Disegnare il futuro: il "Grande Numero" e la civiltà del tempo libero

Abstract

With the spread of prosperity, relentless population growth, and the constant fear of nuclear conflict following World War II, utopian and dystopian visions of the future became a central theme for many observers, including writers, artists, and architects. As Michel Ragon noted in 1963, the architects explored extraordinary design and graphic solutions, ranging from the industrialization of housing to the creation of “sculpture-architecture”. A common thread in almost all these proposals was a new approach to the issue of the “Great Number”, addressing the challenges of large populations and daily lifestyles. This article aims to explore one aspect of the so-called utopias and dystopias of the 1960s, with a focus on the role of drawing and the imaginative capacity of some key figures who, in the lively debates of the time, developed graphic proposals capable of giving new meaning to the constant stream of images that portrayed leisure spaces and “cities of the future”.