Archigram: The Book catalogues the entire fourteen-year output of the most provocative architectural collective of the twentieth century — megastructures, portable living capsules, autonomous dwellings — through the drawings and models that made their vision legible to a generation.
About This Book
In the 1960s and early 1970s, Archigram reimagined architecture from first principles: lightweight, infrastructural, mobile, and radically provisional. Working against the orthodoxies of postwar building — what they called “the crap then going up in London” — the group produced a body of theoretical work that influenced architects far beyond anything they ever constructed together. This revised edition, designed and edited by Archigram member Dennis Crompton, brings together the collective’s complete oeuvre including all issues of Archigram magazine, the members’ own commentaries, and critical essays by Reyner Banham, Martin Pawley, Michael Sorkin, and others. It remains the definitive document of the movement and an essential reference for anyone studying architectural theory, utopian urbanism, or the history of the avant-garde.
Key Features
- 300 pages plus 4 pages of inserts and 4 fold-outs of drawings, models, and Archigram magazine reproductions
- Authored by Warren Chalk, Peter Cook, Dennis Crompton, Ron Herron, David Greene, and Michael Webb, with essays by Reyner Banham, Martin Pawley, Michael Sorkin, and others
- Designed and edited by Dennis Crompton
- Published by Circa, 2002
What You’ll Discover
- How Archigram’s engagement with space-race technology and survival infrastructure produced ideas — including the Walking City and Plug-In City — that still resonate in contemporary architecture and urbanism
- The role of print culture in radical architecture: how Archigram magazine functioned as both manifesto and medium for ideas that existed outside conventional building practice
- Critical perspectives from Reyner Banham, Martin Pawley, and Michael Sorkin situating the group’s work within the broader intellectual currents of its era and their legacy today
- The tension between utopian ambition and material reality — a collective that never built a building together yet reshaped how architects think about mobility, modularity, and the future of dwelling
About the Author
Warren Chalk (1927–88), Peter Cook, Dennis Crompton, Ron Herron (1930–94), David Greene, and Michael Webb are the six founder members of Archigram, whose theoretical work began in the 1960s. The group was awarded the RIBA Royal Gold Medal in 2002, recognition of an influence on architectural thinking that far outlasted the collective’s active years.
Specifications
- Format: Hardcover
- Pages: 300 plus 4pp of inserts and 4 fold-outs
- Dimensions: 23 × 29.5 cm
- Language: English
- ISBN: 9781911422495
- Publisher: Circa
- Publication Date: 2002
Perfect For: Architects, architectural historians, and students of twentieth-century design theory with an interest in utopian urbanism, the avant-garde, and the relationship between drawing and built form.