Architecture: Action and Plan by Peter Cook is a seminal manifesto that aimed to reorient 1960s architecture towards a more experimental, realistic and even futuristic direction and that would meet the postmodern condition of the consumer society. Sir Peter Cook (b. 1936) was the founder of Archigram, an avant-garde group formed Cook, Warren Chalk, Ron Herron, Michael Webb, Dennis Crompton, and David Greene around the Architectural Association in London.
In his book, Cook bases his understanding of architecture on three criteria: performance, identity, and economy of means. Architecture: Action and Plan analyses the history and development of modern architecture and suggests architecture that is infinite and transient. The contents are divided into six chapters with the following titles: (1) Environment, reason or purpose?; (2) Control and plan; (3) A history of position; (4) Action and process; (5) The building as an operation; and (6) Four revolutions in modern architecture.
At last the dividing line between the things which carry around in the palm of the hand and the whole city will merge together as parts of the hierarchy of designed, phased, chosen objects; to suit the condition and requirement of the time they will be able to be changed for something better.
— Peter Cook in Architecture: Action and Plan, p. 95.
Our copy currently in stock is in good condition. The pages are clean, some pencil markings here and there; the previous owner’s signature on the first flyleaf. The covers show some signs of wear and use. The glueing of the pages is fine.
