Yesterday's Future

The exhibition focuses on extraordinary drawings, collages and models created in the 1980s by Czech architect Jan Kaplický, who emigrated to London in 1968. These exhibits are juxtaposed with works by Archigram from the DAM archive realized some 20 years earlier. The designs by the two London architect groups Archigram (Peter Cook, Ron Herron and Dennis Crompton) and Future Systems (comprising Jan Kaplický and David Nixon) can be termed utopian architecture.
While Archigram conceived organic architectures to ensure survival in inhospitable environments, the technical-looking designs by Future Systems are intended for use in more friendly climes. The majority of these utopian designs were not realized, but were meant to provide ideas for living and surviving in phases of immense social upheaval. The spatial architecture by Archigram was created around the time of the Moon landing in an era shaped by new beginnings. By contrast, Future Systems designed its self-sufficient, machine-like living capsules for a gloomy world at the height of the Cold War.