ARCHIGRAM

In 1961, young British architects Peter Cook, Warren Chalk, Ron Herron, Dennis Crompton, David Greene and Michael Webb published the first issue of Archigram, a magazine that will continue to be published until 1969 and that will connote them as a group, although in reality they were never an actual group despite their many collective activities. The name of the magazine alluded to the method of drawn architecture that they favoured and to the need for a simpler and more immediate method of expression (Architecture+Telegram). The exhibition Living City (1963) and the publications of the critic Reyner Banham proved fundamental in spreading their ideas, allowing their workl, where architecture was considered one of mass society’s many consumer goods, to resonate at an international level as well: an ephemeral architecture presented through visionary and hyper-technological images, for a city that represented a formally and conceptually revolutionary alternative, drawing inspiration from technological progress and space travel and from underground and pop cultures. The Plug-in City (1964) by Peter Cook, the Walking City (1964) by Ron Herron, and the dwelling cells Living Pods by David Greene or the Instant City (1968) were projects that, ironically reclaiming a place for architecture within the mass media culture, laid the foundations for future architectural debates, both in terms of linguistic innovation and by introducing profoundly innovative concepts, such as the idea that a project did not require practical legitimization.