How seeing 1960s avant garde project The Walking City taught Hong Kong architect Benny Lee that nothing is impossible
- Benny Lee Chiu-ming from Bread Studio in Hong Kong was stunned by the works of the pop art collective Archigram when he first saw them
- He saw an original copy of The Walking City, and it showed him how architecture can improve people’s lives and change the world
The Walking City (1964-66) is perhaps the best known project from avant garde 1960s British architectural collective Archigram. The work of architect Ron Herron, it consisted of detailed drawings of a futuristic city resembling a giant insect mounted on telescopic legs.
Benny Lee Chiu-ming, co-founder and design director of design consultancy Bread Studio, who was also co-curator of the Hong Kong Exhibition at the 2021 Venice Architecture Biennale, tells Richard Lord how it changed his life.
I was in high school (at La Salle College) when I began to make a choice about what I wanted to be. I started to immerse myself in design and architecture books.
When we talk about good architecture, we’re usually referring to buildings, something that’s very predictable, built in a safe way. I started to familiarise myself with famous architects – Zaha Hadid, Norman Foster, Richard Rogers – and their work was very beautiful, but they were still buildings: I could imagine how I could inhabit these premises.
Archigram was a group of pop artists. I came across their work in books and was stunned by what they were doing. I think architecture is not only about function and being pleasing to the eye. What they did is very radical. It points to the future – it’s not something I can see in everyday life.
I trained in architectural school in Hong Kong and at University College London, which is where Archigram evolved. The teaching staff there, if they weren’t Archigram members, were their disciples and students.
