INFORMATION of May 12, 2016

Frankfurt am Main

YESTERDAY´S FUTURE Visionary Designs by Future Systems and Archigram May 14 — September 18, 2016 at Deutsches Architekturmuseum (DAM) Schaumainkai 43, 60596 Frankfurt/Main Groundfloor EXHIBITION OPENING: Fri, May 13, 2016, 7 p.m. PRESS CONFERENCE: Thu, May 12, 2016, 11 a.m. GUIDED TOURS: On Saturdays and Sundays, 2 p.m. left: Future Systems, Peanut (Project 124), 1984 © Deutsches Architekturmuseum right: Archigram, Walking City (Project 064), 1964 © Deutsches Architekturmuseum

OPEN: Tue, Thu — Sun 11.00 — 18.00 \ Wed 11.00 — 20.00 \ Mon closed

ON THE EXHIBITION

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JAN KAPLICKÝ AND FUTURE SYSTEMS

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ARCHIGRAM

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PROJECTS IN THE EXHIBITION

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PUBLICATION

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IMPRINT

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COMING SOON / CONTACT

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UTOPIAS FOR “YESTERDAY´S FUTURE” – ORGANIC ARCHITECTURE THAT ENSURED SURVIVAL IN INHOSPITALE ENVIRONMENTS BY ARCHIGRAM OPPOSED TO TECHNOID DESIGNS BY FUTURE SYSTEMS WHICH WERE LOCATED IN FRIENDLIER PLACES The exhibition “Yesterday’s Future” presents extraordinary utopias created by the teams of architects at Future Systems and Archigram. It focuses on detailed technical drawings, brightly coloured collages and filigree original models. The works by Czech architect and founder of Future Systems Jan Kaplický, who emigrated to London in 1968, date from the 1980s and 1990s and are juxtaposed to designs created 20 years earlier by the Archigram architectural group, which was made up of Peter Cook, Ron Herron, and Dennis Crompton. Whereas Archigram conceived organic architecture that ensured survival in inhospitable environments, the technoid designs by Future Systems were located in friendlier places such as deserted natural surroundings or extremely built-up cities. The majority of these utopian designs remained concepts, intended as suggestions for living and surviving at times of social upheaval. The space architecture by Archigram was created around the time of the Moon landing in an era shaped by new beginnings. By way of contrast, Future Systems designed its self-sufficient, machine-like living capsules for a gloomy world at the height of the Cold War. The exhibition shows 44 exhibits by Future Systems lend by the Kaplicky Centre Prag and 44 exhibits by Archigram from the collection of the Deutsches Architekturmuseum.

JAN KAPLICKÝ AND FUTURE SYSTEMS Jan Kaplický (1937-2009) grew up in a family of intellectuals and artists in 1950s Prague. He studied in the Academy of Applied Arts there before embarking on his first minor architecture projects. He was particularly interested in the technical aspect of architecture and was influenced not only by the architecture of the Czech Functionalists, but also by American aircraft design. When, in August 1968, the political and social liberalization introduced by Alexander Dubček – known as the Prague Spring – was brought to an abrupt end by Soviet troops, Kaplický left the country, along with so many others. Kaplický arrived in Swinging London as an émigré in fall 1968 and worked there until 1983, both as a freelance architect and for various architecture firms. He was, for instance, involved in planning Piano + Rogers’ Centre Pompidou (1971–77) in Paris and Foster Associates’ Hong Kong & Shanghai Bank (1979– 86) in Hong Kong. In 1979, together with another architect, David Nixon, Kaplický established his own architecture firm, Future Systems. Many of their designs were reminiscent of constructions relating to space technology and were located in uninhabited spots of the world. Future Systems attracted the attention of both the trade press and Peter Cook (Archigram), resulting in exhibitions in London, Paris, Chicago and Frankfurt/Main in the 1980s. Future Systems underwent a change of direction when Amanda Levete came on board in 1989. David Nixon had left the company two years earlier. Now, their new motto became more buildings and less theory. Major competitions were to follow; however the Bibliothèque nationale de France in Paris and the new Acropolis Museum in Athens were two contracts that Future Systems did not win. The Selfridges department store is probably Future Systems’ best-known building and it has been a landmark of downtown Birmingham, England since 2003. One of Kaplický’s last projects was a new building for the Czech National Library. After he had won the competition his amorphous blob design became the object of a fierce debate in Czech society. The library remains a blueprint and the site a wasteland above the Vltava River…

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ARCHIGRAM 1961, the year when Yuri Gagarin became the first man in space and the Berlin Wall was built, was also the year when the Archigram group was established. In a social climate torn between progressive optimism and concerns about a nuclear war, a set of young architects emerged – Peter Cook, Warren Chalk, Ron Herron, Dennis Crompton, Michael Webb and David Greene – and completely changed the face of the British architecture scene. They had all met at a London-based construction company, Taylor Woodrow Construction. With Archigram the focus was on publishing as well as designing from the very outset. The name of their magazine, Archigram, was formed by amalgamating architecture and telegram. The magazine became more substantial from issue to issue, developing into a mouthpiece for 1960s architecture. Archigram drew on the music, art and fashion of its times not only for inspiration, but also as a pool of materials for its utopian urban architecture collages. Its members used the principles of Pop Art to disseminate their utopias, with their architecture being guided by their common interest in new technologies, social change and spectacular shapes. Their urban projects such as City Interchange or Plug-in City clearly reference Yona Friedman’s mega-structures and the tower cities of the Japanese Metabolists. Archigram broke apart in 1974. Its members went their separate ways, but remained in close contact. 1980s Frankfurt was also associated with Archigram and Peter Cook. In 1984, Cook became Professor of Architecture at the Städelschule; in 1992 he designed its new cafeteria. In the years following the establishment of the DAM its director Heinrich Klotz acquired work by Archigram for the museum’s collection. And in 1986 a major exhibition at DAM, Vision der Moderne, featured, alongside work by Coop Himmelb(l)au, OMA and Future Systems, a large number of Archigram’s drawings and collages.

PARTICULAR PROJECTS BY FUTURE SYSTEMS Coexistence 1984 Jan Kaplický, David Nixon, Arup Coexistence is a design for a skyscraper scaled in response to contemporary assumptions about population growth in the twenty-first century. On 150 floors and with a surface area of 285,000 square metres the building provides living and working space for up to 10,000 people. The tower, 650 metres tall, consists of seven modules stacked one above the other. Photo montages situate the skyscraper on sites in the densely built-up cities New York and London. Peanut 1984 Jan Kaplický, David Nixon The kinetic dwelling cabin Peanut is a space for the wilderness designed for two. Mounted on a hydraulic arm, the peanutshaped capsule can be moved into any desired position, providing constantly changing views of the natural surroundings. The technology is derived from bridge construction and façade cleaning. Shelter 1985 Jan Kaplický The impetus behind this project was the famine in Ethiopia in 1984/85. The transportable, umbrellashaped tent was designed as an emergency shelter for roughly 190 people. It can be used for housing, storage, a clinic or a food distribution centre. Twelve aluminium ribs anchored in the ground form the

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tent frame, which can be set up by twelve people. The roof of white polyester film is lined with metal on the inside so that it reflects the sun’s rays during the day and reduces heat loss at night. Bibliothèque Nationale de France 1989 Jan Kaplický, Amanda Levete, Arup In the final phase of the competition for the French National Library Jan Kaplicky´ and Amanda Levete were able to present their design to then-president François Mitterrand in person. They were awarded second prize – the winner was the French architect Dominique Perrault. In the Future Systems design a glass trench divides the dynamically shaped library building into two halves, each of which is again divided in two. The trench’s glass surfaces provide natural light for the reading rooms and research departments in the four sections of the building. The stacks are arranged radially in several basement levels. Frankfurt Kindergarten 1991 Jan Kaplický, Amanda Levete Future Systems also participated in the city of Frankfurt’s children’s day-care centre programme with an organically shaped building design for 100 children in the Sossenheim district. The building was meant to sensitise the children to the influences of weather and nature on our lives. A glass roof made it possible to use the sun’s energy for light and heat and at the same time, thanks to an innovative ventilation system, provided for a natural indoor climate. The children’s group rooms were arranged around a central common area.

PARTICULAR PROJECTS BY ARCHIGRAM City Interchange 1963–1964 Warren Chalk, Ron Herron The vision of a gigantic communication hub was produced at the same time as the re-planning of London’s Piccadilly Circus and Oxford Circus, both clogged with traffic, in the early 1960s. All the levels are filled with traffic in its variousforms; the sequences are as rational as possible, and allow for smooth and rapid transfers. The form of the knot derives from the function of its component parts, essentially tubes and connecting pieces. Montreal Tower 1963 Peter Cook The tower, a competition design commissioned, like Capsule Tower, by Taylor Woodrow Construction was to be a venue for cultural events and leisure-time activities and the centerpiece of Montreal’s Expo 67. According to Peter Cook, in Montreal Tower, “a first test of our ideas from Plug-in City,” all the structural components were to be interchangeable. Individual elements, for example for exhibitions, were to be attached variably, replaced and removed. The last design version consists of a supporting structure of tubes with elevators inside, in which variously shaped spaces can be hooked for temporary uses. Plug-In City 1962-65 Warren Chalk, Peter Cook, Dennis Crompton

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The idea of the city as a megastructure with movable and exchangeable residential elements illuminates all of Archigram’s work during the 1960s. Several fundamental notions converge here: separation of the construction, access and living functions; modular construction, interchangeableness and standardisation; and a city’s variable shape, size and density as well as its extension upward. The components of Plug-in City are a regular, large-scale supporting structure that accommodates access routes and service technology as well as interchangeable living and working units or capsules. Walking City 1964 Warren Chalk, Ron Herron With a city for “world traveller-workers”2 that moves as an autonomous mobile organism like a giant insect, inhospitable regions on Earth other planets or even other planets can be colonised. Conversely, it is conceivable that a spot that has become uninhabitable can be abandoned – a distinctly interesting idea during the Cold War. Thus this playful city fantasy, one of Archigram’s best-known projects and the inspiration for any number of successors, is firmly anchored in the history of its time. In Architectural Forum the British artist Peter Blake referred to Walking City in 1968 as a theoretical further development of the mobile engineering constructions of Cape Canaveral’s rocket builders. Instant City 1968-70 Peter Cook, Dennis Crompton, Ron Herron In the 1960s in England, as everywhere else in Europe, the cultural differences between life in the metropolis and in the country were significant. Through the medium of television this became increasingly apparent to the country populace, whose feelings toward the metropolis vacillated between yearning and fear. Instant City was meant to provide help: a concentrated essence of the big city in package form that moves through the countryside like a travelling circus, occupies a provincial town parasitically for a limited time and offers its inhabitants a shock-like, immediate big-city experience with cultural activities, amusements and leisure time. Instant City was developed over several years, supported by the Graham Foundation, an arts sponsor. It encompassed a complex of related projects reaching out in different directions. Collages were the primary medium employed, which are close to American Pop Art with their combination of slogans and magazine illustrations in front of architecture that was only suggested. It was especially through these collages that Archigram became accessible to a broader public, mutating from an insider phenomenon to an established component of 1960s pop culture.

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PUBLICATION Peter Cachola Schmal, Philipp Sturm (ed.) Zukunft von gestern – Visionäre Entwürfe von Future Systems und Archigram Yesterday's Future – Visionary Designs by Future Systems and Archigram Prestel Verlag german/englisch, Hardcover, 160 pages, size 30 x 30 cm ISBN: 978-3-7913-5575-7

Museum shop prize: 30,- EUR/Book Store Prize: 39,95 EUR

IMPRINT YESTERDAY’S FUTURE. Visionary Designs by Future Systems and Archigram 14. Mai – 18. Oktober 2016 Director: Peter Cachola Schmal Curator: Philipp Sturm Curatorial Assistance: Sunna Gailhofer Exhibition design: Feigenbaumpunkt, Frankfurt am Main, Arne Ciliox, Jochen Schiffner Exhibition production: Oliver Taschke Schreinermeister, Offenbach / Plot.Com, Erlensee Education: Christina Budde, Jorma Foth, Bettina Gebhardt Public relations: Brita Köhler, Stefanie Lampe DAM Corporate Design: Gardeners, Frankfurt am Main Head of archives: Inge Wolf Registrar: Wolfgang Welker Library: Christiane Eulig Director’s office: Inka Plechaty Administration: Jacqueline Brauer Installation: Marina Barry, Paolo Brunino, Ulrich Diekmann, Enrico Hirsekorn, Eike Laeuen, Ömer Simsek, Simon Speiser, Angela Tonner, Gerhard Winkler, Valerian Wolenik under the direction of Christian Walter PRESS INFORMATION

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Model conservation: Christian Walter Framing: Angela Tonner Museum technician: Joachim Müller-Rahn Lenders: Kaplicky Centre, Praha, Eliška Kaplický Fuchsová, Dana Gregorová, Alan Záruba

With kind support of:

Press images for announcements and reports during the exhibition period at www.dam-online.de

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21.05. – 26.06.2016 THINKING OUTSIDE THE BOX An innovative approach to current urban challenges 09.07. – 23.10.2016 BDA Architecture Prize „max40 – Young Architects“

DEUTSCHES ARCHITEKTURMUSEUM Press & Public Relations Schaumainkai 43, 60596 Frankfurt am Main, Germany, www.dam-online.de Brita Köhler, Dipl.-Ing. (FH) T +49 (0)69 212 36318 \ F +49 (0)69 212 36386 [email protected] Stefanie Lampe, M.A. T +49 (0)69 212 31326 \ F +49 (0)69 212 36386 [email protected]

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