reborn

This is an album of cities too ideal to ever materialise.

It consists of 256 algorithmically generated plans that resemble drawings of Vincenzo Scamozzi, Pietro Cataneo, Filarete and other theorists of the Italian Renaissance. The cities differ in size, the grid of the streets, the landscape around them and the people that inhabit their utopian walls. They carry names that are Italian exonyms of real European cities, drawing a vision of a different world that enacts a mixture of military perfection with social superiority. Flawless, harmonious, unconquerable and utterly impossible.

History brought us many theories about ideal cities, but very few examples exist today. Italian Palmanova or Polish Zamość are the few to remind us how hard it is to shape reality according to ideals. When confronted with the material world, its idealism becomes the city's grates foe.

To zoom, press a mouse button over the image or touch the screen. To pan, keep the mouse pressed and move it around.