Architecture

The usual practice when discussing science fiction and architecture is to look at the architecture “in” science fiction, particularly in science fiction films. This chapter starts by mapping out a definition of science fiction with respect to Darko Suvin’s “novum” and Adam Roberts’s “technology fiction,” arguing that some of the most significant utopian or speculative architectures, from early-twentieth-century avant-gardes, International Style modernism, postwar pop architecture to more recent cyberarchitectures, should be considered as full blown works of science fiction. The chapter also develops the idea that in architecture and science fiction, it is “representations” of technology that both tend to deal with, and concludes that architecture, by actively engaging with the speculative possibilities of science fiction, could find a critical alternative to the banalities of late-capitalist corporate architecture.