S Plug-In

Plug-in City

Peter Cook

The Plug-in City as a total project was the combination of a series of ideas that were worked upon between 1962 and 1964. The metal cabin housing (page 10) was a prototype in the sense that it 'placed removable house elements into a 'rneqastructure' of concrete. The discussions of Archigram 2 and 3 built up a pressure of argument in favour of expendable buildings: and it was then inevitable that we should investigate what happens if the whole urban environment can be programmed and structured for change.

The 'Living City' exhibition paralleled these material notions with the equally explosive ones regarding the quelitv of city life: its symbolism, its dynamic, its gregariousness, its dependence upon situation as much as established form. As a final preliminary, the Montreal Tower was useful as a model for the structuring of a large 'plug-in' conglomeration, with its large, regular. structure and its movement-tubes (which were to be combined in the 'city' megastructure), and its proof that such a conglomeration does not need to have the dreariness that is normally associated with regularized systems.

It is difficult-to state which phase of the work on Plug-in City forms the definitive project. During the whole period 1962-66 elements were being looked at and notions amended or extended as necessary: so the drawings inevitably contain many inconsistencies. The term 'city' is used as a collective, the project being a portmanteau for several ideas, and does not necessarily imply a replacement of known cities.

The axonometric (right) is usually assumed to be the definitive image, for obviously classical reasons. It is 'heroic', apparently an alternative to the known city form, containing 'futurist' but recognizable hierarchies and elements. Craggy but directional. Mechanistic but scaleable. It was based upon a drawn plan, which placed a structural grid on a square plan at 450 to a monorail route that was to connect existing cities. Alongside ran a giant routeway for hovercraft (the ultimate in mobile buildings), the notion being that some major functions of the several linked parts could travel between them. The essential physical operations are stressed: the craneways and the bad weather balloons, and the lift overruns are deliberately exaggerated. But overriding all this was the deliberate varietousness of each major building outcrop: whatever else it was to be, this city was not going to be a deadly piece of built mathematics.

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In the various studies (right) that built up the total project. one can trace the succession of priorities that are gradually overlaid, and one can see how the sections evolved. The Nottingham project (a) was a proposal for shopping, but the problems of frequent servicing and the breakdown of normal 'department store' or 'lockup' boundaries triggered a notion of a viaduct-like structure against which the shops could lean. The

t goods servicing and the unit replacement were complementary: and already a major part of the Plug-in proposition existed. With the craneway running along the viaduct and a service tunnel system, it is only a short step to the incorporation of housing elements. In a diagram drawn for the Living City exhibition (b) the business of replacement and transportation are dominant.

We then turned towards a specific application of 'Plug-in' thinking: the rentable office floor. The axonornetric (c) shows a pylon that contains lifts and services with a 'travhanqinq off each side. One tray is the 'front' office, the other the 'backroorn' office. Each part would be exchangeable. Various ideas about automated shopping and diagonalized movement combine with the Plug-in Office tower in (d)a hypothetical 'businesstown' along an international route.

In (e) (a preliminary for the Maximum Pressure Section page 40( a)) and (f) housi ng is the primary element. The problems being worked over were remarkably normal to any highdensity housing proposal, namely, stacking, access and illumination. In fact (f) is very much of its period: the 'classic' 'A' frame, with community space in the centre. It is transitional in its architectural ness and neatness: the floors are very regularly infilled, the secondary (suspension) structure neatly indicated with dotted lines, the housing units regularly stacked and identical. That the central implication of the Plug-in City is its openended ness is at this stage belied. If any occurrence can overlay any other, and the boundaries of taste and use are to be eliminated by individual wishes, then any section must not only be capable of extreme limits of absorption, but should try to illustrate them. This, then, is the real development marked by (g). Its basic functions are illustrated by the two 'cartoon' sections (h), (i). In later work, the majority of these components 'melt' - the offices diagonalize in the high intensity areas, the one-storey housi ng elements become looser' areas' and the electric city car replaces the monorail. But already the proposition as it stood was throwing back at us confirmation of our hunch: that urban, or architectural, or mechanical or human mechanisms thrive on being stirred together.

left. top to bottom

Nottingham Shopping Viaduct 1962 Peter Cook and David Greene: section

'City Within Existing Technology' 1963 Peter Cook: Plan

Plug-in Offices 1964 Peter Cook 'Europa' 1963-64 Peter Cook:

Section. This incorporates a series of Plug-in Offices Stacks Housing for Charing Cross Road 1963 Peter Cook

Plug-in City: early section 1964 Peter Cook

right, top to bottom

Plug-in City: typical section 1964 Peter Cook (This section corresponds with a typical

finger on page 37)

Plug-in City: sustenance components

Plug-in City: business oomponents

Plug-in City: national network 1964 Dennis Crompton

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Definition: The Plug-in City is set up by applying a large scale network-structure, containing access ways and essential services, to any terrain. Into this network are placed units which cater for all needs. These units are planned for obsolescence. The units are served and manoeuvred by means of cranes operating from a railway at the apex of the structure. The interior contains several electronic and machine installations intended to replace present-day work operations. Typical permanence ratings would be:

Bathroom, kitchen, living room floor: 3-year obsolescence

Living rooms, bedrooms: 5-8-year obsolescence

Location of house unit: 1 5 years' duration Immediate-use sales space in shop: 6 months Shopping location: 3-6 years

Workplaces, computers, etc.: 4 years

Car silos and roads: 20 years

Main megastructure: 40 years

I n addition to the mai n craneway there are smaller craneways and mechanized slipways as well as telescopic handling elements.

The map (j) illustrates the effect of a large infiltration of Plug-in City network upon the field force of Great Britain, linking the existing centres of population and effecting, eventually, a total city ofthem all.

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'&IIX70,xn,xn,m I above Plug-in City: maximum pressure area (section) 1964 Peter Cook

left Plug-in City: network over London

far left Plug-in City: network at Paddington

below Computer City 1964 Dennis Crompton

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Plug-in City at Paddington: model 1965-6

Plug-in City at Paddington: plan 1965-6

The High Intensity area of the Plug-in City is seen as a typical condition of the overlaying of the system upon London (map (bj ). Key routeways run East/West through the old 'twilight' zones. They are tangential to a continuing route running from Central Europe to Scotland. In the Section of the High Intensity area (a) the routes 'A' and '8' form main cleavages in the structure which provide a complete drop for the cranes. Craneways are multiplied along these routes. Main feeder roads and feeder service-ways are located either side of the routes. Pedestrian ways tend to run at right angles to the routes. They take the form of travelators if spanning from key level to key level, and escalators or stairs in lower key conditions. The section demonstrates several standard features of Plug-in City: the diagonal framework of 9-foot diameter tubes, intersecting at 144-foot intervals in an eight-way joint. One in four of the tubes contains a high-speed lift. One in four contains a slower, local lift. One in four contains an escape tube, and the remaining tube is for goods and servicing. Floor levels are created as necessary within the system, and are usually suspended from a subsidiary structure.

There is a hierarchy of relative permanence (page 39), but there is also an inherent relationship between this scale and those of weight and position related to the general cross-section.

This seems to relate to the speed of operation of elements as well. The longest-lasting elements tend to be at the base of the section. The shortest-lasting elements tend to be towards the top (or the periphery). Hence the heavy railway is at the base, and the environmental seal balloons are at the top. Faster roads and monorails are at the top, parking roads at the base. The lower middle region tends to contain the busy areas of walkabout space. It is here that the plaza is located; it is here also that the main lifts disgorge.

The later application of the project. to the Paddington area of London, incorporates a system of electric city cars, and begins to include a vertical 'cage' structure for dwellings (see page 47(b)). It was the last part of the project. though many of the ideas are continued - with totally different interpretation - in the 'Control and Choice' project of 1967.

The Computer City Project is a parallel study to Plug-in City. It suggests a system of continual sensing of requirements throughout the city and, using the electronic summoning potential, makes the whole thing responsive on the day-to-day scale as well as on the year-to-year scale of the city structure.

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2 SILO DECKS 3 SILO ESTABLISHED

HAULED UP

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9 MORE TEACHING ROOMS PlIIGGED IN

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10 MAX. TEACHING ROOMS + SILO OUTCROPS

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4 LIFT TUBES ESTABUSHED

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11 SILO EXPANDS

Plug-in University Node 1 965 Peter Cook

University Node: general elevation of one wing

(sequence 1-15) Growth and Change Cycle of University Node

BY THIS TIME TREND IS TOWARDS DISPERSAL OF STUDY INTO HOME.WORKPOINT, FUN CENTRE, ETC.

BRAIN SilO IS NOW 'BROADCASTING' CENTRE

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The main enclosures are simply

tensioned skins slung on trays University Node: model

which collectively create the

'node', Each student can have a

standard metal box and can

choose to have it located any-

where on the decking, In a sense,

this anticipates the 'nomad'

nature of subsequent projects,

Plug-in University Node 1965 Peter Cook

The University Node was an exercise to discover what happened to the various notions of gradual infill, replacement and regeneration of parts on to a Plug-in City megastructure: but with a specific kind of activity,

Peter Cook was at this time working with a group of students who were also looking at the future of universities as institutions - and at new ways of teaching, The sequence below anticipates the loosening-up of parts. The 'always - complete - but - neverfinished' nature of Archigram projects continues from now (1965) onwards.

The nature of Plug-in City: involving the replacement of one

function by another (though occupying the same location) could be demonstrated and a .more intense glimpse of the likely detail of rooms, lift-tubes, skins and even hand-rails be

disclosed,

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Plan at approximately stage 1 0

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