Manuel Orazi: Every Utopia is Feasible

Yona Friedman had a life characterized by movements. Growing up in Budapest between the two World Wars, he encountered both the racial discrimination and the anti-fascist resistance. After the War, Friedman moved to Bucarest and then to Haifa, to work on the construction of the State of Israel. In the 1950s Friedman lived in Paris, before starting teaching in the US in the 1960s; in the 1970s and 1980s he worked for the UNESCO in Africa, Asia and South America. In the last 15 years he has been invited from the museums of contemporary art of the entire world, including in China. Noone could theorize “mobile architecture” better than he did, but this is not where his Weltanschaung becomes the most engaging. Among the many books he wrote on architecture, sociology, physics, etc., ?Utopies réalisables? (feasible utopias) articulates best his strong critique of the na?f confidence in communication and in society’s current functioning. The proposals he gives us have not only the capacity to radically change architecture, but also to democratize life.