Architecture and the Cosmos. Lesabéndio, Walter Benjamin and Utopia

Abstract

This contribution focuses on the relation between architecture and utopia as it is articulated in Paul Scheerbart’s 1913 sci-fi novel Lesabéndio and Walter Benjamin’s reading of it. After briefly introducing the complex relation that ties architecture to utopia by drawing on Manfredo Tafuri’s work, I will propose a reading of the way in which this relation is articulated in Scheerbart’s novel. In particular, I will bring to the fore the tensions that traverse Lesabéndio’s utopia and its mysticism. In the second section, I will then explore Walter Benjamin’s reading of the novel and put it in dialogue with his own understanding of the (non) relation between technology and utopia - one that suggests a radical alterity between the two. To conclude, drawing on the works of Frédéric Neyrat, I will propose the notion of cosmo-architecture as a signifier capable of naming an architecture that does not repress the radical alterity that the discipline is confronted with in the geological era of the Anthropocene.