ABSTRACT
Karel Teige was born in 1900 in Prague; he was a prolific writer, editor, urban and architectural theorist, typographer, and book designer. This chapter looks at three aspects of Teige's writings on architecture and the city. First, it addresses his revolutionary poetics and aesthetics through what he called, in English, the 'magic-city'. Then, the chapter turns to his socialist critiques of dwelling and transportation. Finally it considers Teige's vision for an 'architecture without architecture', a deurbanized landscape that will be referred to here as 'a city without a city', drawing on the work of German architect and planner Thomas Sieverts. The chapter also considers most explicitly Teige's relevance for the present. It focuses on his critiques of urbanism and urban planning. The chapter argues that the contrast between function and fantasy is best perceived from the standpoint of what Lefebvre called the product and the oeuvre, or what de Certeau called the functional city and the mobile or metaphorical city.
