From the Environmental Communications Archives
The Archigram Vision

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Archigram started as an urgent message, a broadcast about a "new generation....(which) must arise", and continued with a rapid succession of publications and exhibitions, all of which were characterized by audacious criticism and provocative synthesis. These works were among the most influential shock vibrations of the 1960's for architects and planners around the world. In a decade that ended with riots expressive of social and political disorder, this group of young London- based architects began and sustained a campaign of environmental revolution. They went beyond function to images of fantasy based on mechanical invention and pop culture. Archigram explored the continuities of change and choice using the opportunities presented by new, spacey technologies. "Plug-in City", "Living Pod", "Instant City" and "Ad Hoc" design are visual Archigram inventions that are part of our intellectual and visual vocabulary. Even further out are the environmental situations of "Manzak", "Suitaloon", "Cushicle", "Blow out Village", "Gasket Homes" and the "Walking City". The polemics of
Archigram were originally communicated using all the media of our time, including throw aways and seed packets. But their fundamental offering was in the form of pictures - beautifully drawn projections and skillfully assembled collages - that instantly evoked a future of change and adaptability, flow and movement. The colors were full; florescent lime, day-glo pink, electric blue and saturated yellow. The means were mechanical; "Blow-up", recycle, dissolve, zoom, prefab, clip-on, robotize". The effects were evocative, outrageous, hilarious, daring and intense and, always, poetic.

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An eclectic collection of information...

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