Megastructure (planning concept)

Although there is no evidence of architect-designed system, architect Paul Rudolph, in his discussion with John Cook and Heinrich Klotz, regarded the bridge as the best model of megastructure.

The rise of megastructure movements happened in 1959 when the Japanese architect Kenzō Tange and his students at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) published the Boston Harbor project.

At the 1960 World Design Conference in Tokyo, a group of Japanese architects launched the Metabolism manifesto with their megastructural approaches for architecture and urbanism.

Fumihiko Maki, one of the core members of Metabolists, promoted a megastructure as a large form that houses multiple functions and urban environments.

[6] Reyner Banham saw 1964 as a 'Megayear' in which megastructure movements around the world culminated with diverse approaches evolved into a common place to address serious propositions such as social and economic responsibilities.

Architectural critics visiting the exhibition were struck by Montreal's Grain elevators which, with their networks of covered conveyors belts, irresistibly evoked the images of megastructures touted in experimental circles.

Reyner Banham has, however, identified some university and hospital designs derived from megastructural approaches, with modular, interconnected buildings and pedestrian-oriented environments.

The project demonstrates a megastructure with ‘kit of parts’ system, in which standardized housing units are mass-produced and plugged into a series of infrastructural frameworks.