This post is about a major influence in my architectural education: Archigram. I made a brief reference to Archigram in New York in an earlier post ‘The Final Approach -...New York Part 5 ‘...where the work of the six was exhibited in different locations throughout the city...Columbia University, Cooper Union, and the part that I did experience in the metropolis Ron Herron’s work in the Storefront. The intention was always to follow up with a post about the complete exhibition as viewed earlier in the year in Manchester.
In terms of Architectural education, 1998 was the ‘fifth year’ being the first one back in full time education after the degree and ‘year-out’ in practice, which for me is when architecture was its most fun, study was its most experimental and the mood in the studio was at its most diverse and collaborative. This post is based on a piece that was originally written for the school publication ‘BARC’ the student magazine produced by my colleages in ‘Archaos’ the Birmingham School of Architecture student society. The journey into the world of Archigram was made by myself and Darren Staples who has been a partner in crime over the years, and it is his entry in the visitor book at the exhibition that gave me the title for this post, and it was the discussions about our impressions of the exhibition and Manchester in general that was written on the train on the return journey.
Archigram: six guys, Warren Chalk, Dennis Crompton, Peter Cook, David Greene, Ron Herron, Michael Webb, actually they preceded Monty Python, but anarchic in their approach to architectural discourse in the way that Monty Python are seen as anarchic in their approach to comedy. I had read about Archigram during the degree and this was the first time that the any of work was exhibited since 1970., and the first time that it was all exhibited together.
On arrival at Manchester Piccadilly on the train from Birmingham, it is a ‘Groundhog Day’ Situation, is almost as though we never left…’Millies Cookies’ is still the cookie shop at the end of the concourse. The concourse itself is out of the same design manual as the one at New Street. Most definitely part of the same modernisation plan of the rail network in the 1960’s. outside the station the walk down to Piccadilly has the same feel as walking down Smallbrook Queensway, long sinuous office block following the curve of the road, with the same kind of shops in the base, only with subtle differences, ‘Greggs’ instead of ‘Braggs’, the bakers, the graphics are the same just the spelling is different.
In search of the RIBA bookshop to purchase tickets and find out where the exhibition is located, is a second feeling of deja vu, strangely enough the RIBA bookshop is located on Portland Street, which bears a close resemblance to its London Address, being Portland Place. We did find the bookshop but found it hiding behind some mad façade, scaffolding tubes, toe boards, signage, plastic screens, and it had been deconstructed and reconstructed next door to where we expected to find it.
The visit revealed that the Cornerhouse Gallery was actually almost next to Piccadilly Station. Having retraced our steps the search of Archigram took us down a back street between Victorian warehouses, tall walls of repetitive openings cast iron beams, peeling paintwork, rust, broken window panes, with some areas filled with studio units and small light industrial units; to a triangular brick building on the corner, ‘The Cornerhouse’ with a huge banner hanging down the facade inviting us to ‘Zoom up into a New World’ So zooming up into the Cornerhouse Gallery, well more of a walk up the stairs really, and wow! Let’s just stand here a moment and take it all in
The exhibition titled ‘Archigram: Experimental Architecture 1961 – 71’, completely fills the gallery, there are banners hanging from the roof trusses with the slogans that originally appeared in the Archigram broadsheets, and magazines. The walls are completely lined are with drawings preserved behind a layer of Perspex.
Walking Cities covers an entire wall, drawn in immaculate detail on A0 sheets showing the workings of a machine that is self sufficient and can plug into anywhere, New York, the Sahara desert, and then move on to its next location.
On the floor: models of Instant Cities made up of a combination of trucks, capsules and hot air balloons. Plug-in Paddington East, Living pod, Cushicle, Monte Carlo Entertainments complex are exhibited in Perspex cases like rare finds in a museum, well maybe they are, and they are certainly treasures. It is pure commitment to illustrate the group’s thinking of the contemporary condition, (circa 1968). Entire exhibitions: ‘This is Tomorrow’ and ‘Living City’ for example are arranged in all their glory, images montages critique of the modern age, and reluctance of people to embrace new ideas, ‘It is all the same’ seemingly relevant today considering the Groundhog Day reference earlier. Some of the presentation techniques looking like cartoons from the Beatles movies, giving a sense of being there through pop culture even though I was not born at the time. The exhibition captures the mood of optimism in the future from a 1960’s perspective with the ideas still looking and sounding fresh and very much still relevant reinforced by Ron Herron’s Imagination headquarters built in 1990 proudly sitting alongside the unbuilt projects.
A blacked out space at the back corner, with images and slogans being projected onto and through muslin screens hanging from the ceiling bring the ideas to life, far too many ideas to be comprehended in a single visit. Happily there are books that were produced to coincide with the exhibition, and having made my purchase of ‘Concerning Archigram’ there will be time to explore the ideas more fully.On signing the visitors book all I could write was ‘truly amazing!’ and on leaving I don’t think I will ever see so many great ideas in the same place again.
On leaving the Cornerhouse and returning to the contemporary of 1998, I cannot help but feel depressed by the environment, and the view of the city is one framed by the feeling of missed opportunities as real life took a different direction. On exploring the city, the recent addition of trams and the tram lines in the public paved areas give the city centre a European feel, it seems strange how European cities did not remove all their old tram networks and we in England are now striving to discover what was lost during the 1960’s. The feeling is reinforced by the 1980’s architecture...neo-classical or neo-Victorian Gothic decorated facade on the front, and blank brick walls to the sides, facade and pump up the volume. In contrast, the Arndale Centre, bombed by the IRA in 1996 now hidden behind rusting corrugated sheet hoarding.
A road too far and a bridge to nowhere...Having flicked though some of the Architectural magazines at the time, I had seen images of the regeneration of Salford quays and a dramatic footbridge as a centrepiece, which for some reason I had associated with Chris Wilkinson, and also attending a lecture by 1996 Stirling Prize Winner, Stephen Hodder, for Centenary Building at Salford University, there was a sense of something happening. On making the long walk from the city centre the journey comes to the end of a back road, where there is indeed a white skeletal steel bridge spanning the river Irwell, linking Manchester to Salford, a plaque on the bridge reveals that it is the Trinity Bridge by Dr Santiago Calatrava opened in 1995. The bridge itself comprises a deck suspended on cables from a single spire, with cracked paving slabs and graffiti applied to the base of the main steel members. marking the regeneration of the much neglected waterfront area, as it stands it is at majestically spans the river to land of timber hoardings with a narrow path leading between them apparently to nowhere, evidently the regeneration of Salford has not caught up with the bridge yet.
On making the journey back to Piccadilly, the impression of the city improves from one of stark contrast to the optimism of Archigram, there are many civic buildings like there are Birmingham, only bigger and more of them, giving a sense of pride in city, and the overall impression of Manchester is one of city coming alive and well worth another visit.
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