Architecture and Utopia
The Israeli Experiment

There are more than 450 Moshavim settlements and about 270 kibbutzim in Israel. Placing the kibbutz within the wider context of utopian social ideals and how they have historically been physically and architecturally constructed, this book discusses the form of the 'ideal settlement' as an integral part and means for realising a utopian doctrine.

There are more than 450 Moshavim settlements and about 270 kibbutzim in Israel. While there is a range of communal and cooperative kibbutz movements, all with slight ideological differences, they are all collective rural communities, based on an ideal to create a social utopian settlement. Placing the kibbutz within the wider context of utopian social ideals and how they have historically been physically and architecturally constructed, this book discusses the form of the 'ideal settlement' as an integral part and means for realising a utopian doctrine. It presents an analysis of physical planning in the kibbutz through the past 80 years and how changes in ideology are reflected in changes in layout and aesthetics. In doing so, this book shows how a utopian settlement organisation behaves over time, from their first appearance in 1920 on to an examination of the current spatial layouts and the directions of their expected future development.

Social Utopia and the ideal settlement
Utopian settlements in Israel
The kibbutz - a communal society
The cooperative settlement - a family commune
The workers settlement - a family cooperative
Conclusion
Bibliography
Index.