ACKNOWLEDGMENTS viii INTRODUCTION 2 1. SPATIAL CULTURE IN FRANCE, 1960-1970 9 Looking Ahead 14 A Median World 16 The Topological Utopia 23 The Shape of Theory 27 2. SPATIAL URBANISM AND MOBILE ARCHITECTURE 33 Spatial Urbanism 36 Leisure and Mobility 55 Yona Friedman and the Groupe d'Etudes d'Architecture Mobile 62 The International Context 74 3THE CONCEPTION AND RECEPTION OF THE GROUPE INTERNATIONAL D'ARCHITECTURE PROSPECTIVE 81 GIAP 82 The Composite City 91 Rhetoric and Reception 94 Neo-avant-garde 100 4 PARIS SUR PARIS: SPATIAL URBANISM AND PROSPECTIVE PLANNING CULTURE 107 The Crisis of Modernism in France 112 Prospective Paris 119 Spatial Paris 122 5 TOPOLOG/CAL POLEMICS 139 Space Frames-a Selective History 143 Topology and the Space Frame 152 The Urban Frame 154 Architecture Principe and the Anti-Space Frame 160 6 INTEGRATIONS 169 From Synthesis to the Integration of the Arts 170 Ambient Space and Plastic Language 175 An Object World 180 CONCLUSION 188 NOTES 192 INDEX 220