'I don't agree with the idea of utopia': sir peter cook on optimism and the power of drawing

"Curated by architect, researcher, and curator María Arana Zubiate, the biennial unfolds under the theme of Castles in the Air, or How to Build Utopia Today, exploring whether visionary thinking still has a place in an age dominated by pragmatism. The legendary architect and co-founder of Archigram participates in the exhibition with two projects - Plug-in City from 1964 and the more recent Filter City - presented as part of the section Escape Utopias alongside New Babylon by Constant, "

"Although many of his projects, including the Kunsthaus Museum in Graz, Austria, and the Drawing Studio for Arts University Bournemouth, have been realized, Cook's most important tool remains drawing. Through fantastical, colorful drawings that express his visionary ideas of what cities could look like, he has influenced and inspired architecture and architectural thinking over the past six decades. Sir Peter Cook and Sofia Lekka Angelopoulou at the stage of Mugak/2025"

"'It is usual to say that there is the utopian world, and put a box around it, and then there's the real world,' he explains during our conversation. 'In a lot of architecture schools, the professor will say, don't look at that, it's just a utopian idea, it has nothing to do with what can be done. And I think professors are often the worst offenders, because the fact that it might be buildable makes them slightly nervous.'"

María Arana Zubiate curated the biennial under the theme Castles in the Air, or How to Build Utopia Today, probing visionary thinking versus pragmatism. Sir Peter Cook, co-founder of Archigram, exhibited Plug-in City (1964) and Filter City in the Escape Utopias section alongside works by Constant and Rem Koolhaas. Many of Cook's buildings, including the Kunsthaus Museum in Graz and the Drawing Studio for Arts University Bournemouth, have been realized, yet drawing remains his primary tool. Cook rejects a strict divide between utopia and the real, arguing that visionary ideas can be buildable and that dismissing them limits architectural education and imagination.

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