Revisiting the Phalanstère:
a Housing Solution for a Southern California Industry
One of the most radical, altruistic, and far reaching ideas in scope was Charles Fourier’s Phalanstère, conceived in the early eighteen hundreds. According to his theories and a scheme he designed, a Phalanstère was a form of utopian community collectivized in a large, vaguely Versaille-like building which mixed urban and rural systems and was intended to contain between 500 - 2000 people.
This project revisits Fourier’s Phalanstere as if it was located in Southern California. Taking one of many industries in the region, in this case education, paired with one of many region-specific issues, in this case drought, to look for a unique housing solution. The result is a water-technologies campus conformed of demonstration buildings in harmony with housing for water professionals, students and staff.
