Share
Or
https://www.archdaily.com/1032859/even-if-you-want-to-be-a-gardener-study-architecture-archigram-co-founder-sir-peter-cook-on-boldness-creativity-and-architectural-education
Sir Peter Cook is an English architect, professor, and writer, and a founding member of the neo-futuristic design group Archigram, alongside Warren Chalk, Ron Herron, David Greene, and Michael Webb. Beyond the group’s radical urban concepts and visionary imagery, he co-founded CRAB Studio (Cook Robotham Architectural Bureau) with David Robotham in 2006, where they have developed built, conceptual, and speculative projects. He recently designed the Play Pavilion, located next to Serpentine South in Kensington Gardens, which opened on World Play Day, June 11, 2025. He is also known for the BIX Light and Media Façade at MoMA and for his series of drawings and collages that explore spaces, building elements, and organic landscapes.
Returning for his second interview with ArchDaily, Sir Peter Cook sat with Editor in Chief, Christele Harrouk, at the World Architecture Festival 2025. While the first conversation focused on his advice for young architects, this one followed his presentation during WAF on the forthcoming book, Archigram Ten, an editorial project reviving the spirit of the original magazine with founding members and contemporary designers. Building on those themes, he reflects on artificial intelligence, the impact of COVID-19 on his own practice, and current architectural pedagogies.
+ 2Reflecting on the COVID-19 pandemic, Sir Peter Cook highlights how this period of global pause became a fertile time for personal creativity and introspection. Rather than seeing it as a limitation, he used the time to engage in hands-on making and intensive drawing, underscoring the importance of maintaining creative momentum even in isolation. This response contrasts with what he sees as a broader cultural shift during and after the pandemic, an increased cautiousness in architectural practice, where many became hesitant to take risks. For Cook, this highlights the need to preserve a sense of boldness and invention in the discipline, especially in times of uncertainty.
Related Article ”The Delight I Get Out of Doing Buildings is to Say: It Can be Built” : In Conversation with Peter Cook 
The Play Pavilion, designed by Peter Cook (Peter Cook Studio Crablab), in collaboration with Serpentine and the LEGO Group. © Peter Cook (Peter Cook Studio Crablab), Courtesy Serpentine. Image © Andy Stagg
There has to be [room for revolutionary ideas and experimentation]. Otherwise, we go under. I think people tend to condition themselves. They’re made nervous by it, sometimes uncomfortable. And I think it may be that, as has been widely discussed, the effect of the pandemic was to make people nervous and scared, keeping their heads below the parapet, wanting to do the right thing. Whereas we weren’t really worried about doing the right thing. We wanted to do something. That’s a different attitude. It’s a sort of bravado, if you like. And I think the idea of bravado in architecture is quite an interesting one, not necessarily just experimentation, but bravado.
Istanbul Disaster Prevention and Education Center / CRAB Studio. Image Courtesy of CRAB Studio
In discussing today’s architecture students, Cook expresses concern over the growing emphasis on correctness, box-ticking, and institutional conformity in education. He advocates instead for an environment that fosters enthusiasm, risk-taking, and the freedom to be “naughty or different.” For him, architectural education should not only teach professional competencies but also serve as a springboard into a wide range of creative and analytical fields, from filmmaking to urban farming. Even for those who ultimately pursue other paths, he insists that studying architecture cultivates a way of thinking and a depth of understanding that remains profoundly valuable across disciplines.
I think so many schools now are concerned about being worthy, being meaningful, ticking the boxes—making sure they’ve done this and done that. There’s not much spirit. There’s not much encouragement to be wrong, to be naughty, to be different, or to go beyond. It’s all correct, correct, correct, correct, correct. And I blame the heads of the schools for this, more than even the professors.
Drawing by Peter Cook. Image Courtesy of Louisiana Museum of Modern Art
Drawing by Peter Cook. Image Courtesy of Louisiana Museum of Modern Art
Even if you want to go into film, if you want to go into writing, if you want to become a good gardener, you should still go to architecture school. I mean, I was very interested in architecture and I stayed in it, but I’ve had lots of interesting students at all these places who have gone off and done something else.
Portrait of Sir Peter Cook at the Play Pavilion, 2025. Image © Gary Summers
Other recent ArchDaily interviews include a conversation with Carlo Ratti, curator of the 19th Venice Architecture Biennale, as well as with national pavilion curators such as Belgian curators Bas Smets and Dennis Pohl, Chinese architect Ma Yansong, British curators Kabage Karanja and Kathryn Yusoff, and Andrea Faraguna, curator of the Bahrain Pavilion, winner of this year’s Golden Lion for Best National Participation. Recent interviews from the Louisiana Channel, featuring video conversations on art, literature, architecture, design, and music produced by the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, also include talks with Pritzker Prize winner Riken Yamamoto, North American architect Jenny E. Sabin, and Mexican architect Gabriela Carrillo.