3.4. Archigram
Figure 14. Archigram - Control and choice dwelling (1967)
Archigram’s design intervention today, even after half a century has passed looks like construction of the future. A lot of today’s concepts are based on their interpretation for example- the plug-in city with modular units that rework themselves resembles to co working and co living spaces of today, or the Manzac11 that is uncannily similar to the smartphones we have today. The walking city that deploys itself from city to city and brings in events refers to tactile urbanism 12that helps our city rejuvenate in today’s age. The London-based group anticipated the global inter-relatedness of culture and technology and thus had an immediate influence on architectural discussions worldwide. Archigram’s ideas responded to space travel and moon landing, subculture and the Beatles, science fiction and the new technologies of the sixties and seventies. Their historical inspirations came from architect/artists such as Buckminster Fuller, Bruno Taut or Friedrich Kiesler. “Resource constraints were just as real to us then as they are now, just different. These unpredictable and unforeseeable changes (from the perspective of the 1960s, as from today) were the basis of our experimental architecture, which was designed with the
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Manzak is an idea for a radio-controlled, battery-powered electric automaton. It has onboard logic, optical range-finder, TV camera, and magic eye bump detectors. 12 Tactical urbanism includes low-cost, temporary changes to the built environment, usually in cities, intended to improve local neighbourhoods and city gathering places.
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