English 1010 Project 3: Eutopia

(utopia = the perfect place; eutopia = the good place)

Introduction
If you’re someone with an interest in architecture, planning, community revitalization, or environmental studies, then you might be particularly interested in this project. It will give you the chance to further reflect upon the places, people, relationships, and experiences you’ve written about thus far. It will offer you a chance to investigate what James Howard Kunstler calls “the art of making good places.” This project extends the thinking you did when you wrote about your place as well as the thinking you did about the lives, experiences, and places of the people you wrote about in your oral history projects.

Think about a neighborhood, community, or town you would like to improve. It’s okay—even desirable—that you focus on the community or place you wrote about in Project 1, or the general area in which you now live (or any other place you know about and want to use as a starting point for your eutopia). What could be improved about this place? How is your impression of what is wrong with this place?

Assignment
Write an essay in which you describe for your readers what a eutopia would be—that is, a truly good place (not a perfect place, which is what the word utopia implies). What would such a place have to have? Do you think such eutopias are still possible? Or not? Or maybe they already exist—in which case, let a significant piece of your essay be a depiction of some particular place you know that fulfills many of your requirements for a eutopia. Your essay should include descriptions of what is wrong with current places and the features you would improve or develop in order to create a good place.

Features to consider (in no certain order): transportation, recreation, environmental sustainability, residential and commercial, etc…

Questions to consider: What behavior do you want to encourage? Discourage? How do you want people to use the places/spaces you create?

RequirementsLength: a minimum of 1000 words
Format: MLA
Due Date: Friday, November 20th