Civilia: The End of The Sub Urban Man by Ivor De Wolfe (Architectural Press, 1971)

Civilia, a very British answer to Lúcio Costa and Oscar Niemeyer's sleek, beautiful, sun-drenched modernist vision, Brasilia. Except that Civilia was no more than an imaginary urban utopia dreamt up by 'Ivor de Wolfe' (a pseudonym for H. de C. Hastings, architectural critic, publisher and editor).

It's tattered spine caught my eye in Housman's bargain basement. Had it merely been a series of texts I wouldn't have paid a whole pound for it, but Kenneth Browne's visualisation of Civilia proved irresistible....

...they strike me as something like scenes from an unmade sci-film set in the UK's near future. The photomontages comprise of buildings from Britain's recent Brutalist past which, by the 70s, was probably in decline as an architectural force, just as tower blocks also fell out of favour. Yet the argument here is for high-density living as an antidote to the suburban sprawl. Such towns as Civilia would, in theory, put an end to commuter misery because it's occupants want to live there rather than flee to leafy abodes which have names yet no character, locations but are non-places...

...I suspect, though, that 40 years later there would be 'no-go' areas in Civilia, where gang stabbings occur regularly in the dark, graffiti-plastered and stained concrete alleyways. There would be blocks populated only by the poor and immigrants, neglected people and places in bad need of repair, which are eventually sold off, renovated and inhabited by the middle-classes...

...ironically, as Civilia was being dreamt up, so too was Milton Keynes, the UK's newest new town, a 34-square-mile sprawl of estates, the opposite of Hastings' dream. Ever since MK has gradually declined into anything but a model of modern living. It's reputation is one of alienation amid the vast grid system and it's endless roundabouts. Some of it's estates garnered reputations for housing very bad sorts rather than happy new town families...

...still, like Hastings, MK's planners were well-intentioned. Whether, unlike Milton Keynes, Civilia would ever develop a 'soul' and character along with true communities, we shall never know...