INTRODUCTION
Imagine for a moment. Somewhere by the edge of the city, in the distance, you see structures of immense scale treading above the water like monstrous steel creatures. Their insectlike exoskeletons and periscoping legs pass over you, exposing its belly and steel elements. These structures of prefabricated apartments roaming around flat lands without a place to settle are home to thousands of people, and you are left wondering, “how is life like above there?”
You return to the reality of 1963’s London, holding an academic journal called “Archigram 3,” looking at the black and white drawings of the “Walking City” made by Ron Herron with a sense of admiration and awe. The Archigram newsletter and movement, led by students, graduates, and architects of an avant-garde British architectural group: Warren Chalk, Peter Cook, Dennis Crompton, David Greene, Ron Herron, and Michael Webb, published provocative “hypothetical” work between 1961 and 1974 and soon set up their motion and generated great departures from mainstream vocabulary within the 1960s English architectural education.1 As Greene summarized in his poem:
1 Sadler, Simon. 2005. Archigram - Architecture Without Architecture. Cambridge: The MIT Press. p.2
Figure 1: Ron Herron. Walking City on the Ocean, 1966 (MoMA n.d.).“A new generation of architecture must arise with forms and spaces which seems to reject the precepts of ‘Modern’ yet in fact retains these precepts. WE HAVE CHOSEN TO BYPASS
THE DECAYING BAUHAUS IMAGE WHICH IS AN INSULT TO FUNCTIONALISM.”
(Cook et al., 1999)
Archigram’s work presented a new potential and power of visual representation and conceptual thinking, which had an immense impact on the future of architecture education and practice, inspiring academic institutions and significant architects of the late 20th and early 21st century, such as Rem Koolhaas, Zaha Hadid or Richard Rogers. As this essay will argue, Archigram’s legacy goes beyond the time frame of the 1960s and the pages of their issues – significantly influencing the trajectory of English architecture education. Further, focusing on the “Walking City” project as a central example of Archigram’s evolution, philosophy, and vision.
THE RISE OF THE ‘NEW WORLD’ 2
Archigram was a reminder that modernism had lost its technological nerve, which was promised in the 1920s by Bauhaus and primary architects of that generation, such as Le Corbusier, Mies van der Rohe, and Frank Lloyd Wright. Archigram’s designs destabilized the fundamental assumption that architecture is a static art, which uses the standard International Style vocabulary and functionalist rationale.3 These standardizations deprived modernism of its inherent avant-garde quality.4 With technological developments, such as the launching of the satellite in 1962, revolutionary steps in the computation world, the beginnings of the internet, and the production of LED lights,5 a world of endless possibilities opened up, thus launching new sources of inspiration, creativity, and tools – projecting utopian visions into the future. Neo-futuristic, anti-heroic, and pro-consumerist, the group drew inspiration from the rapidly evolving technology to create a new reality for the upcoming generation. Archigram’s aim was the domestication of technology by selective appropriation through design means. Parallel, pop culture has become more widespread, and 1964 was known as the year of the great British Invasion of America through the appearance of the Beatles and rock’n roll music6 - “Like the Beatles, Archigram was not founded on any clarion declaration but came together almost casually – a rebellious sense of purpose and a remarkable lack of rancor towards the system they sought to overturn” (Crompton 1999).
2 Crompton, Dennis. 1999. Concerning Archigram . London: Archigram Archives. p.1
3 Sadler, Simon. 2005. Archigram - Architecture Without Architecture. Cambridge: The MIT Press. p.5
4 Sadler, Simon. 2005. Archigram - Architecture Without Architecture. Cambridge: The MIT Press. p.13
5 Tech, Paste. 2014. Six Tech Advancements from the 60s That Changed the World. July 30. https://www.pastemagazine.com/tech/six-tech-advancements-from-the/.
6 Crompton, Dennis. 1999. Concerning Archigram . London: Archigram Archives. p.10
The story of the Archigram movement essentially began at lunch tables between a group of friends that re-evaluated architectural education and practice; these ideas were born from necessity due to the time’s poor and limiting education structures that merely produced architects for offices rather than the future. Archigram turned away from conventional architecture, proposing dynamic designs inspired by pop art and psychedelia, which floated away, moved, and tethered by wires, gantries, tubes, and trucks – completely defying past architectural precepts. The nine issues of the Archigram magazine encapsulated over 900 drawings and models to criticize and propose new ways of designing and living to protest “against the boredom of working in London architectural office” (Cook et al., 1999) and to stir a continuous enthusiasm and curiosity within architectural schools.
BURSTING THE SEAMS 7
The Walking City is perhaps the most famous work produced by Archigram due to its implausibility and provocative nature. The technological utopianism presented through these drawings, which were reflections of previously published issues, revolved around the fragmentation of metropolitan dwellings by moving, flexing, and transferring a city. This project replaced almost an entire range of modern architectural values by unsolidifying buildings into car-like forms – widening the performance of the home and city. The project elevates the idea of mass production of architecture, inspired by Le Corbusier, to another level by comparing cities to vehicles. The Walking City presents an interesting dilemma between trying to escape the past Bauhaus and brutalism effect yet still being framed within it, thus being judged based on those past standards.
Unfortunately, Archigram’s project never escaped the hypothetical realm, which begs the question of its validity, adaptability to real-life constraints, and influence on students that aspire to reach similar impressive graphical imagery. Post-publication, starting in London, many students implemented similarly fantastical and extreme approaches in design. At the same time, some architectural institutions, such as the Architectural Association, asked pupils to produce their own versions of the magazine projects.8 Leading to a chain of designs that are visually exciting, edgy, and sometimes crazy but often leave the viewers confused as to their practicality and potential of solving current real-life issues. Archigram’s direct style is arguably outdated and disconnected from 21st-century needs; nonetheless, their publications are often cited as the most important movement of the 1960s - paving a path for new graphic representation, theoretical thinking, and redefining past principles. Ultimately, Archigram revived a sense of hope, fun, and wittiness in a world that became significantly standardized and serious.
7 Cook, Peter, Warren Chalk, Dennis Crompton, David Greene, Ron Herron, and Mike Webb. 1999. Archigram. New York: Princeton Architectural Press . p.48
8 AA School of Architecture. 2019. Archigram - First Works: Emerging Architectural Experimentation of the 1960s and 1970s. May 22. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D2WUUX2oUCc&t=108s.
Figure 2: Evolution of modernism (Archidialog n.d.).BIBLIOGRAPHY
AA School of Architecture. 2019. Archigram - First Works: Emerging Architectural Experimentation of the 1960s and 1970s. May 22. https://www.youtube. com/watch?v=D2WUUX2oUCc&t=108s.
Archidialog. n.d. Le Corbusier & Archigram – “Buildings floating in the air” or “building moving”. https://archidialog.com/2011/07/05/le-corbusier-archigram–-“buildings-floating-in-the-air”-or-“building-moving”/.
Cook, Peter, Warren Chalk, Dennis Crompton, David Greene, Ron Herron, and Mike Webb. 1999. Archigram. New York: Princeton Architectural Press .
Crompton, Dennis. 1994. A Guide to Archigram 1961-74. London: Academy Editions.
—. 1999. Concerning Archigram . London: Archigram Archives.
MoMA. n.d. Ron Herron - Walking City on the Ocean, project (Exterior perspective) 1966. https://www.moma.org/collection/works/814.
Sadler, Simon. 2005. Archigram - Architecture Without Architecture. Cambridge: The MIT Press.
Tech, Paste. 2014. Six Tech Advancements from the 60s That Changed the World. July 30. https://www.pastemagazine.com/tech/six-tech-advancements-fromthe/.