Cornelia Escher

Nested utopias : GEAM’s large-scale designs

The Groupe d’études d’architecture mobile or GEAM is known for its designs that have often been described as “utopian”. This interpretation makes a valid point insofar as many of the group’s most ambitious projects have never been realized, and their aim was, first and foremost, to scrutinize and criticize the contemporary conditions of architecture and planning. But though utopian, GEAM’s projects had strong ties with the “real” world. They were embedded within national planning debates and loaded with assumptions about the society and technology emblematic of the times. Even if the group’s members were acting in different locations in both Eastern and Western Europe, they followed similar interests. They shared an interest in biological systems and cybernetic techniques, as well as in the models of humans, society, and space these techniques were associated with. In fact, the intermingling of social ideals with bio-scientific metaphors and models became a main feature of their architectural and utopian project. In “bio-technique”, as the GEAM member Oskar Hansen called it, the idea of a mass society was questioned through more heterogeneous models, and conceptions of modernist space gave way to new images and imaginations of “environmental” design.