First published nearly fifty years ago, Liselotte and O.M. Ungers’ seminal book 

 (Kiepenheuer & Witsch, 1972) studies 35 radically utopian communes of various sizes and from a variety of historical periods. The book remains a cult favorite, but without an English edition the Ungers’ great narrative of American socialist and architectural history has been all but forgotten. This first English translation published by REAL Foundation and edited by Winston Hampel and Jack Self, revives, revises, and expands on their work.

Taking the approach of ‘if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it’, we forensically matched the design and materiality of the original 1970’s edition to the present day translation. This was bookended by a new introductory preface, and an expanded appendix. Our design intervention – the added plane – is signalled in canary yellow linking the past with the present.

Published by REAL Foundation, 2020
Designed with Seb McLauchlan
10.4 × 6.5 cm, 102 pp