'Delightful Fun': a Cedric Price Thinkbelt for our Times

Thinkbelt is a touring exhibition and associated events in several UK Schools of Architecture that celebrates the legacy of British architect Cedric Price (1934-2003) – RGU, Aberdeen (October 2024); ESALA, Edinburgh (November); GSA, Glasgow (December); U. of Staffordshire, Stoke-on-Trent (January 2025); BCU, Birmingham (February); London Metropolitan U. and U. of Westminster (March).

Two original market stall prototypes from the Drawing Matter Collection, designed by Price and never exhibited together before, serve as the centerpiece of the exhibition. Displayed alongside these prototypes are facsimiles of drawings from three projects—Fun Palace (1961–75), Potteries Thinkbelt (1964), and Westal (1987–89)— and a range of ephemera, including broadsheets, exhibition catalogues, postcards, montages, photographs, and offprints of articles. Recordings of Price’s lectures fill the space with his presence and ideas, while film excerpts from the Fun Palace introduce the work of radical theatre producer Joan Littlewood, mastermind of the project and a key interlocutor in the development of Price’s architectural ideas. These artifacts provide a glimpse into the diversity of Price’s practice and the interdisciplinary conversations that animated it. Importantly, the curation also reflects the various collections and archives, both in the UK and abroad, where his work can be encountered today.

Who do we design for? How little need be done? For how long is the design useful? How to make time visible in our designs? What might design for pleasure and delight mean today? In the spirit of Price’s Potteries Thinkbelt project, this initiative aims to stimulate discussions about a selection of pedagogies and practices at each school that are resonant with Price’s design principles. These include the provision of user-centred designs that increase choice, encourage change, do more with less, make time visible, and create responsive designs that delight the communities they serve.

Ultimately, 'Delightful Fun': a Cedric Price Thinkbelt for our Times is an invitation to reflect on how architecture can be useful, timely, and delightful, and how these qualities may outline a more permeable profession that responds to current environmental and social challenges.