The radical architecture period is the period referred to as the neo avant-garde works of the late 1960s-1970s. The leading group of radicals at the forefront of this movement was Archigram. What Archigram was doing was unheard of for the field of architecture. What they were doing was rethinking the entire field of architecture and they were stretching the boundaries of everything that architecture was at this point in history. Whether or not you like or agree with what the radicals put forth as architecture, you must admire their efforts for looking at the field unlike all others. The uniqueness of this group is what catches my eye and makes me at least look at their work because, quite frankly, I'm not fond of their works, but still admire them for being unique.
One project that I do despise is "Walking City". I do not find "Walking City" to be an attractive work of architecture at any scale. I do not see how this idea could possibly be functional at all either; however, going back to what I stated earlier: I do have a level of respect for the ideas brought forth because it wasn't normal to the times. I feel that people tend to accept what is normal too often and allow what others are doing to dictate what they will do as well. What is exciting is that architecture is not a defined form or concept, but can be an endless amount of things. The people that go beyond the norms of society are the ones who begin to change the profession in a new direction. This isn't the case 100% of the times as seen here because the radicals quickly faded out, but there are some movements that started out as "radical" for the times, but were adopted by society as a new norm.
Out of our readings on the radical architects of the 60s and 70s, I most liked the project by Superstudio called HIDDEN ARCHITECTURE. I find this project to be really mysterious and sketchy all at once. What Superstudio has done here is create an anxiety the people that read and follow their architecture. I personally really wanted to know what project this was that was concealed in their box. The anxiety that I have about this project is the fact that there is no telling what the project actually is, but it makes nosey people like me want to know even more.
Like you, I enjoyed the dual quality of fear and anticipation that surrounded the Radicals. Your blog captured a lot of how I felt. The Radicals were evocative. They were interesting. I think it is incredibly interesting that forty years later, this particular movement still caught the collective attention of our class and people actually took sides on the debate.
ReplyDelete