Peter Cook: Dubious Assumptions

A synoptic presentation drawn by Peter Cook’s from his recent Bartlett Lecture Series 'Architecture is Weird’ reconfigured to be thrown into the SCI-Arc ring for discussion.

The Underdog and the Overdog springs from the lecture In support of the Big Personality. The Team springs from the lecture Why are Architects’ Offices So Awful? Stick to the Task – Don’t Look springs from the lecture Small Cities are more Fun (so long as You don’t live in them). You Have a Good Chance is from Competitions – the Big Lie. The Safety of Beige continues the theme: British ‘Biscuit’ architecture along with the preference of architects for monochrome – and the beige-ness of much of the United States. The last section will include some new CRAB work.

Professor Sir Peter Cook RA, founder of Archigram, former Director the Institute for Contemporary Art, London (the ICA) and Bartlett School of Architecture at University College, London has been a pivotal figure within the global architectural world for over half a century. His ongoing contribution to architectural innovation was most recently recognised via the conferral of an honorary doctorate in April 2010, by the University of Lund, Sweden. 

Peter’s achievements with radical experimentalist group Archigram have been the subject of numerous publications and public exhibitions and were recognised by the Royal Institute of British Architects in 2004, when members of the group were awarded the RIBA’s highest award, the Royal Gold Medal. 

In 2007, Peter was knighted by the Queen for his services to architecture. He is also a Royal Academician and a Commandeur de l’Ordre des Arts et Lettres of the French Republic. Peter is currently a Senior Fellow of the Royal College of Art, London. His professorships include those of the Royal Academy, University College, London and the Hochschule fur Bildende Kunste (Staedelschule) in Frankfurt-Main, Germany. 

Peter has from the very beginning made waves in architectural circles, however, it is in the last few years that the construction of his arts building in Graz, Austria (the Kunsthaus, AKA The Friendly Alien) has brought his work to a wider public, a process set to continue with the construction of the Vienna Business and Economics University’s new law faculty and Bond Univeristy in Australia’s new School of Architecture. Peter has also built in Osaka, Nagoya, Berlin, Frankfurt and Madrid.