Metabolic City
September 18, 2009 to January 4, 2010
Imaginative and visionary while conceptually rigorous and complex, the projects in Metabolic City feature fanciful names--Bubble City, Floating City, Instant City, and Marine City--for proposed systems founded on the principles of networks, adaptable habitats, and the promise of technological advances to address the challenges of rebuilding urban centers. Avant-garde for their time, the works featured in Metabolic City have regained relevance in light of today's increasingly network-driven world and the associated impacts on architecture and design.
The three groups of artists and architects featured in Metabolic City are the Japanese Metabolists, the architecture collaborative Archigram from Britain and Dutch artist Constant. Metabolic City investigates the theoretical and conceptual overlaps in their work, focusing on the representation of their ideas rather than the built structures themselves. The exhibition includes photography, collages, drawings, books, and film.
Curated by Heather Woofter, assistant professor of architecture.
Exhibition Support
Financial support for Metabolic City was provided by Washington Universitys College and Graduate School of Architecture & Urban Design, College and Graduate School of Art, and International Center for Advanced Renewable Energy and Sustainability, and by members of the Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum. Additional support was provided by American Classics Architectural Metal Fabrication, CONFLUENCE Design | Fabrication, and Ambient Design.
Peter Cook, Plug-in City Study -- Overhead view, 1964. Print off ink on tracing drawing with added color, 40 1/8 x 28 3/8". Courtesy of Archigram Archives.
Fumihiko Maki, Golgi Structure, 1967. Digital photograph of model. Courtesy of Maki and Associates.
Archigram, Computer City, 1964. Photoprint from ink drawing with added color film, 40 1/8 x 28 3/8" (framed). Image courtesy of the Archigram Archives. (c) Dennis Crompton, Archigram.
