Peter Cook

Architects, Great Britain
Peter Cook is best known as a member of the infamous (but famously talented and farreaching)
collaborative, Archigram. After studying architecture at the Bournemouth
College of Art and the Architectural Association in London under Peter Smith-son, Cook
worked at the office of James Cubitt and Partners in London.
In the early 1960s Cook, along with Ron Herron and Michael Webb, self-published
the journal Archigram. More than a critical review of architecture, the magazine served as a vehicle
to exhibit their own futuristic house and urban plans through their beautiful, colorful,
collaged drawing styles. The group was formalized as Archigram Architects in 1968—a
partnership that lasted through 1976. The power of the Archigram group, as Cook has
said, was “its creative creation of the antidote to boredom.”
In 1976 Cook opened a practice with his former student Christine Hawley. Though
many of their collaborative efforts remain strictly in the “project” category, Cook’s own
work is still geared toward the city and echoes Archigram’s experimental city studies.
“At various times I have delighted in the idea of the anti-city,” he says. “Plugged-In,”
“Instant,” and “Layered” are just a few of Cook and Hawley’s joint, unbuilt projects.
Cook has had several teaching appointments at the Architectural Association in
London, where he still works as a consulting critic. He is presently professor of
architecture and head of the department of architecture at both the Bartlett School of
Architecture of the University College in London and at the Staedelschule in Frankfurt.
Christine Hawley is professor of architectural studies and dean at Bartlett School of
Architecture, where they both encourage experimental student work. The few built
projects the two have embarked on exhibit a broader design than their imaginary cities, in
spite of the built work’s logistical constrictions.