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CEDRIC PRICE (1934-2003) was one of the most visionary architects of the late 20th
century. Although he built very little, his lateral approach to architecture and to time-based
urban interventions, has ensured that his work has an enduring influence on contemporary
architects and artists, from Richard Rogers and Rem Koolhaas, to Rachel Whiteread.

The Fun Palace was one of his most influential projects and inspired Richard Rogers and
Renzo Piano¶s early 1970s project, Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris.

Centre Georges Pompidou

Initiated with Joan Littlewood, the theatre director and founder of the innovative Theatre
Workshop in east London, the idea was to build a µlaboratory of fun¶ with facilities for
dancing, music, drama and fireworks. Central to Price¶s practice was the belief that through
the correct use of new technology the public could have unprecedented control over their
environment, resulting in a building which could be responsive to visitors¶ needs and the
many activities intended to take place there.

As the marketing material suggested, there was a wide choice of activities: ³Choose what you
want to do ± or watch someone else doing it. Learn how to handle tools, paint, babies,
machinery, or just listen to your favourite tune. Dance, talk or be lifted up to where you can
see how other people make things work. Sit out over space with a drink and tune in to what¶s
happening elsewhere in the city. Try starting a riot or beginning a painting ± or just lie back
and stare at the sky.´
Using an unenclosed steel structure, fully serviced by travelling gantry cranes the building
comprised a µkit of parts¶: pre-fabricated walls, platforms, floors, stairs, and ceiling modules
that could be moved and assembled by the cranes. Virtually every part of the structure was
variable. ³Its form and structure, resembling a large shipyard in which enclosures such as
theatres, cinemas, restaurants, workshops, rally areas, can be assembled, moved, re-arranged
and scrapped continuously,´ promised Price.

he died in London aged 68 in 2003.

Entry Filed under: Interactive, Kinetic

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juliette | October 19th, 2006 at 9:46 am

hello
i¶m a french student , with very bad english , but i¶m working about this project: fun
palace , i would like to know where i can find more information , archivs , plans«
THANKS for your websides

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Ruairi | October 19th, 2006 at 10:37 am

There isnt a huge amount of info although it is referenced a lot by many artists. You
could start by looking at his ¶square book¶
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Serge | November 21st, 2006 at 5:01 am

RE : Fun Palace
Actually, check at the Canadian Centre for Architecture, in Montreal. Where the
Cedric Price ¶s archives (including the Fun Palace) are located.
For more info: http://www.cca.qc.ca, 514-939-7026

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i-eclectica.org » B&hellip | April 7th, 2007 at 11:48 am

[...] A seemingly a not acknowledged enough forerunner of interactive architecture is

the well-known British architect Cedric Price, who was the first person to see the
potential in interactivity combining with reconfigurable architecture. His 1960s µFun
Palace¶ was an enormous flexible environment for infinite possible events to occur in.
Fun Palace was based on a constantly varying design for a new form of leisure center.
Aesthetically it looks like a factory but was designed for the public to play around and
engage with the architecture. It was an improvisational architecture in which common
citizens could entertain and educate themselves by assembling their own
environments using cranes and prefabricated modules. ³Choose what you want to do
± or watch someone else doing it. Learn how to handle tools, paint, babies,
machinery, or just listen to your favourite tune. Dance, talk or be lifted up to where
you can see how other people make things work. Sit out over space with a drink and
tune in to what¶s happening elsewhere in the city. Try starting a riot or beginning a
painting ± or just lie back and stare at the sky´ (Cedric Price on Fun Palace) ± how
inspiring. [...]

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negin | December 17th, 2007 at 4:13 pm

heyruairi!
my dissertation this year is about the fun palace, and in one of the paragraphs above it
says ³the idea was to build a µlaboratory of fun¶ with facilities for dancing, music,
drama and fireworks.´ I was just wondering where you got that information/quote
from ± particularly the part about fireworks, as I haven¶t been able to find it written
anywhere else yet.
thanks!
negin

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amy | January 28th, 2008 at 3:43 pm

³fromAgit-Prop to Free Space: The Architecture of Cedric Price´ by Stanley Mathews

is a book I used to look at Cedric Price, as well as his Square book. The latter is more
expensive and may be found in a University library.

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Velvetpark - Dyke Culture&hellip | May 13th, 2008 at 3:53 pm

[...] Cedric Price¶s ³Fun Palace³? [...]

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rosalie | April 7th, 2009 at 7:52 pm

juliette, je faisegalementunerecherchesur le fun palace de Price, cam¶interesse de

savoir sit¶asreussi à trouver des info et sioui, où?
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Room With A Grue | Tap-Re&hellip | June 3rd, 2009 at 12:10 am

[...] want to mention one of the coolest architectural projects that never got built. It¶s
call the Fun Palace and it was dreamed up by the visionary architect Cedric Price.
Price had one of the worst [...]

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Desert(ed) hotel | Studen&hellip | March 18th, 2010 at 6:36 pm

[...] ³War is replaced by play, but not forgotten.´ Hasan makes a kind of Cedric Pice¶s
Fun Palace reinterpretation of an hotel in the Nazi times. The task was to design a
hotel on the site of a [...]