06:22 > 0:06:24as we would put it today,
0:06:24 > 0:06:25everyone's on the same page.
0:06:25 > 0:06:28And then the idea of order.
0:06:28 > 0:06:33You can see that the buildings are lined up in orderly rows.
0:06:33 > 0:06:36They had a set of rules -
0:06:36 > 0:06:39the time that they rose in the morning,
0:06:39 > 0:06:40the time for their meals,
0:06:40 > 0:06:44the time that they had lights out at night.
0:06:44 > 0:06:49They had rules for almost everything, as a way of producing
0:06:49 > 0:06:51a calm and orderly life.
0:06:53 > 0:06:56In an attic of one of the old Shaker dormitories,
0:06:56 > 0:07:01a well-used rocking chair reveals much about the Shaker mind-set.
0:07:06 > 0:07:09You know, to modern eyes this looks beautiful -
0:07:09 > 0:07:12simple, but beautiful.
0:07:12 > 0:07:14It's got something Bauhaus about it.
0:07:14 > 0:07:17But to Shakers that would've been a nonsense.
0:07:17 > 0:07:19They'd say, "We're not interested in beautiful,
0:07:19 > 0:07:21"We're interested in useful.
0:07:21 > 0:07:23"That's all we're really interested in."
0:07:23 > 0:07:26If you make something absolutely useful,
0:07:26 > 0:07:29it's just a coincidence if it happens to be beautiful.
0:07:29 > 0:07:33It's like an aesthetic that doesn't care about aesthetics.
0:07:33 > 0:07:38It's wonderful - simple, airy, lightweight, super-practical,
0:07:38 > 0:07:40easy to stow away
0:07:40 > 0:07:44and, just coincidentally, delicious to look at.
0:07:48 > 0:07:49Nice chair.
0:07:51 > 0:07:55It's a huge irony, of course, that the clean-lined, minimalist
0:07:55 > 0:07:58Shaker aesthetic has influenced commercial kitchen design
0:07:58 > 0:08:01and flat-pack furniture the world over.
0:08:01 > 0:08:04Because while their furniture conquered millions of homes,
0:08:04 > 0:08:06the Shakers are no longer here.
0:08:09 > 0:08:12The reason lies back in the founder Ann Lee's story.
0:08:13 > 0:08:15Her four children died in infancy.
0:08:16 > 0:08:20Convinced their deaths were divine punishment for sins of the flesh,
0:08:20 > 0:08:24a personal tragedy doomed this utopia.
0:08:24 > 0:08:28She bound the Shakers to one very fateful rule -
0:08:28 > 0:08:30celibacy.
0:08:30 > 0:08:32They were saying, "If you follow us,
0:08:32 > 0:08:37"we are offering you a path to a life free of sin,
0:08:37 > 0:08:39"a heaven on earth."
0:08:39 > 0:08:42And their prescription for doing this
0:08:42 > 0:08:47was to give up the traditional bonds of matrimony
0:08:47 > 0:08:49to live as brothers and sisters.
0:08:52 > 0:08:56The rigid rule of the group clashed with natural sexual urges
0:08:56 > 0:08:58and individual choice.
0:08:58 > 0:09:01Perhaps even more significantly,
0:09:01 > 0:09:04the vow of celibacy meant that the Shakers were unable to bring up
0:09:04 > 0:09:06their own children in their faith.
0:09:08 > 0:09:12Like monks, but without the weight of Catholic tradition behind them,
0:09:12 > 0:09:14the Shakers relied on new recruits,
0:09:14 > 0:09:18taking in orphans and teaching them their way of life.
0:09:19 > 0:09:25After the mid-19th century, cities began to grow.
0:09:25 > 0:09:28They were very attractive, especially to young people.
0:09:28 > 0:09:33So, with opportunities to live a more modern life,
0:09:33 > 0:09:36and, of course, for young people, the opportunity to marry,
0:09:36 > 0:09:40to have a family of their own, became more and more attractive.
0:09:51 > 0:09:54The Shakers clearly had an amazing vision for their time.
0:09:54 > 0:09:58This focus on gender equality, well over 200 years ago,
0:09:58 > 0:10:00it's extraordinary. But, on the other hand,
0:10:00 > 0:10:03there's a kind of flaw in the weave.
0:10:03 > 0:10:07This obsession with celibacy means that they can never reproduce,
0:10:07 > 0:10:12that the community is surely, inevitably, just going to collapse.
0:10:18 > 0:10:22The tension between the utopian ideal and hard reality,
0:10:22 > 0:10:25the collective vision and individual freedom,
0:10:25 > 0:10:29has been played out in communities all across the world.
0:10:31 > 0:10:35In rural Virginia, an eco-commune has become one of America's
0:10:35 > 0:10:38longest-enduring experimental communities.
0:10:41 > 0:10:45Over 50 years, Twin Oaks has learned to adapt to balance
0:10:45 > 0:10:48the needs of the group versus the individual.
0:10:51 > 0:10:53Like monks and Shakers before them,
0:10:53 > 0:10:57the 106 people who live here share everything -
0:10:57 > 0:11:00food, housing, and in Twin Oaks' case,
0:11:00 > 0:11:04childcare and sometimes sexual partners.
0:11:06 > 0:11:08Unlike the old religious utopias,
0:11:08 > 0:11:13the founding principles at Twin Oaks were secular and highly rational.
0:11:19 > 0:11:22The psychologist BF Skinner is remembered today for
0:11:22 > 0:11:25his controversial experiments on pigeons.
0:11:25 > 0:11:29His life's work was an attempt to establish that free will is
0:11:29 > 0:11:32an illusion and that behaviour can be modified by systems
0:11:32 > 0:11:34of reward and punishment.
0:11:36 > 0:11:39In 1948, in his novel Walden Two,
0:11:39 > 0:11:42Skinner dreamed up a utopian community where people
0:11:42 > 0:11:44are nudged towards living in harmony,
0:11:44 > 0:11:48being productive and happy through behavioural engineering.
0:11:51 > 0:11:53- "What is love..."- Skinner writes.
0:11:53 > 0:11:57"..except another name for the use of positive reinforcement?"
0:11:59 > 0:12:02In 1960s America, amid anti-war protests,
0:12:02 > 0:12:05the beat poets and the emerging counterculture,
0:12:05 > 0:12:10people were dropping out to seek alternative answers to life's big questions.
0:12:11 > 0:12:15Psychology books setting out new ideas of the self boomed,
0:12:15 > 0:12:19and Skinner's behaviourist fantasy started to be read all over again.
0:12:21 > 0:12:23My mom and I were living in Los Angeles,
0:12:23 > 0:12:27and she read Walden Two and she just sort of looked up and said,
0:12:27 > 0:12:30"Does this exist? This is what I want."
0:12:31 > 0:12:34In 1967 Josie's mother, Kat Kinkade,
0:12:34 > 0:12:38helped to found the Twin Oaks community.
0:12:38 > 0:12:41She was a low-level secretary with no college, a single mom.
0:12:41 > 0:12:44She had no prospects for a good career,
0:12:44 > 0:12:48so she wrote to BF Skinner and said, "So where is it? I'm ready."
0:12:48 > 0:12:51And of course he wrote back and said, "Well, sorry, there's no such thing."
0:12:51 > 0:12:53Then she saw an ad in a magazine that said,
0:12:53 > 0:12:55"Forming Walden Two community."
0:12:55 > 0:12:57And the next thing I knew,
0:12:57 > 0:13:00within two or three months we had packed up all our earthly goods
0:13:00 > 0:13:02and come out on a train.
0:13:02 > 0:13:05Well, people aren't equal, we don't pretend that they are.
0:13:05 > 0:13:09The idea of equality, we define it as,
0:13:09 > 0:13:14no member envying or having cause to envy another member.
0:13:14 > 0:13:16Twin Oaks is one big experiment.
0:13:16 > 0:13:20Basically, Twin Oaks is setting out to do two things.
0:13:20 > 0:13:24One of them is to create a society fit for humans to live in.
0:13:24 > 0:13:27The other one is to create humans fit to live in that society.
0:13:30 > 0:13:31What was it like in the early days?
0:13:31 > 0:13:33It must have been incredibly hard work.
0:13:33 > 0:13:36You know, I mean, Twin Oaks ran out of money in its first two months,
0:13:36 > 0:13:41and people had to travel 50 miles to go get jobs in order to bring enough
0:13:41 > 0:13:44money in. A whole bunch of people were leaving because there had been
0:13:44 > 0:13:47interpersonal difficulties, and how is the group going to survive?
0:13:47 > 0:13:49And I know my mother would just worry and worry.
0:13:49 > 0:13:52So, it wasn't love and sunshine every day,
0:13:52 > 0:13:58but there was so much purpose that it was absolutely engaging and inspiring.
0:13:58 > 0:14:00Work isn't just an aversive thing,
0:14:00 > 0:14:03work is something that people really enjoy.
0:14:03 > 0:14:06There was Walden Two, and it laid out the template.
0:14:06 > 0:14:08And so, Twin Oaks, to this day, as far as I know,
0:14:08 > 0:14:11has the planner manager system.
0:14:13 > 0:14:17So the planners were the official decision-makers.
0:14:17 > 0:14:19They would ask for input from the group,
0:14:19 > 0:14:21there would be several meetings about it,
0:14:21 > 0:14:25then they would put out that decision onto the bulletin board
0:14:25 > 0:14:27and then comments would be written about that.
0:14:27 > 0:14:29And then, if there weren't too many objections,
0:14:29 > 0:14:32then it would become the decision, the made decision.
0:14:32 > 0:14:34It sounds dangerously like democracy actually could work.
0:14:34 > 0:14:36JOSIE LAUGHS
0:14:36 > 0:14:38Well, certainly in small groups.
0:14:43 > 0:14:47One of those main decisions early on was to abandon behaviourism,
0:14:47 > 0:14:51which had soon become a dirty word amongst Twin Oaks' more hippyish residents.
0:14:53 > 0:14:58Yet, look more closely behind the laid-back exterior here today,
0:14:58 > 0:15:01and you find many leftovers from Skinner's systematic,
0:15:01 > 0:15:02scientific approach.
0:15:05 > 0:15:06So this is the...
0:15:08 > 0:15:11Paxus has lived at Twin Oaks for 19 years.
0:15:11 > 0:15:14This space, which is where the community had its community meetings
0:15:14 > 0:15:18for the first 15 or 20 years, in this pit,
0:15:18 > 0:15:20but then we got too big.
0:15:20 > 0:15:23He explains the role planning and work have played
0:15:23 > 0:15:28in helping this utopia to both tick over and adapt to change.
0:15:28 > 0:15:29One of the things I wanted to show you...
0:15:29 > 0:15:31This is...
0:15:31 > 0:15:33This is the people finder.
0:15:33 > 0:15:36Every person who is in the community has a labour sheet
0:15:36 > 0:15:37for the work that they're doing.
0:15:37 > 0:15:41These labour sheets are part of the clockwork nature of the community.
0:15:41 > 0:15:42We have a bunch of policy.
0:15:42 > 0:15:45We have a bunch of systems that are in place.
0:15:45 > 0:15:48One of the advantages of being in a clockwork community is lunch
0:15:48 > 0:15:51is available at noon, dinner is available at six,
0:15:51 > 0:15:54and it takes 88 shifts to run a tofu production week.
0:15:54 > 0:15:59That gives us reliability, and a kind of internal structure
0:15:59 > 0:16:01that makes doing some of the more complicated things
0:16:01 > 0:16:03that we do here possible.
0:16:05 > 0:16:09If Twin Oaks holds something sacred, it's its labour system.
0:16:09 > 0:16:11This is a community with a work ethic.
0:16:11 > 0:16:15Each resident is required to contribute 42 hours a week,
0:16:15 > 0:16:19choosing tasks ranging from farming to cooking...
0:16:19 > 0:16:23cleaning and work in the commune's thriving tofu-making
0:16:23 > 0:16:25and hammock-weaving businesses.
0:16:31 > 0:16:33Running alongside this communal graft,
0:16:33 > 0:16:36the residents use their power as a group
0:16:36 > 0:16:39to save money and pool resources.
0:16:39 > 0:16:42So this is one of my favourite institutions
0:16:42 > 0:16:45inside of the community.
0:16:47 > 0:16:49This is commie clothes, or community clothes.
0:16:49 > 0:16:52It's simple and surprising.
0:16:52 > 0:16:53- This is awesome.- Yeah.
0:16:53 > 0:16:58So this is a free collective clothes library,
0:16:58 > 0:17:01where everything is sorted by type and by size.
0:17:01 > 0:17:02And everything up here is clean.
0:17:03 > 0:17:07Paxus explains how this lending library for clothes
0:17:07 > 0:17:10discourages the Twin Oaks residents from seeing
0:17:10 > 0:17:12clothing as personal possessions.
0:17:12 > 0:17:16It's nurturing the resources by not focusing on private ownership
0:17:16 > 0:17:18and rather on services.
0:17:18 > 0:17:20- It's a commons.- Yes, right.
0:17:20 > 0:17:22As long as the commons are not forced on people,
0:17:22 > 0:17:26but the commons are something that people participate in in a way that works for them,
0:17:26 > 0:17:27then you get people saying,
0:17:27 > 0:17:30"Oh, yeah, I don't feel oppressed by the commons,
0:17:30 > 0:17:33"I don't feel like I'm forced to share.
0:17:33 > 0:17:35"I feel like sharing is a benefit to me."
0:17:38 > 0:17:41When I fully grasp that the residents share even their clothes,
0:17:41 > 0:17:45it strikes me just how radical Twin Oaks is
0:17:45 > 0:17:48in turning normal assumptions about ownership on their head.
0:17:51 > 0:17:53We're a deviant culture, right?
0:17:53 > 0:17:56Like, in the mainstream, there's all this crime.
0:17:56 > 0:17:58There isn't any crime where I live.
0:17:58 > 0:18:02We made the choice to give everybody equal access to all of the stuff,
0:18:02 > 0:18:05so almost all the property crime just vanishes.
0:18:05 > 0:18:07We change the relationship that the people who are here have
0:18:07 > 0:18:09with material goods.
0:18:09 > 0:18:13Because we're able to use dramatically fewer cars and because
0:18:13 > 0:18:17we're sharing clothes and bicycles and all of the rest of this stuff,
0:18:17 > 0:18:19we have a tiny carbon footprint.
0:18:19 > 0:18:24We also have a tiny per-person annual taxable income.
0:18:24 > 0:18:27My taxable income for last year was 7,000.
0:18:27 > 0:18:29That's like two-thirds of the poverty line.
0:18:29 > 0:18:33But I've got a sauna, and I've got a weight room, and I've got a musical instrument library,
0:18:33 > 0:18:36I've got 450 acres of land, I've got organic food being cooked,
0:18:36 > 0:18:39being harvested and cooked on the site, prepared for me every day.
0:18:39 > 0:18:40I don't cook very well.
0:18:40 > 0:18:43This is a really good circumstance, right?
0:18:43 > 0:18:46It doesn't feel like poverty.
0:18:48 > 0:18:52Twin Oaks appears to be an extraordinary alternative to consumerist,
0:18:52 > 0:18:53capitalist America.
0:18:53 > 0:18:54Hi, can I join you?
0:18:56 > 0:18:59VOICOVER: But isn't it hard to share everything all the time?
0:18:59 > 0:19:01What do residents have to give up in this utopia?
0:19:04 > 0:19:06So, I can see a lot of the upsides,
0:19:06 > 0:19:10but are there any downsides that you would be prepared to share with me?
0:19:10 > 0:19:14The fact that I could go decades without, you know,
0:19:14 > 0:19:19building long-term savings for myself, if I were to ever leave,
0:19:19 > 0:19:20is pretty nervous-making.
0:19:20 > 0:19:22Like, there's not...
0:19:22 > 0:19:27The community has a really powerful safety net.
0:19:27 > 0:19:30But once you leave, you know,
0:19:30 > 0:19:33then you're out there in the mainstream again.
0:19:33 > 0:19:35Instead of dating someone and moving in,
0:19:35 > 0:19:37you already live with them.
0:19:37 > 0:19:41So relationships progress fairly quickly,
0:19:41 > 0:19:43and whether they're romantic or not.
0:19:44 > 0:19:46You're just in there with people
0:19:46 > 0:19:49and you cannot avoid building relationships through conflict
0:19:49 > 0:19:53with lots of people, very complicated relationships.
0:19:55 > 0:19:58We are definitely interested in a better place,
0:19:58 > 0:20:02but I care more about fairness and sustainability,
0:20:02 > 0:20:04designing new culture
0:20:04 > 0:20:06than I do about creating something that's perfect.
0:20:06 > 0:20:09And if you're focused on something that's perfect,
0:20:09 > 0:20:11then that's taking you away from
0:20:11 > 0:20:14these other things that are actually much more accessible.
0:20:16 > 0:20:20Twin Oaks has worked against the grain of mainstream American life
0:20:20 > 0:20:22for half a century now.
0:20:22 > 0:20:24I can see why it survives.
0:20:24 > 0:20:26There's lots to be said for the flexibility of work,
0:20:26 > 0:20:28the liberation of sharing,
0:20:28 > 0:20:31the plenty of beautiful land and food,
0:20:31 > 0:20:33and a strong internal organisation
0:20:33 > 0:20:37around which the community mutates and flexes.
0:20:38 > 0:20:42But the turnover of a fifth of residents every year shows how hard
0:20:42 > 0:20:46it can be to give up privacy and individual choice
0:20:46 > 0:20:47for life in the group.
0:20:49 > 0:20:54It isn't easy to fit into utopia, even for the founder's daughter.
0:20:54 > 0:20:57Josie Kinkade left the community as a young woman.
0:20:59 > 0:21:03Twin Oaks, for me, is partly, you know,
0:21:03 > 0:21:06being surrounded by love and a beautiful place,
0:21:06 > 0:21:11and partly having to work it out with everybody.
0:21:11 > 0:21:14Like, when you live in a marriage you, you know,
0:21:14 > 0:21:18where does he put his shampoo and who drops her socks on the floor?
0:21:18 > 0:21:20You know, that sort of thing you work out with two people.
0:21:20 > 0:21:24Well, here you work that out with 50 or 60 or 100 people,
0:21:24 > 0:21:28and, for me, I just wanted a little bit more autonomy.
0:21:33 > 0:21:36The utopian dream is that people CAN work it out,
0:21:36 > 0:21:38they CAN exist in harmony,
0:21:38 > 0:21:41if together they build and continually tweak
0:21:41 > 0:21:44the right environment and the right rules by which to live.
0:21:45 > 0:21:47But this is a dream that is,
0:21:47 > 0:21:50of course, not limited to small communities.
0:21:50 > 0:21:55The idea of the perfect society has long been a political project,
0:21:55 > 0:21:56directed from above.
0:21:58 > 0:22:00The 20th century, in many ways,
0:22:00 > 0:22:05can be viewed as a period of historic struggle between utopian ideologies -
0:22:05 > 0:22:08Nazi, Soviet and capitalist -
0:22:08 > 0:22:12all with a very different view of how people should live.
0:22:13 > 0:22:16- ARCHIVE:- "This year, too, all the German youth will participate enthusiastically
0:22:16 > 0:22:20"in gathering the crops," is the commentator's introduction.
0:22:20 > 0:22:23"To serve in gathering the crops is to serve the people."
0:22:28 > 0:22:30In the early 20th century,
0:22:30 > 0:22:34utopia became a social experiment on a mass scale,
0:22:34 > 0:22:36often with unforeseen consequences.
0:22:45 > 0:22:50In 1930s America, as city populations swelled,
0:22:50 > 0:22:53the government imposed a top-down solution for housing the poor.
0:22:57 > 0:23:02Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal declared a war on slums,
0:23:02 > 0:23:05conceiving vast housing schemes in the inner cities.
0:23:08 > 0:23:11Places of hope and new opportunity.
0:23:11 > 0:23:14This was the birth of the projects.
0:23:17 > 0:23:20- ARCHIVE:- Unsightly buildings, dangerous and unsanitary,
0:23:20 > 0:23:23come crashing to the ground as the works programme clears the way for
0:23:23 > 0:23:24a great housing project.
0:23:24 > 0:23:27Named for Chicago's beloved Jane Addams,
0:23:27 > 0:23:30this housing development will lead the way to better living conditions
0:23:30 > 0:23:32for families of low income.
0:23:45 > 0:23:50Keith Magee, founding director of the National Public Housing Museum in Chicago,
0:23:50 > 0:23:54takes me into a public housing block that still survives today.
0:23:58 > 0:24:01Taking their name from a local philanthropist,
0:24:01 > 0:24:0632 Jane Addams homes like this were built in Chicago's West Side
0:24:06 > 0:24:07in the late 1930s.
0:24:09 > 0:24:11So this would've been an apartment...
0:24:11 > 0:24:15Almost 1,000 individual apartments, in which many residents would have
0:24:15 > 0:24:19experienced running water and indoor bathrooms for the first time.
0:24:22 > 0:24:25Here was an environment designed to create conditions
0:24:25 > 0:24:28for social cohesion and harmony.
0:24:38 > 0:24:41Keith, this is such an evocative space.
0:24:41 > 0:24:46What do you think it would have been like living here back in the '30s, '40s, '50s?
0:24:46 > 0:24:48In the '30s, '40s, '50s
0:24:48 > 0:24:52I think you would've imagined or experienced the diversity of people
0:24:52 > 0:24:54who are poor and working-class people.
0:24:57 > 0:25:01In one apartment you may have smelled kosher food,
0:25:01 > 0:25:04but across the hall you would smell fried chicken.
0:25:04 > 0:25:08And so it was the people from down south,
0:25:08 > 0:25:11immigrants who came to America,
0:25:11 > 0:25:15who are all finding a place to settle and to ultimately call home.
0:25:15 > 0:25:16This is a melting pot.
0:25:18 > 0:25:21It sounds so full of promise.
0:25:21 > 0:25:24What happened to make this block a derelict shell?
0:25:27 > 0:25:29The planners had overlooked the tension
0:25:29 > 0:25:31between the group and the individual.
0:25:32 > 0:25:36Unlike the egalitarian communities of monks, Shakers and Twin Oaks,
0:25:36 > 0:25:39these blocks began to have huge disparities of wealth.
0:25:42 > 0:25:46As money from drugs offered a few an easy way to get ahead
0:25:46 > 0:25:47and crime soared,
0:25:47 > 0:25:50public housing became part of the problem,
0:25:50 > 0:25:51rather than the solution.
0:25:54 > 0:25:59You could have, in one apartment, a working-class family, a janitor,
0:25:59 > 0:26:03a nurse and four children, and a pretty stable family.
0:26:03 > 0:26:06Next door to that you could've had someone that was
0:26:06 > 0:26:09totally depending on social services.
0:26:09 > 0:26:10Perhaps across the hall
0:26:10 > 0:26:12you could've had someone that was selling drugs,
0:26:12 > 0:26:16and they were probably faring best out of everyone in the community.
0:26:17 > 0:26:21But the impact of it all devastated public housing.
0:26:23 > 0:26:25By the 1970s,
0:26:25 > 0:26:29Chicago's housing projects were no-go areas controlled by gangs
0:26:29 > 0:26:31like the Black Gangster Disciples.
0:26:32 > 0:26:36And, ironically, Keith believes it might have been the very strength
0:26:36 > 0:26:41of community ties that aggravated the descent into dystopia.
0:26:44 > 0:26:47Because it was a community, people looked out for each other,
0:26:47 > 0:26:52not realising the level of devastation that drugs were having
0:26:52 > 0:26:53on the community, the selling of drugs.
0:26:53 > 0:26:55I mean, if you look here,
0:26:55 > 0:27:00over this wall would have been a dresser or a wardrobe
0:27:00 > 0:27:01that covered this,
0:27:01 > 0:27:04but when the police would come looking for the drug dealer
0:27:04 > 0:27:07they shifted it so that you could escape your apartment
0:27:07 > 0:27:09and go to the next apartment.
0:27:09 > 0:27:11Well, that would seem to be a great idea -
0:27:11 > 0:27:13to look out for your community -
0:27:13 > 0:27:16but what was it absolutely doing to the community?
0:27:16 > 0:27:17It was tearing it apart.
0:27:19 > 0:27:23In the 1990s, the city authorities had had enough -
0:27:23 > 0:27:26they dispersed residents into mixed-income neighbourhoods
0:27:26 > 0:27:28and tore down the projects.
0:27:28 > 0:27:33This last derelict block will be converted into a national public-housing museum.
0:27:36 > 0:27:39What an incredibly atmospheric place this is.
0:27:39 > 0:27:44To think that it was once such a good place to so many people,
0:27:44 > 0:27:49people coming in from all over the States to join a community.
0:27:49 > 0:27:51But it wasn't, by all means, just a good place,
0:27:51 > 0:27:55it was a place with its problems and with its challenges.
0:27:55 > 0:27:56Some of them insurmountable.
0:27:59 > 0:28:01The projects were utopian
0:28:01 > 0:28:04in their attempt to take people of very different backgrounds
0:28:04 > 0:28:06out of poverty.
0:28:06 > 0:28:10But a good place of public housing simply couldn't address all
0:28:10 > 0:28:14of the social issues of a complex and changing inner city.
0:28:17 > 0:28:19But at least the intention here was benevolent.
0:28:30 > 0:28:33What if the utopian ideology is not so well-intentioned...
0:28:39 > 0:28:42..if it's all turned on its head
0:28:42 > 0:28:46and the utopia is dreamt up by a megalomaniac individual
0:28:46 > 0:28:49with a rigid view on solving all social issues
0:28:49 > 0:28:52in the most brutal and final way possible?
0:29:04 > 0:29:08There's no doubt it's somebody's utopian vision,
0:29:08 > 0:29:10but it certainly isn't mine.
0:29:10 > 0:29:14It's vast, it's ambitious,
0:29:14 > 0:29:17but I can't help but wonder, where's the human in all this?
0:29:17 > 0:29:19Where's the human scale?
0:29:19 > 0:29:22To walk down this avenue
0:29:22 > 0:29:27would make you feel tiny, almost irrelevant,
0:29:27 > 0:29:32constantly flanked by these overbearing buildings.
0:29:32 > 0:29:35You get down into this ceremonial plaza
0:29:35 > 0:29:38with these vast superhuman figures
0:29:38 > 0:29:40towering over you,
0:29:40 > 0:29:43gather with 180,000 people,
0:29:43 > 0:29:47in the biggest building on earth to hear one voice.
0:29:49 > 0:29:52Utopian vision, but at what cost?
0:29:54 > 0:29:57HE SPEAKS GERMAN
0:30:00 > 0:30:03Adolf Hitler dreamed of making Berlin the capital of the world.
0:30:11 > 0:30:13Welthauptstadt Germania -
0:30:13 > 0:30:17a grand metropolis centred around the 7km avenue
0:30:17 > 0:30:19running north to south,
0:30:19 > 0:30:22with the vast Volkshalle at its end,
0:30:22 > 0:30:26its dome 16 times larger than Saint Peter's in Rome.
0:30:28 > 0:30:32Hitler obsessed over the models, based on his own sketches.
0:30:34 > 0:30:38Throughout the war, as Allied bombs flattened the real city,
0:30:38 > 0:30:42he'd make torchlight visits at night to pore over his utopian toy town.
0:30:45 > 0:30:48Meanwhile, tens of thousands of prisoners
0:30:48 > 0:30:51died in SS-run labour camps,
0:30:51 > 0:30:55quarrying the granite needed to build the Nazi fantasy capital.
0:31:03 > 0:31:05For years after the war,
0:31:05 > 0:31:09local residents were unsure what this block of concrete was doing
0:31:09 > 0:31:11amid a quiet Berlin suburb.
0:31:13 > 0:31:15But geologists knew -
0:31:15 > 0:31:18here was a strange remnant of Hitler's utopia.
0:31:20 > 0:31:26These are the final material remains of a Nazi vision of a Germania
0:31:26 > 0:31:29that was going to last for 1,000 years.
0:31:29 > 0:31:3312,000 tonnes of concrete towering over you
0:31:33 > 0:31:35like a nightmarish tombstone.
0:31:35 > 0:31:37Built by forced French labour,
0:31:37 > 0:31:42it runs deeper underground than it does above.
0:31:42 > 0:31:47It was intended to test the ability of the soil of Berlin
0:31:47 > 0:31:52to bear the weight of the biggest triumphal arch ever conceived.
0:31:52 > 0:31:57A triumphal arch for a utopian vision that thankfully failed.
0:32:01 > 0:32:04The other great utopian experiment of the 20th century
0:32:04 > 0:32:06was Soviet communism.
0:32:08 > 0:32:12This ideology had its origins in Karl Marx's utopian vision
0:32:12 > 0:32:17of a workers' revolution and common ownership of the means of production.
0:32:19 > 0:32:24The Soviet utopia also attempted to reprogram society
0:32:24 > 0:32:26through design and architecture.
0:32:31 > 0:32:33This is Lithuania.
0:32:33 > 0:32:34What's fascinating, I think,
0:32:34 > 0:32:38about the Soviet-era buildings left here is what they reveal about
0:32:38 > 0:32:42the regime's preoccupations about how the individual should live
0:32:42 > 0:32:46and what they should care about in a socialist utopia.
0:32:54 > 0:32:56From the 1970s, we get this.
0:32:58 > 0:33:02A futuristic, exuberant statement in concrete.
0:33:08 > 0:33:12The Palace of Concerts and Sports is a landmark of Communist modernism,
0:33:12 > 0:33:16shouting about the virtues of fitness and health as ways to perfect
0:33:16 > 0:33:18the Soviet citizen.
0:33:20 > 0:33:23It's a bit bonkers, but I like it.
0:33:26 > 0:33:30There's something incredibly organic about this Brezhnev-era building,
0:33:30 > 0:33:32this temple to sport.
0:33:32 > 0:33:36You've got these kind of gills down the side of it
0:33:36 > 0:33:39made out of this textured concrete.
0:33:39 > 0:33:40It's like coral.
0:33:41 > 0:33:45The broken panes of glass are almost like shed fish scales.
0:33:45 > 0:33:49You've got organic marks left by the wood shuttering
0:33:49 > 0:33:52to build the concrete structure.
0:33:52 > 0:33:55It's like a creature rearing out of the sea,
0:33:55 > 0:33:59a massive celebration of the monumental achievements
0:33:59 > 0:34:01of Soviet athletes.
0:34:11 > 0:34:15Outside Vilnius, in a small town called Druskininkai,
0:34:15 > 0:34:18lie the ruins of another Soviet utopian project.
0:34:20 > 0:34:23In this place of spas and sanatoria,
0:34:23 > 0:34:26workers could come for treatment, paid for by the state
0:34:26 > 0:34:30that wanted to keep them productive - and probably happier - for longer.
0:34:42 > 0:34:45The abandoned Spa Nemunas dates from the 1980s.
0:34:45 > 0:34:49It would once have accommodated thousands of guests.
0:34:49 > 0:34:53Across the Soviet Union, there were hundreds of these spa towns.
0:34:53 > 0:34:56This particular spa town in Lithuania
0:34:56 > 0:34:59used to get almost 500,000 visitors a year.
0:34:59 > 0:35:03There is something somewhat pathetic about this place today,
0:35:03 > 0:35:06but it's not a massive leap of imagination to picture it
0:35:06 > 0:35:10teeming with families enjoying their summer holidays.
0:35:11 > 0:35:15Those who had come here having worked in arduous industries like mining
0:35:15 > 0:35:18might get a fortnight away to enjoy the Black Sea,
0:35:18 > 0:35:22mud baths and the saunas and the whirlpools.
0:35:22 > 0:35:26The fruits of a Soviet utopian vision of working together,
0:35:26 > 0:35:28but also playing together.
0:35:31 > 0:35:35Housing the workers was another key drive of the Soviet project.
0:35:37 > 0:35:41This is the Lazdynai estate, on the outskirts of Vilnius.
0:35:46 > 0:35:49In creating this complex of three-bedroomed apartments,
0:35:49 > 0:35:53the local Lithuanian architects expressed a little freedom
0:35:53 > 0:35:55from central Russian control...
0:35:57 > 0:36:00..innovating the site of blocks to fit around the local woodland.
0:36:02 > 0:36:07The estate went on to win the 1974 Lenin Prize for Architectural Design
0:36:07 > 0:36:09for the whole of the Soviet Union.
0:36:12 > 0:36:15They called estates like this micro districts,
0:36:15 > 0:36:18as they had all the facilities of a town in one place.
0:36:19 > 0:36:22They were also known as sleeping districts,
0:36:22 > 0:36:24as this was where workers came to sleep
0:36:24 > 0:36:27before getting up and going back to work.
0:36:29 > 0:36:31So the main idea was,
0:36:31 > 0:36:34in order to feel comfortable, besides apartment,
0:36:34 > 0:36:39you need a school, you need a kindergarten, you need a playground,
0:36:39 > 0:36:44you need a swimming pool, cinema, shops and so on.
0:36:44 > 0:36:47So it sounds wonderful, but when people moved in,
0:36:47 > 0:36:52did they find that living here was quite as perfect as the architects
0:36:52 > 0:36:53might have imagined?
0:36:53 > 0:36:55People were quite astonished, you know,
0:36:55 > 0:36:57"Why is it located so far away?"
0:36:57 > 0:36:59It is in the middle of nowhere,
0:36:59 > 0:37:02so it was a problem to get to work.
0:37:02 > 0:37:05As well, as the time was passing,
0:37:05 > 0:37:08people were disappointed with the quality.
0:37:08 > 0:37:12Like the walls were not straight,
0:37:12 > 0:37:14the windows were very bad,
0:37:14 > 0:37:17the whole construction wasn't regular.
0:37:17 > 0:37:21There was even a joke that it was really a difference
0:37:21 > 0:37:25if the building was built in a summer or in the winter.
0:37:25 > 0:37:27Because in the winter it is cold,
0:37:27 > 0:37:32so architects and the builders were working very fast,
0:37:32 > 0:37:34so the quality was much lower.
0:37:36 > 0:37:39So sometimes in the West there's a bit of a reductive view of the Soviet Union -
0:37:39 > 0:37:42it was all bad, everything was awful.
0:37:42 > 0:37:44But actually, for the people who lived here,
0:37:44 > 0:37:46what do you think their view might be today?
0:37:48 > 0:37:50The life was simpler, we can say.
0:37:50 > 0:37:54You could imagine, a person finishes school - school is free.
0:37:54 > 0:37:58A person goes to university - university is free.
0:37:58 > 0:38:01A person is getting free health care.
0:38:01 > 0:38:03And then he gets married
0:38:03 > 0:38:07and he has work, so he is given an apartment for free.
0:38:07 > 0:38:09So it's not like now -
0:38:09 > 0:38:13you spend all your life earning for the apartment.
0:38:13 > 0:38:18But you have already apartment and you can earn for something else.
0:38:25 > 0:38:27What is a utopia?
0:38:27 > 0:38:28Is it no place?
0:38:28 > 0:38:30Well, this was definitely someplace.
0:38:30 > 0:38:35The architecture, OK, it's looking a bit tired,
0:38:35 > 0:38:37but it's southward-facing balconies,
0:38:37 > 0:38:40it's a short walk into the woods,
0:38:40 > 0:38:43there's little community notice boards outside each block.
0:38:43 > 0:38:47You get the sense that this is a vibrant, alive community, still.
0:38:49 > 0:38:54Today, some might say that to be utopian means to be naive.
0:38:54 > 0:38:56Utopia is an impossible and noble dream.
0:38:59 > 0:39:02We look back on previous utopian escapades, like Soviet communism,
0:39:02 > 0:39:05and conclude that they were just pie in the sky -
0:39:05 > 0:39:09possibly well-meaning, but staggeringly open to manipulation.
0:39:12 > 0:39:15But is there a danger in taking such a view?
0:39:16 > 0:39:18Utopian visions rise and fall,
0:39:18 > 0:39:20but what makes them interesting, I think,
0:39:20 > 0:39:22and perhaps valuable,
0:39:22 > 0:39:26is their ability to inspire radical and innovative new design.
0:39:30 > 0:39:32On a pilgrimage to find utopia,
0:39:32 > 0:39:36sometimes you find staging posts in the most unexpected places.
0:39:38 > 0:39:42Attempts to build something better that might not have worked in
0:39:42 > 0:39:45themselves, but the drive behind them can still be celebrated.
0:39:57 > 0:39:59They might not look like much,
0:39:59 > 0:40:02clustered here in a disused army base in New Jersey,
0:40:02 > 0:40:06but these are the ruins of an idea from a utopian architect
0:40:06 > 0:40:11who designed some of the most revolutionary and efficient structures of the 20th century.
0:40:14 > 0:40:17I'm an explorer in structures.
0:40:17 > 0:40:19I'm interested in the fundamental principles
0:40:19 > 0:40:23by which nature holds her shapes together.
0:40:26 > 0:40:31Richard Buckminster Fuller was, to put it mildly, unconventional.
0:40:31 > 0:40:36He was kicked out of Harvard twice, he went bankrupt in his 30s,
0:40:36 > 0:40:38and, reeling from personal tragedy -
0:40:38 > 0:40:41the death of his infant daughter from spinal meningitis -
0:40:41 > 0:40:45he devoted himself to an extraordinary experiment -
0:40:45 > 0:40:48how much could he contribute to changing the world
0:40:48 > 0:40:51and helping humanity in the life left to him?
0:40:54 > 0:40:57- ARCHIVE:- This genius led to many early disappointments and frustrations...
0:40:57 > 0:41:01Fuller was horrified by newsreel of the London Blitz in 1940,
0:41:01 > 0:41:05and he dreamt up a whole new way of housing the displaced.
0:41:05 > 0:41:08Passing a Midwest grain silo one day,
0:41:08 > 0:41:10he had a eureka moment,
0:41:10 > 0:41:13and built what he called the Dymaxion Deployment Unit,
0:41:13 > 0:41:17or DDU, to rehouse a family of up to four people.
0:41:22 > 0:41:26Fuller coined the term dymaxion, a combination of dynamic,
0:41:26 > 0:41:30maximum and tension, to sum up what he wanted to achieve -
0:41:30 > 0:41:35maximum gain of advantage from minimal energy input.
0:41:44 > 0:41:49These DDUs are imaginary leaps into the future.
0:41:49 > 0:41:52How do you house people who've been bombed out of their homes?
0:41:52 > 0:41:56You put them into these miniature grain silos.
0:41:56 > 0:41:58And the detail is amazing.
0:41:58 > 0:42:00It's sort of machine-age stuff.
0:42:00 > 0:42:03These portholes, amazing design,
0:42:03 > 0:42:04Bakelite windows,
0:42:04 > 0:42:08like something from a spaceship or possibly a submarine.
0:42:08 > 0:42:11And then this layer of insulation all the way round the building
0:42:11 > 0:42:13and through the roof,
0:42:13 > 0:42:15built-in shelving units.
0:42:15 > 0:42:18You've even got a built-in electricity system.
0:42:18 > 0:42:20It's astonishing.
0:42:20 > 0:42:25And the gorgeous roof, it's like a flower opening.
0:42:25 > 0:42:29And there used to be a self-regulating air ventilation system.
0:42:29 > 0:42:33It's a beautiful and useful solution.
0:42:36 > 0:42:38To get the military on board,
0:42:38 > 0:42:42Fuller supposedly parked one of these outside the Pentagon in 1941.
0:42:43 > 0:42:46The military did buy a few hundred.
0:42:46 > 0:42:50There are said to be mysterious tin sheds in disused American bases
0:42:50 > 0:42:51all over the world.
0:42:54 > 0:42:58These tired but beautifully organic buildings
0:42:58 > 0:43:00have these lovely little details,
0:43:00 > 0:43:03like almost human eyes with little eyelashes.
0:43:03 > 0:43:05But they're mass-produced goods,
0:43:05 > 0:43:09hundreds of them manufactured quickly and cheaply.
0:43:09 > 0:43:12They could be erected in a day by two people,
0:43:12 > 0:43:14flown in anywhere in the world.
0:43:15 > 0:43:18Minimum resources for maximum impact.
0:43:25 > 0:43:28For years, nobody knew what these units here were.
0:43:28 > 0:43:32The scorched ones were used for munitions testing.
0:43:32 > 0:43:34A sad end for this project, perhaps,
0:43:34 > 0:43:37but Fuller had many other influential ideas.
0:43:41 > 0:43:45Buckminster Fuller's utopian legacy has been profound,
0:43:45 > 0:43:47shaping architectural thinking today,
0:43:47 > 0:43:51in particular with his concern for the preciousness of the planet's
0:43:51 > 0:43:53resources and space.
0:43:55 > 0:43:58- ARCHIVE:- Buckminster Fuller's revolutionary super-city
0:43:58 > 0:44:01is a huge but graceful angular floating platform.
0:44:01 > 0:44:05Like most of Fuller's ideas, it has a mathematical feel about it.
0:44:05 > 0:44:09This is designed so that we can take a whole
0:44:09 > 0:44:14complex out of the little mobile homes,
0:44:14 > 0:44:17and a giant crane would pick these up off the water,
0:44:17 > 0:44:19and they could be slid in here.
0:44:20 > 0:44:21This is the Triton City project.
0:44:21 > 0:44:24Yeah, this is the Triton City project.
0:44:24 > 0:44:27The architect Shoji Sadao
0:44:27 > 0:44:31was a long-term collaborator with the man he affectionately calls Bucky.
0:44:33 > 0:44:36It would require about 5,000 inhabitants
0:44:36 > 0:44:38to really form a community.
0:44:38 > 0:44:40It was a project based on the fact that
0:44:40 > 0:44:43most of the large urban cities in the US
0:44:43 > 0:44:46are near large bodies of water,
0:44:46 > 0:44:49and rather than trying to build on the land
0:44:49 > 0:44:51around these bodies of water,
0:44:51 > 0:44:55you create your own land by these floating platforms.
0:44:55 > 0:44:58This is a very young you and Buckminster Fuller.
0:44:58 > 0:45:04Yes, this is Bucky and me in front of the Southern Illinois University Religious Center.
0:45:04 > 0:45:09The Southern Illinois University Religious Center is a classic example
0:45:09 > 0:45:11of Buckminster Fuller's most famous invention -
0:45:11 > 0:45:13the geodesic dome.
0:45:14 > 0:45:18This is the architectural structure that can enclose the most space
0:45:18 > 0:45:19with the least material,
0:45:19 > 0:45:22and it's conquered the world.
0:45:22 > 0:45:23Domes dot the globe,
0:45:23 > 0:45:28including the monumental US Pavilion at Montreal's Expo 67,
0:45:28 > 0:45:31and the aviary at Queen's Zoo in New York.
0:45:36 > 0:45:39Shoji explains the engineering principles.
0:45:40 > 0:45:44What you're doing is you're making equilateral triangles here.
0:45:44 > 0:45:47If you have five triangles around this vertex...
0:45:47 > 0:45:49If you have six it'll be flat
0:45:49 > 0:45:51and it won't form into a sphere,
0:45:51 > 0:45:54but by using just five around the point
0:45:54 > 0:45:56you begin to make a spherical shape.
0:45:56 > 0:46:01Ah, so once you've done the first row it kind of builds itself.
0:46:01 > 0:46:04Keeping these vertexes always at the same distance from the common centre,
0:46:04 > 0:46:08we begin to get then spherical triangles.
0:46:08 > 0:46:11The triangles are, Fuller realised, strengthened, not weakened,
0:46:11 > 0:46:13by adding more.
0:46:13 > 0:46:16They interlock and support each other.
0:46:16 > 0:46:19The triangle is a structurally stable shape,
0:46:19 > 0:46:23whereas a square can be distorted, you know.
0:46:23 > 0:46:28By triangulating, you built a very strong structure.
0:46:28 > 0:46:29Here you are.
0:46:31 > 0:46:34- Very nice. Wow. - Yeah, you built a sphere.
0:46:34 > 0:46:36It's so strong.
0:46:36 > 0:46:37It is, yeah.
0:46:43 > 0:46:45Strong and efficient.
0:46:45 > 0:46:49Fuller's concept of the geodesic dome is now being considered
0:46:49 > 0:46:52as the basis for habitats on the Moon and Mars.
0:46:59 > 0:47:01Norman Foster's architectural practice
0:47:01 > 0:47:05has been deeply involved in these dreams of the future.
0:47:05 > 0:47:08He met Buckminster Fuller in the 1970s,
0:47:08 > 0:47:10was captivated, and eventually employed him.
0:47:10 > 0:47:13Even at the point just before his death,
0:47:13 > 0:47:17he was one of the youngest people that I've ever met,
0:47:17 > 0:47:19in spirit, in thinking.
0:47:19 > 0:47:23He drew attention to the fragility of the planet.
0:47:23 > 0:47:27He's arguably the first green architect,
0:47:27 > 0:47:31before green was ever invented as a kind of, you know, buzzword.
0:47:31 > 0:47:34I think I detect a little bit of influence
0:47:34 > 0:47:37of the geodesic dome elements of some of your buildings.
0:47:37 > 0:47:40- Is that fair?- The one over there has... - THEY BOTH LAUGH
0:47:40 > 0:47:46The idea of using triangulation, of distributing forces,
0:47:46 > 0:47:50of creating light and lightness,
0:47:50 > 0:47:52touching the ground lightly,
0:47:52 > 0:47:55using materials more economically,
0:47:55 > 0:47:59to create something which is inherently more beautiful
0:47:59 > 0:48:00and inspired by nature.
0:48:00 > 0:48:05And, actually, paradoxically, looks quite fragile,
0:48:05 > 0:48:08but is stronger, and doing more with less.
0:48:08 > 0:48:12You seem to share this interest in waste not, want not.
0:48:12 > 0:48:15That you can make efficient use of material.
0:48:15 > 0:48:19Yes. I mean, you have 1.6 billion
0:48:19 > 0:48:24without access to clean water, energy, power -
0:48:24 > 0:48:25how do you address these issues?
0:48:25 > 0:48:27If you take a city,
0:48:27 > 0:48:29you've probably got one department
0:48:29 > 0:48:31which is devoted to waste and possibly
0:48:31 > 0:48:34using landfill to get rid of the waste.
0:48:34 > 0:48:38You've probably got another division of the city about generating energy.
0:48:38 > 0:48:40Really, if you put those two things together,
0:48:40 > 0:48:43you can burn the waste to create energy.
0:48:43 > 0:48:47And it's kind of Bucky-style thinking.
0:48:49 > 0:48:52Foster & Partners has designed hundreds of futuristic buildings
0:48:52 > 0:48:54and structures across the world.
0:48:57 > 0:48:59From the Reichstag Cupola
0:48:59 > 0:49:00to the Millau Viaduct,
0:49:00 > 0:49:02and a new Apple campus,
0:49:02 > 0:49:05grand utopian dreams are very much alive here.
0:49:06 > 0:49:11I think, to practise architecture, you're planning for the future.
0:49:11 > 0:49:13You're looking far ahead.
0:49:13 > 0:49:19So you're trying to work with an environment, anticipating change.
0:49:19 > 0:49:22So, in that sense, you have to be an optimist.
0:49:22 > 0:49:26So optimism, utopianism, I mean,
0:49:26 > 0:49:27the words overlap.
0:49:30 > 0:49:34We find that way of thinking much more in Asia now.
0:49:34 > 0:49:36I mean, if you take Hong Kong,
0:49:36 > 0:49:39the airport is embedded in the middle of the city.
0:49:41 > 0:49:43It's folklore, you know, the aircraft are coming in
0:49:43 > 0:49:45scooping washing off the balconies.
0:49:45 > 0:49:48And they've got no land, they've got sea,
0:49:48 > 0:49:50so they take an island, chop it down,
0:49:50 > 0:49:52get the biggest dredging fleet in the world,
0:49:52 > 0:49:57make a site bigger than Heathrow and do an extraordinary airport.
0:49:57 > 0:50:03That is the kind of thinking that was perhaps exported
0:50:03 > 0:50:05from here from the 19th century.
0:50:05 > 0:50:10And that 19th century was a utopian vision because there was
0:50:10 > 0:50:12a belief in a better future.
0:50:17 > 0:50:22While the utopian architect envisages extraordinary transformations,
0:50:22 > 0:50:24grand plans on a global scale,
0:50:24 > 0:50:29I still wonder which utopia works best to actually live in every day.
0:50:29 > 0:50:33Where can we best navigate that tension between the big vision,
0:50:33 > 0:50:36the rules of the group and the freedom of an individual?
0:50:38 > 0:50:39Who knows?
0:50:39 > 0:50:43Might the answer lie in a place that many of us routinely dismiss
0:50:43 > 0:50:44as dull and suburban?
0:50:52 > 0:50:56Perhaps it's time to put aside prejudices and look afresh
0:50:56 > 0:50:58at a garden city in the English Home Counties.
0:51:00 > 0:51:03Could this be the unlikely utopia that has it all?
0:51:05 > 0:51:09The garden city movement was the brainchild of Ebenezer Howard,
0:51:09 > 0:51:13a 19th century visionary who came at the questions of how we should live
0:51:13 > 0:51:17by rejecting the overcrowding and pollution of big-city life.
0:51:19 > 0:51:22In the process, he helped give us the roundabout...
0:51:24 > 0:51:26..and the cul-de-sac.
0:51:30 > 0:51:34Howard had experienced country life in rural Nebraska
0:51:34 > 0:51:37and the difficulties of the city when,
0:51:37 > 0:51:39as a reporter, he'd watch Chicago recovering
0:51:39 > 0:51:41from the great fire of 1871.
0:51:43 > 0:51:45In his book, Garden Cities Of Tomorrow,
0:51:45 > 0:51:47he envisaged new places to live,
0:51:47 > 0:51:50where people would be attracted by the magnet of the best of town
0:51:50 > 0:51:54and country mixed in one place.
0:51:54 > 0:51:56As the Times wrote in a review of the book,
0:51:56 > 0:52:00"The only difficulty is to create such a city."
0:52:00 > 0:52:02But that's a small matter to utopians.
0:52:07 > 0:52:10So this is one of our stores where we keep most of our plans.
0:52:10 > 0:52:14Vicky Axell is curator of the Garden City Collection.
0:52:15 > 0:52:17Oh, wow.
0:52:17 > 0:52:20So, following on from Howard's influential book,
0:52:20 > 0:52:23the first garden city estate starts to be built.
0:52:23 > 0:52:25You can see that it's a very green space,
0:52:25 > 0:52:28and everything is based around sunshine and light.
0:52:28 > 0:52:30It should be harmonious and organic.
0:52:32 > 0:52:37Howard was extremely precise in his vision of the garden city.
0:52:37 > 0:52:406,000 acres of rural land was to be purchased,
0:52:40 > 0:52:42with 1,000 set aside for the city
0:52:42 > 0:52:46and the population was not to exceed 32,000.
0:52:48 > 0:52:52The roads would be wide and laid out in a radial pattern.
0:52:56 > 0:52:59So here we have the plans so far in 1910.
0:52:59 > 0:53:01So it's seven years into the garden city.
0:53:01 > 0:53:05The striking thing is all the roundabouts.
0:53:05 > 0:53:07By not having a grid layout,
0:53:07 > 0:53:10essentially when lots of roads meet they need something that's going
0:53:10 > 0:53:12to help manoeuvre traffic and people around.
0:53:12 > 0:53:14So they come up with the roundabout,
0:53:14 > 0:53:17and early on they have to have signs to remind people to keep left,
0:53:17 > 0:53:19because people are either driving straight over the top
0:53:19 > 0:53:22or going the wrong way round.
0:53:22 > 0:53:25Letchworth was part of the enlightened late-19th-century trend
0:53:25 > 0:53:30away from terraced housing, because one of its planners, Raymond Unwin,
0:53:30 > 0:53:33calculated that back-to-back terraced streets
0:53:33 > 0:53:35were not an efficient use of space.
0:53:36 > 0:53:38Why so many cul-de-sacs?
0:53:38 > 0:53:40It's based on Raymond Unwin's paper,
0:53:40 > 0:53:42Nothing Gained By Overcrowding.
0:53:42 > 0:53:44It says if you have just one road that enters
0:53:44 > 0:53:46then you can have these lovely radial gardens
0:53:46 > 0:53:48in that same square acreage,
0:53:48 > 0:53:51and you can fit more houses and more garden space and therefore
0:53:51 > 0:53:53get a better quality of life out of the same space.
0:53:53 > 0:53:54And that's so counterintuitive -
0:53:54 > 0:53:57the cul-de-sac allows you to make more use of your real estate.
0:53:57 > 0:53:59And it's all about the gardens.
0:53:59 > 0:54:02And the workers can grow food and they can help support themselves.
0:54:02 > 0:54:03How wonderful.
0:54:07 > 0:54:10We might be used to it now, but in its early years,
0:54:10 > 0:54:14Letchworth was more than an innovative built environment -
0:54:14 > 0:54:16every new citizen was a shareholder,
0:54:16 > 0:54:19and self-sufficiency was prized.
0:54:19 > 0:54:22This was seen at the time as a utopian experiment,
0:54:22 > 0:54:26promoting new-fangled ideas and bohemian lifestyles.
0:54:29 > 0:54:32The majority of people come here for jobs.
0:54:32 > 0:54:35But there's a small minority of people, I can illustrate here.
0:54:37 > 0:54:40Some people just wanted to follow that utopian vision
0:54:40 > 0:54:42and create a new way of living,
0:54:42 > 0:54:45and they were the simple lifers, they were known as at the time,
0:54:45 > 0:54:48but known also as cranks - not my term.
0:54:48 > 0:54:51People who were rational dress wearers
0:54:51 > 0:54:55and vegetarians and socialists, and sometimes all three.
0:54:55 > 0:54:59And they were attracted by this new utopia.
0:55:01 > 0:55:05Caricatures like this depict the cranks as objects of fascination for
0:55:05 > 0:55:10sightseers from London, coming up for the day to gawp at them.
0:55:10 > 0:55:14How astonishing to think that 100 or so years later
0:55:14 > 0:55:18a lot of these sort of at the time cranky behaviours
0:55:18 > 0:55:20are really quite normal.
0:55:20 > 0:55:22To be a vegetarian is totally fine.
0:55:22 > 0:55:26- That's right.- To be radical politically is acceptable,
0:55:26 > 0:55:31but the diversity of voices that are tolerated here actually allows
0:55:31 > 0:55:35- this utopian vision to survive?- Yeah, that's right.
0:55:35 > 0:55:39I mean, I think it was a place where people could speak out and not
0:55:39 > 0:55:41be afraid to say what they believed in.
0:55:45 > 0:55:47Where Letchworth led, others have followed.
0:55:51 > 0:55:55There have been more than 30 similar community cities built in Britain
0:55:55 > 0:55:58from Wythenshawe to Milton Keynes.
0:56:03 > 0:56:09Ebenezer Howard's utopian vision of Letchworth, over 100 years old,
0:56:09 > 0:56:11is still kind of evident here.
0:56:11 > 0:56:14These intimate streets that flow off grand avenues,
0:56:14 > 0:56:18with their beautifully tended gardens,
0:56:18 > 0:56:21seem to suggest that this is a community that really cares
0:56:21 > 0:56:23about its environment still.
0:56:23 > 0:56:27A survey that was conducted in 2015 found that only 3%
0:56:27 > 0:56:30of the population were unhappy.
0:56:30 > 0:56:32Maybe their lawn mowers were broken.
0:56:35 > 0:56:36As utopias go,
0:56:36 > 0:56:40perhaps garden cities set a lower bar than the strictures of monastic life
0:56:40 > 0:56:42or mass housing projects,
0:56:42 > 0:56:45be they socialist or capitalist.
0:56:46 > 0:56:49Yet garden cities might provide a kind of utopia
0:56:49 > 0:56:52that works on the human scale,
0:56:52 > 0:56:54helping to build a sense of community
0:56:54 > 0:56:58while still offering privacy, freedom and space.
0:56:58 > 0:57:00And they do seem to have been flexible enough
0:57:00 > 0:57:02to adapt to changing times.
0:57:04 > 0:57:06But the question remains,
0:57:06 > 0:57:08could garden cities ever really be built
0:57:08 > 0:57:12on the scale that would meet the need for decent housing for all,
0:57:12 > 0:57:16so often felt most acutely in towns and cities?
0:57:25 > 0:57:28What's struck me on this journey through some of the built utopias
0:57:28 > 0:57:31of the world is how attractive some of the values are of those
0:57:31 > 0:57:33who've fought for them and lived in them.
0:57:33 > 0:57:39A rebuke to our atomised, fast buck, me first capitalist culture.
0:57:39 > 0:57:42Many are communities with ideas about sharing,
0:57:42 > 0:57:45looking out for the environment and working together
0:57:45 > 0:57:46in a common endeavour.
0:57:46 > 0:57:48Even amid the failures,
0:57:48 > 0:57:52there's something noble about this striving for utopia.
0:57:52 > 0:57:57It seems to me to show off a better side of our humanity.
0:58:01 > 0:58:03In the next episode...
0:58:03 > 0:58:05I'm going to go see the northern lights.
0:58:05 > 0:58:07..the search for the utopia within.
0:58:07 > 0:58:10Oh, that's beautiful.
0:58:10 > 0:58:12Authenticity...
0:58:12 > 0:58:17Qawwali music is a cosmic quest in search of the beloved.
0:58:17 > 0:58:19..the craving for perfection...
0:58:19 > 0:58:20I think it's really beautiful.
0:58:20 > 0:58:24You could call it the ah-ha moment - that moment when you go "wow".
0:58:24 > 0:58:26..the moment of transcendence.
0:58:26 > 0:58:30If I'm reading the crowd I can build, like, an entire emotion.