VB: Early on, your work was more about assembly of parts, constructivist in character and spirit. Peter Cook, Inhabited Wall (2020) Image: Courtesy of Louisiana Museum of Modern Art Another direction is about transforming a building’s roof into a hill. For example, the inhabited wall is a direction that I am interested in exploring. In some cases, I use geodesic-like structures as the basis, and then I infiltrate them with vegetation. But I am more interested in sort of soft interactions. ![]() These landscapes can consist of hard juxtapositions, sure. I believe you explored this idea when you said: “The air percolating through and between the pieces of building-an aerated city.” Could you talk about this idea of pulling a building apart and breaking it into elements and pieces? That’s what turns your buildings into landscapes, right? VB: Your buildings do look somewhat like landscapes. What happens with buildings that sit on the edge of a forest? I look at buildings that are situated on the edge of water. I look into a proposition of what is a town or city. I am looking at the idea of a building that disintegrates. I am looking into the interaction between vegetation and solid architecture, if you like. Particularly, I am interested in the process of metamorphosis-the ability of an object to transform into a new condition. But this is not the only theme, by any means. I am interested in stretching this vocabulary. If you want to make an enclosure or if you want to make a hole in a wall, over and over, we see the same ways of doing these things. I believe, the language of architecture that architects have been using is very limited, very narrow, and very repetitive. The point is not only to experiment with various mannerisms, but also to investigate different types of surfaces and combinations. Peter Cook (PC): These drawings bring together and examine closely the vocabulary of architecture. Vladimir Belogolovsky (VB): Speaking of your show City Landscapes you said: “Most of the items are trying to SAY something, to work out an architectural idea, to scribble around a theme.” What would you say unites these drawings? What do they communicate, investigate, and provoke collectively? ![]() ![]() Peter Cook, Island City (2011-12) Image: Courtesy of Louisiana Museum of Modern Art We discussed Cook’s interest in stretching architectural vocabulary, imagining buildings that disintegrate and are infiltrated with vegetation, about the need to bring into a program more than what's obvious, and how not to miss the magic moment in the process of both drawing and creating a building. Cook curated the British Pavilion at the Venice Architecture Biennale in 2004 and Cyprus Pavilion in 2006. I recorded the following interview with Peter Cook over ZOOM between New York and Humlebæk on the day of the opening of his City Landscapes exhibition, which will remain on view at the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art until May 8 of this year. In 2002, Archigram was awarded the Gold Medal from the Royal Institute of British Architects. He served as the Chair at the Bartlett School of Architecture at University College London from 1990 to 2006 and taught at numerous schools and continues teaching at the Royal Academy of Arts, the Royal College of Art, and at University College London. 1936) studied architecture at Bournemouth College of Art in southern England and at the Architectural Association in London. Peter Cook, Filter City (2020) Image: Courtesy of Louisiana Museum of Modern Art Exhibition Peter Cook: City Landscapes brings together 120 drawings-visionary, kaleidoscopic, and dream-like architectural mutations-by one of the most influential contemporary architects, London-based Sir Peter Cook, the founder of famed Archigram (1961-74), an avant-garde architectural group and author of such cult-like revered projects as Plug-in-City (1963-66) and Instant City (1968-70). On January 21, following the Museum’s closure for four weeks, due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, its reopening coincided with the opening of yet another architectural show that demonstrates the power of artistic imagination and ways of resisting anything that’s preconceived and conventional. In the past few years, the Museum presented several memorable architectural shows, as part of its Architect’s Studio series celebrating the work of a new generation of international architects who became particularly known for their sustainable projects and forming attitudes in their resistance to globalisation. The Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, a beautiful compound of art, architecture, and landscape, on the shore of the Øresund Sound in Humlebæk, about one hour drive north of Copenhagen in Denmark, is known not only for its strikingly appealing natural and built setting, but also for its thought-provoking exhibitions.
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