Collage and architecture: pop interference in the early work of Alison and Peter Smithson

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.26754/ojs_zarch/zarch.20252411125

Keywords:

collage, pop, objects, consumerism, Alison and Peter Smithson, Independent Group

Abstract

This article seeks to direct our attention to one of the countless interferences that, throughout the twentieth century, intertwined the path of art with that of architecture. A perspective born from the cultural and political expansionism promoted by the United States during the postwar years, which would eventually lead to the birth of the Independent Group and, with it, to a new way of looking at our discipline through consumption and pop. As a result of these interferences, this article values the significance of the collection of projects launched with the 1953 exhibition Parallel of Life and Art and concluded with the design of the Appliance Houses between 1956-1959. These projects positioned British architects Alison and Peter Smithson as two of the main representatives of a way of understanding architectural space through objects and collage. 

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Author Biographies

  • Jaime Sanz, Universidad San Pablo CEU

    Jaime Sanz (Madrid, 1984) is an Architect (2011) and Doctor of Architecture (2021) from the School of Architecture of the Polytechnic University of Madrid. He has been an associate professor since 2022 at the Escuela Politécnica Superior de la Universidad San Pablo CEU and since 2024 he has been a doctoral collaborating professor at the same. He has been a professor at the University of Virginia, USA, between 2018 and 2022. His work as a researcher has been published in journals such as Boletín Académico (No. 9, 2019), Revista Constelaciones (No. 10, 2022 and No. 7, 2019) or Anales de Investigación en Arquitectura (Vol. 14).

  • Nadezhda Vasileva Nicheva, Universidad de Diseño, Innovación y Tecnología

    Nadia Vasileva (Pleven, Bulgaria, 1980) is an architect from the Madrid School of Architecture (ETSAM) (2009), with a Master’s degree (2011) and a PhD (2017) in Advanced Architectural Projects from the same institution. Awarded the Extraordinary PhD Prize (2019). Visiting researcher at Waseda University, Tokyo (2012-2014). Currently, Director of the Master’s Program in Interior Design at UDIT, professor in both undergraduate and graduate programs at the same university, and collaborator in the EELISA RC community at UPM. Translator of the book The Japanese House: Space, Memory, and Language by Takeshi Nakagawa (2016). Author of several book chapters and articles in journals such as RITA (2015), Locus Amoenus (2017), THEORIA (UNAM, 2020), and OCTAEDRO (2024).

References

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Published

2025-06-30

How to Cite

Sanz, J., & Vasileva Nicheva, N. (2025). Collage and architecture: pop interference in the early work of Alison and Peter Smithson. ZARCH. Journal of Interdisciplinary Studies in Architecture and Urbanism, 24, 146-159. https://doi.org/10.26754/ojs_zarch/zarch.20252411125
Received 2024-10-15
Accepted 2025-03-14
Published 2025-06-30