Yesterday's Future: Visionary Designs by Future Systems and Archigram

The exhibition “Yesterday's Future” juxtaposes utopias by Future Systems and Archigram. It 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.

Future Systems, Coexistence (Project 112), 1984. Image © Kaplicky Centre, Praha

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.

Future Systems, Peanut (Project 124), 1984. Image © Deutsches Architekturmuseum

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.

Archigram, Walking City (Project 064), 1964. Image © Deutsches Architekturmuseum

The exhibition shows 44 exhibits by Future Systems lent by the Kaplicky Centre Prag and 44 exhibits by Archigram from the collection of the Deutsches Architekturmuseum.

The exhibition is accompanied by an catalog published by Prestel. 

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Cite: "Yesterday's Future: Visionary Designs by Future Systems and Archigram " 29 Apr 2016. ArchDaily. Accessed . <https://www.archdaily.com/786504/yesterdays-future-visionary-designs-by-future-systems-and-archigram> ISSN 0719-8884

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