During Mark Shepards discussion, there was a mention of Warren Chalk and a quote about how external influences which you can't effect alters how a city/ space is used. For example rain on Oxford Road, London means less people on the streets, less activity in the city. Something simple like this has a far greater impact on the use of a space.
The whole discussion was very interesting looking at cities as social networks, the links between architecture and current web design. Anyway the Warren Chalk quote led me to looking at some of the work by the Archigram architectural group.
"In late 1960, in various flats in Hampstead, a loose group of people started to meet: to criticize projects, to concoct letters to the press, to combine to make competition projects, and generally prop one another up against the boredom of working in a London architectural office. It became obvious that some publication would help. The main British magazines did not at that time publish student work, so that Archigram was reacting to this as well as the general sterility of the scene. The title came from a notion of a more urgent and simple item than a journal, like a 'telegram' or 'aerogramme,' hence 'archi(tecture)-gram.'...By this time Peter Cook, David Greene, and Mike Webb, in making a broadsheet, had started a new Group."?Print this post
Thus begins Archigram, a chronicle of the work of a group of young British architects that became the most influential architecture movement of the 1960s, as told by the members themselves. It includes material published in early issues of their journal, as well as numerous texts, poems, comics, photocollages, drawings, and fantastical architecture projects. Work presented includes Instant City, pod living, the Features Monte Carlo entertainment center, Blow-out Village, and the Cushicle personalized enclosure. Archigram's influence continues unabated: direct descendants of the group's work include Lebbeus Woods, Neil Denari, Takasaki Masaharu, ?and Morphosis.?
Walking City - a self-contained mobile pod of urban elements.
The Suitaloon - a garment which converts into a dwelling.
Living Pod - an add-on domicile with all modern conveniences.
Blow-out Village - an entire temporary city which inflates from a hovercraft.
Cushicle - a vehicle which becomes a private cubicle/chaise longue.
Bathamatic - automatic bathing and relaxation device.
Other far-out innovations by Archigram include: The Electronic Tomato, Tuned Suburb, Plug-in City (after which the local gallery is named), Instant City, Free Time Node Trailer Park, and more! Due to its size, the exhibition will take place in two locations, 286 McDermot and 2nd floor 290 McDermot. Models, plans and concepts by this amazing group will be augmented with a multimedia display and projects from the Archigram Archives. Tours of the Archigram exhibition will be available beginning Friday, June 7 and continue until the end of the summer. After, take a break in the Inflatable Lounge, where visitors can relax with reading materials and refreshments.
Fun, play and pleasure were the rationale for Archigrams projects, not as recreation, the pause that refreshes, between stretches of productive labour, but as an epistemology and an end in itself.
