91 What If the Urban Utopia Was Something We Could Actually Build? Planning and Designing Better Communities Anca Badut and Ulrich Gehmann built a utopian city. It only took a couple of weeks. The city was brought to life by advanced 3D visualization and modeling tools, along with a 3D content library, using GIS technology. The goal was to create a digital reality that reflected the tradition of utopian architecture, while minimizing the grandiose elements typical of depictions of ideal cities. It had to somehow integrate the elements of European cities that enhance quality of life. Badut and Gehmann called their creation Utopian Disruption, which they presented at Esri’s 2023 Geodesign Summit. Badut is an architect by training. She works as a technical director at vrbn (pronounced “urban”), a Zurich-based firm that designs detailed computergenerated environments. Vrbn’s clients include video game designers, Hollywood filmmakers, and advertising agencies. Gehmann, an urban theorist and academic, is the founder and director of Ideal Spaces Working Group (ISWG), a German nonprofit foundation. With an interdisciplinary team that includes engineers, digital modelers, architects, and historians, ISWG conducts research and develops projects that explore how architecture is perceived. The foundation focuses on optimizing the built environment to best serve the needs of people. As ISWG’s manifesto explains, “The ideal space is a mythic theme, but at the same time, very practical.” Exploring the Concept of Ideal Spaces ISWG’s exhibition, The Heavenly City and Paradise, displayed at the central church in the German town of Karlsruhe in 2022, foreshadowed Utopian Disruption. Through images and text, it traced the evolution of ideas of paradise, from ancient images to contemporary futurism concepts. Vrbn and ISWG have had a working relationship since 2015. Vrbn helped build 3D models that were part of ISWG’s display at Biennale Architecture 2016 in Venice, Italy. Two years later, as part of ISWG’s Artificial Natures exhibition at the Biennale, vrbn constructed multiple interactive 3D models of cities. Some were based on
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