Speculations … dreams and scratchings

​Freed from styl­is­tic or func­tion­al con­ven­tions, Peter Cook’s distinctive drawings have rede­fined the lan­guage of archi­tec­tur­al com­mu­ni­ca­tion. Seen chrono­log­i­cal­ly, they chart the course of an enthralling archi­tec­tur­al adven­ture. To mark the publication of his new book, Speculations, Peter will present draw­ings ranging from stu­dent projects at the AA, in the 1950s, to recent work, and consider the nature of archi­tec­ture and the con­cept of the build­able.

As a founder mem­ber of the vision­ary col­lec­tive, Archi­gram, Peter Cook pro­ject­ed rad­i­cal­ly new pos­si­bil­i­ties for archi­tec­ture, pur­su­ing his fas­ci­na­tion with ‘the puz­zle­ment of the strange thing’ to cre­ate com­pelling forms. The pre-emi­nent archi­tec­tur­al edu­ca­tor in the UK, he was award­ed a knight­hood for his ser­vices to archi­tec­ture and teach­ing; and in 2004 Archi­gram was presented with the RIBA Roy­al Gold Medal.