HIGH-TECH
DESIGN IN A POST-INDUSTRIAL AGE
Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts (1978), Norman Foster
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INTRODUCTION
This touring exhibition is organised by the Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts and will coincide with the
40th anniversary of its landmark Norman Foster building (1978), itself a key example of the High-Tech
design movement.
The exhibition will present the first ever fully comprehensive study of the High-Tech movement within
architecture and design from the 1970s to the 1990s. Despite the fact that it has been a highlycontested term since its first appearance in the late 1970s, ‘High-Tech’ still remains an apt label for a
number of disparate, yet related, projects which share a common language of highly-expressive
engineering forms and the self-conscious application of industrial materials and fabrication processes.
These buildings exhibit an optimism for a technology-infused future, together with nostalgia for a
recent industrialized past, resulting in visually complex engineering details which represent a return to
ornamentation that had been rejected by Modernism almost 50 years previously.
High-Tech could be seen as a late 20th century manifestation of A.W.N. Pugin’s famous dictum from
1841 that “all ornament should consist of the essential construction of the building”.
Applied to projects of varying scales and contexts, from private houses to factories, product design
and interiors, High-Tech became the go-to style for corporate campuses and cultural buildings alike.
Rooted in the avant-garde theories of 1960s groups such as Archigram and the Metabolists, and
conscious of earlier influences such as Jean Prouvé and the California Case Study Houses, the
proponents of High-Tech created a heady mix of the utopian and the pragmatic to produce buildings
unified by a celebration of industrial materials, an honesty of structural expression, and an aspiration
for flexible and customizable spaces.
Centre Pompidou (1977), Richard Rogers and Renzo Piano and Gianfranco Franchino
Lloyds Building (1986), Richard Rogers
EXHIBITION CONTENT
The exhibition will offer a broad historical and global survey of High-Tech as a design idea, examining
its evolution during the 1970s and 1980s, which culminated in key buildings such as the Centre
Pompidou, the Sainsbury Centre, the Lloyds Building and the HSBC Headquarters in Hong Kong. In
addition to exploring the work of architects such as Richard Rogers, Norman Foster, Nicholas
Grimshaw and other (mostly British) architects commonly associated with High-Tech, the exhibition will
take an international view, examining the shared characteristics with the work of architects such as
Enric Miralles in Spain, Ralf Schüler in Germany, I.M. Pei in Hong Kong, Rafael Viñoly in Argentina and
Emilio Ambasz in Mexico.
The exhibition will showcase a wide range of objects, to reflect the rich visual culture of projects and
ideas that have emanated from the High-Tech style. The objects in the exhibition will be drawn from a
range of disciplines including design, architecture, sculpture, painting, cinema and fashion. The display
will consist of drawings, photographs, models, material samples, prototypes, furniture and examples of
product design, audio, animation and film. As the iconic examples of High-Tech design were so
distinctively characterised by a bold application of materials, colour and texture, the experience of
visitors to the exhibition will be defined wherever possible by full-scale objects, and an immersive
engagement with materials and spaces that are able to articulate the expressive engineering language
of these buildings and interior design projects.
John Hancock Center (1969), Fazlur Rahman Khan, Skidmore Owings and Merrill
UTOPIA AND MEGASTRUCTURE
The exhibition will explore the origins of HighTech through the influence of speculative and
spectacular proposals by visionary 20th century
designers such as Buckminster Fuller, the British
student group Archigram, and architects from the
Japanese Metabolism movement. Key exhibits will
illustrate the trajectory of influence from Italian
Futurists such as Mario Chiattone and Antonio
Sant’Elia with their utopian visions of future cities,
through to Paul Rudolph’s extraordinary Lower
Manhattan Expressway urbanism proposal and
Reyner Banham’s seminal publication, Megastructure (1976). These varied projects and
writings demonstrate how a number of theoretical
concepts espousing flexible, modular and
extendible space came to inform key High-Tech
projects, such as the Pompidou Centre, with its
distinctive colour-coded service units and spaceframe structure. This section will also explore how
the flowering of the High-Tech style during the
1970s and 1980s can be examined alongside
other late 20th century developments in art and
design, for example the dystopian visions of
architect Lebbeus Woods, the rise of steampunk
culture during the 1970s/80s, and the technofuturistic production design of filmmaker Terry
Gilliam, as exemplified by his films Brazil (1985)
and 12 Monkeys (1995).
Plug-In City (1964), Archigram & Peter Cook
Modern Metropolis proposal (1914), Mario
Chiattone
Lower Manhattan Expressway (1970), Paul Rudolph
FACTORIES AND SUPERSHEDS
This section of the exhibition
focuses on the adaptable use
(and re-use) of industrial
materials, pre-fabrication and
standardised building systems
employed in a number of HighTech projects — all unified by an
appropriated vernacular of
factory sheds and a romantic
nostalgia for an industrialised
past. Norman Foster’s Sainsbury
Centre for Visual Arts is a
prominent example of the socalled ‘serviced shed’, as
described by design historian
Reyner Banham.
Dymaxion Deployment Units (1940), Buckminster Fuller
Along with other buildings, such as James
Stirling’s Olivetti Training School and Team 4’s
Reliance Controls Factory, it represents a design
aesthetic that draws upon earlier projects as
diverse as Buckminster Fuller’s Dymaxion
Deployment Units, Jean Prouvé’s Maison
Démontable, the California Case Study Houses,
and the golden age of Victorian engineerarchitects such as Paxton and Brunel. The
exhibition will also highlight the significant
influence of Mies Van der Rohe and the Second
Chicago School of architects during the 1950s
and 60s. Disciples such as Myron Goldsmith,
Fazlur Khan and Bruce Graham all worked for the
firm of Skidmore Owings and Merrill (SOM) and
produced trailblazing engineering structures
such as the John Hancock Center and the Dewitt
Chestnut Apartments (vertical ‘supersheds’)
which provided a stimulus for notable High-Tech
architects such as Richard Rogers, Norman
Foster, Michael Hopkins and Nicholas Grimshaw
— some of whom were studying at architectural
school in the U.S. during the 1960s when these
pioneering SOM projects were being built.
Olivetti Training School (1971), James Stirling
CULTURE AND SOCIETY
There are a number of civic and cultural projects (both
built and unbuilt) that have played a significant role in
the evolution of High-Tech. For example, Cedric Price’s
Fun Palace project (1961) — an unrealised experiment in
architecture and technology developed with theatre
director Joan Littlewood as a mixed use space for
performance, theatre and music — was a significant
influence on the conception of the Pompidou Centre,
and yet itself had roots in Basil Spence’s inventive Sea
and Ships Pavilion at London’s 1951 Festival of Britain.
Similarly, traces of both the Fun Palace and Archigram’s
Plug-In City project, can be seen in Helmut Jahn’s
Thompson Center in Chicago (1985), Ralf Schüler’s
International Congress Centre in Berlin (1979) and the
Japanese Metabolist Kenzo Tange’s space frame pavilion
at the 1970 Osaka Expo. Another Metabolist, Kisho
Kurokawa, drew upon Price’s Potteries Think-Belt modular
housing system for his Nakagin Capsule Tower in Tokyo
(1972).
Nakagin Capsule Tower (1972), Kisho
Kurokawa
International Congress Centre Berlin (1979), Ralf Schüler
CORPORATE CAMPUS
This section will explore the utilisation of High-Tech as a trademark style
for a number of corporate buildings and regional headquarters during
the 1970s and 1980s in North America, Europe and Asia. The 1980s
economic boom in cities such as London, Hong Kong and Tokyo led to a
number of iconic High-Tech buildings such as Richard Rogers’s Lloyds
Building and Channel 4 Headquarters, Norman Foster’s HSBC Tower
and Shin Takamatsu’s Syntax Building. The sleek materials, expressively
engineered elements and muscular articulation of form so characteristic
of the High-Tech style, combined to present a brand image of financial
confidence and forward-thinking dynamism which perfectly-suited a
number of major corporations during these heady days of economic
optimism.
HSBC Headquarters, Hong Kong (1986), Norman Foster
LIFESTYLE AND INTERIORS
In parallel with its architectural development, the
concepts behind High-Tech were also evident in a
number of smaller-scale design projects, mostly
focussed on commercial, residential and retail interiors –
spawning what became a fully-fledged global design
style. High-Tech: The Industrial Style and Sourcebook for
the Home was published in 1978, the same year that the
Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts opened, and just one
year after the unveiling of the Pompidou Centre. Written
by two New York-based design and style writers, this
influential book championed the use of affordable
industrial components within domestic and commercial
interior design (e.g. steel dock plate flooring, factory
lights, hospital faucets and metro wire shelving). The
book was serialized in Esquire magazine and led to
window displays at Macy’s, promoting the ‘High-Tech
look’. With its mix of analysis and practical advice, it drew
attention to supply stores such as New York’s AdHoc
Housewares and became a style bible for professional
designers and enthusiastic amateurs alike.
Loft-bed, High-Tech: The Industrial Style
and Sourcebook for the Home (1978)
It featured interior projects by architects
such as Paul Rudolph, and its design ethos
could be seen in retail projects ranging
from Eva Jiricna’s stores for the Joseph
brand, and Norman Foster’s flagship for
fashion designer Katherine Hamnett, to
restaurant interiors by Terence Conran
and iconic 1990s restaurants such as
Belgo in London. Promoted amidst a flurry
of London and New York warehouse lofts
being converted into work-live spaces and
creative studios, many of these industrial
design elements are now commonplace in
today’s residential, retail and restaurant
interiors – representing a form of lifestyle
branding for deluxe developments in
newly gentrified urban areas.
Left: Esquire magazine, High-Tech issue (Aug
1978)
EXHIBITION DETAILS
Size
The exhibition requires a space of approximately 800 m2.
Dates
The exhibition is available to tour from October 2018.
Publication
An illustrated publication featuring distinguished guest authors will be prepared.
EXHIBITION CURATOR
Abraham Thomas is an independent curator and writer based in Washington DC.
He has published and lectured on a wide variety of architecture and design topics,
with a focus on the 19th century to the present day. From 2013 to 2015, Abraham
was the Director of Sir John Soane’s Museum in London, and prior to that worked
for eight years as Curator of Designs at the Victoria and Albert Museum where he
was responsible for the Museum’s extensive collection of design drawings which
span from the Renaissance to the present day. During this period he was the V&A’s
lead curator for architecture, where he curated several exhibitions, including
Heatherwick Studio: Designing the Extraordinary (2012), 1:1 – Architects Build
Small Spaces (2010), and the international touring exhibition Owen Jones: Islamic
Design, Discovery & Vision (2011-12).
CONTACT
Abraham Thomas, Curator
[email protected]
Laura Peterle, Exhibitions Coordinator
[email protected]
SAINSBURY CENTRE FOR VISUAL ARTS
University of East Anglia
Norwich Research Park
Norwich
NR4 7TJ
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