Archigram’s Plug-in City, Constant Nieuwenhuys’ New Babylon and Yona Friedman’s La Ville spatiale rank among the incunabula of the 1960's. Combining visionary architecture, pop culture, art, and situationist rebellion, they became known far beyond the narrow confines of urban planning. Till now, however, there has been no exhibition dealing explicitly with megastructuralists’ vision. "Megastructure Reloaded" seeks for the first time to show them in context. Aside from Archigram, Constant, Friedman, the radical Florence groups Superstudio and Archizoom, whose designs at the end of the 1960's constituted an ironic response to the megastructuralists, will be included. The exhibition is not intended as a documentary representation; instead the megastructuralists are to be tested for their currency and relevance for the problems of contemporary urban design and mega cities. We will focus on the connection between architecture and visual art, as well as on actual architectonic and urban-design issues.

"Megastructure Reloaded" continues the long-term research and exhibition project Utopia Revisited, which includes workshops, symposia, publications and exhibitions throughout Europe. The project started last year with the exhibition Ideal City - Invisible Cities encompassing works by 40 international artists in public places and several institutions in Zamosc, Poland and Potsdam, Germany (June - October 2006, curated by Sabrina van der Ley & Markus Richter). The project will be continued with the exhibitions Things to Come, focusing on visual arts and science fiction (curator: Doreet Harten) in 2008 and Finis Terrae: The End of the World (curators: Sabrina van der Ley & Markus Richter) in 2009. Utopia Revisited will conclude with the exhibition Arcadia in 2010.

Architects and Artists
Archigram, Archizoom, Alan Boutwell, Constant, Günther Domenig / Eilfried Huth, Yona Friedman, Eckhard Schulze-Fielitz, Superstudio

Jose Davila, Simon Dybbroe Moller, Ryan Gander, Erik Göngrich, Franka Hörnschemeyer, Gordon Matta-Clark, Tobias Putrih, Tomas Saraceno, Katrin Sigurdardottir, Victor Nieuwenhuijs & Maartje Seyferth, Tilman Wendland

Exhibition
The entire architecture for the exhibition will be developed by Dennis Crompton, a former member of Archigram, in collaboration with the artists involved and raumlabor_berlin, a Berlin based group of architects. The exhibition will not only do justice to the subject in terms of content; megastructures will also be represented by the exhibition’s architecture.

The venue is the Former State Mint in Berlin Mitte. A variety of rooms provides space for an exiting exhibition parcours as well as for a lecture programm and the scientific symposium which will be held during the exhibition period. The exhibition will be on view in Berlin from 19 September to 02 November 2008 and subsequently travel to further venues in Europe and abroad.

Symposium
A symposium, which will be held on 18 - 19 October 2008, will address the urban-design and social aspects of the subject along with the art-historical considerations. The programme of the symposium is developed in cooperation with the Archigram Archives, London and the Center for Metropolitan Studies, Technische Universität, Berlin.

The Symposium will focus on the definition of Megastructure, the historical and theoretical context of megastructuralism and its protagonists such as Constant, Friedman, Archigram, Archizoom and Superstudio. Further topics are the realised megastructures, the utopian aspect of megastructuralism and the connection between the "visionary" movements in architecture of the 1960'ties and 70'ties with the more pragmatic foundation of New Towns especially in Great Britain and the Netherlands.

Another part of the Symposium is dedicated to art historical aspects of Megastructuralism such as the visual strategies of Archigram or Superstudio and their close connection to the 1960's art scene and pop culture.

Finally the symposium will discuss the currency and relevance of the megastructure ideas for the growing problem of today’s Megacities and contemporary urban planning, especially in the "Newly Industrialising Countries".

Workshop
In co-operation with the Archigram Archives young architects and architecture students will consider the subject of megastructures. The results will then be displayed and discussed in a "laboratory" designed for the purpose as part of the exhibition.

The workshop will take place at the exhibition venue, the Former State Mint, Berlin and will be linked to the scientific symposium. The exact dates as well as the schedule will be annouced in the next days.