13.10.–25.11.2001

The architect Peter Cook (b. 1936) was co-editor of the Archigram magazine since the early sixties and until 1976 one of the leading members of the Archigram Group. The first public forum for Archigram was the 'Living City' exhibition of 1963, in which their ideas were initially directed against formal convention and toward loose and free associations. Subjects of inquiry were pop culture and new and advanced technology. Some of the most important projects were Plug-In City, Walking City, Cushicle, and Instant City. In more recent projects on his own, such as the Green, Yellow, Red, and Blue Houses, Cook transformed his theoretical concerns into more pragmatic building projects. Yet Archigram's concerns, especially the romance of high technology, remain inherent.

Apart from various projects realized in cooperation with Christine Hawley, Peter Cook has predominantly published writings on architectural theory. Since 1984, Peter Cook is professor at the Städelschule in Frankfurt for which he also designed the new cafeteria building.

Just a few months ago, Peter Cook completed his newest book project titled "The City, Seen As a Garden of Ideas" which will be published by Monacelli Press at the end of the year. In this book he links his own projects with general reflections on urban space and cities like Tokyo, Edinburgh, Houston or Santa Monica. His issue, however, is "not whole cities, not whole projects: but accumulated fragments and scrambled bits of inspiration".

In his spatial installation at Portikus, Peter Cook also plans to visualize this combination of text and a collection of "stuff" having to do with the city as theme.

Peter Cook lives and works in London.

The exhibition is supported by Atelier Markgraph, Frankfurt.