ABSTRACT
Ted instigated the competition entry after an abortive sortie with Richard and Su Rogers in the competition for the Stamford Bridge stand which, in Richard Rogers’ view, was an all-round catastrophe in that neither client nor consultants were ever convincingly on the same wavelength. He was touched and surprised when Ted came back a little later with a proposition to enter the open competition for Beaubourg. At first Arup’s were not going to pursue the competition and Richard Rogers was also ambivalent about buying a ticket for the lottery, but Su and Renzo Piano liked the idea and Richard concurred. The competition entry was late to gestate but generated around a clear image the team wanted to explore-an idea stemming from the Joan Littlewood/Cedric Price Fun Palace and the freewheeling sixties culture of Archigram. The solution was brilliantly graphic in combining the principles of loose-fit technology and engineering versatility, demonstrated by the movable floors and the articulation of a pedestrian transportation system designed to become the greatest free ride in Europe. In essence, the competition entry, much of it conceived around Ted’s kitchen table at Gloucester Crescent, was presented as a gigantic interactive information machine.
