The Speculative World of Archigram – Part 2.

by Sandi Vincent on June 17, 2010

Blow Out Village | Project author Peter Cook, 1966

Speculative proposal for mobile village using hovercraft, hydraulics and inflatable technologies.

Milanogram (Triennale) – Axonometric | 1967-68
Project authors: Peter Cook, Dennis Crompton, David Greene, Ron Herro.

Exhibition design for ‘The Greater Number Problem’ in the international section of the Milan Triennale featuring many Archigram projects.

Instant City (IC) | Elevation (Right Half) | 1968

Instant City (IC) | Santa Monica + San Diego Freeway Intersection, LA | 1968
Project authors (Part A & B): Peter Cook, Dennis Crompton, Graham Foundation, Ron Herron, Gordon Pask.

Speculative research project exploring possibilities of injecting metropolitan dynamic into other areas through temporary events, structures, mobile facilities and information technology.

Casual City | Project author: Peter Cook, 1971

Archive currently holds no information on this project.

Oasis | Project author: Ron Herron, 1968

Speculative project for an ‘indeterminate’ civic building, sometimes cited as model for the Pompidou Centre. Published in Archigram 8.

Documenta 5 | Project authors: Peter Cook, Dennis Crompton, Ron Herron, 1969

Kassel Kit’ event-structure for Documenta 5, 1972. Temporary art event/stage set up through a kit of parts based on Instant City kit.

Self Destruct Environ Pole | Project authors: Graham Foundation, Ron Herron, 1969

Speculative proposal for a self-destructing information and entertainments display and services mast. Part of Instant City and supported by the Graham Foundation.

Drive-In Housing – Axonometric | Project author: Michael Webb, 1966

Highly elaborated ongoing speculative exploration of the possible use of cars as mobile and serviced component parts of an adaptable dwelling system composed of cars, drive-in buildings and services.

Air House Project – Cardiff Castle Exhibition | Project author: Ron Herron, 1965

Proposal for a series of inflatable dwellings as part of an exhibition for the Commonwealth Festival, located in the lodge of Cardiff Castle.

Leisure Study: Inflatable Units Sea/Land/Air | Project author: Ron Herron, 1966

‘Seaside Bubbles’: Speculative project for pneumatic units suspended from mast structure over and under the sea.

(Images used with express permission from EXP University of Westminister. © Archigram.)
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Archigram Redux

Evidence above of more time spent getting caught in the vortex of the Archigram Archival Project—an extensive archival endeavor making available the work of the seminal architectural group Archigram for public viewing and academic study. The project is run by a team from EXP, an architectural research group at the University of Westminster. (Collaborative help kindly provided by the surviving members of Archigram or their heirs who retain copyright of all images.)

Archigram was an avant-garde architectural group formed in the 1960s—based at the Architectural Association, London—that was futurist, anti-heroic and pro-consumerist, drawing inspiration from technology in order to create a new reality that was solely expressed through hypothetical projects.

–Wikipedia

>> Check out my previous Archigram feature (Part 1) to see/learn more.
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Sandi Vincent grew up in the bay area of California surrounded by mid-century modern architecture and other influences responsible for her affinity for the period and its pop style, including her early exposure to The Monkees, The Avengers and Gerald McBoing-Boing. Sandi now resides in Portland and is a board member of a local nonprofit preservation group, the Mid-Century Modern League. In her day job at a community foundation, she sports the web/social media/print materials coordinator title.