Megastructure Reloaded

Catalogue with exhibition with similar title at Ehemalige Staatliche Münze from September 20 till November w, 2008. Urban designs such as Plug-in City by Archigram, La Ville Spatiale by Yona Friedman, and the New Babylon by former CoBrA painter Constant were some of the architectural incunabula of the sixties. Architecture, pop culture, art, and rebellion were uniquely combined with the visions of the Metastructuralists. Megastructure Reloaded inquires into their relevance for today’s urban planning problems and presents detailed information about the protagonists of this movement in texts and images. It features historical precedents, such as the Soviet ribbon cities, as well as the ironic replies to them by the radical groups Superstudio and Archizoom. The volume is rounded off with texts on Le Corbusier, Oscar Niemeyer, and Lucio Costa and their planned cities of Chandigarh and Brasilia , as well as a theory section on megastructures and megacities. Between each chapter is a “plug-in” - contributions from eleven internationally renowned artists that explore the ideas and concepts of the sixties and the problems of real megacities.