The imaginative architecture could have been a reality today if today’s celebrities were Pink Floyd‘s Nick Mason, Richard Wright, and Roger Waters, an English rock band formed in London. Three architecture students left the program in 1965 to pursue careers as musicians. The article will show how their education in architecture helped shape their careers as celebrities who were dream architects around Pink Floyd. The passion for the band developed from being an architect and the mythical relationship between architecture and Pink Floyd, which led them to create a visual language for their stage designs, graphics and light effects and to understand the scale and proportion of the design, which can be experienced in the design-related museum of “Their Mortal Remains,” produced by Victoria and Albert. The museum is currently on a tour of Europe. The experience gained in the left degree of architecture became a useful tool for them to create objects, posters, photos, and pieces of film, as well as instruments and images, and also to work with other fellow architects to design their themes for stage designs. Three of the five founding members of the band, Waters, Mason, and Wright, met while studying architecture at Regent Street Polytechnic in London, now known as the University of Westminster. They were dismissed in the middle of their studies due to a lack of interest in the history of building design, and with disdain for criticism, the three left architecture and joined music, which they credit as the inspiration for the iconic ballad “The Wall.” And in 1969, they also released an album, “Music for Architectural Students,” dedicated to their period spent in the studio.
Following a visit to Haberdashers’ Aske’s Boys in Elstree, London, Richard Wright decided to study architecture, enrolled at Regent Street Polytechnic, and met the other band members, one of whom was Mason. Unsure of what he wanted to do with his life, he studied architecture at the Regent Street Polytechnic because he wanted to work in London. It was obvious that their visual education, structure obsession, and spatial thinking had never left them. Pink Floyd is also known for their creative art works that accompanied their music, which evolved from their architecture students’ background, focusing on small and large objects with a lot of meaning.
The beautiful and concrete link that shaped their style and individuality for their career was architecture, as their constant concern was creating an amazing environment for their concerts as they always made good attraction to the audience and never attracted the public with their interest being so restrained about it; they created a dream space by music and an entire architectural environment within the concert.In the beginning of their careers, they managed to create artistic environments for their music only with light effects produced by blending oils, chemicals, inks, and water on a slide projector in underground clubs. When budgets increased, a circular screen appeared at some point, and the scale of things exploded; they even started to work with architects to design their stages later in the future.
Mark Fisher was a key contributor to their designs. He was a student in the workshop of Archigram’s Petr Cook’s architectural association and specialised in pneumatic architecture. In 1976, Pink Floyd and the collaboration of Mark Fisher and Andres Sanders created the album cover for “Animals/in the Flesh Tour.” The work of these three was extensively used in concerts alongside an upper-class American family; the artwork done on the album cover was an idea of Mason and Water. Thus, the wall was not just an album adapted for stage or film; it was a key component of a global project that included a kind of music on stage and on film. It is hard to forget for everyone the images from the show: the assembled wall and destroyed on stage, the objects and animations of huge dolls, Gerald Scarfe, the teacher, the mother 1976, Pink Floyd and the collaboration of Mark Fisher and Andres Sanders created the album cover for “Animals/in the Flesh Tour.” The work of these three was extensively used in concerts alongside an upper-class American family; the artwork done on the album cover was an idea of Mason and Water. The visual languages of band and Fisher came out the same and collaborated well to create a dream world on stage with music and architecture, so the two tools were always in rhythm in their work and lifestyles. Thus, the wall was not just an album adapted for stage or film; it was a main element of a global project that included a kind of music on the stage and on film. It is hard to forget for everyone the images from the show: the assembled wall and destroyed on stage, the objects and animations of huge dolls, Gerald Scarfe, the teacher, the mother, the wife, and the music that appeared like a giant, bombastic theme that pushed their technical skills and innovation to their full potential. The graphics, which came with the contribution of artist Storm Thorgerson, who later joined the band and produced the fundamental icon of a prism on a black background, cannot be forgotten; the cow on the cover of Atom Heart Mother and the covers of their early albums all belong to the team at Hipgnosis, his graphic design office.
The team Pink Floyd as a band may have yet to complete their career as architects, but they generated architecture, innovation, and technology and defined their space of dream architecture, a whole new world of graphics and visual language given to space and culture. They are creative directors and architects of their own space, and with music and architecture as their useful tools, they were able to create a new world for their audience with designs that will tie them forever to their band.
The three architecture students were also connected with fellow architects such as Norman Foster and Rem Koolhaas during a time in the nineteenth century when architects were turning down the architectural language from historical to contemporary times during 1968 to 1972, when Rem Koolhaas was studying architecture with his final thesis as “Exodus,” the voluntary prisoners of architecture, because of the Berlin Wall that appeared to be self-imprisonment. People who have been segregated voluntarily seek refuge within the walls of a large-scale prison. Pink Floyd released their visionary masterpiece “The Wall” in 1979. The songs written and the music composed were approximately related to the storyline of events in the life of the protagonist. The rock opera explored abandonment and isolation, symbolised by a wall.
The above image depicts the style of architecture that could have been a reality if the band had pursued their career as architects. The designs would have been louder, and in terms of colors and the object proportions used from small to very big, they would sometimes be appreciated for combining music with architecture but might not interest people for everyday architecture. For them, music comes first, but architecture is in their blood. Whereas early Pink Floyd was all about freedom and adventure, Roger Waters and David Gilmour were more about structure, which came from what they learned as architecture students and produced from progressions and the sound textures they explored and set them in original concrete shapes as a triumph.which can also be evidenced from their museum, “Their Mortal Remembrance,” published in London in 2017.
The band also believes that studying architecture taught them some useful stuff by giving them an opportunity to develop and putting them in touch with some fantastic mentors and industry contacts that have helped them along their way, and they say, “All in all, we are just bricks in the wall.”
References:
Ghenciulescu, Stefan. (2017) Architects of dreams. Around the “Pink Floyd. Their Mortal Remains” exhibition.Available at: https://e-zeppelin.ro/en/architects-of-dreams-around-the-pink-floyd-their-mortal-remains-exhibition/
Klayko, Branden. (2012) Another Brick in the Wall: Pink Floyd Drummer Awarded Honorary Architecture Degree. Available at: https://www.archpaper.com/2012/11/another-brick-in-the-wall-pink-floyd-drummer-awarded-honorary-architecture-degree/
Richtie, Adam. (2020) Pink Floyd Architecture. Available at: http://fabio-barilari.blogspot.com/2020/03/pink-floyd-architecture.html
Tucker,Johnny, (2017) BEHIND THE SCENES OF THE PINK FLOYD EXHIBITION: THEIR MORTAL REMAINS. Available at: https://www.designcurial.com/news/behind-the-scenes-of-the-pink-floyd-exhibition-their-mortal-remains-5813552/
