Future Systems

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architect website: www.future-systems.com

Future Systems is a London-based architectural and design practice, formerly headed by Directors Jan Kaplický (1937-2009) and Amanda Levete. Following Jan Kaplicky and amanda levete’s decision in 2007 to pursue independent interests, amanda levete architects was formed in 2009

www.amandalevetearchitects.com

Future Systems is among British High-tech architects Norman Foster, Renzo Piano, Peter Cook and Richard Rogers. Future Systems built work can be classified in within the British high-tech architects as either bionic architecture or amorphous, organic shapes sometimes referred to as “blobitecture”.

Future Systems adapted construction methods from other professions, including (most commonly) the curved monocoque shell structures found in aircraft design, car design and boat building. Some designs expressed the underlying structural members externally in a complex rib pattern; some designs looked more like huge insects, than houses.

In the 1990s the company moved from theoretical projects to fee-paying work with projects such as the “spacecraft-like”[1] Media Centre at Lord’s Cricket Ground in London (completed 1999), and the Selfridges Building in the Bull Ring, Birmingham (completed 2003). The Selfridges department store forms part of the redeveloped Bullring shopping centre on the edge of the city centre, and was the only part of the new development designed by architects other than Benoy Ltd. (the firm responsible for masterplanning the scheme). The building is a prime example of the early 21st century movement referred to as “blobitecture”, and has been compared to Peter Cook’s Kunsthaus in Graz, Austria, who in a 2004 interview discussing his work and Future Systems said he would “rather be with the Blobbies than the Boring Farts!

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