Utopia as Essential Element in Architectural Masterpieces

Luigi Prestinenza Puglisi argues that utopia is a fundamental component of architectural masterpieces, which often contain deliberate 'errors' or deviations from standards. He contrasts Susan Sontag's 1966 essay 'Against Interpretation,' which advocates for an 'erotics of art' over hermeneutics, with architecture's inherent utopian drive. Puglisi references Manfredo Tafuri's 1973 book 'Progetto e utopia,' which critiques modern architecture's failed utopian ambitions under capitalism but acknowledges that good architecture can still be made as 'pure form without utopia.' However, Puglisi contends that even Tafuri's view does not eliminate utopia; rather, great architecture spatializes hope. He cites examples like Frank Lloyd Wright's Fallingwater, Le Corbusier's Unité d'Habitation (dubbed 'Maison du Fada'), Mies van der Rohe's Farnsworth House, and the Barcelona Pavilion (with Mies and Lilly Reich) to show how technical flaws or contradictions (e.g., useless columns in the Barcelona Pavilion, structural ambiguities in Ronchamp) actually enhance the work's utopian power. Puglisi concludes that masterpieces are inherently 'inappropriate' and that adherence to standards leads to banality.