The ideal city. A concept, an idea, a project that has captivated philosophers, artists, and urban planners for centuries. The ideal city is an imaginary, perfect place where humanity lives in harmony and prosperity, where everyone’s needs are met, and where beauty prevails.

The fleeting appearance of the video featuring Trump and Musk in Gaza forces a bitter reflection. The image of an ideal city, flaunted like a trophy, built upon the ruins of a crumbling world, reveals the most despicable manifestation of modern titanism, the arrogance of those who think they can shape reality in the image and likeness of their own delusion.

The most famous work depicting the concept of the perfect city comes from an anonymous artist, though some critics attribute it to Piero della Francesca. The Ideal City is a complex work translated into visual form—an architecture of reason that transforms into urban space.

Quiet squares and geometric buildings are not mere backdrops but symbols of a social order, of a cosmic harmony that humanity seeks to emulate through art. In this work, perspective is not just a technique; it is an assertion of power, an attempt to harness the world within a grid of rationality, to subjugate nature to the dominion of the mind.

Canaletto guides us through the maze of 18th-century Venice—a city that does not aspire to an ideal but thrives in its imperfection, in its ever-changing beauty. His Vedute (Italian for ‘views’) capture the soul of La Serenissima: its light, its atmosphere, its history. Water, the dominant element, reflects the buildings, multiplies images, creates a sense of fluidity and movement—a tangible reminder of humanity’s origins.

In the grid-like structure of New York City, Mondrian goes beyond mere urban representation. The metropolis dissolves into a network of lines and primary colors, a synthesis of both aesthetic and real dynamism. The city disappears, dissolving into warm colors contrasted by cool-toned lines that break the rhythm and create geometric layers.

And so, little by little, we reach modernity. Fritz Lang’s Metropolis thrusts the viewer into a dystopian future—a machine-city that devours its inhabitants, a nightmare of steel and concrete that warns of the dangers of unbridled technology. In this work, architecture is no longer a symbol of harmony, but of oppression, alienation, and dehumanization. Anonymous masses that move like cogs in a machine, robots that replace humans, represent the fear of progress, the loss of individuality, the reduction of humans to mere instruments.

Thus, the ideal city reveals itself in all its complexity. A concept that evolves over time, nourished by utopias and dystopias, by dreams and nightmares. It is not a physical place but an idea, a project, a process, a continuous dialogue between past and future, between art and life. It is a place where beauty and justice converge, where technology serves humanity, where the community cares for the individual. Here, harmony is not a static ideal but a dynamic balance, an ever-unfolding transformation.

Philosophy, from Plato to Foucault, has always questioned the city—its role, its meaning. In The Republic, Plato envisions a city governed by reason, where all citizens play the role best suited to them, a hierarchical model that prioritizes order and stability. On the other hand, Foucault analyzes the power dynamics hidden behind the apparent neutrality of urban space, revealing the mechanisms of control and discipline that shape both individual and collective behavior.

Today, in the face of climate change, social inequality, globalization, the reflection on the ideal city becomes even more urgent. How can we create sustainable, inclusive, and resilient cities? How can we combine technological progress and human well-being? How can we take urban space back, transforming it into a place of encounter, exchange, and participation?

The (ideal?) city is an open project—a place where beauty becomes harmony, where utopia and reality meet, clash, and enrich one another, giving rise to new forms of coexistence, new expressions of beauty, and new utopias.

Opening image: Fra Carnevale, The Ideal City, 1480, The Walters Art Museum, Baltimora, Maryland, United States. Courtesy Wikimedia Commons