If you haven't read "Seeing like a State" I think you would find it quite interesting. There was a period where urban planners thought that they could, starting

If you haven't read "Seeing like a State" I think you would find it quite interesting. There was a period where urban planners thought that they could, starting from first principles, design the perfect urban environment. It wasn't just authoritarians doing it, but those were the places most able to continue to execute on a vision and disregard the pushback.