Hubert Tonka (born 1943) is a French sociologist and urban planner who edited the ''Utopie'' magazine, and was one of the leaders of the ''Utopie'' movement in the late 1960s and early 1970s.
Career
For family reasons, Tonka had to start work at a very young age. In Paris around 1960 he was taking night classes for a diploma in urban planning while working in the day, where he met other members of what would become the ''Utopie'' group.
He worked as a plasterer in the day.
He became the assistant of
Henri Lefebvre
Henri Lefebvre ( , ; 16 June 1901 – 29 June 1991) was a French Marxist philosopher and sociologist, best known for pioneering the critique of everyday life, for introducing the concepts of the right to the city and the production of s ...
, who was a professor at the
University of Paris
, image_name = Coat of arms of the University of Paris.svg
, image_size = 150px
, caption = Coat of Arms
, latin_name = Universitas magistrorum et scholarium Parisiensis
, motto = ''Hic et ubique terrarum'' (Latin)
, mottoeng = Here and a ...
's institute of urban planning.
He was an aesthete, and a refined typographer.
By the end of 1966 he was a member of the editorial committee of ''Melp!'', the
École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts
The Beaux-Arts de Paris is a French ''grande école'' whose primary mission is to provide high-level arts education and training. This is classical and historical School of Fine Arts in France. The art school, which is part of the Paris Scienc ...
student association's review, along with
Jacques Barda,
Roland Castro,
Pierre Granveaud and
Antoine Grumbach.
''Melp!'' helped to articulate the dissatisfaction of students in the lead-up to the
protests of 1968
The protests of 1968 comprised a worldwide escalation of social conflicts, predominantly characterized by popular rebellions against state militaries and the bureaucracies.
In the United States, these protests marked a turning point for the ci ...
.
Tonka was co-founder of the
Vincennes
Vincennes (, ) is a commune in the Val-de-Marne department in the eastern suburbs of Paris, France. It is located from the centre of Paris. It is next to but does not include the Château de Vincennes and Bois de Vincennes, which are attache ...
department of urbanism.
The ''Utopie'' group originated from a meeting at Lefebvre's house in 1966.
It included the architects Jean Aubert,
Jean-Paul Jungmann and
Antoine Stinco
Antoine Stinco (born 1934) is a French architect who specializes in construction and renovation of museums and exhibition rooms.
Early years
Stinco was born in Tunis, Tunisia, and studied at the École nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts in ...
, the landscape architect
Isabelle Auricoste (his wife) and the sociologists
Jean Baudrillard
Jean Baudrillard ( , , ; 27 July 1929 – 6 March 2007) was a French sociologist, philosopher and poet with interest in cultural studies. He is best known for his analyses of media, contemporary culture, and technological communication, as ...
,
René Lourau and
Catherine Cot.
''Utopie, review de sociologie de l'urbain'' first appeared in May 1967, with Tonka as managing editor.
Tonka created L'Imprimerie Quotidienne, which printed the magazine.
Tonka edited and promoted collections of Baudrillard's essays, helping to draw the attention of the public to his views, which were at first Marxist but later moved towards the center.
Tonka became a Director at the French Institute of Architecture (1987) and a Professor of architecture and contemporary art in Bordeaux and Angers (1994).
In the 1990s Tonka and singer, songwriter and author
Jeanne-Marie Sens founded the publishing house
Sens & Tonka.
Tonka and Sens co-authored and published several books on architecture.
Views
Tonka gave life to the Pneumatic concepts of the ''Utopie'' group, which advocated ephemeral, inflatable structures.
Tonka held extreme left opinions, close to the anarchists, that could be traced back to
Rosa Luxemburg and
Mikhail Bakunin
Mikhail Alexandrovich Bakunin (; 1814–1876) was a Russian revolutionary anarchist, socialist and founder of collectivist anarchism. He is considered among the most influential figures of anarchism and a major founder of the revolutionary s ...
.
Talking of the intellectual roots of the ''Utopie'' group, Tonka said:
In a 1971 interview Tonka said "To imagine ... that it is possible to act politically through urbanism, architecture, and the detournement of either is a dream."
He believed that only a revolution could change society, and this could only happen in spite of architecture, which is by definition repressive.
Selected bibliography
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
References
;Citations
;Sources
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Tonka, Hubert
French sociologists
Living people
1943 births
French urban planners
French male writers