Plug-in City: Maximum Pressure Area, project (Section)
Peter Cook
British, born 1936
1964
A meticulous ink-and-graphite section on tracing paper that imagines a speculative “Plug‑in City” — a machine-like, modular megastructure designed so dwellings and functions can be plugged in, replaced, and reconfigured.
What hits you first is the dense, diagrammatic complexity: a lattice of scaffolding, cranes, repeated cylindrical and boxy modules and inverted funnel masses drawn like industrial machinery rather than a conventional skyline.
A landmark of 1960s Archigramian thinking, this drawing advanced a provocative vision of adaptable, technological urbanism that challenged fixed planning and influenced later high‑tech and modular architecture.
Medium
Ink and graphite on tracing paper with masking tape
Dimensions
21 3/4 x 45 5/8" (55.2 x 115.9 cm)
Classification
Department
Credit
Gift of The Howard Gilman Foundation
Accession
1185.2000
Palette
Art Terms
Exhibitions
