Open Soon: The Archigram Archives

Good news reached us today. Arkinet writes about the upcoming opening of Archigram’s archives, “with more than 4,000 drawings, models and audio tapes produced by Archigram that have been catalogued and made digital over the past years”. The archive contains material that hasn’t been public for fourty years and everything will be made freely available on a special website under the name of ‘Archigram Archival Project’. April 19 is its launch date.

In 1961, David Greene, Peter Cook and Michael Webb published Archigram’s first issue. The low-budget magazine was printed in 300 copies and printed on large-format paper. After publishing Archigram #2 in 1962, ideas were turned into projects, for example the exhibition ‘Living City’ in the Institute of Contemporary Arts (ICA) in London, in which Archigram represented the city as a living organism. Arkinet describes the magazine as a platform for new generations of architets, planners and artists, “presenting new solutions for existing urban-design problems”.

“With Peter Cook’s quote ‘The pre-packaged frozen lunch is more important than Palladio’, the group defined their position in the early 60’s, when architecture and cities were in need of big changes.”

Achigram’s work seems to be more relevant than ever before. The launch of the archive this Tuesday could inspire current generations of architects and urban designers who have to cope with increasingly flexible cities in an increasingly flexible world.