Megastructure: Urban futures of the recent past

Surveying a movement that would inspire architects, fantasists, and filmmakers alike.
An architectural concept as alluring as it is elusive, as futuristic as it is primordial, Megastructure is what it sounds like: a vastly scaled edifice that can contain potentially countless uses, contexts, and adaptations. Theorized and briefly experimented with in built form in the 1960s, megastructures almost as quickly went out of fashion in the profession. Banham’s 1976 book compiled the origin stories and ongoing mythos of this visionary movement, seeking to chart its lively rise, rapid fall, and ongoing meaning.

Megastructure: Urban futures of the recent past
Published by Thames and Hudson
(1976 ISBN: 0 500 34068 4 hard cover)
(1976 ISBN: 0 500 27205 0 paperback)

Megastructuras: Futuro urbano del pasado reciente
Spanish translation published by Editorial Gustavo Gili
(1978 ISBN: 84-252-0715-0)

Le tentazioni dell’architettura Megastrutture
Italian translation published by Editori Laterza
(1980)

Megastructuras: futuro urbano del pasado reciente
New Spanish translation published by Gustavo Gili
(2001 ISBN: 84-252-1851-9)

Megastructure: Urban futures of the recent past
Facsimile edition with introduction by Todd Gannon published by Monacelli Press
(2020 ISBN: 1580935400)