Last edited 19 Jan 2026

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Archiblog Architect Website

Cedric Price

• Montage: "Pull quote on perspective", Cedric Price, 'FAX to IFCCA Prize Coordinator', 14 January 1999. [1] [2]

Cedric Price gave two reasons for his "own nomination and extreme interest in participation in the IFCCA project", namely:—

  1. ... because it is singular, if not unique, in recognising, in architectural terms, the necessity for anticipation of social change in community and the individual, and in the constructive response of the built environment; and
  2. ... because it assumes that not only is the 'city' likely to remain a humane container but that architecture is still deemed as a key participant.

Cedric Price also identified a need. namely:—

  • The need to equate the involvement of Human aspirations with the form, movement and ' 'life' span of the Inanimate is still an incomplete equation which requires continuous updating. [3]

This Table indicates a range of urban planning and design projects by Cedric Price.

Contents

[edit] Fun Palace

"... a short-life public urban skill and delight 'toy' for random usage by all on a riverside site."

252 Image Results

• Diagrammatic section for Fun Palace

[edit] South Bank

"... required by the City Authority to be revitalised improving access, communications and accommodation for an ever changing world clientele.

12 Image Results

• "Why should people always have to look up?"

[edit] Potteries Thinkbelt

"Change occurs constantly in learning requiring an alternative to university, employing varying means of exchange in the industrial U.K. Midlands ... "

52 Image Results

Finding Aid

• Reprint of the article "Potteries Thinkbelt"

[edit] Generator

"... enabled individual and groups activities to be realised and changed by both computer and machine means."

65 Image Results

• Site model with key to cubes function for Generator

[edit] Stratton

"The Rhine crossing at Strasbourg provided an opportunity for re-using redundant docklands with realigned rail (T.G.V.) and roadways in both countries while industries and housing could enrich the existing centres of learning."

13 Image Results

• colour-coded implementation plan

[edit] Magnet

"... located in and around Central London and invest city movement not only with convenience but also Delight."

47 Image Results

• Presentation model for site #2, Soho Square, London


[edit] Notes

[1] Cedric Price (1999) 'FAX to IFCCA Prize Coordinator', 14 January.

[2] Cedric Price (1999) 'perspective view looking east from the Hudson River', CCA.

[3] According to the Canadian Centre for Architecture:—

  • "[Cedric Price] worked from the premise that in order to establish a valid equation between contemporary social aspirations and architecture, it is essential to add to the latter "Doubt, Delight, and Change," as design criteria."
  • (CCA, 2009, 'Cedric Price fonds').

Back to Top


[edit] References

Cedric Price fonds

Cedric Price Memory Bank

Cedric Price at MOMA

Cedric Price on Wordpress

Cedric Price Supplement


[edit] Further Reading

Wikipedia (2023) 'Social change', 16 March.


--Archiblog 16:30, 27 Mar 2023 (BST)


[edit] Related articles on Designing Buildings

ATOM: A generating system designed by Cedric Price

Digital socialism and the non-planners

Norman Fellows

Potteries Thinkbelt


[edit] ADDENDUM

[edit] • Potteries Thinkbelt

  • "This study proposes a valid national and regional distribution of educational institutions." [12]
  • See also [13] [14] [15].

• Map of the PTb showing main routes, transfer, faculty and housing areas - Image courtesy of CCA

Learn More

Notes

  1. Norman Fellows (31 Mar 2023) 'Potteries Thinkbelt'

[edit] • Oxford Corner House

• Plan of second floor, Oxford Corner House, London - Image courtesy of CCA

Learn More

Notes

[edit] • Atom

• Atom: diagram illustrating the distribution of educational facilities throughout the town in phase 3 - Image courtesy of CCA

Learn More

Notes

  1. Norman Fellows (10 May 2023) 'ATOM: A generating system designed by Cedric Price

[edit] • Detroit Think Grid

  • "The Community College would appear to be an ideal agency (for the task of introducing an addiitional comprehensive sensitive to needs not yet formulated) since not only has its role not crystallised into any particular authoritarian educational patern, such as is the case with most universities, but also its very structure can be extremely sensitive to society's change."
  • (Cedric Price, 'Oakland Community College', AD/6/71, p.354) [7]

• Oakland Community College Annual Report, 1966-67 [from Detroit Think Grid project Document documents] - Image courtesy of CCA

Learn More

Notes

  1. John Tirrell titled his report "The Future: Thinkbelt with Think Links"
  • "In this document, Tirrell credited the concept of the Thinkbelt directly to Cedric Price, with whom he had of course spent time andhad clearly developed a relationship around common visions andideas at the Rice Design Fete three months earlier. He summarized the overarching vision of the Thinkbelt, as an innovative idea for an education network whose goal was to involve and engage the whole community and the space of the city in education; it would be built around existing infrastructural networks, would be technologically integrated, and would be physically structured to allow for flexibility and experimentation. In the report, Tirell presented a radical proposal to the board: that the OCC Should reconsider moving forward with building new suburban campus structures and instead embrace a program of temporary and portable facilities as "decentralized learning-laboratories" equipped with media-based learning technologies aimed at adult learners, which would serve to "link the college and outer community in a triangle of stability with with a resultant chain of communication between the various segments of the community."
  • (Kathy Velikov, 2015, Tuning Up The City, p.45)

[edit] • BMI/HQ

  • "...such a building as that proposed can provide the continuous scientific, technological, cultural 'servicing' required by both the individual and the group. At the same time the building can act as the nerve centre, producer and distributor of an enormous range of services to members and the public in the region."
  • (Cedric Price, 'BMI: HQ/Birmingham and Midland Institute, Birmingham, England', AD/6/71, p.364) [8]

• presentation panel showing the proposed site in Birmingham, England, and the form of the proposed structure - Image courtesy of CCA

Learn More

Notes

[edit] • Inter-Action Centre

• Aerial view of Inter-Action Centre, London, England - Image courtesy of CCA

Learn More

Notes

  1. "The Inter-Action Centre - sited at Talacre Public Open Space in Kentish Town, London - was one of Cedric Price's few realized projects. Construction began in the early 1970s, and was described by Steve Mullin, in 'Whatever happened to the systems approach?' (AD/5/76) as "a logical follow-through from the earlier projects: the primary structure forming a relatively large-scale, long-life shelter and framework for the flexible secondary enclosures and components". [*]

[edit] • Generator

• Generator project, White Oak Plantation, Yulee Florida: initial design network showing three starting points - Image courtesy of CCA

Learn More

Notes

  1. Norman Fellows (18 Oct 2023) 'Generator'

[edit] COROLLARY: The house as a national service

[edit] 'A change is required in our current attitude to “Housing”'

Successive 'housing' schemes are briefly presented in two columns:—

  1. The left-hand column contains a digitized image from the CCA file representing each successive scheme together with a 'Learn More' link to the file.
  2. The right-hand column contains 'Notes' linking to articles on the Designing Buildings website.

NOTE:—

  • "This work has been concerned with postulating a coarse model of a potential 'housing' service which would help correct the shortfalls and ensure that future appetites and demands, as yet unknown, can be identified and when necessary, satisfied."
  • (Cedric Price (1971) 'Housing', AD/10/71, p.620) [11.2]

[edit] • Potteries Thinkbelt student housing

• housing types: application to site conditions - Image courtesy of CCA

Learn More

Notes

[edit] • Steel House

• Housing Research: plans for steel houses with inflatable link variations - Image courtesy of CCA

Learn More

Notes

  1. Norman Fellows (24 May 2023) 'Steel House', in 'Housing Research by Cedric Price'

[edit] • 24 hour Living Toy

• Plans for housing units showing occupation of space at different times of the day, from the project file "Housing Research" - Image courtesy of CCA

Learn More

Notes

  1. Norman Fellows (24 May 2023) '24 hour Living Toy', in 'Housing Research by Cedric Price'

[edit] • Housing Research aka "Son of Thinkbelt"

  • "It is only when housing is seen to be as malleable yet particular as a chocolate bar will there be valuable international exchange, public and private, of information on desirable attitudes to what could be one of the World's most enjoyable commodities — the house."
  • (Cedric Price, 'Housing', AD/10/71, p.619.) [15]

• Axonometric for housing unit, from the project file "Housing Research" - Image courtesy of CCA

Learn More

Notes

  1. Norman Fellows (24 May 2023) 'Housing Research by Cedric Price'
  • "It is considered essential that new housing equate more closely than at present with the major changes in social patterning. These are primarily related to increases in personal affluence, mobility and 'free will' or 'leisure' time.
  • [...]
  • The proposed housing makes possible a wide range of ownership, while the range of units and parts provides extensive individual variation.'
  • (CP, AD/5/71, p.246)

See also:

Expediency, Housing Research by Cedric Price, Designing Buildings

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