Contrary to what its present-day currency among architects, seasteaders and governments might suggest, oceanic architecture is by no means a new phenomenon. Living environments on or under the sea witnessed a surge in a period best remembered for its environmentalism, counterculture and Cold War geopolitics: the ‘transatlantic Sixties’. Back then, utopian architects drew up floating cities, pioneering scientists built submarine habitats, and outlaw entrepreneurs realised offshore structures. But these endeavours remain uncharted territory within architectural history, which has yet to undergo the ‘oceanic turn’ already witnessed by other disciplines in the humanities.
The goal of this project is to push architectural history’s scope beyond the shoreline by charting the oceanic architecture of the Sixties. Building on recent insights from the so-called blue humanities, it recognises the ocean as a place where reality and imagination interact. It approaches oceanic architecture both as actual, physical places (literal topoi) and as mythical, literary motifs (literary topoi). To signify this double modality, I refer to oceanic architecture as thalassotopias, a neologism derived from the ancient Greek words for ‘sea’ (thálassa) and ‘place’ (tópos).
Postdoc working on the project: Janno Martens.
Funded by the FWO