As a conceptual and anti-conformist project, the “Twelve Ideal Cities” formed a series of “counter utopias with a cathartic brief”: each one of the 12 tales imagined by Gian Piero Frassinelli uses a narrative of drawings to describe the physiognomy of a city, by extrapolating the concepts of modern urbanism: “zoning”; “industrialization”; “users’ needs”; “dwelling cells”, etc. The horror of the resulting visions was meant to bestir everyone to an awareness of the alienation and absurdity of the world. So the first city (called “2000 Ton City” because a heavy platform fell onto those rebelling against the system) consisted in a division of the territory into huge squares of nature by narrow blade-walls containing individual cells measuring 2.25 x 2.25 metres. Contemporary with the publication of Italo Calvino’s Invisible Cities, this radical project dealt a new blow to urbanism, which was thus demystified and deeply shaken in its certainties.
Aurélien Vernant
Prima città: Città 2000 t
Seconda città: Città coclea temporale
Terza città: New York of Brains
Quarta città: Città astronave
Quinta città: Città delle semisfere
Sesta città: The magnificent and fabulous Barnum jr.'s city
Settima città: Città nastro a produzione continua
Ottava città: Città cono a gradoni
Nona città: Città macchina abitata
Decima città: Città dell'ordine
Undicesima città: Città delle case splendide
Dodicesima città: Città del libro
