'It was intended as a poetic provocation to all the content of the architectural discourse...introducing words, music, drawings, film, fashion.' - Archigram
Architecture as...fantasy? As fantastical science-fictional buildings and cityscapes? But we've seen countless artistic visions of future cities in sci-fi magazines and on book covers...so what? But Archigram went further - they had the plans.
Schemers and dreamers, yes, but Archigram drew, photographed and collaged their ideas and they can be seen in this book - The Book, the best and only book you need on these architectural theoreticians. Wait though, in case the idea of 'theory' puts you off, fear not, their schemes are such that they are a visual delight...
...a dash of situationism and a splash of Pop art sparked, to some degree, by the famous This Is Tomorrow exhibition...'Always definitively incomplete', as they say in the text accompanying the Nottingham shopping viaduct project. Incomplete echoes the idea of the disposable culture so many were discussing as manufacturing and materials showered the post-WW2 world with all manner of goods...an incomplete satisfaction, perhaps? The instantaneous consumer hit so quickly fading and needing to be found again and again.
Yet Archigram were no socialist, utopian idealists against shallow consumerism, Like so many Pop artists they cast enthusiastic eyes over the array of products, from film to pulp fiction and domestic goods and were inspired. The Book even contains a pop-up page...
...or should that be Pop-up?
Archigram seemed to exist on the cool outer edges of Swinging London's hot epicentre....outsiders looking in and visualising what they saw, or rather, offering an alternate vision because despite all that was happening in London during the 60s the collective was able to somehow mirror, without directly engaging in, The Scene. Such is my impression, although it's quite possible some of them were in contact with the scenesters.
The final photo may 'say it all' in terms of Cool sophistication combined with Pop domestic products. A living city survival kit indeed! Note the inclusion of both Ornette Coleman and Coltrane. Sunglasses, a gun, a pack of cigarettes and, of course, a copy of Playboy. All that a penthouse-dwelling urbanite needs to survive. This urbane hipster would, however, be living in an Archigram-designed pod in a mobile city.
Finally, I found this fantastic short film, made in 1967 and perfectly capturing the spirit of Archigram and the times...
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