Future Systems

Infobox Architectural Practice

---

caption = Exterior detail of the Selfridges Building, Birmingham
name = Future Systems
architects = Jan Kaplický
Amanda Levete
city = London, England
UK
founded = 1982
dissolved =
awards = Stirling Prize (1999)
significant_buildings= Lord's Cricket Ground; Selfridges; Bull Ring
significant_projects = Maserati Museum
significant_design = |

Future Systems is a London-based architectural and design practice, headed by Directors Jan Kaplický and Amanda Levete.

Future Systems shared many of their founding principles with the British High-tech architects Norman Foster, Renzo Piano and Richard Rogers. However, Future Systems tended towards more radical, less "machine aesthetic" buildings that were no less high-tech.

Many of their designs were strikingly original and organic, acting as a fore-runner of what is now known as bionic architecture, and mimicking natural structures such as a fly's wings, a tree's branches, or the insides of rocky caves. The designs freely 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 structural members externally in a complex rib pattern; some designs looked more like huge insects, than houses.

Into the 1990s the company found popular approval and fee-paying work, which led to high-profile projects such as Media Centre at Lord's Cricket Ground in London (completed 1999), and the Selfridges Building in the Bull Ring, Birmingham (completed 2003). The latter building, occupied by Selfridges department store, forms part of the redeveloped Bullring shopping centre on the edge of the city centre. It is the only part of the new development designed by architects other than Benoy Ltd. (the firm responsible for masterplanning the scheme) and makes a striking contribution to Birmingham's cityscape. Part of the early 21st century movement towards amorphous, organic shapes sometimes referred to as "blobitecture", it may be compared to Peter Cook's Kunsthaus in Graz, Austria.

References

*cite book|last=Pawley|first=Martin|title=Future Systems : The Story of Tomorrow|location=London|publisher=Phaidon|year=1993|isbn=0714827673
*cite book|last=Sudjic|first=Deyan|title=Future Systems|location=London|publisher=Phaidon|year=2006|isbn=0714844691

Further reading

Articles

*cite web|title=Amanda Levete / Future Systems|url=http://www.designboom.com/eng/interview/futuresystems.html|publisher=designboom|date=2003-09-26|accessdate=2007-04-01
* [http://www.theplan.it "Interview with Jan Kaplicky-Future Systems"] by Alessandra Orlandoni- The Plan 008 January 2005

Books

*cite book | last=Field | first=Marcus | title=Future Systems | location=London | publisher=Phaidon | year=1999 | isbn=0714838314
*cite book | last=Future Systems | title=Unique Building (Lord's Media Centre) | location=Chichester | publisher=Wiley Academy | year=2001 | isbn=0471985120
*cite book | last=Kaplický | first=Jan | title=Confessions | location=Chichester | publisher=Wiley-Academy | year=2002 | isbn=0471495417
*cite book | last=Kaplický | first=Jan | title=For Inspiration Only | location=Chichester | publisher=Academy Editions | year=1996 | isbn=1854904787
*cite book | last=Kaplický | first=Jan | title=More for Inspiration Only | location=Chichester | publisher=Academy Editions | year=1999 | isbn=0471987700
*cite book | last=Pawley | first=Martin | title=Hauer-King House : Future Systems | location=London | publisher=Phaidon | year=1997 | isbn=0714836303
*cite book | last=Tichá | first=Jana | coauthors=Jan Kaplický (eds.) | title=Future Systems | location=Prague | publisher=Zlatý řez | year=2002

External links

* [http://www.future-systems.com Official website of Future Systems]
*archINFORM|arch|233