Archigram: Visionary Futures From the 60′s

The BBC has created a fascinating slide show which highlights the work of avant-garde architectural group Archigram. The collective was formed in the 1960′s by a group of friends who came together to discuss far out concepts about architecture and design. Their ideas about modular and mobile cities probably seemed like something out of a psychedelic sci-fi movie at the time, but maintain a fresh relevance, and persist as a source of inspiration today.

Archigram founding member David Greene explains their aesthetic:

If we consider for a moment Christo‘s seminal work – the ‘wrapped cliff’ – we might see it in one of two ways: as a wrapped cliff or; preferably, as the point at which all other cliffs are unwrapped. An Archigram project attempts to achieve this same altered reading of the familiar (in the tradition of Buckminster Fuller’s question, ‘How much does your building weigh?’). It provides a new agenda where nomadism is the dominant social force; where time, exchange and metamorphosis replace stasis; where consumption, lifestyle and transience become the programme; and where the public realm is an electronic surface enclosing the globe

BBC: “Audio slideshow: Futuristic designs from the past”

Wikipedia: Archigram