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Architectural Association Prospectus 2020–2021

School of Architecture Diploma Programme


Contents

7 82
Introduction Timetable

13 89
Diploma Programme How to Apply
Introduction

14–55
Unit Briefs

57
Core Studies
and Electives
Diploma Programme ETS review, 2019–20
Introduction
A 1941 photograph of Mount House in Barnet shows AA students
looking across a wide reflecting pool at each other. The school
relocated to this location at the outset of World War II. Drawing
was taught in a domestic drawing room, and studio groups fre-
quently met outdoors in the gardens that surrounded the
house. At the time, the institution dwindled to just 50 students.

AA students sitting across from each other at the ornamental pond located in front of Mount House,
Undaunted, it forged through and eventually returned to
Bedford Square, which thankfully avoided destruction during
the Blitz, at the start of 1945. The Mount House years represented
a displacement, and allowed the AA not only to reinvent itself,

Barnet, the AA’s temporary relocation during World War II


but also to remember its original purpose: the education of
architects. By 1947, student numbers peaked and the school
entered an exhilarating new phase during which it brought mod-
ernist architecture to the UK with visits from Jane Drew, Frank
Lloyd Wright, Le Corbusier, Walter Gropius and Alvar Aalto.
The 2020–21 academic year will also be something of a dis-
placement for the AA. This time, however, its community will
be distributed around the globe in the midst of a pandemic.
Our reflecting pool will be a laptop screen; we will look across
at each other through virtual platforms and continue to rein-
vent our understanding of architecture and the built
environment, which is in certain need of change. These endeav-
ours will be aided by administrative staff working to upgrade
hardware and software, record lectures, plan innovative online
events and develop procedures for the re-occupation of our
home in Bedford Square. Likewise, over the summer break aca-
demic staff have creatively reconfigured the ways in which
teaching and learning will function, carefully considering how
best to operate across time zones and in formats that travel
well. Group discussions, individual tutorials and reviews will
still take place, but these will be framed around new questions
and conveyed through new methodologies.

6 7
Resisting the tendency to ascribe a theme to the academic A research methods course will be launched to unify the
year, the abiding principle of the AA is that it does not have nine very different worlds among the Taught Postgraduate
one. We cultivate a diversity of approaches, entrust tutors and programmes. This course is achievable based on the agile and
students to pursue their own interests, celebrate risk-taking unique agendas of each programme, and will enhance cross­
and support each other despite our differences. As an indepen­ fertilisation and collaboration through the sharing of techniques
dent, single-subject institution, we remain a school and an and knowledge. Furthering connections between different
association that is not tied to nor constrained by a university levels of the school, the Elective courses will continue to enable
system, and know full well that architecture contains every sub- Diploma Programme students to enrol in postgraduate semi-
ject worth studying. nar courses. The PhD Programme, likewise, links up to many
The Foundation Course interrogates observational and parts of the school in ways that enrich the culture of the AA and
representational strategies, the relationship of the body to space sustain the highest level of scholarly enquiry and engagement
and surfaces, and the disciplinary promiscuity of architectural throughout the student body.
preoccupations. The Experimental Programme and Diploma Expanded resources and assistance will be available for the
Programme examine a wide spectrum of issues by deploying provision of all courses, given the significant additional chal-
unique teaching methods and asking critical questions in order lenges that students and tutors face over the coming months
to assert how architecture can actively participate in the world. as a result of physical isolation from one another. Open Tutorials
Core Studies contributes a wide range of expertise and different will expand, allowing returning and new tutors available to give
forms of teaching and learning that expand skill-sets, portfo- extra feedback and fresh perspectives on work in progress. The
lios and minds. And, finally, the Taught Postgraduate Wellness Centre will be open for extended hours, offering both
programmes enable the development of advanced research group workshops and one-on-one sessions. Essays, reports, the-
in specialised areas of the architectural field that perpetually ses and dissertation chapters will be supported by the Writing
drive the evolution of the profession around the world. Centre. The AA Library’s ebook, scanning and click-and-collect
During the 2020–21 academic year, Experimental services will also be in operation to enable individuals around
Programme units will grapple with colonialism, justice, dwell- the world to access the wealth of academic resources that are
ing alone in lockdown, community, the merging of live-work available at the school.
environments, questions of site and research, housing, urban The cultural output of the AA will also continue to grow
landscapes, the role of the museum and city hall, the transplant­ over the coming year. A vibrant Public Programme will include:
ing and repositioning of fragments, typologies of high-rise ‘New Models’, a series of lectures and events that will discuss
and care, contingency and resilience. Across the Diploma ways to disrupt the structural inequalities, socio-economic
Programme, students will investigate urban entropy, societal realities and political forces that define the status quo; a lec-
division, new civic spaces, contested territories, institutional ture, performance and workshop hybrid on new forms of
crises, ecology, climate, identity, post-Brexit trade, materiality, collaborative practice using artificial intelligence; and a series
redefinitions of home and the increasing role that film and of virtual studio visits. Having been re-launched at the start of
video play in how we not only represent architectural propos- this academic year, aaFiles will now be published biannually,
als, but also devise them. and aarchitecture, our student publication, will continue to be
regularly released. Finally, the coming months will see the

8 9
launch of AirAA: a multi-media platform aimed at broadcast-
ing the voices of the school to the world beyond and bringing
new personalities into our sphere through podcasts and social
media projects.
For as much future planning as the AA has undertaken, the
conclusion of the 2020–21 year is yet unknown. Hopefully we
will be with each other, in person, celebrating everyone’s
achievements in Bedford Square. Eventually, the distance
between our screens and virtual platforms will contract, and

AA students surveying at Mount House, Barnet, the AA’s temporary relocation during World War II
we will return to Bloomsbury and Hooke Park in good order
and good humour, knowing that we have weathered another
storm in our 173-year story and found ways to thrive in the
process.

Mark Morris
Head of Teaching and Learning

10 11
Diploma Programme
The two-year Diploma Programme MArch and AA Diploma
(ARB/RIBA Part 2) introduces successful AA students from
the Experimental Programme, as well as eligible new students
to the school, to the study of advanced research, developed
design practices and speculative thinking. Long acknowledged
as a global innovator in architectural education, the AA
Diploma Programme has, throughout its history, fostered some
of the most innovative, challenging and progressive thinking in
architecture. Highly plural in nature, the range of studio units,
each of which is led by different tutors, offers students a broad
spectrum of learning opportunities that are driven by a diverse

Diploma Honours presentation day set-up, 2018–19


set of agendas and specialisms.
In pursuing projects that are intimately developed within
the studio environment over the course of a full academic year,
each student is afforded the chance to not only improve their
technical proficiency, but also to deeply engage with a critical
agenda and the broader societal issues with which architecture
intersects. Lively, informed debate permeates life in the Diploma
Programme, inspiring students to hone research skills and
develop design proposals into high-quality portfolios. This pro-
cess allows for students to not only find their voices as architects,
but also a means of articulating ideas that they can carry with
them into their professional careers.

12 13
Miraj Ahmed Diploma 1
Martin Jameson

Beauty and Entropy

Robert Smithson, Hotel Palenque, 1969–1972, Solomon R Guggenheim Museum, New York.
‘This is the old hotel, and you can see slide show and commentary were one of a

© Holt/Smithson Foundation/VAGA at ARS, NY and DACS, London 2020


that instead of just tearing it all down series of art pieces by Smithson and Holt
in one stage they tear it down partially that focused on the natural processes of
so that you are not deprived of the time, material and entropy. The provoca-
complete wreckage situation. That’s tions within the lecture pointed to these
very satisfying to me: it’s not often that processes and their relation to social and
you see buildings being both ripped cultural values.
down and built up at the same time.’ Flash-forward to 2020: with Smithson
– Robert Smithson as our muse for the year, we will be con-
tinuing our research into transformation
Picture this: it is 1969 and artists Robert and our critique of the ‘new’ and ideal.
Smithson and Nancy Holt are on a visit to Students are at liberty to select project
Chiapas, Mexico. They are planning a theses with associated sites and are
site-specific art piece and staying at the encouraged to work with video and other
shabby Hotel Palenque. Smithson records time-based media. A particular field of
the hotel – part building site and part ruin interest will be the elusive concept of
– in a series of 31 photographs. beauty and its relation to the imperfect
Cut to 1972: the scene is Smithson and contingent.
addressing a packed lecture theatre at the
University of Utah, School of Architecture
in Salt Lake City. Instead of hearing
about the architectural merits of archaeo-
logical sites and land art, the bemused
students are treated to the 31 slides of the
Hotel Palenque and Smithson’s deadpan
commentary. Smithson’s exposition
focuses on the incomplete and the banal
and the fascinating beauty he sees in these Miraj Ahmed, is an artist and architect who has
phenomena. taught at the AA since 2000. He is also an Associate
Lecturer at Camberwell College of Art and was a
The lecture, with its rambling repeti- Design Fellow at Cambridge University (2006–14).
tion, was an art piece in itself. Smithson
revealed his delight in the entropic decay Martin Jameson, is a partner at Serie Architects. He
has an AA Diploma (Hons), a BA in Philosophy and
of the hotel, but did so in a way that mani- Politics from Oxford University, and an MBA from
fested the self-same characteristics. The IMD, Switzerland.

14 15
Fredrik Hellberg Diploma 2
Lara Lesmes

The Civic Program: Architecture


for the Immersive Internet

Yana Kushpitovska, Temple of Knowledge: Spatial Learning Interface, Humanities Room, DIP2, 2019–20
As the digital world gains a third dimen- alike. And as we gather in the increasingly
sion, it becomes of architectural concern. immersive Internet we merge realms, cre-
As pages are turning into spaces, digital ating possibilities for meaningful
content is emancipating itself from the exchange between people globally but
screen and into our rooms, streets and consequently expanding opportunities for
landscapes by virtue of immersive tech- manipulation, inequality and the concen-
nologies. The Internet enabled social tration of power.
interaction between designers and coders In response to this, ‘The Civic
who transitioned from indexing data to, as Program’ continues to work towards mod-
Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey states, building els of Architecture for the Immersive
public squares, causing us to sleepwalk from Internet, this year with a focus on how we
the harmless website into the treacherous gather on the Internet. As we transition
minefield of social media. How do we from the flat to the spatial, we need to
architects, with our plural understanding ensure this new architectural dimension
of the physical realm (experiential, practi- of the Internet is constructed by respect-
cal and bureaucratic), contribute to the ing and serving the civic realm. Each and
shaping of emerging virtual worlds that every one of us who cares about the health
align with the civic values of openness, of the Internet and its possibilities needs
inclusivity and sustainability? to positively impact the world need to
Around the world Internet shutdowns widen our understanding of complex
and slowdowns are on the rise, inequali- underlying issues and work towards a fair
ties with regards to accessibility, and ethical digital future.
regulation and surveillance are increasing,
and the once granular nature of the www
is lumping into a handful of dominant
revenue-driven tech giants. The ways in
which we gather and express ourselves
within this medium are limited by its abil-
ity to represent us and the agency we are Lara Lesmes and Fredrik Hellberg, are both graduates
granted. This has caused a renewed inter- from the AA and are directors of design and research
practice Space Popular. They create spaces, objects
est in the avatar: the embodiment or and events in both physical and virtual space,
personification of an individual, a group concentrating on how the two realms will blend in the
and even a concept or attitude. As we turn near future. They have completed buildings,
exhibitions, public artworks, furniture collections and
our scrolls into strolls we (re)shape the interiors across Asia and Europe, as well as virtual
spaces around us – physical and virtual architecture in the Immersive Internet.

16 17
Jonas Lundberg Diploma 3
Andrew Yau

The Speculativity of Ecology

Our natural and built environments are rebuilds ecological reserves and increases
changing at an exponential rate, and our construction biocapacity. The optimistic

Alison Chen, The Architectural Object of Cleansing in Potosi. EXP 17, 2019–20
cities, new and old, advanced or emerging, and sometimes naive belief that the design
are facing incredible challenges to adapt, of architecture and its physical presence
cultivate and regenerate intertwined rela- takes an active role in reshaping our cities
tionships between technology, social and the future ecological frontier is cen-
culture and the ecological environment as tral in creating an explorative and
a whole. While many existing cities are innovative design culture in the unit.
expanding, we are also creating new ones Together we will develop design alter-
at the expense of the natural environment natives and new spatial sensibilities
and future generations. At this critical through digital, physical and visual con-
juncture, we aim to rethink urban forma- structs that go beyond rational solutions
tion and inhabitation, as well as the and romantic impressions. After all, dur-
architecture that produces it. ing the lockdown, we have learned that
As of July 2020, and based on the humans are capable of keeping the air
United Nations’ World Population fresh in our cities, and the canal water
Prospects, the world population is on clean in Venice!
course to reach 7.8 billion people, more
than 56% of whom are concentrated in
urban areas. According to the National
Footprint and Biocapacity Accounts,
global affluence and consumption cur-
rently demand 1.75 times the resources
that planet Earth is providing and absorb-
ing. As a consequence, we will explore
and reassess our culture of consumption,
and the use of renewable resources and
technology, as a provocative design oppor-
tunity to speculate and pursue alternative Jonas Lundberg and Andrew Yau, are members of
Urban Future Organization (UFO), an international
architectural futures and their experien- architectural practice, and design research
tial and physical manifestations. We collaborative. UFO has won a number of international
continue the ambition to produce unique competitions and exhibited its work globally.
Currently, they are working on micro- to macro-scale
ecological lifestyles as a consequence of architectural and urban projects in Europe, the Middle
architectural and urban design that East and Southeast Asia.

18 19
John Palmesino Diploma 4
Ann-Sofi Rönnskog

Climate Peace: When Above

Territorial Agency, Multi-temporal remote sensing composition indicating the transformations of the Mississippi Delta, 2020
Facing sea level rise is the single largest interconnections between different forms
global project of the next 30 years. Fossil of life and their spaces of operation.
fuels extracted and burned since the What if we think of these new fragile
Industrial Revolution remain largely in compositions from the other side – from
the atmosphere, and continue to cause the the ocean – as an architecture able to
warming of the Earth, which expands the engage with a rapidly changing world?
ocean’s waters and melts ice sheets. The What if the distinction between a fixed
Paris Agreement of 2015 aims to keep the land and a constantly moving ocean can
global average temperature well within also be undone? Rather than an impossi-
2°C above pre-industrial values. The bly large infrastructural engineering
energy locked in to the Earth System by project, this is an opportunity for a
this warming will cause sea levels to rise in renewed engagement of polities with their
the future between 3 metres and 6.3 material spaces. It is the opportunity for a
metres, depending on the prediction radical decolonisation of our democra-
model, and this does not consider the cies, new forms of stewardship and new
melting of Greenland and Antarctica. structures of ownership – and for a new
This will cause the flooding of areas cur- architecture.
rently populated by more than 900
million inhabitants, and more than 1.5
billion people now depend on structures
that will be submerged within and below
water. Yet, the areas affected by sea level
rise are functionally more far-reaching
than areas in direct spatial proximity with
the coast.
We have just enough time to keep oil in
the ground and reduce the dangers associ-
ated with global warming and the John Palmesino and Ann-Sofi Rönnskog, are architects
and urbanists. They have established Territorial Agency,
ecological crisis. The time horizon of this an independent organisation that combines architecture,
urgent project is rapidly approximating research and advocacy to address complex territorial
the time left before we will have lost all transformations. Recent projects include Oceans in
Transformation, in collaboration with TBA21–Academy,
control. A complex architectural project the Museum of Oil with Greenpeace, and Anthropocene
is required to redefine the multiple Observatory with HKW Haus der Kulturen der Welt.

20 21
Gabu Heindl Diploma 5
Bostjan Vuga

Porous! Public!
Testing Democratic Public Space
by Boundaries

DIP5 will focus on design interventions mapping and prototyping to increase dem-
that respond to the burning issues of public ocratic participation, to provide climate
interest in our contemporary environment. justice and accessibility to public space,
The unit will develop site-specific architec- culture, landscapes or housing. We will
tural projects that impact and add value to demonstrate how architects can engage
their wider contexts. An architectural pro- with activism in order to materialise the

Various authors, Porous Public Sample, 2020


ject’s public character – its publicness claim for public space and generate archi-
– defines an inherent catalytic strength in tectural projects that are: Porous! Public!
the work. The unit projects will function as
case studies, demonstrating the architect’s
capabilities and responsibilities in actively
engaging with physical and social space.
Public space is essential for democratic
society. It does not imply ‘limitless’ space;
rather, boundaries are required in order to
define and differentiate it from private Gabu Heindl, is an architect, urbanist and activist. Her
practice GABU Heindl Architektur focuses on public
space. Simultaneously, porosity is defined space, collective housing, urban planning and cultural
by the character of boundaries in an and educational buildings. She completed her PhD at
architectural object – the boundaries the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna and Postgraduate
Master of architecture and urbanism at Princeton
between the object and the site where it is
University. Prior teaching at the AA she has taught at TU
situated, between the exterior and inte- Delft, TU Graz and the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna.
rior, and within the object itself. We will Gabu Heindl is Visiting Professor at the University of
explore how porosity relates to the politics Sheffield. Her recent monograph is Stadtkonflikte. Radikale
Demokratie in Architektur und Stadtplanung, and is the
of architecture, how one creates porous co-editor of Building Critique: Architecture and its Discontent.
interventions and what spatial, social and
environmental effects these generate. Boštjan Vuga, is an architectural practitioner, researcher
and educator. He studied at the Faculty of Architecture
DIP5 interrogates connections between in Ljubljana and at the AA. In 1996 he founded
spatial and socio-political categories, SADAR+VUGA architectural office along with Jurij Sadar,
drawing from the hypothesis that porosity which focuses on open, integrated and innovative
architectural design and urban planning. He is an
is a link and a method to contest and associate professor for architecture at the Faculty of
establish different boundaries. The unit Architecture in Ljubljana. He has taught at the Berlage
will test the potential for porosity within Institute Rotterdam, the IAAC Barcelona, the Faculty of
Architecture Ljubljana, TU Berlin, MSA Muenster,
specific sites and confront them with Confluence School of Architecture Lyon, TU Graz and
urgent issues of publicness through Politecnico di Milano.

22 23
Guillermo Lopez Diploma 6

Taryn Simon, Agreement to conduct impact studies of the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam on neighboring countries. Khartoum, Sudan, 26 August 2014, 2015. © Taryn Simon. Courtesy Gagosian
Jack Self

I Object

Objects symbolise existing social relations. Term 1 will focus on skills and developing
By existing in the world, they also rein- your own inquiry and brief.
force the power, systems and institutions
of those who made them. We all want to Term 2 will begin with a custom contract
live in a world that is more equal and just. between the unit and each student.
Architecture is dedicated to material real-
ity (its analysis and design), and the Term 3 will be a lot of fun.
production of space (how power and
social relations occur in a place through
time). We can use architecture to inter-
vene in the everyday, to shape the normal
and to construct new societies. Our par-
ticular focus is the domestic sphere.
DIP6 will give you a method and
framework for design. We will give you an
education that touches on everything
from labour, gender and cultural theory,
to art direction and representational tech-
niques. We will give you all the tools.
What you do with them is up to you. As a
unit, we will support you to pursue your
own thesis. The unit is for students who
have a dream and desire. Join us to do the Guillermo Lopez Ibanez, is an architect and theorist.
project that no one else has encouraged He is a founding member of MAIO, whose focus is on
both built works and research projects.
you to do before. Working on deep adap-
tation last year prepared us for this Jack Self, is an architect based in London. He is
strange reality. We understand how to be Director of REAL and Editor-in-Chief of Real Review.
His architectural work promotes social equality
ready for the unpredictable. From the through the design of homes, housing and domestic
security of a clear framework, and by space, and specialises in radical new typologies
developing specific knowledge and abili- (including co-housing), alternative models of
ownership, finance and procurement. In 2016, Jack
ties, we will give you autonomy to curated the British Pavilion at the Venice Architecture
intervene in reality. Biennale with the show Home Economics.

24 25
Platon Issaias Diploma 7
Hamed Khosravi

Fluid Territories:
The North Sea and Beyond
The sea is the territory where the encoun- entities through which broader political,
ter between abstract and concrete spaces environmental, economic and societal
is most visible. Unlike the common under- questions can be addressed. In this way,
standing of the term ‘territory’, the word any spatial proposition, whether landscape,

Georgia Hablützel, The Distant: Unsettled Land of Britain, DIP7, 2019–20


does not imply a limitless and unbound urban or architectural, is challenged and
plane. It is a direct result of two kinds of revisited through the lens of this territorial
appropriation: by an application of enclo- network. The projects aim to propose new
sures or through movement. The former is spatial interventions that address the com-
outlined by the repetition of limits and plex, yet not always visible, spatial,
boundaries, measuring and delimiting the juridical, environmental and geopolitical
space and separating inside from outside, natures and conditions of the chosen sites,
while the latter is defined by rhythms and triggering future scenarios informed not
temporalities. Yet, both acquire form; one only by so-called resilience and clean
that is framed and one that performs, one energy futures, but also by political propo-
that is solid and the other fluid. The two sitions that address climate emergency and
exist in a network of forces and relation- the crises of care and intimacy in multispe-
ships, and they transform into one another cies communities. Such scenarios dwell on
as a perpetual process. Since the end of micro- and macro-politics, from the scale
the 13th century, the sea has been appro- of the body to that of the territory.
priated, divided and exploited. Such a
condition has not only changed the way in Hamed Khosravi, is an architect, researcher and
educator. He graduated from the Faculty of Fine Arts,
which marine space is defined, but also
University of Tehran. He holds an MSc in Architecture
has altered the relationship between the and a Post-graduate Masters in Urbanism (EMU) from
land and the sea, their architectures and TU Delft and IUAV. Hamed received his PhD within
subjects. In DIP7 we investigate architec- ‘The City as a Project’ programme (Berlage Institute/
TU Delft). He is currently a Studio Master at Projective
tural propositions that react to such Cities programme at the AA. His research and projects
territories; frames that capture, forces that focus on the relationship between architecture,
trigger, lines that appropriate and lenses territory and politics of urban form.

that make visible the conflicts between Platon Issaias, studied architecture in Thessaloniki,
space, the territory and its subjects. Greece, and holds an MSc from Columbia University
This year, DIP7 dwells in the juridical (GSAAP) and a PhD from The City as a Project’
programme (Berlage Institute/TU Delft). His thesis
ambiguity associated with the sea and its investigated the recent history of planning in Athens
correlated geographies – from ‘non-city’ and the link between conflict, urban management and
forms of habitation to highly urban condi- architectural form. He is also the Director of Projective
Cities, MPhil in Architecture and Urban Design at the
tions. We claim that these geographies AA. He practices with Fatura Collaborative, a research
should be seen as politicised territorial and design collective.

26 27
David McAlmont Diploma 8
Hila Shemer

Eureka!

‘Give me a place to stand, and a lever on cultivating the unique and particular
long enough, and I will move the world.’ interest of each student through a series of
– Archimedes intense workshops to explore and define
‘The Portrait of the Architect as a Young
Eureka! speaks directly to that moment in Wo-man’ and state a position regarding
antiquity when the philosopher Archimedes the social-political-public field in which
noticed that his body mass adjusted the we collectively operate. Term 2 will focus

Gonzalo Lebrija, Entre la vida y la muerte, 2008


level of water in a particular vessel. Students on creative and critical writing, as we
of the unit are assured similar moments of believe in words as an artistic tool.
revelation through the mechanics and tech- Students will produce two complementary
niques of ‘inspiration engineering’. The case studies: a project and a text. Term 3
guarantee is that each individual will grasp will conclude with an occupation of the
how their personal ‘mass’ can adjust the AA. We will put the mechanics and tech-
levels around them. Since antiquity, inspira- niques of inspiration engineering into
tion has been seen as a significant factor in practice, testing them on our peers in the
the development of human thought, politi- hope of boosting our environment with
cal activity and culture. Yet the future is, inspiration.
presumably, professional, and although his-
torically bonded with divinity, theology and You are Eureka!
progressive and fantastic thinking, inspira-
tion is constantly perceived at completion,
rather than during practice. The ever-grow- David McAlmont, is a singer, recording artist, lyric
ing need to craft creatively cannot rely on consultant, singing teacher and workshop facilitator.
arcane concepts of divine intervention, and He is a public speaker and art historian. He is the
creator of ‘Girl Boy Child’, a collaboration with the
therefore inspiration theory and inspiration
University of Leicester and the National Trust, and the
engineering become fundamental factors in author of Portrait of a Black Queer Briton, the
the conceptual development of art and inaugural Berto Pasuka Lecture at London’s National
architecture. Portrait Gallery. McAlmont is presently developing a
new work with gender illusionists, Leicester University
Eureka! establishes and promotes a and the National Trust.
post-self view, cultivates creative thinking
that has gestated from the scholarly gaze Hila Shemer, is a Tel-Aviv- and London-based
architect, journalist, critic and researcher. Shemer
and seeks diversity over ‘one-ness’ or sin- received her MA from the AA and holds a BArch from
gularity. In order to do so, the unit will Bezalel Academy. She has led research- and
use a research-driven process that is fused practice-based studios dealing with the theme ‘utopias
of tomorrow’. Her research focuses on the relation
with personal interest to produce original between language, space, the visual and conceptual
architectural scenarios. Term 1 will focus narrative of architecture.

28 29
Stefan Laxness Diploma 9
Antoine Vaxelaire

Third Territorial Attractor

Małgorzata Stanisławek, The Waste Boom, A proposal to build a new material economy in Poland by repurposing obsolete coal
DIP9 will continue to expose territorial or create economies of life, establishing a

plants as the recycling centre of Europe’s construction waste, DIP9, 2019–20


and institutional crises. Through spatial network of units through mobility and
diagnostics and multi-scaled architectural connectivity in order to articulate the
strategies, the unit will advocate for territo- third territorial attractor.
rial transformations and institutional We will respond to much needed ques-
adjustments. As spatial crises are numerous tions of collective responsibility towards
and complex, we will focus our attention our environment with projects that medi-
on those related to ‘economies of life’. ate between territories, institutions and
If our fossil-fuelled economies con- citizens. Spatial crises have far-reaching
sume and exhaust common resources, the consequences for how we live and occupy
economies of life nurture and enhance space that need to be urgently diagnosed,
them; they include those of care, culture confronted and responded to.
and resource management. Most trends
indicate that we must live in ever-growing
cities supplied by an ever-intensifying
countryside, yet this polar acceleration
has produced an imbalance in which large
swathes of our territories are overlooked,
uncared for and abandoned. DIP9 posits
that somewhere between robotic AI farm-
ing and smart-ish cities lies another
territorial paradigm on which to imple-
ment economies of life and reimagine
Stefan Laxness, is a researcher, artist and former
forms of societal, economic and environ- project leader at the 2018 Turner Prize nominated
mental occupation. This paradigm, a third research agency Forensic Architecture. His work was
territorial attractor, must be reclaimed, exhibited in the Antarctic Pavilion at the Venice Art
Biennale and has previously worked at PLP
designed and fiercely defended. Architecture and Jakob+Macfarlane. In 2020 Stefan
Our ambition is two-fold. First, we will co-founded Pantopia with Antoine Vaxelaire.
study the current architectural forms and
Antoine Vaxelaire, is an architect, educator and
territorial organisations of these econo- creative advisor. He graduated from the AA and
mies of life, critically positioning co-founded AANDA, a creative studio based in
ourselves vis-a-vis ongoing and future pol- Barcelona. In addition to his practice he is a creative
advisor for retail and entertainment companies in
icies. Second, we will design architectural Barcelona. In 2020 Antoine co-founded Pantopia with
strategies that adapt, transform, relocate Stefan Laxness.

30 31
Carlos Villanueva Brandt Diploma 10

Direct Urbanism:
Spatial Association?

By concentrating on division and engage- To do this, we will scan an arbitrary


ment, DIP10 has in recent years initiated area of the city, identify the relevant physi-
a series of polemic strategies that require cal and social variables and create an
further investigation. By tackling different abstraction of it in the form of a multilay-

Jake Harrison Parkin, Focusing Interactive Space, DIP10, 2019–20


types of division, we defined new contact ered 3D construct. We will immerse
points between collective identity and ourselves in the real context of the city and
policing, created open networks of educa- work with its abstraction. The emphasis
tion, cut spaces into BIDs, combined will be on the making of spaces that exploit
multiple strategies of reciprocal participa- the intricacies identified in the scan. From
tion, questioned the idea of membership, strategies to spatial configurations, we will
used a multi-cultural street for mediated work at the scale of a borough, of a 1 kilo-
integration, reconfigured geometries of metre by 1 kilometre territory and of a
identity and focused interactive space by block to experiment with alternative ways
overlapping disparate foci. Together these of inserting new interventions that will
enquiries challenged conventional devel- have a direct effect on the future of London.
opment strategies to create different
forms of engagement.
We will continue to reassess the rela-
tionships that exist between physical
structures and situations, to investigate
the complex nature of the city’s space,
and use these to design composite spatial
interventions. Experienced space is not
absolute, but is made up of diverse spatial
elements that may work in harmony or Carlos Villanueva Brandt, (AADipl, ARB), has lead
opposition. The ideas of programme, Diploma 10 since 1986 and was awarded the RIBA
President’s Silver Medal Tutor Prize in 2000. He is
function and typology limit the possibili-
currently a Visiting Professor at Tokyo University of the
ties of space and give a false sense of Arts. He is a founder member of the group NATØ
coherence; we will challenge these (Narrative Architecture Today), which, through its
magazines and exhibitions, set out to challenge the role
approaches and find ways to create spaces
played by architecture in everyday culture. His practice
of association, spaces that form part and has designed projects in locations ranging from London
engage with the life of the city. At present, to Khartoum and built projects in the UK, Greece and
there is an emphasis on topicality, but lit- Japan. His work has been published widely and
exhibited internationally and he has written numerous
tle experimentation with space itself; we texts and essays including his book London +10, in which
will redress this imbalance. he outlines his concept of Direct Urbanism.

32 33
Shin Egashira Diploma 11

London Un-Built

Joseph Gandy, Drawing of the John Soane-designed Bank of England as a ruin, 1830. Courtesy Sir John Soane's Museum
Every city has its shadow city exceptions. Instead of delivering reductive
The architecture of forgotten fragments solutions to a problem (in other words,
The footprints of the demolished solving the problem by inventing other
The countless ideas that were not built. problems), in the words of Max Haiven
and Alex Khasnabish our work is about
What if our site(s) is London’s Shadow? A ‘the ability to imagine the world, life and
vast collection of un-built objects, spaces social institutions not as they are but as
and architecture that successfully failed to they might otherwise be. It is the courage
exist in anything other than drawings, and the intelligence to recognise that the
papers, films, images and words. We will world can and should be changed. It’s
start by searching for unrealised visions of about bringing those possible futures back
London – of its architecture, civic spaces, to work on the present, to inspire action
lifestyles, the incomplete tales of its built and new forms of solidarity today.’
environment – sampling the unbuilt London
from the radical to the sensible, to the beau-
tiful, to the humorous, to the absurd.
We will then study the notion of dys-
functional charm: when the strange
mismatch between unfinished ideas and
unplanned realities is ambiguously fused
and left beautifully incomplete. Our work
will be the city as a collage with inherent
Shin Egashira, is an architect, artist, educator and PhD
patterns that allow freedom within a given
candidate. He worked in Tokyo, Beijing and New York
framework, driven by the unwritten rules before coming to London where he has lived for the
that repeat yet never produce the same past 30 years. From 1990 he has taught at the AA and
effects. By dusting off those unbuilt visions run a unit since 1996. His artwork has been exhibited
internationally, with the most recent solo show at Betts
we can jump back in time to reimagine Projects in 2019. He has been an artist in residence at
our present and build (metaphorically or the Camden Arts Centre and Bennington College. He
not) a different future. has taught many workshops around the world, always
looking for a way to teach, learn and practice design
We are witnessing how our city’s soul is that would be impossible to achieve in a professional
being sold off in exchange for neoliberal practice or a university setting. He has run the
values. Our design work should be a Koshirakura Landscape Workshop in Niigata and the
AA Maeda Workshop in Tokyo, London and Hooke
means to demonstrate the value of the Park. He is also a visiting professor at Tokyo University
uncountable matters, refuse and of Fine Arts.

34 35
Inigo Minns Diploma 12
Manijeh Verghese

Herculine’s Truth:
Redesigning the Institution
in Relation to the ‘Other’

performance to revive objects that have been removed from their source communities , DIP12, 2019–20
Russell Royer, The Choreum, A new institutional practice working with museum artefacts and
‘My intention was not to deal with the institutional fault-lines so as to reframe
problem of truth, but with the problem the values that they espouse. We will look
of truth-teller or truth-telling as an at how both institutions and the architec-
activity’– Michel Foucault ture that frames them can be redesigned
as a means to build alternative realities
Prison, Museum, University, Asylum, and speculate on future worlds that
Embassy – institutions like these not only empower those without agency.
shape the values that society holds as true, The unit will continue to develop indi-
but also maintain them over time. vidual forms of strategic architectural
Through the narratives they weave, we practice. We will disrupt existing institu-
understand ourselves and our relationship tions through 1:1-scale interventions in
to the world around us. However, recent order to create impactful, spatial propos-
events have shown that many institutions als. Through focusing on an urgent
have been exposed as outdated, peddling agenda, expressed using diverse media
arcane stories and redundant myths in the and modes of operation, architecture will
name of truth. be transformed into an agent that deter-
The questions we will be exploring this mines our own truths without having to
year are: What are the myths that these rely on the institution to be our
types of institutions maintain? What are truth-teller.
the new stories that need telling? How do
we resist the need to order, classify and
separate things in order to understand
them; rejecting binary thinking in favour
of a more fluid understanding of society Inigo Minns, works with architecture, performance
and curation to create designed experiences supported
and the built environment? And how can by critical practice. He teaches Design and Expanded
architectural intervention and alternative Practice at Goldsmiths and has taught in a range of
forms of practice be used to shift institu- disciplines both in the UK and abroad.

tions towards defining a better world? Manijeh Verghese, engages with different forms of
To do this, we will explore the voices of practice, and the communication of architecture to a
what has been termed the ‘other’ (those range of audiences. Alongside teaching DIP12, she is
Head of the AA Public Programme, director of Unscene
who sit outside of what institutions define Architecture and co-curator of the British Pavilion at
as the norm) as a means to identify the 17th Venice Architecture Biennale.

36 37
Merve Anil Diploma 13
Georges Massoud

Nation Station

Statue of slave trader Edward Colston being pulled down from its plinth in Bristol city centre, 7 June 2020. Photo: Harry Pugsley/SWNS
Identities are historical constructs that material through a multidisciplinary lens,
are fabricated to enforce power structures learning from other practices such as
and build boundaries and borders queer, feminist and critical race theory.
between the powerful and the marginal- Starting from the artefact, we will scale up
ised. They have been developed over to examine the power dynamics and con-
centuries as part of the Western moderni- texts that house them. Students will be
sation project that cemented the straight invited to analyse, reimagine and subvert
white male as the universal subject. these in ways that benefit those most mar-
Nation building is the deliberate act of ginalised in society. Our proposals will
weaving together disparate territories, pop- take the form of architectures of resist-
ulations and cultures into a cohesive ance, alternative utopias and political
whole. We will start with national identities provocations, covering anything from
and investigate how these intersect with object to body, institution or national bor-
race, gender, sexuality and other identity der. The aim is to highlight, challenge or
markers. Nations have historically weap- disrupt the hidden codes that govern our
onised space and architecture to both ways of inhabiting the world. DIP13 will
construct and enforce these identities. In be a launchpad to understanding sites of
DIP13 we recognise their agenda in both power, control and resistance, and will
the extraordinary and the everyday – its equip students with the tools to both
institutions reinforce state power, define investigate and operate within these dom-
our social norms and regulate our bodies. inant narratives, with the aim of creating a
Students will begin by interrogating spaces space of equity and inclusion.
that are complicit within these acts, from
ports marked by racialised violence to
monuments that declare the single united
image of a nation, and from domestic inte- Merve Anil, is an architect, researcher and educator.
riors that have created the figure of the She graduated from the AA and has worked at
architecture practices in London and Istanbul, and as a
housewife to the perceived threat of gen- researcher whilst at OMA in Rotterdam. She is currently
der-neutral bathrooms. a Public Practice Associate and works between design
Every apparatus creates its subject. As and policy in the public sector.

architects, we will dissect the process of Georges Massoud, is an architect and founding director
identity construction through a critical of Studio Abroad, a design practice based in London.
engagement with subject and tool. He is also producer and founding member of the QPOC
community collective POA (Pride of Arabia), a platform
Through a series of seminars with invited for reimagining new practices of engagement with queer
guests, students will engage with the and Arab culture.

38 39
Pier Vittorio Aureli Diploma 14
Maria Shéhérazade Giudici

Girls Just Want to Have Fun:


Labour, Home and Architecture

Since the 18th century, the idea of home investigating its history and propose its
rests upon a separation between private transformation towards a way of living in
and public space; the institution of such a which both productive and reproductive

Edgar Degas, Detail from La Famille Bellelli, 1858–1867


separation is a fundamental project of activities are not naturalised, but exposed
modern subjectivity. While public space is and socialised beyond the family. Labour
considered the space of political and as intellectual and material production,
social relationships, the home embodies labour as care of the household and
the idea of privacy and intimacy. This labour as the very building of housing
dichotomy is largely the product of the itself will be at the core of a design effort
Western nation state, whose policies rein- that will rethink every aspect of domestic-
forced the family as the cornerstone of ity, from typology to construction, from
society by making familial relationships environmental performance to ownership.
‘natural’ and apolitical. The modern pro- The unit will explore new forms of
ject of domestic space has aimed at de-commodified and emancipatory col-
constructing domestic labour as unwaged lective living, imagining a radical
service and the home as the ultimate form transformation of the public/private
of private property. Such a project has dichotomy that still choreographs the
remained the horizon of contemporary architecture of our homes today.
domesticity – even if today spatial and
temporal boundaries between living and
working have collapsed. Current circum-
stances, such as the transformation of the
home into a commodity and the social
consequences of a global pandemic, make Pier Vittorio Aureli, is an architect and educator. He is
a Visiting Professor at the School of Architecture at
clear that the home has fulfilled its prem-
Yale University and is the author of The Possibility of an
ise, becoming a commodified and Absolute Architecture and The Project of Autonomy: Politics
privatised space. Within the history of the and Architecture Within and Against Architecture. He is a
Western modern home, strategies of co-founder of Dogma, an architectural studio based in
Brussels and focused on the project of the city.
‘social distancing’ and ‘lockdown’ are not
exceptional moments, but rather, the very Maria Shéhérazade Giudici, is the founder of research
social purpose of domesticity. platform Black Square and the editor of aa Files. Maria
coordinates the History and Theory of Architecture
This year, DIP14 invites students to course at the RCA; she holds a PhD from TU Delft and
challenge the status quo of the home by has taught at the Berlage Institute and BIArch.

40 41
Sam Chermayeff Diploma 15
Lucy Styles

One Ordinary and Another

01. The Home The site is the home: your 07. Powers of Ten This unit is very much
home, other homes, imagined homes. By about buildings. It is very much about the
colliding programmes we will design alter- plan. You will reach architectural resolu-
native inflections to everyday life through tion by the end of Term 2, translating
strategic compositions of object, thresh- concept into technical detail, spatial
old and landscape. These moves might be sequence, volumetric strategic and lived
savage, they might be sensitive, but all will experience.
reveal the radical potential in things that
no longer astonish us. 08. Instability We will highlight the poten-
tial for flux in the scheme – temporal,

Saul Steinberg, New Yorker, 30 January 1960


02. Big Picture, Little Picture We will analyse seasonal, social – and adapt the design to
our agendas at two scales: the specific foreground these values.
experience and the supra-individual,
understanding the systems that dictate 09. The Specific and The Universal By distin-
behaviour and reversing this hierarchy. guishing between fixed parameters and
variables, we will extract a prototypical
03. Dualities, Gradients and Codes Everyday model from our designs. This process will
life is rife with contradictions. We will be played out at three scales: the land-
explore the flip-side of our habits – the scape, the satellite and the room, creating
dark, the dirty and the buried – to disrupt an archipelago of architectural
established sequences and create alterna- interventions.
tive codes for domesticity.
10. Storytelling We will develop a graphic
04. Policy Cracks, Legislative Loopholes Your identity particular to your agenda, decid-
country has its own priorities, practices ing which conventions to follow and
and legal ambiguities. We will collide which, if any, to break. We will choose the
fantasy with real-world possibility and use plot, the characters, the cover page, the
subversion of the rulebook as a design tool. chapter titles and the very last line.
Our imagined realities will be sequential,
05. Settle down We will each use our chosen animated and lived.
policy to identify a specific site for the
design of an alternative, post-programmatic
housing model. Sam Chermayeff, is an architect. He is co-founder of
the office June 14 Meyer-Grohbrügge & Chermayeff and
director of Sam Chermayeff Office. He has worked for
06. Iterations Imagination takes practise. SANAA in Tokyo and taught both in Europe and the US.
It will be a fast-paced design process in
Lucy Styles, is an architect. She is European Projects
which each iteration explores the agenda Manager at SANAA and has also recently started her
through a different lens. own design studio in London.

42 43
Ila Bêka Diploma 16
Louise Lemoine
Gili Merin

Homo Urbanus: Laboratory


for Sensitive Observers

DIP16 is a film-based unit working at the global Homo Urbanus during the pan-

Bêka and Lemoine, Still from the film Homo Urbanus Dohanus, 2020
crossroads of social sciences and visual demic. Within their own geographical and
arts. Students will undertake in-depth sanitary constraints, each student will pro-
observations of public space, where the duce a body of work resulting from the
Homo Urbanus is found in its natural hab- observation and analysis of their urban
itat. Led by the temporality of the environment in this specific context.
everyday, students will create a project Within the unit’s collective topic, each
that questions human interaction with student will define a personal subject that
their urban environment. will be developed during the entire year,
Thematically, the unit aims to trans- fed by research, fieldwork and visual
form our collective sense of familiarity experimentations until reaching the final
towards the ‘human comedy’ (to para- form of a film. Students will master all
phrase Balzac) by interrogating relational stages of production and post-production
dynamics and social tensions that are of their film, including editing, sound
enacted on the urban stage in order to mixing and colour grading.
gain a critical distance. This refinement of
our observational skills allows us to ren-
der visible silent cultural layers, uncover
the political and economic forces of the
city, and reveal the poetic richness of the
ordinary. Methodologically, we explore
the possibilities that cinema can bring to
urban studies, not only as a tool of explo-
ration and investigation, but as an active Ila Bêka and Louise Lemoine, are video-artists,
form of thinking. As a project, all individ- producers and publishers. They focus their research on
experimenting new narrative and cinematographic
ual outcomes will be experienced at forms in relation to contemporary architecture and the
1:1-scale, implying a subjective point of urban environment. Widely presented in international
view with a high level of personal commit- film festivals, museums and biennials, Beka and
Lemoine’s complete work has been acquired by the
ment and freedom in terms of MoMA for its permanent collection.
cinematographic and narrative forms.
This year’s extraordinary circumstances Gili Merin, is an architect and photographer. She was
trained as an architect and researcher at OMA in
provide our unit with an incredible oppor- Rotterdam, Kuehn Malvezzi Architects in Berlin and
tunity to construct a panorama of the Efrat-Kowalsky Architects (EK A) in Tel Aviv.

44 45
Theo Sarantoglou Lalis Diploma 17
Dora Sweijd

Latent Territories

‘Technological rationality reveals its deployment of such techniques at the


political character as it becomes the scale of a landscape community project
great vehicle of better domination, cre- and will develop ambiguous proposals
ating a truly totalitarian universe in situated at the intersection between archi-
which society and nature, mind and tecture, landscape and art. Our projects
body are kept in a state of permanent will critically address fields of production
mobilisation’ and sites of material extraction. Students

Edouard de Caussin, Sand Choreography, EXP16, 2019–20


– Herbert Marcuse will be documenting, photographing and
analysing short-term socio-economic and
With the increasing automation of every- cultural transformations, as well as long-
day life, the distinction between known term environmental and geological
architectural typologies is dissolving. With processes.
the miniaturisation of digital devices, the We oppose the polarisation of intellec-
body has become a battlefield where eco- tual and manual labour at a time when
nomic, social and political forces clash. theory and knowledge production are
The massive expansion of the touchless increasingly separated from practice. The
economy, and the proliferation of fric- work of the unit will be rooted in thor-
tion-less digital tools and resources in the ough socio-political and historical
field of architecture, are challenging forms research combined with intense design
of practice in an environment that seeks to and material experimentation, mixing the
suppress effort. But while drifting into vol- use of both physical and digital media as a
untary servitude, we strive to seek for way of negotiating our ideas with the real.
something else. This year, DIP17 continues
its critical exploration of the implications
of the digital in architecture, unravelling
its vast social, cultural and political ubiq-
uity and developing an understanding of
its effect on design practices, from mate- Dora Sweijd and Theo Sarantoglou Lalis, are architects
rial production to occupancy. and the founders of LASSA Architects, an international
architecture studio with offices in London and Brussels.
The work of the unit focuses on two LASSA operates at the intersection between the fields of
main concerns: firstly, the design of form art, architecture and landscape. Their research focuses
for its capacity to activate the body while on the relationship between architectural form and the
activation of the body as well as the democratisation of
providing spaces for collective emancipa- architecture through the development of new
tion and enjoyment. Secondly, the politics constructive strategies involving self-assembly. LASSA
of construction and the democratisation won international awards for their Villa Ypsilon. They
have taught studios at Harvard University (GSD),
of digital design and manufacturing tech- Columbia (GSAAP) University, Chalmers University and
niques. We will speculate on the LTU in Sweden.

46 47
Aude-Line Dulière Diploma 18
James Westcott

Before, During, After, Again

Ele Mun arranging used roof tiles with the aim to locate compatible types in other locations for reuse.
What are the potentialities of understand- limited to, a communication campaign,
ing architecture as a system that an architectural project as case study, a
orchestrates flows of materials and stimulus package for a neglected or
resources, with a building as just a short- wasted material, a hands-on DIY home
lived freeze-frame? How can architects improvement project where a specific

DIP18, 2019–20. Photo: Aude-Line Dulière


design with deconstruction and demoli- material reuse is put into practice or the
tion in mind, and take responsibility for promotion and invigoration of a vernacu-
shepherding a material towards a poten- lar practice.
tial second life? The unit will be supported throughout
During previous years, DIP18 students the year by the expertise of Rotor, a coop-
began documentation of the architectural erative design practice based in Brussels,
salvage industry in the UK through build- which investigates the organisation of the
ing the website opalis.co.uk. This year, material environment. DIP18 aims to
students will take their country of resi- plant seeds for the future professional
dence as a research subject, with the aim lives of students by building local and pro-
of initiating a database – opalis.global – of fessional relationships, and developing
reuse resources that will span different concrete expertise and obsessions. This
nations. Delving deeper into their loca- unit calls for a fluency with a pre-existing
tions to expand the research, students will system and the imagination to rethink it.
explore the entire material reuse ecosys-
tem: the policies and incentives, and the
key institutions and players in the building
industry. This work will be the foundation
for two connected design projects. The
first, a new masterplan for the material Aude-Line Dulière is an architect at Rotor, a
co-operative design practice that investigates the
reuse regional ecosystem. What course of organisation of the material enviornment. She holds a
actions would facilitate the increased use MArch from the Harvard University (GSD), has been
of used materials in building projects, part of Rotor’s development team and worked at David
Chipperfield Architects. She is the recipient of the
ensure their reclamation from doomed 2018 Wheelwright Prize.
buildings and encourage a thriving econ-
omy of reuse? The second, a design James Westcott is an editor, most recently of
Countryside and Elements of Architecture by Rem
project focusing on a particular compo- Koolhaas/AMO. He is also the author of When Marina
nent of the masterplan such as, but not Abramovic Dies: A Biography.

48 49
David Kohn Diploma 19
Bushra Mohamed

Play for Today:


The Performance of Architecture

Residents’ market, Unité d’Habitation, Marseille, 2019. Photo: David Kohn


When the UK Government lifted restric- understanding of their urban, social and
tions following the Covid-19 lockdown in political contexts, as well as the visceral
May, outdoor markets were amongst the experience of a public place.
first public venues to reopen. Scenes of We will be joined through the year by
the Chancellor, Rishi Sunak, visiting a experts from the fields of theatre, logistics
street market in Pimlico were widely and farming, and will work with local
broadcast to announce ‘lives returning to stakeholders, from traders to shoppers,
normal’. In doing so, the government was when and where possible. Through critical
reminding audiences of the symbolic projects we will reconceive the market to
importance of markets that have been reflect our concern for wellbeing, the
central to the growth of cities for the past environment, access, representation and
5000 years. However, underlying the reas- pleasure. We will collectively build a nar-
suring images is a wider ecosystem in rative for the continuity of the market as a
crisis: markets encapsulate many of the feature of public life that addresses the
challenges affecting contemporary soci- moment in which we live and the societal
ety, from the role of public space to the challenges that we face.
degradation of the environment to the
carbon footprint of logistics.
DIP19 this year will study the market
as a spatial type and consider its future.
Building on the unit’s research into the
David Kohn, is an architect and director at David
relationship between theatre and architec- Kohn Architects. The practice is working on projects
ture, we will focus on the small-scale and for New College Oxford, Hasselt University and the
human aspects of exchange and perfor- Greenwich Design District. He taught at the Cass
School of Architecture, was a visiting professor at KU
mance, and the spaces of interaction Leuven and an External Examiner at the University of
between bodies. We will resituate these Cambridge.
intimate environments within the web of
Bushra Mohamed, is an architect at David Kohn
systems and layers of dependency for Architects, where she leads a number of arts, cultural
which physical architecture is but a shift- and residential projects. She has previously worked for
ing reflection. Through research into the DRDH, Adam Khan Architects, Assemble and
Monadnock Architects. Bushra has previously taught
history of the market type and surveys of at Kingston University and the Architectural Drawing
local markets, we will arrive at an Summer School.

50 51
Selva Gürdoğan Diploma 20
Jonathan Robinson
Gregers Tang Thomsen

The Civic Entrepreneur

This is a time for new dreams. Over the past participants in this process and to build our
decade, we have witnessed a dramatic collective confidence by understanding that
shrinking of the civic realm and a loss of the changes we imagine are also within our
space that allows the public to come capacity to realise them.
together, thus denying them the vital tools This comes with immense responsibil-

Community Board, DIP20 unit trip to Amman, 2020


for civic agency. DIP20 invites the next gen- ity, and all the zest and grit of making
eration of architects to rigorously apply change happen. We’ll be taking risks,
their creativity to reinventing architectural attracting investment, trading skills, reo-
practice in order to enrich civic life. We see pening derelict shops, taking back
the ultimate goal of architecture as contrib- abandoned land. Above all, we’ll be form-
uting to the creation of settings where we ing deep relationships, bringing together
collectively thrive. From bringing communi- unlikely allies to re-imagine and re-make a
ties together to offering care, to rebuilding neighbourhood for the world.
livelihoods, to a renewal of our visions of
the future – this involves everyone. We see
all participants of the unit as explorers,
teachers, investors and partners.
Selva Gürdoğan, is an architect. After working at OMA,
Incubate: We are an incubator for civic she initiated Superpool together with Gregers Tang
entrepreneurs. We will be cultivating an Thomsen. She co-directed Studio-X Istanbul, an urban
audacity of civic imagination and vision, laboratory of Columbia University (GSAAP). Since 2018,
she has led the effort, on behalf of Superpool, to
alongside the business acumen, social
establish the City and Children Studies Master
investment and local mandate to turn Programme at Kadir Has University in collaboration
bold ideas into action. Intelligent and with the Bernard van Leer Foundation.
accountable identification of problems,
Jonathan Robinson, is an author and anthropologist.
rapid ideation, iterative testing and real- He is a founder and former director of Impact Hub. He
life prototyping will be of crucial is a co-founder and director of Civic. He has launched
importance. To achieve these goals will social ventures with partners ranging from the Cabinet
Office, British Council, Tate Modern and the Guardian
require agility and co-operation. Media Group, to UNICEF.
Build Confidence for Collective Impact:
We will work at Custom House in East Gregers Tang Thomsen, is an architect. After his
employment at OMA he co-founded Superpool and
London; a place promised regeneration for directs all design projects out of Superpool’s Istanbul
nearly 30 years that is now on the cusp of and Copenhagen offices. He co-directed Studio-X
this transformation, made real with the Istanbul, an urban laboratory of Columbia University
(GSAAP). He is leading Superpool’s participation to
help and resolve of a community shaping its Urban95 programme initiated by Bernard van Leer
own destiny. Our goal is to be first-hand Foundation.

52 53
Didier Fiúza Faustino Diploma 21
Anna Muzychak

Undomesticated Corpus

The history of architecture is one of obses- and the ex, newly stripped of their negative
sions, the first of which was, of course, to polarities, the trans might slip in, suggesting
construct divisions. In an attempt to a possible state of in-betweenness.
organise spaces, architecture divides them, In the era of the hybridisation of bod-
as well as the bodies that move through ies and forms, where gender is understood

Didier Fiúza Faustino, Say Hello, 2018


them. Thus, one of man’s primordial as fluid rather than binary, DIP21 will
needs – protection – is defined by opposi- question the norms that construct space,
tion: it involves an external element, an conceiving of an architecture on new
‘other’ from which we seek to protect our- terms. Desire for change, or obsession
selves. The refuge is structured by this with transformation? In tomorrow’s ref-
fundamental division between interior and uge we will be, as we are today, torn
exterior – the in and the ex. But if the in is between the two.
inclusive, it also points to its opposite, sig-
nalling an absence, a lack of something,
anticipating the separation that the ex
inexorably defines. Paradoxically, the in
includes and excludes at the same time.
Architecture is, to a great extent,
obsessed with our identity and its preserva-
tion. If architecture embodies the founding
values of a civilisation, it also expresses our
fear of extinction; of the nothingness that
opposes existence. Architecture opposes Didier Fiúza Faustino, is an architect and artist working
the fragmentation of personal identity: the on the relationship between body and space through
splintering of the unity of the individual. subversion of systems. Working in Paris from 2001 and
Lisbon since 2016, he develops by a multi-faceted
Therefore refuge, a place of protection, pre- approach, ranging from installation to experimentation,
serves this unity in the face of destructive from visual art to the creation of multi-sensorial spaces,
external forces. But what happens when mobile architecture and buildings.
these forces cannot be contained? Such a Anna Muzychak, is an AA graduate currently working on
destabilisation requires us to imagine new private commissions in Eastern Europe. She has taught
forms of refuge that are transversal and at Cardiff University, the AA Summer School. Her work
and research are focused on the intersections between
adaptable; places where the interior and material systems, construction technology and the role
the exterior meet; where, between the in of colour in architecture.

54 55
Diploma Programme
Core Studies and Electives
Core Studies courses form an essential part of the Diploma
Programme. Through term-long courses, obtain detailed
knowledge about a variety of fundamental aspects of architec-
ture and gain a wealth of intellectual and practical experience.
Environmental and Technical Studies (ETS) offers a com-
plete and coherent technical training that provides students
at all stages of their architectural education with the capacity
to materialise their ideas, concepts and ambitions. History and

Diploma Programme unit studio space, 2020. Photo: Max Creasy


Theory Studies (HTS) includes courses that develop historical
and theoretical knowledge related to architectural discourses,
concepts and ways of thinking through the skill of writing.
Finally, Architectural Professional Practice (APP) prepares stu-
dents in the fifth year for their professional lives after graduation.
Elective courses extend the range of Core Studies into fur-
ther specialised fields of study, and afford Diploma Programme
students the opportunity to engage with the broad expertise
and advanced knowledge within the Taught Postgraduate pro-
grammes at the school.

56 57
Environmental and Technical Studies FOURTH YEAR built form by joining the processes that
link the design of architecture with the
‘art of building’. We will focus on interdis-
Environmental and Technical Studies materials and diverse environments. The Title Piece by Piece ciplinary collaboration, since the
Delivered throughout the Experimental contents of the lecture courses are a unique Tutor Simon Beames architect, as lead consultant, has to con-
Programme and Diploma Programme, vehicle through which to prepare students stantly adjust and evaluate his designs to
Environmental and Technical Studies for the major technical project that they Built architecture is an organisation of com- address these often contradicting forces.
(ETS) offers a complete and coherent tech- must execute in the fifth year. ponent elements; pieces. In each Guest speakers will discuss their own per-
nical education, providing individuals at In the fifth year, students undertake a architectural proposition, there is the spectives on the importance of
all stages of their architectural study with technical Design Thesis: a substantial potential to expand the repertoire of com- collaboration within a project team.
the capacity to materialise the ideas, con- piece of individual work that is developed ponentry by designing bespoke pieces that
cepts and ambitions born in the work of under the guidance and tutorship of the respond to particular functional require-
the design units. In other words, it pro- ETS staff. The thesis is contextualised as ments, manufacturing processes and Title Light and Lighting
vides the knowledge necessary to make part of a broader dialogue in which the assembly conditions. This course will focus Tutor Francesco Anselmo
reasoned and informed design decisions. It technical and architectural agendas that on learning about technical innovation by
is knowledge with a purpose; wisdom. arise within the design unit are synthe- examining detailed case studies. We will Architecture cannot fully exist without
Inviting creative collaboration with the sised. Its critical development is pursued track down drawings and specifications of light, since without it there would be
material demands of individual design unit through case studies, material experiments exemplar pieces and develop a critical anal- nothing to see. Yet in architectural design,
agendas, ETS centres on a series of detailed and extensive research and consultation, yses that explain the material selection, it is usually either expected from nature or
discussions with experts in the fields of leading to informed design decisions that tools, context and functionality of each. developed as an add-on, very late in the
architecture and engineering. Engaging a embody the aspirations and ideas of each The work will culminate in the construction design process. As much as light can
wide range of disciplines and projects, individual student. of full-scale, reverse-engineered prototypes. reveal architecture, architecture can ani-
these conversations cultivate a substantial The aim of the Design Thesis is to inte- mate light, making it bounce, scatter and
base of knowledge, which is developed grate ETS5 work with that of the design refract; altering its spectrum and colour
through critical case studies of contempo- unit as much as possible, supporting it Title Sustainable Urban Design perception; absorbing it or reflecting it;
rary fabrication processes, constructed with additional, specialised information Tutor Ian Duncombe modulating its path and strength in both
artefacts and building processes that through seminars, lectures and research space and time. This course explores the
accommodate critical reflection and invite trips. ETS aims to reinforce the plurality There is a continuing fascination with the symbiotic relationship between the two.
experimentation with the ideas and tech- and variety of the Diploma Programme by tall and super-tall buildings that define Lectures and theoretical discussions will
niques taught. adapting the requirements of the Design the evolving skylines of the world’s major alternate with physical experiments, as
Lecture courses form a portion of each Project to each individual unit agenda. In cities. But can they contribute to a more well as individual and team exercises.
year’s requirements. During the fourth year, order to achieve this, the syllabus of the sustainable future, and what role does
critical case studies, analyses and material second year is purposefully loaded with environmental engineering play in the
experimentations are presented alongside a more information in order to enable stu- design of these towering structures? This Title Studies in Advanced
selection of required courses, which ensure dents in the third year to more freely apply course aims to answer these questions by Structural Design
that each student receives a complete expe- acquired knowledge in their final designs. imparting the fundamental knowledge Tutor Chris Davies
rience of different structures, varied needed to design tall. Students will have a
chance to apply the principles learned Structures are complex systems that pro-
during the sessions in developing a con- vide buildings with strength, stiffness and
cept for their own tall building. stability. Architects need to understand
structural principles in order to design
buildings that respond to challenging
Title Process in the Making design briefs and site constraints. This
Tutor Wolfgang Frese course will build upon the knowledge
developed during previous structures
This course aims to highlight and explain courses and apply it to real projects, exer-
the complex forces underlying the trans- cises and workshops. The course
formation of architectural designs into assignment requires the analysis of an

58 59
existing, complex building through the Title Integrated Structural Design Title Structural Form and Materials end with two workshops conducted by
research and study of existing drawings Tutors David Illingworth, Dan Cash Tutor Cíaran Malik architects and acousticians to encourage
and photographs in order to demonstrate collaboration between disciplines from
its structural principles by developing Why do some buildings give you everything Different materials prefer different struc- the beginning of the design process.
alternative concepts for – or alterations to you want but seem so effortless? This course tural forms. This is how we achieve such
– the existing structures. looks at a technical approach to integrated elegantly thin domes and such light and
problem solving. It aims to build multi-lay- strong bridges. This course looks at mate- Title Between Digital and Physical:
ered solutions to complex briefs, focusing rials, the forms they can achieve and what Realising Design
Title (Un)Usual Performances on the technical challenges involved and we can do to break the established rules Tutor Pablo Zamorano
Tutor Nacho Martí questioning how these can interact with and for how they are used. Throughout the
drive design processes. Students will be course, students will evaluate existing This course explores the relationship
This course challenges students to develop asked to interrogate previous solutions, then structures and design with a range of between computation and making in
new approaches to materials in design, redeploy and modify materials and technol- materials by comparing them and select- practice. We will use built case studies to
within which invention is as important as ogies in response to a brief. ing the best forms to develop further. highlight how technology, craftsmanship
fabrication, technology and specification. It and ingenuity can come together, ena-
aims to expand students’ horizons of design bling innovative design processes to
by exposing them to the idea of the total Title Antidisciplinary Integration: Title Der Lauf der Dinge realise complex designs. Students will
architect: a creator that can design not only Migration from Nzeb to Zib Tutors Aude-Line Dulière, gain knowledge of integrated processes
overall buildings, but also individual mate- Tutors Xavier Aguiló, Anna Mestre Lena Emanuelsen and be challenged with rethinking the use
rials and fabrication processes. Throughout of an ordinary object or process and
the course, students will design and test a In contemporary architectural design, sys- Under current regulations and in the quest reprogramming it to become a novel arte-
new composite material and speculate on tems have become highly fragmented and for standardisation, the ruling model for fact by revisiting the idea of the master
its potential architectural applications. independent. This course focuses on the sourcing materials in architecture relies builder as the master hacker.
integration of all requirements of architec- heavily on virgin resources travelling vast
tural design into one antidisciplinary distances to feed an industry in which new,
Title Responsible and system that encompasses orientation, con- easy and cheap is often better. A specific FIFTH YEAR
Responsive Materials struction, light, structure, water, MEP, building component, its current specifica-
Tutors Giles Bruce, Federico Montella, energy efficiency, CO2 emissions, environ- tion and detailing will be our point of
Tim Nutthall ment, thermal inertia, radiant systems and entry. We will develop an understanding of Title ETS5 Design Thesis
many more. the status quo and explore ways of facili- Tutors Xavier Aguiló, Francesco
All materials specified by architects tating the reuse of construction material Anselmo, Giles Bruce, Javier
embody a complex system of resource by experimenting with possible building Castañón, Laura de Azcárate,
extraction, transport, assembly, in-use Title The Relevance of Digital applications and developing reversible Alan Harries, David Illingworth,
operation, disassembly and disposal. This Fabrication in Architecture assembly techniques. Sho Ito, Nacho Martí, Anna Pla
journey over the life cycle of a material, Tutor Anna Pla Catalá Catalá, Camila Rock
from cradle to grave, can come at a signif-
icant cost in terms of resources and Digital fabrication is not the future, it is Title Acoustics Today Fifth year students develop a technical
energy. This course looks ‘under the skin’ the present. To some people, the digital Tutors Evan Green, Laura de Azcárate Design Thesis under the guidance of
of materials to see how architects can world comes quite naturally, but not to Javier Castañón and the Diploma
evaluate ‘responsible’ ones and their everyone. Today’s architects do not need Acoustic design enables the architect to Programme ETS Staff. Tutorial support
implications for ‘responsive’ building to be the world’s fastest digital operators, investigate new ideas, sustainable con- and guidance is also provided within the
design. Students will investigate tradi- but they do need to know very well how to struction techniques and materials. This design unit. The central interests and con-
tional and contemporary materials and make the best use of digital fabrication course explores the creative possibilities cerns of the work may emerge from
develop critical tools for informing design and understand what is fact and what is of acoustical design and analysis to current or past design work, or from one
decisions in their studio projects. speculation. This course deals not only enhance the holistic experience of archi- of the many lecture and seminar courses
with how to use the tools available today, tectural space. We will start by exploring the student has attended in previous
but also with how to see their relevance what acoustic design is and its basic con- years. The work is contextualised as part
within the world of architectural design. cepts in relation to digital fabrication, and of a broader dialogue in which the

60 61
technical and architectural agendas that Title ETS Project 2
arise within the unit are synthesised, and Tutor Kostas Grigoriadis
its critical development is pursued
through case studies, material experi- This project will rethink tectonics as the
ments, extensive research and main method of making buildings that has
consultation. existed since time immemorial. Instead,
we will investigate a new paradigm of mul-
ti-material fabrication that promises a
ETS PROJECTS new and unprecedented architecture of
material mixes and gradients. We will
ETS Projects is a series of vertical work- research material recycling processes,
shops that for students from the second materials that can be admixed and the
year to the fifth year. Individuals from embodied energy savings of a standard
across the school together in order to rig- tectonic build-up versus a materially fused
orously explore a common theme, which is one. Computational fluid dynamics and
formulated as a research question. Three Grasshopper workshops on topology opti-
ETS Projects will launch this year, engaging misation will allow us to mix our digital
three different stages of architectural pro- materials and to produce a series of mul-
duction – inception, material development ti-colour 3D prints using the DPL.
and installation.

Students on the AA Terrace, 2019–20


Title ETS Project 3
Title ETS Project 1 Tutor Francesco Anselmo
Tutors Patricia Mato-Mora,
Anna Muzychak Bespoke work is often not feasible, and
off-the-shelf, mass-produced elements are
Ceramic traditions have developed a vast frequently the only choice that is availa-
corpus of material and haptic knowledge. ble. The designer must research hard to
ETS Project 1 investigates the potential for find the solution that optimises all availa-
the implementation of these studio tech- ble routes of procurement, and the
niques in the realm of material fabrication specific challenge of improving the light-
for architecture, given the scale and mate- ing conditions within the AA is a great
rial constraints posed by the much larger opportunity for this alternative research
dimensions and performance require- to take place. This course will engage stu-
ments of the latter. We will appropriate dents in a direct experience of the ways in
the process of Mokuhanga ‘suicide carv- which the design and construction indus-
ing’, embedding its creative process into a tries work so as to enable them to bring
systematic procedure that can be trans- about the desired result of a brief without
lated into the fabrication of architectural being hijacked by the commercial and
components and measured for tolerance political avarice that continually trivial-
in accordance with industry standards. ises innovation.

62 62
Xavier Aguiló, is a Master Engineer and is currently Ian Duncombe, is a board director of the international Pablo Gugel, studied architecture at the ETSAC, Spain, Anna Muzychak, is an AA graduate. She co-led a
the Manager of the BAC London office, where he is a engineering practice, Chapman BDSP. He has worked and Sustainable Environmental Design at the AA. He vertical studio at Cardiff University, taught at the AA
partner and member of the main board and Deputy on environmental engineering projects worldwide, and has worked as an architect at Grimshaw Architects and Summer School and has been a unit tutor in both the
Building GM. He teaches at the School of Architecture his work in the UK includes two winners of the RIBA as an environmental consultant for the last five years at Experimental Programme and the Diploma
in the European University of Madrid. Stirling Prize. Chapman BDSP and Atelier Ten. Programme at the school.

Francesco Anselmo, holds a degree in Architectural Aude-Line Dulière, is an architect. She holds a master’s Alan Harries, is a director at INTEGRATION, a Anna Pla Catalá, graduated from the AA and holds a
Engineering and a PhD in environmental physics. He is degree in Architecture from Harvard University (GSD), building services and environmental design consultancy. MSc in Advanced Architectural Design from Columbia
a senior lighting and interaction designer at Arup. worked at David Chipperfield Architects and has been He was the lead author of Urban Wind Energy. University (GSAPP). She worked at Foster + Partners
part of the development team at Rotor Deconstruction and Eisenman Architects before setting up her own
Simon Beames, is an architect and director of in Brussels. She was the recipient of the 2018 Jonathan Hawkshaw, is a chartered structural engineer practice in Barcelona.
Youmeheshe architects. He has worked for Foster + Wheelwright Prize. and co-founder of Simple Works, a structural
Partners and Grimshaw Architects, leading the design engineering practice. He gained a degree in Danae Polyviou, has studied at the University of Bath
team for Battersea Power Station. He has taught a Lena Emanuelsen, is an architect. She is a co-founding Architectural Engineering from the University of and completed a master’s degree in Membrane
Diploma Programme unit at the AA and the University member of Becoming X, a cross-disciplinary design Leeds. Structures in Germany. She works at Atelier One.
of East London. and research practice, and also teaches at Kingston
University. Sho Ito, graduated with an AA Diploma. He has worked Ioannis Rizos, is a chartered engineer and works at
Delfina Bocca, has worked as a senior architect at Zaha for Kengo Kuma & Associates, RSHP Rogers Stirk Atelier Ten. He holds an MEng degree in Engineering
Hadid Architects. She holds an MArch from the Kenneth Fraser, leads ETS in the AA Experimental Harbour + Partners and dRMM, and currently works at and a MSc degree in Energy Systems and the
Architecture and Urbanism (DRL) programme and is a Programme and is the director of Kirkland Fraser AHMM. He is a studio tutor at Nottingham Trent Environment from the University of Strathclyde. He is a
registered architect in Argentina. She is a first year Moor Architects. He has taught at the University of University. board member of the International Building
course tutor at the AA, and also leads a design unit at Brighton and NTU, and has served as a RIBA External Performance Association (IBPSA-UK).
Oxford Brookes University. Examiner at Manchester University and an Arts David Illingworth, is a chartered structural engineer
Council Architectural Assessor, and previously worked working at AKT II. He studied Civil and Structural Camila Rock, graduated from the University of Talca
Giles Bruce, is a chartered architect and the director of with Renzo Piano. Engineering at the University of Sheffield. and obtained an MArch from the Emergent
A-ZERO architects. Giles studied at UCD, Ireland, and Technologies and Design programme at the AA. She
graduated from the AA in Sustainable Environmental Wolfgang Frese, became a furniture maker before he Alistair Lenczner, is an architectural and engineering currently works at Grimshaw Architects London.
Design. He has taught at the Bartlett School of studied Architecture at the Arts Academy in Stuttgart designer and director of Expedition. He has worked at
Architecture, the University of Nottingham and the and received a master’s degree from the Bartlett. He Arup, and was a partner at Foster + Partners. He is Tom Raymont, graduated with an AA Diploma and has
University of East London. has worked at Atelier One Engineers and Alsop currently a member of the HS2 Design Panel. worked with Eric Owen Moss Architects and
Architects, and is currently a senior project architect at Asymptote before co-founding his own practice. He is
Javier Castañón, is the Head of Environmental and AHMM. Cíaran Malik, is a structural engineer, teacher and an associate fellow of the Higher Education Academy
Technical Studies. He has degrees from Manchester illustrator. He studied engineering at the University of and has been a design tutor at Central Saint Martins
University, the AA and Granada. He is the Director of Joana Gonçalves, is an architect and urbanist. She Cambridge and trained as a teacher at the University of and the University of Westminster.
Castañón Associates (London) and Castañón graduated from the Federal University of Rio de Buckingham.
Asociados (Madrid). Janeiro with an MA in Environment and Energy, Giancarlo Torpiano, studied Architecture and
studied at the AA and obtained a PhD from Faculty of Nacho Martí, graduated from Elisava School of Design Structural Engineering at the University of Malta before
Sinéad Conneely, is a structural engineer and a Architecture and Urbanism of the University of São in Barcelona and the AA. He runs his own design completing a master’s degree at the AA. He works as a
founding director of Simple Works. She studied Civil Paulo. studio, teaches the first year course at the AA and leads structural engineer in a multi-disciplinary team at Arup.
Engineering at the National University of Ireland, the AA Visiting School Amazon.
Galway and went on to do a master’s degree in Applied Evan Green, is a senior acoustics consultant at Sound Chiara Tuffanelli, is a senior architect at Arup. Having
Mathematics at Imperial College London. Before Space Design. He holds a master’s degree in Acoustics Patricia Mato-Mora, studied at the AA and the RCA. worked at Foster + Partners, she joined Arup’s
starting Simple Works, she worked for AKT II. from the Institute of Sound and Vibration Research, She works alongside artists and architects to realise Advanced Geometry Unit and is currently a project
University of Southampton, and a master’s degree in large-scale projects while practicing independently as manager for the facade engineering team.
Chris Davies, is a structural engineer. He has a degree Physics from the University of Bath. an artist. She leads the AA Visiting School in the
in Architectural Engineering from the University of Sonora Desert. Anna Wai, obtained a degree in Civil and Architectural
Leeds. He is currently a project manager at Transport Kostas Grigoriadis, has been teaching at the AA since Engineering from Bath University and is a structural
for London. 2010. He was the recipient of the 2018 RIBA President’s Nina McCallion, trained as an architect and structural engineer at Price & Myers. She has taught at London
Award for Design and Technical Research and the engineer at the Technical University of Eindhoven and Metropolitan University and the University of East
Laura De Azcárate, is an acoustic designer and inaugural Google R+D in the Built Environment holds an MRes in the Built Environment from London.
architect working for BDP’s Environmental Design Fellowship. His practice, Continuum, recently Cambridge. She is a senior structural engineer for Arup.
Studio in London. She holds a master’s degree in completed a tourist centre and small-scale masterplan Pablo Zamorano, is an architect and the Head of
Architecture from San Pablo CEU University, a in Anhui, China. Anna Mestre, graduated from the Polytechnic Geometry and Computational Design at Heatherwick
Bachelor of Music degree from Madrid and an MSc in University of Barcelona and holds a master’s degree in Studio. He graduated from Universidad Central in
Environmental and Architectural Acoustics from Project Management in Building and Urban Planning Chile and holds an MSc from the Emergent
London South Bank University. from the Professional Association of Technical Technologies and Design programme at the AA.
Architects of Barcelona. She currently works at BOMA,
Simon Dickens, is an architect. He has worked for a structural consultancy in Madrid.
Grimshaw Architects and Gensler, and co-founded
Youmeheshe. He leads Unit 10 at the Bartlett School of
Architecture.

64 65
History and Theory Studies DIPLOMA HTS Title Dracula’s Software
COURSE OUTLINE Tutor Doreen Bernath

The primary aim of History and Theory these dimensions form a critical compo- Hardware calculates, software lures. We
Studies is to assist in the process of creat- nent of the discourse at the AA and its Title The Normal and the Pathological are an immortal product of our own soft-
ing graduates who are independent, translation of cultural issues into architec- Tutor Andrea Bagnato ware, and Count Dracula’s desires reveal
critical and inventive. In order to do so, it ture. These are the principles around the nature of how our technology has
must address many aspects of the archi- which the HTS courses operate throughout Taking a cue from Georges Canguilhem’s become a barometer for determining who
tectural culture and discourse that are not the school. foundational work The Normal and the we are. Friedrich Kittler proposes the
directly addressed in design work. In the Diploma Programme, HTS offers Pathological, this course asks how architec- importance of looping ourselves into soft-
Firstly, students need to not only a selection of specialised courses. In the ture constructs definitions of what is ware in order not only to hide the
understand, but take a view on cultural fourth year, students are required to select understood as ‘normal’ and how biomedi- universal hardware, but also to proliferate
and political questions that involve archi- two courses. In the fifth year, there is an cal visions of ‘civilisation’ and ‘progress’ the human needs for control, excess, love
tecture such as ecology, housing and option available either to take one course are advanced through the built environ- and violence. Looking at Flusser’s attach-
widespread inequality; issues with which or, alternatively, to pursue a thesis – inter- ment. Students will begin by studying the ment, Farocki’s media archaelology,
it is imperative that architectural intelli- est in this option must be registered in the history of epidemics, public health and Lacan’s gaze and Serres’ orgranic body,
gence intervenes. Secondly, there are fourth year. The thesis enables students to disease control – relying on a number of the course will investigate the notion of
those questions that stem from within the concentrate on a particular area of inter- case studies from around the world – in ‘circular causality, in feedback loops’;
architecture itself: the nature of contem- est and, through regular supervision, parallel with the Covid-19 pandemic. We inter-subjective existence that fulfils our
porary practice, the possible career routes develop a more advanced piece of work. will discuss, in particular, the emergence fantasy of immorality; and the human ori-
for trained architects and the responses of We will explore with students the possibil- of ideas of order and hygiene in relation gin story, which is similar to that of simple
the profession to particular social issues ity of seeking publication for strong and to racism and colonialism, global urbani- machines.
and questions of public taste. Both of original essays. sation after 1945 and contemporary
pandemics as a consequence of ecological
degradation. Title Form Follows Malfunction
Tutor Edward Bottoms

Title From Biennial to Bed: The This course will explore malfunction
exhibition space in contemporary through an examination of how cultures
visual culture respond and adapt to repeated occur-
Tutor Kathy Battista rences of natural disasters. By looking at
conspiracy theories, the dismantling of
What is an exhibition? This seminar inves- trust and the malfunction of hierarchies
tigates a variety of forms of presentation, and networks, we will explore examples
from the historical parade of paintings from the worlds of construction, finance,
and fine art through cities and the physi- politics and entertainment. A series of
cal display of objects in galleries and case studies of architectural and planning
museums to virtual spaces including web- disasters will reveal notable incidents of
sites and live events. The Covid-19 cover-ups, and the course will debate the
pandemic necessitates a curatorial over- contributing factors and consider ques-
haul to virtual display. Through lectures tions of truth, accountability and blame.
on key moments in exhibition history, as Students encouraged to probe particular
well as discussions with visiting practi- cases and make use of a wide range of
tioners, this course will ask students to archival sources whilst developing and
question what an exhibition can be and honing their research skills.
how we can design new ways to see and
experience art, especially at a distance.

66 67
Title Political Currency Title The Politics of Drawing Title Trees in London Title Learning Again from Television
of the Stereotype Tutor Nerma Cridge Tutor Melissa Moore Tutor Joaquim Moreno
Tutor Susan Chai
This course will explore the relationship The course will investigate the treatment The architecture of broadcasting has thor-
Daishan, China reads as a lonesome slice between architectural drawing and writing of trees in culture and in the street, oughly domesticated education,
of pseudo-cityscape on first approach; a and its role within architectural discourse. exploring the global role of trees in art, information and entertainment, transform-
superfluity of parallels, yet an emphatic We will consider the connection between literature, mythology, science and medi- ing them from public and collective realms
cadence of pale blue gives away its rural politics, space, abstraction and representa- cine, as well as in the built environment. into domestic ones. Television has evolved
reality. The spectacle dissipates on closer tion, dismissing simplistic interpretations With an emphasis on London, we will into other forms of media, moving from a
inspection; a procession disappearing into and misconceptions. Students will partici- look at how trees are both valued but con- regular programmed schedule to the blurred
the horizon that cannot but feel tedious. pate in collective discussions, and are tinuously managed and disciplined and, continuity of a 24/7, anytime, anywhere
But this languorous place is embellished encouraged to create their own drawings on occasion, removed to make way for mode. Recent events completely reorgan-
with a plenitude of discussion: the archi- and test whether an essay can be drawn, development or changes in circulation. ised this, instituting distance in order to
tectural confrontation at the rural-urban rather than written. The limits of what is, Trees offer a wealth of diverse material for sever the chains of contamination, locking
fringe; urbanisation framed as an infra- and what is not, an architectural drawing potential consideration, and therefore us inside a homebound blend of screens,
structural initiative; a post-industrial will be examined. Drawings from the AA different categories will be presented each windows and deliveries. Thus, education
economy; misplaced nostalgia; and a Archives, the RIBA and other institutions week to offer a choice of subject matter and its space have drastically changed, and
social argument for satellite settlement. will be explored and lead to the produc- for project development. we are now faced with the task of learning
Building from previous investigations into tion of a physical object, which will be the anew its places, vectors, limits and rhythms.
reading the city through a mobilised pub- catalyst for each investigation. This course will try to complicate this pic-
lic realm, this year we will examine the Title Weird, Strange and Atypical: ture while also learning from it, proposing
nonsensical citation of technological glo- Learning from ‘Learning from’ new forms of transgression and less docile
balisation in the context of seemingly Title The Coming Crisis of Tutor Sofia Krimizi and compliant visions of media transforma-
unified modern architectural form. Britain’s Future tion and forms of learning.
Tutor Denis MacShane Marching elephants, fireworks, masquer-
ade balls, excessive dancing, heavy
Title On Translation The voting public of the UK used the pleb- drinking on land or onboard, road trips to Title Into the Universe of
Tutor Mark Cousins iscite of 2016 not only to address the Las Vegas, surreal dinner parties, unit Technical Images
narrow question of EU membership, but to trips and strawberry tables; all these sur- Tutor Ana Maria Nicoleascu
This course starts from the reality that send a larger message of dismay about the prisingly extracurricular activities have
although the AA describes itself as an state of the union and the failure of all woven the architectural education pro- In Into the Universe of Technical Images,
international institution, little attention is existing institutions – including the Royal vided by the most influential schools Villem Flusser outlines of ‘a society ruled
given to the national languages that make family, political parties, the BBC, banks around the world with a radical culture of by technical images’; of image receivers
up the school. We will start by considering and many businesses, churches, universi- fun and play based on social interaction. and administrators; of producers and
what we mean by translation and what the ties, scientists, intellectuals and But what happens now? Can we even start image collectors. Today, images profile,
limitations of translation are, concerned journalists – to provide satisfying answers to intellectualise the transformations that format, record and shape a centrally pro-
with the relation of different languages to or pathways forward. With the Royal need to take place within architectural grammed contemporary condition, driven
varied national cultures and indeed to crown trembling, a still unsettled Europe/ education? How do we teach, learn, by data capitalism, algorithmic surveil-
polyglot societies. This investigation has Brexit divide and Scottish Parliament debate or simply interact when the physi- lance and the gamification of everyday
very real and important implications for issuing a mandate for a new referendum cality of the study is challenged? This life. Following last year’s investigations
how we consider architecture as a trans- on independence, the UK is on crumbling course will investigate existing alternative into the works of Harun Farocki, we will
national practice and for how we consider foundations. This course will explore methods of teaching and learning in order continue to revisit the essay film as a way
the role of language in architectural these ruptures in relation to the impact of to produce a catalogue of radically odd of recording the transformations in the
education. Covid-19, which has further revealed how and unexpected educational formats. production and circulation of images, the
political and social structures are simply vision systems that distribute them and
not working. the underlying frameworks by which they
shape the present moment.

68 69
Title Polymodernism Title Against Abstraction: Title L’Afrique Intime
Tutor Nana Oforiatta-Ayim Neo-avant-garde, Tutor Álvaro Velasco Pérez
Neo-liberal, Neo-colonial
In the book African Metropolitan Tutor Ricardo Ruivo Africa is an architectural writing experi-
Architecture, I referred to the pluralistic ment. Departing from the last of its idylls
and relativistic nature that pervades many This course will shift its attention from – Rem Koolhaas’ Lagos: How it Works – the
aspects of life on the African continent as the historical ‘avant-garde’ to the ‘neo- course will trace the genealogy of publica-
polymodern. A metaphor taken from the avant-garde’ condition, from the early tions that recount the journeys of
polyrhythms present in so many musical 1980s until today, examining the emer- European architects travelling through
forms, where two or more rhythms are gence of what can be called Africa in a pseudo-ethnographic vein.
played simultaneously, instead of one post-modernity. While architectural These publications are not simple travel
being played in a single time signature. post-modernism can be seen to start with writings, but intricate impressions gener-
John Collins in African Musical Symbolism a critique of modernist abstraction, the ated through their technologies of vision,
in Contemporary Perspective compared this neo-avant-garde culture that followed ele- their means of recording, their writing
music to architecture in that ‘polyrhyth- vated abstraction to new heights, not en-route and their relationship with the
mic structures create sonic space’. In this simply in architectural form, but through ‘other’. Focusing on both the output and
course, we look at this metaphor of poly- an interpretation of political issues. This the journeys themselves, the course will
rhythms that expresses one of many course will challenge contemporary neo- disentangle the complex relationship
shifting orientations that are mirrored in avant-garde and post-modern frameworks between the modern metropolis and its
other areas of life. and expose how they are historically exteriors.
entwined with the neo-liberal social-eco-
nomic relations and neo-colonial
Title Necromancing the Stone geopolitical relations that emerged during Title Diploma Thesis
Tutor Will Orr their timeframe. Tutors Supervised by Mark Campbell
and Manolis Stavrakakis
From the time the authority of classical
models came into serious doubt to the col- Title Invisibles Fourth year students wishing to develop
lapse of the Modern Movement and Tutor Teresa Stoppani their research into an extended, written
beyond, into the twilight of the postmod- thesis may attend a series of seminars,
ern, architectural thinking has confronted Invisibility is a matter of size and wave- workshops and tutorials delivered by Mark
its own limitations and sought to transcend length, but it is also a perceptual relation: Campbell and Manolis Stavrakakis follow-
them. Over its history, this experience of it can be a tactic of camouflage; an infil- ing the conclusion of their HTS courses.
architecture as mortal, as a discipline tration strategy; an act of violence; a form These sessions, held during Term 2 and
repeatedly encountering its end, has been of protest; or a critical device. It is always Term 3, serve as an introduction to the the-
strangely prolonged. Each time struck an action, endogenous, exogenous or sis option. They explore the rigorous
down by the implacable forces of history, both. This course considers different nature of undertaking scholarly work and
architects, theorists and historians have forms of ‘invisibility’ in architecture, and help individuals to develop their research
resurrected ‘architecture’ – often on the discusses what is often ignored, over- topic. Students then begin to develop their
very site of its destruction. Beginning from looked or deliberately disregarded. From theses during the summer between the
the present moment of profound crisis, the Furjàn’s dirt, Viney’s waste and Douglas’ fourth and fifth years. Based on individual
course will look back across a series of key impure to Batille’s dust, Augé’s oblivion work, as well as a series of individual tuto-
transitional moments in the history of the and Piranese’s erasures, the course con- rials, the thesis is submitted at the end of
architectural discipline. siders what is understood as invisible and Term 1 of the fifth year, in line with the fifth
aims to render these visible and exposed, year HTS requirements.
thus transforming them into a challenging
critical and transformative tools for envi-
ronmental practices.

70 71
Andrea Bagnato, studied at the Centre for Research Mark Cousins, is the Head of History and Theory Nana Oforiatta-Ayim is a writer, art historia, and
Architecture, and is currently head of publications for Programme. He was educated at Oxford University and filmmaker. She studied at the University of London and
the Sharjah Architecture Triennial. He worked as a the Warburg Institute. He has taught at the AA for is the author of The God Child.
researcher and editor for Forensic Architecture, Space many years in the undergraduate, postgraduate and
Caviar, Kuehn Malvezzi and Tomás Saraceno, and was PhD programmes. He is a founding member of the AA William Orr, is a British-Canadian designer, theorist
publications manager for the first Chicago Architecture Graduate School and the London Consortium. He has and historian. He studied architectural design at the
Biennial in 2015. Among the books he authored are SQM: been a Visiting Professor at Columbia University and is University of Toronto and completed a PhD at the AA,
The Quantified Home, A Moving Border: Alpine Cartographies currently a Guest Professor at South Eastern University where his research focused on political and
of Climate Change and Rights of Future Generations. in Nanjing, China. architectural theory from the 1960s to the present.

Kathy Battista is an art historian and a curator. Most Nerma Cridge, is a lecturer, artist and author, and runs Ricardo Ruivo Pereira, is an architect, researcher and
recently she has curated you pinned me down like a butterfly a small art and design practice, Drawing Agency. Her teacher. He completed his PhD at the AA in 2018,
on a wall, Marie Jacotey for Ballon Rouge at Pablo’s first monograph, Drawing the Unbuildable, was published having previously worked and studied in Porto,
Birthday, The Art of Fashion at Fountain House Gallery, in 2015. Forthcoming publications include Restless: Portugal. His research addresses the relationship
Escape Attempts at Shulamit Nazarian Gallery and E.A.T.: Drawn by Zaha Hadid and her second book entitled between architectural form and political content in
Experiments in Art and Technology at the Museum der Politics of Abstraction. discourse and historiography as ideological production.
Moderne. She has books including: New York New Wave:
The Legacy of Feminist Art in Emerging Practice and Sofia Krimizi, studied architecture at the National Manolis Stavrakakis, holds a PhD from the AA. He
Renegotiating the Body: Feminist Art in 1970s London. Technical Institute in Athens and the Columbia studied architecture at the National Technical
University (GSAPP) in New York. She is a founding University of Athens, Columbia University (GSAAP) and
Doreen Bernath, is an architect and a theorist. Trained member of the architectural practice ksestudioand is the AA.
at the University of Cambridge and the AA, she is currently a PhD candidate at the AA.
currently a co-editor of the RIBA Journal of Architecture Teresa Stoppani, is an architectural theorist and critic
and a tutor in the AA Projective Cities and PhD Denis MacShane, is recognised as one of Europe’s based in London. She has taught at IUAV Venice,
programmes. She is the co-founder of research experts on the economic and geo-political impact of University of Technology Sydney, RMIT University
collective ‘ThisThingCalledTheory’, AAVS Budapest Brexit and the evolution of European political Melbourne, University of Greenwich, University of
and DEZACT, and a senior lecturer at Leeds Becket processes. He was Minister for Europe in the Tony Brighton and Leeds Beckett University. Her writings
University, School of Architecture. Blair government and writes regularly for UK, US and address the relationship between architectural theory
European press on European political development. and the design process in the urban environment.
Edward Bottoms, studied history at Exeter University He has advised governments, businesses and NGOs on
and gained a Masters Degree at the University of East European Union policy and processes, and has written Álvaro Velasco Pérez, is an architect. He holds a PhD
Anglia. He is the AA’s Head of Archives and has several books on European politics. from the AA where he previously studied a masters in
published on a range of subjects including art History and Critical Thinking in Architecture. He has
collecting, portraiture, architectural museums and the Melissa Moore, is a photographer and artist who teaches taught at University of Hertfordshire, the AA Summer
history of architectural education. at the London School of Fashion. Her photographs are School, Leeds Beckett University and the University of
published as a volume entitled Land Ends. Navarra.
Susan Chai, is an architect and a research associate.
She teaches design at Southeast University and Central Joaquim Moreno, is an architect, historian and curator.
Academy of Fine Arts in China, and is working with He teaches at the Architecture School of Porto
Forum of Contemporary Architectural Theories since University (FAUP). He studied at Princeton University,
2009. Previously she was an associate partner at PLP the Polytechnic University of Catalonia and the
architecture. Architecture School of Porto University. He has curated
numerous exhibitions for the Venice Biennale, the CCA
Mark Campbell, currently teaches on the PhD and and the South Garage of Lisbon’s CCB, and is currently
Projective Cities programmes at the AA. He received working on an exhibition about the intersections of
his MA and PhD from Princeton University as a Portuguese architects and the Venice Biennale.
Fulbright and Princeton Scholar. He has published and
lectured extensively, and is an Editor of the RIBA Ana Maria Nicolaescu, works with images and words to
Journal of Architecture and an External Examiner at the explore the complexities of the digital world. Recent
Welsh School of Architecture and RCA. projects include: ‘Worlding for Real’ for Global Art
Forum 14; ‘In 20/20’ at the AA; and ‘Roblox: Notes
from the Front’ in TANK Magazine. She is co-founder
of Cream Projects.

72 73
Architectural Professional Practice TERM 1

Reinventing the Creative Fields From a priori to ‘Out of Thick Air’


Throughout the history of the AA, students Through a series of lectures, each deliv- at the AA This session explains various approaches
have sought to reinvent and extend the ered by the course leader and one of the In this session, participants discuss what it to design and project production, from a
scope of architecture, developing, as a course tutors, students will discuss and means to be an architect. What is the role classical, a priori approach, to the ‘design
result, alternative modes of professional debate key issues relating to the varying of an architect today, and what are the of the design process’ and ‘out of thick
practice that challenge the status quo. professional contexts for design and con- pathways open to graduates? To demon- air’ development. Examples of projects
This course develops on the themes of struction, reviewing detailed examples of strate the possible options available, a generated through collaboration and net-
Professional Practice (PP) first introduced strategies for conventional and unconven- selection of AA alumni from throughout the working will be examined.
in the Experimental Programme and tional models of practice. Each course history of the school will be discussed, and
encountered in work experience. Students tutor will supervise a group of 12–14 stu- the frameworks and circumstances that led Business Plan
will comprehensively and critically inte- dents across two tutorial sessions that will to their individual success will be analysed. In this session, students learn how to
grating this knowledge into a range of further develop these themes. develop a feasible business plan, the key
design processes and professional frame- Pariticipants will be asked to present Define your Own Field factors that need to be taken into consid-
works in order to gain a comprehensive and submit a business plan laying out a This session questions how one defines eration and the different ways in which
overview of individual career development proposal for their own, ideal practice. This one’s own aims. Every AA student has an this exercise can be approached.
within architecture and related disciplines. should be supported by a tranche of refer- individual set of talents and skills, and it
It is also intended to provide a base of ences and case studies that are relevant to is critical that each is able to analyse their Relationships
information from which students can draw the student’s professional aims. The final unique strengths and shortcomings when This session describes the important rela-
in their professional lives following gradu- submission should amount to a compre- entering the professional environment. tionships that influence the development
ation from the AA. Participants are enabled hensive business plan, including an The question will be: What criteria should of projects within the fields of architec-
and encouraged to become the next gener- analysis of the relevant economic, legisla- be taken into consideration creatively, and ture and the creative arts.
ation of leaders and entrepreneurs, both tive and social frameworks that affect the what individual frameworks are either in
individually and collectively. viability of the proposal. place already or could be established? On Productions and Frameworks
This session outlines methods of architec-
Forms of Practice tural production and their related
This session focuses on different models frameworks of construction. Examples
of practice in architecture and the crea- will be cited from various creative disci-
tive arts, ranging from individual offices to plines that range from architecture to
collectives and multidisciplinary teams. installations, exhibitions, stage design and
Examples of practices that explore new performances.
areas of spatial performance will be
discussed.

Head of Programme 
Theo Lorenz

Tutors
Sarah Akigbogun, Max Babbé, Edward Bottoms,
Azhar Ellahi, Friedrich Gräfling, Hikaru Kitai, Brigitta
Lenz-Giarlis, Joe Robson, Manijeh Verghese

74 75
Diploma Electives Title Timber Technologies the liberating power of geometric abstrac-
Term 1 tion in order to understand such histories
Tutors Charley Brentnall, Chris Sadd, as additive manufacture in bricks and
Electives are specialised courses that interdisciplinarity is gained. Diploma stu- Martin Self and guests stone, influenced by and reciprocally
extend the range of Core Studies and offer dents may exchange one HTS and one ETS shaping mathematics of graphic statics
students a means of integrating self-se- course for any of the listed Electives across This course of eight seminars and for- and stereotomy.
lected knowledge into their individual their two years of study, with the exception est-based workshops provides a base of
development. They provide a means of of the ETS Design Thesis. More than two knowledge that is required to operate as a
engaging with the cultural and scientific Electives may be taken, but only in addi- specialist in timber design. Recognising Emergent Technologies and Design
discourses of architecture in new ways, tion to required coursework. wood’s essential role in low-carbon archi-
from which a deeper understanding of tecture, students will be given a technical Title Design Science and Scientific
introduction to timber and its production, Methods, Term 1
from forest planting to contemporary fab- Tutors Michael Weinstock
rication techniques. It covers wood’s
biological, material and mechanical prop- The scientific method is an evolving set of
erties, the methodologies of its design and procedures based on systematic observa-
application, and strategies that integrate tions and measurements, the formulation
forestry, materiality and form. of ideas (hypotheses) and predictions, and
the testing of hypotheses through experi-
mentation. Design Science is a unique
Design Research Laboratory class of enquiry that may include some
COURSE LIST combination of: form and behaviour, inte-
Title Behaviour: Examining the grated knowledge from the natural or
Proto-Systemic, Term 2 cultural sciences, a specified degree of
AA Interprofessional Studio Design and Make Tutors Ryan Dillon, Theodore mutability – such as a relational model
Spyropoulos capable of adaptation to differing circum-
Title Performance Protest Politics Title Making as Design stances environments, testable
Term 1 Term 1 This seminar course follows a behav- propositions or principles of implementa-
Tutor David McAlmont, Tutors Zachary Mollica, Martin Self, iour-based agenda to engage with tion – and an expository design
Workshop Tutors Simon Withers experimental forms of material and com- (conceptual, physical or computationally
putational practice. Through an simulated) for testing and evaluation.
This course explores the historical and This course explores the histories, theo- examination of cybernetic and systemic
theoretical background for the work of ries and cultures of architectural design thinking in relation to seminal forms of Title History of Robotic Fabrication
the AAIS within a wider socio-political philosophies that prioritise making. prototyping and experimentation, stu- in Architecture and Design
context of performance and protest and Underlying this strand of thinking is the dents will look at experiments that have Term 2
their effects. It consists of six three-hour recognition that, conventionally, archi- been conducted since the early 1950s as Tutor Elif Erdine
sessions, each of which typically consti- tects are disengaged from the actual maverick machines, architectures and ide-
tutes a seminar presentation by a tutor or process of building, yet design relies on ologies. Team-based presentations will This course presents the development of
invited lecturer, followed by questions and intuitions about the physical world that examine these methods and outputs as industrial robotics in architecture and
collective discussion. Students are can only be developed through tactile case studies for studio experimentation. design, covering the history and current
required to read preparatory and fol- engagement. Students will interrogate var- state of the field and its implications for
low-up material, and to make short group ious mechanisms for this development Title Constructed Histories: future development. Seminars will chroni-
or individual presentations at the semi- and the emerging technologies that are Technocentric History of Design cle the early beginnings and myths
nars. A written submission of 3000 words facilitating new forms of interaction with Term 2 surrounding robots, as well as the treat-
will be handed in at the end of the term, the physical realm. Tutor Shajay Booshan ment of them in science fiction, movies
and the Programme Head and Staff give and culture in general, before elaborating
tutorials to aid individuals in focussing This seminar traces synoptic histories of on the employment of robotics in archi-
and developing their work. the built environment as a consequence of tecture. Special emphasis will be given to

76 77
the development of parametric control in Title Critical Urbanism II, Term 2 series of exemplary projects and establish potential are being continuously rede-
robotics, tool path programming and end Tutors Lawrence Barth, Dominic Papa a fresh approach to the conception of fined, together with their meaning, their
effector tooling. urban form. These projects will be instruments and the roles of urban policy
This course brings architecture into explored across scales, from their interiors and planning. This course attempts to
engagement with ambitious and complex to the reconfigured spaces between build- explore the processes of urban transfor-
History and Critical Thinking urban projects. The material is organised ings, to their implications for wider urban mation in the context of the
in Architecture into a series of on-going preoccupations transformation, and we will consider the internationalisation of the world econ-
that can be used to compare projects and legacy of these early projects in contem- omy, paying particular attention to the
Title History, Theory and Critical critical writings, such as questions of size, porary, project-driven urbanism. changing systems of urban governance.
Writing: Architecture Knowledge of programme versus event, of continuity Throughout the course, an emphasis will
and Cultures, Term 2 versus rupture or of object versus field. be placed upon detailed architectural Title Cities in a Transnational World II
Tutors Marina Lathouri Each student is encouraged to develop criticism. Term 2
their own critical position on a series of Tutors Jorge Fiori, Giorgio Talocci
This series of seminars starts by looking at projects with a particular theme, and will Title Reshaping the Modern City
early architectural writings, the ways in be guided to understand concepts and Term 1–2 This course aims to provide a critical
which they identify and describe the changing points of view regarding urban Tutors Anna Shapiro (Term 1) Elena analysis of the evolution of housing poli-
object of architecture and the practice of morphology, space and the dynamics of Pascolo (Term 2) cies since the mid-20th century in the
the architect. It follows the historical pro- typological transformation. wider context of economic and political
cess of disciplinary knowledge formation, Projects today contain a history. Urban transformations at a global scale. It pays
paying particular attention to the search Title Housing Form, Term 1 change is shaped by judgements and reac- particular attention to the phenomenon
for origins, universal language and auton- Tutors Irénée Scalbert tions to previous solutions, and this of urban and spatial informality as consti-
omy in the 18th century, the concepts of course explores a series of on-going tutive of the urban condition everywhere
history and space in relation to the estab- The last three decades have seen a debates through which we understand the – from the slums within impoverished cit-
lishment of the first schools of renewed interest in architect-designed evolving landscape of argument about our ies of the developing world to their more
architecture in the 19th century and the mass housing. While the exterior has cities. Beginning with an overview of some ‘camouflaged’ counterparts elsewhere. It
introduction of architectural historiogra- dominated architectural focus, the inte- of the key institutional developments that critically reviews the growing ‘despatiali-
phy as distinct field of study. rior of dwellings has, by and large, been made the planning of the modern city sation’ of strategies to deal with such
relatively neglected. Housing is not consti- both possible and subject to revision, the informality and explores the role that
tuted as an envelope merely to receive subsequent sessions will each explore the housing architecture and urbanism can
Housing and Urbanism typical unit plans; form and experience relationships between contemporary play in addressing those conditions and
cannot be conveniently dissociated. To urban practices and the histories – both redesigning the city as a political
Title Critical Urbanism I, Term 1 the contrary, the most committed archi- institutional and disciplinary – that situ- construct.
Tutors Lawrence Barth, Dominic Papa tects conceive of housing form from the ate our current attitudes and approaches.
inside out in order to ensure meaningful Examples will be drawn both from the UK
This course establishes the conceptual and experience. This course will review in and broader international debates and Landscape Urbanism
theoretical foundations of architecture’s detail the best housing projects built in histories.
capacity for bringing critical synthesis to the last 100 years and question what con- Title Design and the Green New Deal
the urban process. Students will learn how stitutes excellence in the field. Title Cities in a Transnational World I Term 2
architects incorporate lessons from a range Term 1 Tutors Jose Alfredo Ramirez and guests
of fields – from geography to politics, to Title Urban Form, Term 2 Tutors Jorge Fiori, Elena Pascolo
philosophy – and draw these lessons into a Tutors Irénée Scalbert Given the climate and ecological emer-
reflection on urban form and strategic While the exact meaning and implications gency that the world is facing, it is
practice. Also, through a series of case In the decades following World War II, a of globalisation are the subject of great paramount importance that those
examples, we will explore how architecture number of important modern architects controversy, it is undeniable that substan- involved in designing landscapes support
comes to drive forward a critical response came to reflect critically on the nature of tial changes are taking place in the world a socially just re-structuring of the world
to the existing city and encourage evalua- the city and began to reconceive its form economy that have major spatial and we inhabit. One way to achieve this is by
tion and reflection. and organisation through specific pro- social implications. Cities are at the core learning and contributing to a Green New
jects. In this course, we will look at a of this process. Their nature, role and Deal (GND) – a viable initiative with the

78 79
capacity to unite all of the best intentions, modern reasoning of form. Students will
preoccupations and proposals of the explore the development of disciplinary
design community at large. This course is knowledge about architecture and urban-
based on the knowledge and expertise ism from the 19th century until today.
from Common-Wealth: a UK think-tank
that offers lectures, seminars and tutorials Title Projects of the City,
on a variety of themes from which stu- Surveys and Case Studies
dents will derive their overall design Term 2
agenda and research. Tutors Doreen Bernath, Platon Issaias,
Hamed Khosravi and guests
Title The Rhetoric of Mapping
Term 2 This seminar course follows on from that
Tutors Clara Oloriz Sanjuan, of Term 1, and presents scholarly research
Teresa Stoppani through a series of important contempo-
rary case studies. The phenomenon of the
This series of seminars addresses key city has been continuously theorised
points and practices in the historical through a number of critical writings and

DIP11 tutorial with Shin Egashira, 2019–20. Photo: Max Creasy


development of cartography as a rep- projects that reformulate, and object to,
resentational device. Methods of mapping its established history. At the same time,
will be explored in terms of their uses, modern urban planning only emerged
implications and potential so as to criti- with scientific urbanism in the late-19th
cally inform the drafting of a cartogenetic century, and was formalised by the
manifesto and the writing of a project the- Modern Movement. These sessions will
sis. Throughout the sessions, students will introduce students to modernist theories
be introduced to the main concepts that of a new contemporary city and situate
underpin the historical and contemporary them within a wider context.
practice of cartography.

Sustainable Environmental Design


Projective Cities
Title Lessons from Practice, Term 2
Title Architectural Theories, Design Tutors Paula Cadima, Simos Yannas
and Research Methods and guests
Term 1
Tutors Doreen Bernath, Platon Issaias, A range of working architects, engineers
Hamed Khosravi and guests and researchers present projects that illus-
trate their design philosophy,
This seminar course is focused on the environmental design research and cur-
architectural scale, and introduces stu- rent building practice. These
dents to a number of research and design presentations will provide starting points
methodologies, as well as theories and for roundtable discussions about the rela-
themes that are critical to the Projective tionship between research and practice,
Cities programme, such as type, typology, and the evolving standards for zero-car-
drawing and diagram. The sessions will bon architectures.
explore questions about the systematic
understanding of disciplinary knowledge
and methodical design in architecture,
thereby examining a historiography of a

80 81
Timetable Term 2
MONDAY TUESDAY WEDNESDAY THURSDAY FRIDAY

The timetable provides the general schedule for the 2020–21

(Eastern Time-zones)
academic year, however courses have been designed to accom-

AM Session
modate the different time zones that students and staff are in.

Diploma Electives

Diploma Electives

Diploma Electives
Unit Day

Unit Day
HTS

HTS

HTS

(Western Time-zones)
PM Session
Evening
Crisis and the
New Models Artists' Talks
Question of Land

Term 1 Term 3
MONDAY TUESDAY WEDNESDAY THURSDAY FRIDAY MONDAY TUESDAY WEDNESDAY THURSDAY FRIDAY

(Eastern Time-zones)
Diploma Electives

(Eastern Time-zones)

AM Session
AM Session
HTS

Diploma Electives
HTS

Diploma Electives
Unit Day

Unit Day

Unit Day

Unit Day

Unit Day

Unit Day

Unit Day
HTS

Merging Minds: 1pm

(Western Time-zones)
(Western Time-zones)
Diploma Electives

PM Session
PM Session
HTS

YEAR 5
APP
Evening

Evening
Activism, Advocacy
New Models Performing Identity AA Collection Talks Symposia
and Art

82 83
Students assembling a pavilion in Bedford Square, 2019–20
Student work in process, 2019–20
How to Apply
The Architectural Association (AA) encourages applications
from all individuals who have the confidence, curiosity and
ambition that is required to define a unique path through a
school that fosters a multitude of different pedagogical methods
and agendas. Above all, we are keen to hear from independent,
intelligent and respectful people who can demonstrate initiative
in entering into the public forms of presentation, collective
discussion and productive debate that permeate the AA, the
architectural community and the world at large.
The AA is committed to ensuring that the most talented

Fabrication with clay in the Digital Prototyping Lab, 2019–20


students from around the world are afforded the opportunity to
study at the school. Approximately one in four students cur-
rently receive financial assistance from a scholarship, bursary
or assistantship. Find out more

Diploma Programme

The two-year Diploma Programme (MArch) leads to the AA


Final Examination (ARB/RIBA Part 2) and the AA Diploma
(AA Dipl). Prospective students can only apply to enter at the
first year of the Diploma Programme (fourth year). Find out more

88 89
AA Prospectus 2020–21
Edited and produced by
AA Print Studio

Architectural Association
36 Bedford Square
London WC1B 3ES
T  +44 (0)20 7887 4000

Architectural Association (Inc), Registered charity


No 311083 Company limited by guarantee. Registered
in England No 171402 Registered office as above.

AA Members wishing to request a large-print version


of specific printed items can do so by contacting
AA Reception: +44 020 7887 4000 /
reception@aaschool.ac.uk or by accessing the
AA website at www.aaschool.ac.uk

All photos courtesy AA Photo Library and Digital


Photo Studio unless otherwise stated.

Front cover: Idil Ece Kucuk, Borrowed Land


(swale, dry paste on card), DIP 7, 2019–20
Architectural Association Prospectus 2020–2021
School of Architecture Diploma Programme

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