Archigram

Through­out the 1960s and ear­ly 1970s, Archi­gram envi­sioned the future of archi­tec­ture in ways that enthralled a gen­er­a­tion. In an era defined by the space race, they devel­oped a high-tech, light­weight, infra­struc­tur­al approach that stretched far beyond known tech­nolo­gies or con­tem­po­rary real­i­ties. They devised autonomous dwellings and focused on sur­vival tech­nol­o­gy; they exper­i­ment­ed with megas­truc­tures and mod­u­lar con­struc­tion sys­tems; they explored mobil­i­ty through the envi­ron­ment and the use of portable liv­ing cap­sules: all through the medi­um of an incred­i­ble series of draw­ings and mod­els. This book cat­a­logues Archigram’s activ­i­ties over four­teen years, includ­ing 165 pages from all ten Archi­gram mag­a­zines. Along with com­men­taries by the archi­tects, there are con­tri­bu­tions from crit­ics Reyn­er Ban­ham, Mar­tin Paw­ley, Michael Sorkin and oth­ers, writ­ing then and now. Designed and edit­ed by Archi­gram mem­ber Den­nis Cromp­ton, Archi­gram: The Book has been 40 years in the making. 

War­ren Chalk (1927−88), Peter Cook, Den­nis Cromp­ton, Ron Her­ron (1930−94), David Greene and Michael Webb are the founder mem­bers of Archi­gram. Their the­o­ret­i­cal work began in the 1960s as a cry against ​‘the crap then going up in Lon­don’. Although they nev­er built a build­ing togeth­er, their influ­ence over a gen­er­a­tion of archi­tects con­tin­ues to be felt today. The group was award­ed the RIBA Roy­al Gold Medal in 2002. 

‘Archi­gram is easy to love: Its com­bi­na­tion of com­ic book graph­ics, tongue-in-cheek humor, and high-tech futur­ism is a potent mix. Now the group’s entire out­put has been com­pressed into a mighty 300-page tome that is, above all else, a visu­al feast.’
– Metrop­o­lis Mag­a­zine Hol­i­day Gift Guide 2018

‘Archigram’s ghost, a very colour­ful ghost, is every­where.’
– Jonathan Meades, Lon­don Review of Books, 21 May 2020

‘Archi­gram was to archi­tec­ture what the Bea­t­les were to rock and roll. No less.’
– Michael Sorkin