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Megastructure is an architectural and urban concept of the
post-war era A post-war or postwar period is the interval immediately following the end of a war. The term usually refers to a varying period of time after World War II, which ended in 1945. A post-war period can become an interwar period or interbellum, w ...
, which envisions a city or an urban form that could be encased in a massive single human-made structure or a relatively small number of interconnected structures. In a megastructural project, orders and hierarchies are created with large and permanent structures supporting small and transitional ones. According to John W. Cook and Heinrich Klotz, the lexical meaning of megastructure is an over-scaled, colossal, multi-unit architectural mass. The post-war megastructure movements led by
avant-garde In the arts and literature, the term ''avant-garde'' ( meaning or ) identifies an experimental genre or work of art, and the artist who created it, which usually is aesthetically innovative, whilst initially being ideologically unacceptable ...
architectural groups such as Metabolists and
Archigram Archigram was an avant-garde British architectural group whose unbuilt projects and media-savvy provocations "spawned the most influential architectural movement of the 1960's," according to Princeton Architectural Press study ''Archigram'' (19 ...
regarded megastructure as an instrument to solve issues of urban disorder. Megastructure was once the dominant tendency in architecture of the 1960s, which resulted in numerous radical architectural proposals and a few built projects.


History


Urban antecedents

The emergence of megastructural characters in built forms can be found in pre-industrial built forms such as
Ponte Vecchio The Ponte Vecchio (; "Old Bridge") is a medieval stone closed-spandrel segmental arch bridge over the Arno, in Florence, Italy. The only bridge in Florence spared from destruction during World War II, it is noted for the shops built along it; ...
in Florence, Italy. This multi-level bridge, built in 1345, has numerous housings and shops attached on its structures above the
Arno River The Arno is a river in the Tuscany region of Italy. It is the most important river of central Italy after the Tiber. Source and route The river originates on Monte Falterona in the Casentino area of the Apennines, and initially takes a ...
. Although there is no evidence of architect-designed system, architect Paul Rudolph, in his discussion with John Cook and Heinrich Klotz, regarded the bridge as the best model of megastructure. The Milan Central Station project, which was designed by Antonio Sant’Elia in 1914, is one of the most influential antecedents of post-war megastructure movements. As Reyner Banham pointed out in his book ''Megastructure: Urban Futures of the Recent Past'', Milan Central Station not only invented a spatial arrangement of a huge building connecting to urban traffic arteries, but also developed an
A-frame An A-frame is a basic structure designed to bear a Structural load, load in a lightweight economical manner. The simplest form of an A-frame is two similarly sized Beam (structure), beams, arranged in an angle of 45 degrees or less, attached a ...
structural system that had then been widely used in megastructural proposals. After the World War II, in a series of design competition for institutional buildings in Britain such as the Sheffield University competition (1953), megastructural approaches emerged in some schemes that incorporated small-scale building entities supported by architectural frames within giant buildings.


Megastructure movements in the early 1960s

The rise of megastructure movements happened in 1959 when the Japanese architect
Kenzō Tange was a Japanese architect. Born in Sakai and raised in China, Tange was inspired from an early age by the work of Le Corbusier and designed his first buildings under Imperial Japan. He first achieved recognition for his projects to reconstruct t ...
and his students at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) published the Boston Harbor project. This project is widely regarded as the first true megastructure. What followed the publication were megastructure movements around the world. At the 1960 World Design Conference in Tokyo, a group of Japanese architects launched the Metabolism manifesto with their megastructural approaches for architecture and urbanism.
Fumihiko Maki was a Japanese architect. In 1993, he received the Pritzker Prize for his work, which often explores pioneering uses of new materials and fuses the cultures of east and west. Maki died on 6 June 2024, at the age of 95. Early life Maki was born ...
, one of the core members of Metabolists, promoted a megastructure as a large form that houses multiple functions and urban environments. According to ''Project Japan Metabolism Talks'', the main approach of megastructure under the Metabolism is to create artificial land equipped with infrastructure. This approach, materialized in Ocean City project (
Kiyonori Kikutake (April 1, 1928 – December 26, 2011) was a prominent Japanese architect known as one of the founders of the Japanese Metabolist group. He was also the tutor and employer of several important Japanese architects, such as Toyo Ito, Shōzō ...
, 1962) and Shinjuku Station Redevelopment project (Fumihiko Maki, 1962), aims to provide more space for small-scale programs to be built in a congested city. At the same time, European architects also initiated megastructure movements by forming megastructural groups and schools with various theories and approaches. One of the most influential groups among them was
Archigram Archigram was an avant-garde British architectural group whose unbuilt projects and media-savvy provocations "spawned the most influential architectural movement of the 1960's," according to Princeton Architectural Press study ''Archigram'' (19 ...
based at the Architectural Association in London. In the 1961 pamphlet "Archigram I" the group advocated a megastructural approach for buildings and cities which emphasizes technology, infrastructure, and dynamic movements within megastructures (Simon Sadler, ''Archigram: Architecture Without Architecture''). Projects by Archigram, such as the Walking City (
Ron Herron Ronald James Herron () was an English architect and teacher. He is perhaps best known for his work with the seminal experimental architecture collective Archigram, which was formed in London in the early 1960s. Herron was the creator of one of ...
, 1964) and Plug-in-City (
Peter Cook Peter Edward Cook (17 November 1937 – 9 January 1995) was an English comedian, actor, satirist, playwright and screenwriter. He was the leading figure of the British satire boom of the 1960s, and he was associated with the anti-establishmen ...
, 1964), illustrated the future of city where modular structures and movable urban entities resemble fun and flexibility.
Reyner Banham Peter Reyner Banham (2 March 1922 – 19 March 1988) was an English architectural critic and writer best known for his theoretical treatise ''Theory and Design in the First Machine Age'' (1960) and for his 1971 book ''Los Angeles: The Architectu ...
saw 1964 as a 'Megayear' in which megastructure movements around the world culminated with diverse approaches evolved into a common place to address serious propositions such as social and economic responsibilities. Many projects utilized megastructures as an instrument to increase commercial values of land and smoothen traffic networks at transportation nodes.


The Expo 67

The
Expo 67 The 1967 International and Universal Exposition, commonly known as Expo 67, was a general exhibition from April 28 to October 29, 1967. It was a category one world's fair held in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. It is considered to be one of the most s ...
held in Montreal, Quebec was a significant event for megastructure movements. During the Expo, various pavilions exhibited megastructure features, such as the USA, Netherlands and Theme pavilions, as well as
Habitat '67 Habitat 67, or simply Habitat, is a housing complex at Cité du Havre, on the Saint Lawrence River, Montreal, Quebec, Canada, designed by Israeli-Canadian- American architect Moshe Safdie. It originated in his master's thesis at the School of Ar ...
. Architectural critics visiting the exhibition were struck by Montreal's
Grain elevator A grain elevator or grain terminal is a facility designed to stockpile or store grain. In the grain trade, the term "grain elevator" also describes a tower containing a bucket elevator or a pneumatic conveyor, which scoops up grain from a lowe ...
s which, with their networks of covered conveyors belts, irresistibly evoked the images of megastructures touted in experimental circles. In addition to exhibited megastructures, Montreal’s subway system also evoked megastructures as it is directly connected to several downtown buildings, which eventually evolved into the famed
Underground City An underground city is a series of linked subterranea (geography), subterranean spaces that may provide a defensive refuge; a place for living, working or shopping; a transit system; mausoleum, mausolea; wine or storage cellars; cisterns or dra ...
.


After the 1960s

After the avant-garde movements of the 1960s, megastructure was mainly proposed and practiced in academe. Reyner Banham has, however, identified some university and hospital designs derived from megastructural approaches, with modular, interconnected buildings and pedestrian-oriented environments. He highlights the McMaster University Health Sciences Center (Craig, Zeidler and Strong) in Hamilton, Ontario, which opened in 1972, and the
Free University of Berlin The Free University of Berlin (, often abbreviated as FU Berlin or simply FU) is a public university, public research university in Berlin, Germany. It was founded in West Berlin in 1948 with American support during the early Cold War period a ...
(Candilis/Josic/Woods/Schidhelm), designed 1963, built in two stages between 1967 and 1979, which are projects designed with megastructural approaches.


Projects


Boston Harbor project, Kenzo Tange and students at MIT, 1959

Boston Harbor project is an experimental housing project done by students at Massachusetts Institute of Technology under the instruction of Kenzo Tange, who was a visiting instructor at the institute in 1959. The project resulted in a megastructure with an A-frame structure shaped by two expandable housing blocks. Each block consists of multiple layers of platforms for residential accommodations to be built. A series of transportation infrastructures including roads and monorail tracks are placed in the void space between two blocks.


Shinjuku redevelopment project, Tokyo, Fumihiko Maki, 1962

Shinjuku , officially called Shinjuku City, is a special ward of Tokyo, Japan. It is a major commercial and administrative center, housing the northern half of the busiest railway station in the world ( Shinjuku Station) as well as the Tokyo Metropol ...
redevelopment project is a large-scale urban design projects under the Metabolism movement of Japan. In this project, Maki proposed an expandable urban space consisting of artificial ground platforms and plazas on and above ground. These structures span across
Shinjuku Station is a major railway station in Tokyo, Japan, that serves as the main connecting hub for rail traffic between central/eastern Tokyo (the Special wards of Tokyo, special wards) and Western Tokyo on the inter-city rail, commuter rail, and rapid tr ...
and allow new shops and housing units to be built upon.


Plug-in-City project, Peter Cook, 1963-4

Plug-in-City is one of the most well-known visionary projects done by Archigram members. The project demonstrates a megastructure with ‘kit of parts’ system, in which standardized housing units are mass-produced and plugged into a series of infrastructural frameworks.


The Walking City, Ron Herron and Brian Harvey, 1964

The Walking City envisions utopian human settlements that resemble robots or artificial organisms with mechanical legs that move residents along with their homes to different cities and places.


See also

*
Arcology Arcology, a Blend word, portmanteau of "architecture" and "ecology",. is a field of creating architectural design principles for very densely populated and Sustainable development, ecologically low-impact human habitats. The term was coined in ...
*
Megaproject A megaproject is an extremely large-scale construction and investment project. A more general definition is "Megaprojects are temporary endeavours (i.e. projects) characterised by: large investment commitment, vast complexity (especially in org ...
*
Structuralism (architecture) Structuralism is a movement in architecture and urban planning that evolved around the middle of the 20th century. It was a reaction to Rationalism's ( CIAM-Functionalism)Aldo van Eyck, "Statement Against Rationalism", written for CIAM VI in ...


References


Bibliography

*
Reyner Banham Peter Reyner Banham (2 March 1922 – 19 March 1988) was an English architectural critic and writer best known for his theoretical treatise ''Theory and Design in the First Machine Age'' (1960) and for his 1971 book ''Los Angeles: The Architectu ...
, ''Megastructure - Urban Futures of the Recent Past'', 224 p., Thames and Hudson, London 1976. *Sabrina van der Ley & Markus Richter (eds.), ''Megastructure Reloaded - Visionary Architecture and Urban Design of the Sixties Reflected by Contemporary Artists'', 287 p., Hatje Cantz, Ostfildern near Stuttgart 2008. *John W. Cook and Heinrich Klotz, ''Conversations with Architects'', Praeger Publishers, New York, 1973. *Rem Koolhaas; Hans U Obrist, ''Project Japan Metabolism Talks'',
Taschen Taschen is a luxury art book publisher founded in 1980 by Benedikt Taschen in Cologne, Germany. As of January 2017, Taschen is co-managed by Benedikt Taschen and his eldest daughter, Marlene Taschen. History The company began as Tasch ...
, London 2011. *Fumihiko Maki, ''Investigation in Collective Form,'' A Special Publication, The School of Architecture,
Washington University in St. Louis Washington University in St. Louis (WashU) is a private research university in St. Louis, Missouri, United States. Founded in 1853 by a group of civic leaders and named for George Washington, the university spans 355 acres across its Danforth ...
, June 1964.


External links


Forbes article on the megastructures of Archigram, Walter Jonas and others
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