research

PG 12

student journals
PG 4

socio-political
PG 8

superman
PG 24

social responsibilities
PG 12

1:1
PG 13

object to atmosphere
PG 20

surface
PG 22

still
PG 18

clusters
PG 11

cinema
PG 16

augmented architectures
PG 20

landscape
PG 9

boudoir
PG 22

node
PG 23

problematic
PG 22

london
PG 24

AArchitecture Issue 1 Summer 2006

Architectural Association
School of Architecture

AArchitecture Contributors

Issue 1 / Summer 2006
©2006
All rights reserved.
Published by Architectural Association,
36 Bedford Square, London WC1B 3ES.
<contribute@aaschool.ac.uk>
Brett Steele
<director@aaschool.ac.uk>
Hugo Hinsley
<hinsley@aaschool.ac.uk>
Larry Barth building the detail is taken. Feel smug
<barth@aaschool.ac.uk>
aarchitecture
FRONT COVER
issue 1 summer/2006
Guess The Building: Taken from the
AA Photo Library’s collection of over
150,000 slides of historical and
contemporary architecture, each issue
will show a detail of a famous building. The purple patch to
sexymachinery The fall of
All you have to do is guess from which Pg 4
with your knowledge, or curse us for

bilbao working together

Editorial Team keeping you awake at night. Pg 8 PG 11
Brett Steele, Editorial Director Andreas Lang Photograph by Peter Jeffree.
Nicola Quinn, Managing Editor Susana Gonzalez Answer next issue.

fantastic norway Rural

Zak Kyes / Zak Group, Art Direction <alternativepractices@aaschool.ac.uk>
Pg 12
Alex Lorente * * * *

studio first year studio

Alex Catterall Erlend Blakstad Haffner Pg 13 PG 14
<ebh@fantasticnorway.no> Headlines in this issue are set in AutoScape,
Acknowledgements designed by Cornel Windlin.

cinematic architecture
Valerie Bennett Hana Loftus PG 16
Body text is set in Wedding Sans, designed by
Rojia Forouhar <hana@hanaloftus.co.uk> Andrea Tinnes / Typecuts.
Sandra Sanna

Boudoir Boys From object to

Architectural Association (Inc.), Registered
Pg 18
Chris Fenn Markus Miessen
Peter Thomas <studiomiessen@gmx.net> Charity No. 311083. Company limited by
guarantee. Registered in England No. 171402.

atmospherere aa reviews
Cathi Du Toit Pg 20 Pg 23-25
Registered office as above.
Marilyn Sparrow Chaifang Wu
Simone Sagi <mail@roewu.com>

aa news briefs recent aa

Pg 26-27
Stephen Roe

publications
<mail@roewu.com>
Pg 27
Eugene Han

–
<eugenehan@aaschool.ac.uk>

Fredrik Hellberg
<fredrik.hellberg@aaschool.ac.uk>
“empty studios and crowded
bars where promising students
Sarah Akigbogun
Bonnie Chu
Jenny Kagan
<aasocialcinema@aaschool.ac.uk>

Henderson Downing
consort with brilliant tutors
<henderson@aaschool.ac.uk>
in a mutual exorcism of the
professional reality the
Edward Bottoms
<edward@aaschool.ac.uk>

John Bell
<johnbell@aaschool.ac.uk> first have not yet faced and
the second never enjoyed…”
Pg 4
Nicky Wynne
<development1@aaschool.ac.uk>
the aa according to ghost dance times 1974
Paula Nascimento
<contact@mediationnews.co.uk>

AArchitecture – Issue 1 Colophon

 AArchitecture – Issue 1 Contents List

The purple patch to The AA library is in the process of rebinding and restor- Ghost Dance Times (opposite)
broadsheet, 1974, 25 October
ing its collection of student journals. The earliest such

sexymachinery: 100 years of

publication is The Purple Patch, or Tufton Street Tatler
(1905-9) which billed itself as ‘the only intentionally

aa student journals
humorous paper’ of the architectural press and paro-
died the internal AA politics of the day. The less colour-

by edward bottoms
ful Harlequinade (1923-6) followed, succeeded in turn
by the rather earnest Number 35 (1928-30) which
incorporated a number of striking woodcuts into each
issue. The last issue, published in the depth of the
Great Depression, contained the cry ‘gone is the clean
boyish fun – the vigorous ragging, the hectic dances,
the hard drinking and high thinking… the new system
making little pretence at teaching ‘architecture’ and
having passed through the mill we shall be fitted only
for Empire building…’ Of all the inter-war AA student
journals it was Focus (1938-9) that was by far the
most significant. The opening lines of the initial edito-
rial stated ‘We were born in the war… We were born in a
civilization whose leaders, whose ideals, whose culture
had failed. They are still in power to-day… They lead us
always deeper into reaction that we are convinced can
only end in disaster.’ This sense of impending conflict is
present throughout the four issues of this journal, the
last of which appeared in the summer of 1939. What
makes this journal outstanding, however, is the sheer
quality of writing and the calibre of contributors. Issue Focus No. 1 cover, 1938
one featured Le Corbusier’s article ‘If I had to teach
you architecture’ and issue two contained Moholy-
Nagy’s ‘Education and the Bauhaus’. Further contrib-
utors included such luminaries as Siegfried Gideon,
Arthur Korn and Naum Gabo. Quite who was the driv-
ing force behind Focus is unclear, but the last issue pays
tribute to one of the editors, Howard Cleminson, who
tragically committed suicide at the age of 21.
The late 1940s and 1950s saw a drought of student
publications but with the growth of student activ-
ism in the 1960s an increasing number emerged. One
of the most important, Clip-kit (1965-6), ran in six-
monthly phases with the subscriber receiving a distinc-
tive yellow clip binder into which all subsequent issues
could be filed. Its aim was to examine ‘aspects of
design and manufacture normally considered as outside
the scope of architectural education.’ Writers included
Clip-kit 1965-6 -Yellow binder
Cedric Price, Reyner Banham and Gustav Metzger, containing Clip-kit magazine.
whilst subjects ranged from the mass production of
cars to space capsule design and the possibilities of
‘plug-in’ prefabricated living units. A series of inventive
but short-lived journals followed in the 1970s, includ-
ing White Rabbit (1970-1) and Street Farmer (1971-
2). Of more longevity was the AA Newsheet (1971-74),
published through the AA Arts & History Department,
and whose content was restricted to brief essays,
letters and topical listings. Contrasting in style was the
Photos: AA Library

 AArchitecture – Issue 1 The Purple Patch to Sexymachinery:

100 years of AA Student Journals 
 sparkling irreverence of the Ghost Dance Times (1974- NATO (opposite) cover, 1985 Street Farmer No. 1 cover, 1971
Gamma City Issue, designed by
5) which aimed to chronicle the world of ‘empty studios Christina Norton and Johnny
and crowded bars where promising students consort Rosza. This issue doubled as
the catalogue for the Gamma
with brilliant tutors in a mutual exorcism of the profes- City Exhibition held at the A.I.R.
Gallery, London, 20 November –
sional reality the first have not yet faced and the second 15 December, 1985.
never enjoyed…’ Funding was finally withdrawn in June
of 1975 with Martin Pawley’s editorial claiming that
Chairman, Alvin Boyarsky, facing the rising costs of ‘TV
studios, champagne breakfasts and foreign exhibitions’,
decided a more ‘responsible and altogether less intelli-
gible’ organ was needed.
Outstanding amongst the student publications of
the 1980s are those associated with the NATO group
(Narrative Architecture Today). Grouped around Diploma
10 tutor Nigel Coates, NATO is said to have had its
origins in a 1983 furore over the RIBA board of exam-
iners’ decision whether or not to pass Diploma 10 on
the basis of a ‘bunch of sketches with a few cartoons’.
The magazine contained a groundbreaking collage of
prose, images from contemporary fashion, photographs,
sketches and diagrams, all mapping NATO’s ‘pursu-
ance of current lifestyle as the sustaining parallel to
the design of cities’. 1984 saw the first issue of Across
Architecture, edited by Dimitri Vannas and Roland
Cowan. Across Architecture claimed a sense of stale-

Photo: AA Library
ness and predictability had taken over the AA’s juries
and positioned itself as a forum for ‘the work that lies
hidden in sketchbooks … the work that is loved by each
student, the work that inspires them to keep working’.
The statement in issue one that ‘We believe that archi-
tecture is too uncertain to be left to chance, and too
difficult to be left to tutors’ meant that Across Archi-
tecture initially only featured work by current students
such as Jean Michel Crettaz, Ben Van Berkel and Makoto
Saito, although later issues were not ashamed to parade
projects by such alumni and teachers as Zaha Hadid and
Peter Sabara.
The post-Thatcher years witnessed a decline in
student journals with, in more recent years, the online
blog perhaps replacing the printed page as an outlet for

Photo: Sexymachinery
student concerns. However, the success of Sexymachin-
ery, a poetic collection of essays, letters, articles and
graphic work initiated in 2000 by Intermediate 9 tutor Sexymachinery No. 9, Winter 2003
Inspired by the idea that free-
Shumon Basar and edited by Dominik Kremerskothen, dom and its opposite – alien-
Damar Radmacher and Åbäke challenges this trend. ation – are intimately related,
Save me From What I Want looked
Indeed, each issue of Sexymachinery, being housed in at the desire for rules and the
its own innovative, often folded and intricately bound rules that govern desire.

format, perhaps points to the future of such publica-

→ The AA Library would be very interested
tions, emphasising the possibilities of the printed page
to hear from members and alumni who
in the age of the internet.
have copies of AA student journals which
might fill gaps in its collection. Founded
Edward Bottoms is the AA Library Web Administrator. in 1862, the AA Library currently holds in
aaschool.ac.uk/library excess of 30,000 volumes and subscribes
to over 100 journals and periodicals.

 
Photo: AA Library

AArchitecture – Issue 1 The Purple Patch to Sexymachinery:

100 years of AA Student Journals
The fall of bilbao: Contemporary
architectural practice and
its re-positioning within the
socio-political landscape
by markus miessen
School of Missing Studies
Challenging the conservative brain,
workshop at Kunstverein Munich with
participants from Belgrade, Munich,
Rotterdam and Zagreb.
AArchitecture – Issue 1
Arguably, the most dilettante reading of Stoicism is
that of figuring out where the world is going and, as a
result, to follow willingly. This, of course, raises a funda-
mental question: how does one lead a life of moral
agency if everything was right from the start? Look-
ing inwards while building resistance against the outside
world also lays bare the tendency to suppress issues of
crucial impact in favour of habit, one that consciously
avoids reality.
Within architecture, one can trace a similarly ther-
apeutic relationship, where practice cocoons itself in
reason that, within the bigger picture, seems meaning-
less. For centuries, formal debate has dominated a prac-
tice that creates physical envelopes and a discourse
that concentrates on the nurturing of the ego-cult as
opposed to participating in the socio-political environ-
ment.
Stoicism suggests an absence of interference. In
contrast, one could argue that conflict, suspension of
rational logic and amateurish triggers by external influ-
ences often generate the most creative ideas. Adopting
preconceived models of ethics based on absolute heri-
tage, architects often refuse to question what an ethical
practice actually is. Meanwhile, small-minded warriors
of limited vision have cried out that the world is lost.
And in desperation, like shipwrecked sailors grasping
at wreckage, they clung to the past. As a modus vitae,
twentieth century architects have often followed the
grand narratives of history, obeying the objects of their
predecessors while worshipping the architectural object
as a generator for change. Strangely, this happened at
a time when it was already evident that the city is being
conditioned by forces that supersede the formal and
aesthetic prerogatives of the architect.
It is often implied that modern materials and meth-
ods are dictating contemporary architecture’s expres-
sion of form (resulting from the state of mind typi-
cal of an epoch) and that architecture exists and takes
when a general evolution of mind is accomplished. But
rather than simply articulating a re-reading of material
processes, one can trace an emerging practice that illu-
minates the existence beyond a single truth in a radi-
cality that challenges space rather than controls it: an
emerging architectural sub-culture with a spatial under-
standing that suspends the traditional reading of archi-
tecture as simply the spatial manifestation of built
matter. It challenges the obeying of conventions and
institutions that defy the very creation of architecture
and its creators with their illusion of control. In contrast
to the self-referential object, which has been churned
out for centuries, recent protagonists attempt to under-
stand processes of uncertainty, conflict, borders and
geopolitics. This major change presents us with a read-
ing of the world that is based on re-evaluated judge-
Photo: Kunstverein Munich
The Fall of Bilbao
 AArchitecture – Issue 1 The Fall of Bilbao
ment according to specific situations, a world in need of
an optimistic and critical rendering of situational truths
as opposed to moral truism.
Where the Stoic understands the environment as
a world beyond control that can only be dealt with by
leading an introverted practice driven by virtue, these
actors equally appreciate the world as a place beyond
control, but one that refuses the modernist instrument
of the grand account. Here, the fundamental difference
is that a ‘world beyond control’ is understood as a qual-
ity. Today, these spaces of uncertainty are often under-
stood as places where subtle interaction creates infor-
mal, self-organisational forces that generate spatial
constructs on a local scale. Instead of creating spaces
of controlled physical representation and spectacle,
they expose an emerging understanding of architecture
based on the absent object.
Today’s spatial practice utilises architectural
research and applies (non-)physical components in
order to alter relevant situations. It presents both
the developed notion of experimental techniques and
the application of analytical thought, which transform
everyday ephemera and physical conditions. However,
taking such understanding into consideration, one has
to rethink the way in which discourse is being led in the
academies. Within the field of purely formal investiga-
tion, even most of the phenomenologically, sociologi-
cally or politically motivated academic studios are still
trading on the past: their internalised discourse is rarely
more than incestuous formal polemics.
The image of the architect has often been related
to the male heroic protagonist who introduces to the
outside an established lifestyle. It is precisely here that
one can locate the turning point in practice: the neglect
of egocentric narrative and self-referential ambition
in favour of catering for an individually identified, site-
specific audience. Such appreciation of what architec-
ture can possibly be opposes individualism and raises
the fundamental question of whether or not architec-
ture should be taken forward as an art practised by
and for the sake of a broader cultural landscape or
a commercial enterprise geared to the needs of the
market. The highly romanticised ideal of the archi-
tect – ‘general progress in architecture according to a
personal conception, usually of style, embodied in build-
ings and developed from architect to architect over the
course of history’ (Saint, The Image of the Architect,
1983), which essentially derived from Aristotelian ideal-
ism – seems no longer valid. Today, one has to appreci-
ate the difference between the ‘architecture of image’
and what one might call ‘post-Bilbao’ practice.
The starting point for this shift could arguably be
identified as the moment when Frank Gehry’s Guggen-
heim Museum in Bilbao opened in 1997. As one of the


Camp for Oppositional
Architecture (Anarchitektur)
International open congress
searching for possibilities of
resistance within the field
of architecture and planning,
featuring particular political and
social aspects of architecture
and the city under current
capitalist conditions.
→ Markus Miessen’s new book Did
Someone Say Participate? An Atlas of
Spatial Practice (MIT Press / Revolver,
co-edited by Shumon Basar) will be
published in June. As part of his PhD
at Goldsmiths Centre for Architecture
Research, the publication investigates
the front lines of cultural activism and
looks at spatial practitioners who actively
trespass into neighbouring or alien fields
of knowledge. It will be essential reading
not only for those involved in the future
of architectural research and practice,
but for anyone interested in navigating
through current forms of cultural debate.
The recent AA exhibition, Every
Little Helps (29 April 26 May 2006),
investigated, through a series of loose
associations, the architectural and
urban significance of the Tesco and NHS
estates by marking seemingly unmean-
ingful connections between the two that
reveal their urban presence and effect
on everyday life. Exhibition by Markus
Miessen and Matthew Murphy.
AArchitecture – Issue 1 The Fall of Bilbao
last twentieth century architectural superstars, Gehry
became the epitome of a generation that set out to be
part of an avant-garde and ended up as a conservative,
copy-paste establishment. One could argue that the
moment when Bilbao was born, an emerging generation
of architects started to critically engage with the lack
of twentieth century Western Modernism, and what the
course of Modernism and Postmodernism had avoided
dealing with: the manipulation of archetypical situa-
tions. In contrast to the process of pure image produc-
tion, these new practitioners no longer operate on the -
ism level. Although it is true that such anti-image is yet
another ideological position that creates an image, the
difference here is the way in which the protagonists
act, network and shift interests. Unburdened by the
Photo: anarchitektur.com
weight of the twentieth century, they have rediscovered
a localism based on the belief that certain problems
need tailor-made solutions rather than philosophically
outsourced meta-agendas. This specific kind of problem
solving has abandoned an understanding of architecture
for the sake of the stylised object propelled by virtuous
vision. In contrast to the late twentieth-century project
of ‘the diagram’ – which was purely modern in the sense
that it attempted to deliver a personal, scientific solu-
tion to a problem that was being put forward by cancel-
ling out everything else – ‘post-Bilbao’ has started to
acknowledge political implications of space as some-
thing which needs to be dealt with urgently. As so many
other theories and practices in history, ’the diagram’
was a stoic cocoon. It dwelt on the image of the archi-
tect as the master of virtue. As a container of the heroic
tradition supported by self-image, ‘the diagram’ – in its
purely modern sense that it was playing with the age-
old, prevailing image of the architect as impeccable
master – was an intellectual claim only. But today, we
work under a different ideological system; one that is
contingent, informal, ephemeral and resists the notion
of pure object-lust. There is no longer any sympathy
with the stoic, self-referential and masturbatory notion
of ‘the diagram’ when, post internet and 9/11, everyone
has realised that the rest of the world is burning.
Since we are arguably at a turning point in the
history of spatial practice, one should actively engage
with the current optimism. Rather than mourning the
passing of the old codes, it is time to venture out into
the snowstorm. This is the tragic moment of realisation,
in which the Stoic faces the deadlock of stable harmony
as the epitome of nihilism.
Markus Miessen is unit master of Intermediate Unit 7.
10
Working together:tendencies,
clusters and other exchanges
by hugo hinsley
aa research clusters launch, school meeting, 30 November 2005
cluster week, 15-19 may 2006
Last academic year the School had rich and detailed
debates about its structure and governance, and about
the AA model of education that has evolved over the
past thirty years. The most visible forum of debates was
the intensive two weeks of the Architectural Educa-
tion Symposium in November 2004. This generated
many ideas and questions, and one result was that two
open working groups were formed, one on Governance
and Constitution and the other on Educational Struc-
tures. An important issue that came up in all discussions
was the need to find better ways to cross-fertilise the
work of the different parts of the School. It was clear
that the autonomy of the undergraduate unit struc-
ture produces both intensity and a diversity of teach-
ing and research that is greatly valued – but also that
units can become rather hermetic. It was also clear that
the full potential of exchanges about work done in all
parts of the School – the service units and the graduate
programmes, as well as the undergraduate units – was
not being achieved.
There were many ideas for generating better collab-
orations and exchanges inside the AA, and for connect-
ing with debates outside. One of these was to develop
the Open Jury to become an event for all parts of the
School. Another proposal was to support ‘tendencies’
of research explicitly to stimulate collaboration. Each
of these might have a ‘distinguished visiting scholar’
to give them direction; could evolve to meet the inter-
ests of members of the School Community; and could
develop external collaborations. At any one time there
might be a range of ‘tendencies’ at different stages of
development, and with several visiting scholars stimu-
lating particular themes of research.
With Brett as the new Director, the School has
started to explore these ideas. The Open Jury included
all parts of the School, and it was a stimulating experi-
ence. In Term 1 Brett invited members of the School
to curate Research Clusters to help connect the work
of units, programmes and courses across the School,
and also to engage with the wider range of expertise
outside. On 30 November there was an open meet-
AArchitecture – Issue 1 Working together: tendencies, clusters and other exchanges.
ing for the curators to explain their topics and to invite
participation. Since then each Cluster has arranged
meetings and events, and the cluster topics were also
used to help organise thematic debates in the Open
Jury. This culminated in a week-long series of debates
during cluster week 15-19 May 2006.
Hugo Hinsley is a lecturer on the Housing and Urbanism
Programme in the AA’s Graduate School.
research at the aa
The AA has a long tradition of linking
teaching and research in the unit
structure of the School, and in the
Graduate School; individual faculties
have often obtained research funding
for occasional projects from disparate
sources. However, the School has not
enjoyed the status of other Higher
Education Institutions in relation to
the large government research-funding
agencies, and so was not in a position to
undertake multi-year research projects
with any regularity. Now this is changing.
The School’s Research Programme has
become an Affiliated Research Centre
of the Open University and is embarking
on the development of the School’s
research infrastructure. This will enhance
the School’s teaching resources, add to
our ability to purchase equipment, and
most importantly, allow us to develop
the research community associated with
the AA. In recent years, government
emphasis upon the establishment of
research networks has made the AA a
sought-after partner in a broad range
of initiatives led by other institutions. In
the coming years, the AA will increasingly
be in the position of initiating research
projects which more closely match the
School’s intellectual directions and
ambitions.
By Larry Barth who lectures on
urbanism in the AA’s Graduate School.
11
AA research cluster:
alternative practices &
Research initiatives
by andreas lang & Susana gonzalez
Alternative Practices &
Research Initiatives
Alternative Practices & Research Initiatives touches
upon modes of studying, teaching and working in archi-
tecture.
Currently, the Professional Studies Part III semi-
nars are the only courses at the AA dealing with the
step from learning to practising architecture, and repre-
sent a somewhat limited range of what shape an archi-
tecture practice could take. We believe that there are
many models of what might follow on from a 5-year
architectural education at the AA, and different alter-
natives to entering an established architectural office.
These might include setting up practices in the form of
multi-disciplinary collectives, becoming part of inter-
national networks, or embarking on practice-based or
academic research, to name just a few. At the same
time, we believe that there are possibilities of looking at
alternative models linking education to practice over the
course of the 5-year period.
This research cluster will provide an opportunity
to expose such alternative routes for an architectural
education and practice and synergies between them.
We have outlined lines of work and investigation, which
we are taking forward through several events: Residen-
cies, Live projects / school-based project and consul-
tancy work, Multi-disciplinary networks and collectives,
Research: academic and practice-based, Year-out alter-
natives and web-based “showcase” to share experi-
ences of alternative practices and research initiatives by
members of the AA community.
Our aim is to provide a platform to engage staff,
students, recent graduates and external colleagues in
a dialogue to examine possibilities and identify alterna-
tives. We propose looking outwards at existing models
being explored in other institutions, practices, or in
other areas, and building on internal interests and
potentials. The purpose of these events is to provide
the groundwork to develop a set of initiatives, which will
be put back to the school.
AArchitecture – Issue 1 The Purple Patch to Sexymachinery:
100 years of AA Student Journals
fantastic norway
The spirit of engagement with society is integral to
Erlend Blakstad Haffner and Hakon Matre Aasarod’s
work. Anxious to draw attention to architects’ social
responsibilities, they took to the road in a camper van
three years ago. They christened their project ‘Fantastic
Norway’ and set off with one conviction: that the archi-
tect must work at the local level, in close conversation
with people, and plan work around the identity and the
context of a place.
‘We live in a bright red camper van’ Erlend tells us.
‘The van functions as a combined office and workspace
in the towns we visit. It allows us to become tempo-
rary residents while offering an immediate interface to
the town’s inhabitants.’ When they drive into a new city
they get in touch with schools, politicians, organisa-
tions and the business sector, as well as with individu-
als. After completing an intensive study of the city, they
approach the local media to start a public dialogue and
debate.
A weekly column in the local newspaper then sets
the agenda for discussions held in the camper van: ‘In
the company of coffee and waffles, no idea is too small
and no ambition is too big. The threshold to enter an
open camper van is low and the van proves an ideal
forum for discussion. We collect ideas and suggestions
to build a resource bank for further work’. In addition
to the open van and the published articles, they arrange
workshops and public meetings, as well as walks around
the city. Each visit ends with a public presentation of
the work, and conclusions, proposals and suggestions
are published in a small brochure, which is handed out in
the local cafes and libraries.
Erlend Blakstad Haffner is a member of the Architectural
Association and contributed his experience at the
Alternative Practices and Research Cluster event on
architectural residencies March 2006.
fantasticnorway.no
Photo: Fantastic Norway
12
rural studio
It is easy to categorise the experience of building a
live project according to the requirements of conven-
tional architectural education. It ticks every accredita-
tion box; students get out of the studio, learn how to
design buildable details, understand cost plans, commu-
nicate with clients and manage the whole process
from concept to completion. Another assumption is
often that the Rural Studio is about ‘doing good’. But,
as Andrew Freear said to me over a crackly phone line
before I arrived, ‘We’re architects not social workers,
and the purpose of the Studio is to create good archi-
tects. In doing so, the student is forced to question
every part of the architectural process and find a new
critical positioning order to sustain themselves.
The Rural Studio functions in real time and space,
at 1:1 scale. It doesn’t have many books in the library,
but it has a library of buildings, both the local vernacular
and the Rural Studio’s own, which students can dissect,
observe and analyse over time. There is no speeding up
how many seconds it takes to hammer a nail, or scaling
down how heavy a steel beam is. Students learn; they
do not study, and teachers barely teach in any conven-
tional didactic sense – they steer and advise, letting
students make mistakes and then helping to (often liter-
ally) pull them back to safety. The experience is unme-
diated by the complex processes that are familiar to
design students in conventional schools – the elab-
orate constructions of hypothesis, digital iterations
of obscure formulae, games or the use of tangential
means of representation in order to bring some unex-
pected result – and the result is a leap of faith into the
unknown.
Returning to London, I am often asked what impact
this experience has had on my practice in this very
different context. In my opinion, the most important
legacy from a year at the Rural Studio is to value the
immediate personal experience of sites, clients, materi-
AArchitecture – Issue 1 The Purple Patch to Sexymachinery:
100 years of AA Student Journals
Fantastic Norway Architects
‘In the company of coffee and
waffles, no idea is too small and
no ambition is too big.’ Erlend
Blakstad meets local residents
outside the Fantastic Norway
caravan.
als, hammers and nails. Architecture is not hypothetical
and cannot be created at a remove from the personal
experience, no matter how large the scale of project.
The Rural Studio not only teaches very practical skills
that create good architects, but reinforces a human-
ist ethic towards our environment, that stands at odds
to orthodoxies of rationalist, systems-driven planning.
This makes it democratic and humble, as well as valuing
boldness, beauty and skill.
Andrew Freear, Associate Professor and Co-Director
of Rural Studio (ruralstudio.com), lectured at the AA on
17 February 2006.
By Hana Loftus, deputy director of General Public
Agency, a creative consultancy working in regeneration
and planning. Hana spent 2004-5 working with the
Rural Studio and is currently studying architecture at
London Metropolitan University.
Andreas Lang is unit master of Intermediate Unit 10
and a Cluster curator for the Future Practices and
Research Initiatives Cluster.
Susana Gonzalez is an alumna of the AA Graduate
School and a Cluster Curator for Future Practices &
Research Initiatives Cluster.
→ This summer Fantastic Norway have
two exhibitions, in Oslo and Berlin. They
will tour some of the architecture schools
in Sweden, Denmark and Germany,
baking waffles and giving lectures on
their way down to Berlin.
13
first impressions:
foundation to first year
by Fredrik Hellberg
I have been a student here for four terms and one of
many things I have learned during this time is that this
school is not afraid to make changes; in fact it is even
famous for it.
I have as a student recently been affected by one
of these changes. One year ago I was a student in the
one-year Foundation course, hoping I would pass on
to the First Year. I felt early that this was the perfect
school for me and although working hard in Foundation
I always kept an eye on the four first-year units. By the
time my portfolio was up for review I had already made
up my mind about which one I wanted. Everything went
well; I got in and got the financial help I desperately
needed.
When I came back in September something had
changed. No more units, one big class, one big room. I
was really exited because I always imagined being in a
unit would be a bit like having strict parents who want
you to carry on the family tradition. In the First Year
Studio I would be able to work with everyone, get more
opinions on my projects and perhaps get influenced in a
healthier way. I was very happy about the rather radical
change and thought it was a really good idea, and I still
do after these four months. However one always has to
be prepared for unpredicted side effects.
What I felt in Foundation was that the connection
between us and the tutors was close and personal. I
took that for granted and benefited immensely from it
both as a student and as a person.
In the First Year Studio there are 36 students and
6 tutors. We have a huge room and we all have our
own desk which is really a luxury. However there is one
thing that I have a hard time getting used to; the fact
that it is difficult as one of so many students to have a
good relationship with the tutors, which I feel is very
important. I think that we as rookies in our architec-
tural education need care and attention, perhaps more
then students in the later part of the School. We need
guides upon whom we can depend to take us through
these first confusing steps, and that is hard to get in
a big group like ours. Blaming the tutors for this would
AArchitecture – Issue 1 First Year Studio
be ignorant. Our tutors are very competent and give us
interesting and well designed briefs as well as outside
lectures exclusively for our studio. I am only saying
that there is a risk of all that valuable competence not
getting through to us due to communication problems,
as in many other cases in the School, I must add.
As a final and concluding word from me as a student
in the new First Year Studio, I can say that we are doing
just fine, and you will see that in time we will do way
more than fine. We all have the energy within ourselves.
We just need some more time to get to know each other
Photos: Chris Fenn
so that we can share it.
Fredrik Hellberg is a first year AA student.
AA Then and Now
First Year Studio in 2005 (Top).
Laptops have replaced drawing-
boards as the rear second floor
reverts to an open-plan studio
design this year. Compare its
previous open-plan incarnation
in the 1950s (Bottom). The space
had for several years been
divided into the Soft Room and
individual First Year units.
New School Spaces
Two major changes in spacial
organisation accompanied the start of
this Academic Year at the AA. First Year
has changed from a unit-based system
into a single studio at the heart of the
main Bedford Square building.
The aquisition of a long-term lease for 4
Morwell Street, immediately behind the
main AA building, has provided additional
studio and teaching space, including a
Photos: AA Photo Library
dedicated presentation gallery on the
ground floor.
14 AArchitecture – Issue 1 First Year Studio
15
The Great Escape The need and desire to escape has been a central
theme of Pascal Schöning’s life and work. It is impos-

Cinematic Architecture
sible to understand the architect’s recent Cinematic
Architecture installation at the AA – a large glass box

Exhibition by Pascal Schöning

that is bathed in continually changing projections –
without knowing about his extraordinary upbringing.

by peter kelly
By the time Schöning was born, his parents had
moved from Berlin to the north German island of Rügen
to escape the Nazis. Four years later, the German Army
aa exhibition, 14 january – 17 february 2006 declared the island a military zone and his father was
sentenced to death for his opposition to the Nazis. He
escaped, but was perpetually on the run.
At the height of the Second World War Schöning and
his mother moved to his grandparents’ house in Berlin,
but this new home was soon bombed, with a young
Schöning witnessing the destruction. The family then
moved to the house of Schöning’s other grandparents
in Hanover, which was also destroyed soon after – once
again he saw the bombing. Eventually the Schönings
ended up being housed by local farmers in cowsheds.
‘My life was defined by moving around with rare
moments of rest. But besides having experienced that
nothing lasts, I learned that matter changes into energy
if it is hit by an external agent. This resulted in a specta-
cle of fire and light during the bombings. As a child I did
not perceive the tragic dimension, and excitedly enjoyed
the show,’ he explains.
After the war Schöning moved back to Berlin with-
out his parents: ‘I became obsessed with the idea of
housing and its relation to stability and temporality.’
The memory of the Nazis’ architecture as imposing and
inhumane made him suspicious of the ideas of perma-
nence in the design of buildings – a suspicion that has
prevented him from keeping any images or materi-
als from his built houses and public projects in France,
Germany and Austria.
Alongside this ambitious attitude towards the past
is Schöning’s intense love of cinema from the Forties
and Fifties – a period of escapism in films which had an
intense impact on contemporary audiences.
Cinematic Installation
Installation photographs of
Cinematic Architecture is the result of these two
Pascal Schöning’s exhibition at powerful influences, a structure that shows architec-
the AA School.
ture can be shifting, intense and immediate as cinema.
Manifesto for a Cinematic Schöning also believes it can be humble, elusive and
Architecture (opposite)
by Pascal Schöning, AA
deferential to the natural environment. Changes are
Publications 2006. caused not by the movements of visitors, but by projec-
£7.50 – ISBN 1 902902 483
aaschool.info/publications
tions that make the glass box appear to change shape
or disappear entirely. This is a forward-looking project
deeply rooted in the past.
Manifesto for a Cinematic
Architecture, Pascal Schöning
Schöning’s manifesto has a certain rhetorical
verve that makes it both an enjoyable and
thought-provoking read. Clearly indebted to the
French philosopher Gilles Deleuze’s influential
books on cinema from the 1980s, the text
outlines a rather vague, but seductive proposal
for new forms of architectural praxis that would
draw inspiration from cinematic form. This is
less about built form in any conventional sense
than about a vision of an architecture whose
existence would as AA chair Brett Steele puts
it, lie ‘purely at the plane of image, effect and
memory’.
The most obvious aspect of cinema as a cultural
form is that it is composed of moving images,
a complex production of ‘time spatiality’. For
Deleuze, after the Second World War, cinema
came to grapple with a profoundly new
structure and experience of time and space,
reflecting the uprooting of traditional forms of
life under consumer capitalism. This also defines
the context for Schöning’s account of cinematic
architecture, given substance by his own child-
hood experiences of urban destruction.
The inspiration he finds in it is one of a solid
matter transformed into constantly open
processes of energy. In many ways this entails
a now standard arrangement for the priority
of process and change over finished object,
common to a wide variety of contemporary art
and architectural theorists.
Yet it is given a new spin by Schöning’s analogy
to the cinema, and by his passionate denuncia-
tion of any form of architecture that would
limit the possibilities for ‘sensual, mental and
psychological movement’. In the end his central
plea is a fairly old one, and none the worse for
that – a plea for the rediscovery of architectural
imagination itself.

Peter Kelly is a Senior staff writer at Blueprint magazine. By David Cunningham, extract from Building
Appeared in Blueprint March 2006. Reproduced Design, 3 February 2006. Reproduced courtesy
courtesy of Blueprint. of Building Design.
Photos: Valerie Bennett

AArchitecture – Issue 1 Cinematic Architecture

16 AArchitecture – Issue 1 Cinematic Architecture
17
A Brief History Of The Boudoir
Boys: Aa And Art Net On Film
by henderson downing
aa photo library exhibition ‘still’, 30 january – 24 march 2006
Images from Still exhibition
Screen-grabs from mid 1970s
architectural lectures.
From top: Rem Koolhaas, Richard
Meier, Ivan Illich, Colin Rowe.
AArchitecture – Issue 1
Photos: AA Video Library
A Brief History of the Boudoir Boys
18
The AA Photo Library exhibition still: images from the
aa film archive consisted of screen-grabs captured
from mid-1970s architectural lectures. Each image was
coupled to a short citation from the relevant recording.
Many of the images were taken from a series of events
organised by Peter Cook at Art Net. Located on West
Central Street in Bloomsbury, and funded by Alistair
McAlpine, during the few years of its effervescent exis-
tence Art Net was part art gallery, part project exhibi-
tion space and part tribal gathering for architectural
‘scenes’. Alongside the publication of the magazine Net,
major events included several conferences, plus exhibi-
tions of work by numerous Bedford Square alumni and
other ‘groups or non-groups’ such as Superstudio and
the New York Five.
Peter Cook described Art Net as ‘a kind of ad hoc
institution where we hope that the people who are talk-
ing will knock up against one another’. This hope was
repeatedly fulfilled in the lively and lengthy Question and
Answer sessions that were archived on video by Dennis
Crompton. For twenty-first-century eyes, the mise-en-
scène retains certain antiquated, but colourful psyche-
delic traces in spite of the black-and-white footage.
When a fully amplified ten-piece jazz-funk combo called
Gonzales, squashed together on the mezzanine high
above the circulating crowds of students and architects,
attempt to conclude the New York Five event, they are
upstaged by a fully-loaded chip van driving through the
double doors to dispense free fish suppers to every-
one. As a mischievous surprise orchestrated by Peter
Cook to both satisfy and sabotage the appetites of
Peter Eisenman et al, it was in some weird way a fitting
finale, emblematic of Art Net’s approach to encourag-
ing serious architectural debate without eliminating any
welcome eruptions of local humour.
Inevitably, the viewer is struck by the fashions that
parade across the screen. As a prog-rock band noodle
their way towards a climax at the opening of The Rally,
a ten-day marathon attended by architects from across
the globe, that coincided with the record-breaking heat
wave of the summer of 1976, Reyner Banham arrives at
the lectern in a Superman t-shirt and an ex-army jacket
studded with badges, to deliver the opening talk. A few
days later Arata Isozaki appears in a white safari suit
and announces that he’s going to show the same slides
as he did a few months earlier ‘but in a different order’.
Meanwhile, curlicues of smoke rise like question-marks
in the air above long-haired audiences adjusting their
kaftans or fine-tuning their beards while they lounge
in a grid of deck-chairs. To limit these already suspect
stereotypes, let’s just note that in between lectures, the
space sometimes becomes a sartorial wind tunnel of
flares and lapels where Cedric Price, possessing a voice
capable of the kind of projection that even the most
AArchitecture – Issue 1 A Brief History of the Boudoir Boys
barrel-chested of actors would envy, is almost always in
the eye of the hurricane, perpetually ready to demolish
any discussion betraying signs of excessive self-impor-
tance.
An off-the-striped-cheesecloth-cuff remark by
Robert Maxwell during a lecture he gave on Manfredo
Tafuri entitled ‘Cries and Struggles in the Boudoir’
reveals something of the milieu:
‘I don’t think it’s a secret that Art Net is supported
by friends from a certain capitalist coffer and that it
dispenses cheap wine with the bravura of the chief
steward on the Titanic. Not much of what happens here
would escape Tafuri’s bleak judgment on architecture as
art. Are we all then boudoir boys?’
‘Boudoir Boys’ was considered but quickly rejected
as a potential exhibition title (partly because a quick
search online exposed an adult magazine of that name
that showcased scantily-clad male models and claimed
to be aimed at ‘sophisticated women’). Instead, we
chose still. From Alvin Boyarsky explaining his chair-
manship of the AA as the development of a ‘place in
England where the general culture of architecture could
be opened up to allow each area of investigation to be
as close to the frontiers of knowledge of that partic-
ular discipline or area of study’, to Tom Heneghan’s
witty critique of the rise of the celebrity and ‘architec-
tural superstars’, the speakers and topics included in
the exhibition provide a sectional view of what others
sometimes referred to as the avant-garde of that
period. Although frozen in their pixilated frames, the
stills powerfully illustrate both the continuities and the
discontinuities between then and now.
Henderson Downing works in the AA Photo Library.
aaschool.ac.uk/photolib
→ The AA film archive is an important
collection of 1,000 recordings of
lectures, conferences, symposia and
other events presented at the AA from
1973 to the present. The film archive
is for the use of AA Students, Staff and
Members only. Opening hours 10.00 am
to 6.00 pm Monday to Friday (latest time
for viewing films 4.30 pm).
19
Ambient: From Object Ambient: From object to atmosphere
The Ambient + Augmented Architectures symposium at
to Atmosphere the AA was a welcome opportunity for us to reassess
a series of projects we had done over the preceding
few years, exploring what we called Ambient Comput-
symposium ‘ambient & augmented architectures’, 24-25 november 2005 ing – computers which surround you, infiltrating the
surfaces and tectonics of a newly intelligent architec-
ture. It was also a valuable opportunity to compare
notes with others in this field who had assembled at the
AA to discuss their work. We wanted to take this oppor-
tunity to discuss what may seem like conventional archi-
tectural issues, such as scale, tectonics and use, which
are radically being reconsidered through the increas-
by Chiafang Wu & ing inclusion of information technology within the very
fabric of buildings, as we transition from seeing them as
Stephen Roe
Photos: Chifang Wu & Stephen Roe
Objects to conceiving them as Atmospheres.
We introduced these issues through an early proj-
ect that explored the integration of information tech-
Participants: nology; a speculative project which incorporated TCP/
IP-based Building Management Systems, smart façade
BRett steele
technologies and pneumatics in an integrated spatial
jason bruges ROEWU
system. This ‘blue-sky’ research project was impor-
Network Structure for the
chiafang wu + stephen roe Athens Olympics tant in framing the research work of the office over the
Smartslab
marie o’ mahony next few years. When the building becomes mutable it
Tom Barker’s installation in the
AA Lecture Hall.
tom barker in fact loses its objective quality – users, material and
network occupy a continuum. It becomes interactive.
teresa hoskyns
The task of the architect becomes to define specific
stefano mirti relationships, rather than permanently to fix condi-
christian moeller tions. For instance: interaction can be visual and tactile
crispin jones (varying from a purely visual relationship, to a tactile
sophie le bourva control over primarily visual qualities, to direct physi-
cal manipulation); one-way or two-way; confined to one
stuart ceech
Photos: Valerie Bennett
set of options or open-ended. The house we designed
marta male-Alemany for two engineers in Dublin explores this issue of inter-
stefan doepner activity, its impact on the programme and spatial quali-
chuck hoberman ties of a single family house. Using interactive façade
Heaven technology based on programmable glass interlayers,
Symposium Speaker Christian we developed a solution which allows occupants to vary
Moeller’s light installation at the
Fredrieke Taylor Gallery, 2005. spatial conditions with the fluidity of a weather system.
Another form of purely visual interaction was explored
in our Solar Grass Field project – a massive field of flex-
ible photo-voltaic blades designed for the Department
of Energy in Washington DC, which interacted directly
with the microclimate of the site, sensitively responding
to small differentials in wind-pressure and making them
visible.
In each of these projects the whole is made up of
parts: many parts which in themselves may be quite
simple but which, in combination, produce complex
effects. In this context the design of individual parts is
often less important for us than how to assemble them.
This depends on a precise determination of the degree
of complexity actually required and the scale at which
it operates. Scale may in fact be the critical issue; scale
Photo: Christian Moeller
20 AArchitecture – Issue 1 Ambient + Augmented Architectures
defined by the size of the individual components rela-
tive to the overall size of the project and to the scale of
the user. In this sense, architecture, like the computer,
can be said to have its own issues of resolution. Archi-
tecture, through its sheer size, quantity of compo-
nents and variations in their arrangements can produce
fluid effects through low-resolution means. Relatively
simple – or even crude – parts, if combined effectively
can make up complex wholes just as pixels combine
into complex images. This understanding of scale was
used in the last project we showed: an ‘Events Platform’
for the Athens Olympics – an interactive surface which
can adjust its morphology to accommodate different
programmes using a new structural tectonic – what we
call the Network Structure. Consisting of rigid members
and semi-rigid members which push and pull according
to the information they receive.
With the diffusion of information throughout the 3-
dimensional field of material, the individual object is
reduced in importance. The accumulation of compo-
nents generates atmospheres rather than identifiable
objects. Clouds of matter interact in fields of changing
intensities. Objects are superseded by the pure effect of
space, ambience, atmosphere.
SURFACE INTELLIGENCE
Surface Intelligence: Ambient & Augmented Archi-
tectures was a Two-Day International Design Sympo-
sium held at the Architectural Association on 24 and 25
November last year. The symposium brought together
a wide variety of architects, artists, theorists and engi-
neers who have been exploring the impact of the inte-
gration of newly intelligent materials and components
into our built environment.
Presentations could be divided along the lines
of visual vs. physical interaction. The work of Jason
Bruges, Tom Barker’s Smartslab and many of Christian
Moeller’s projects explore the impact of the visual, as
defined by light, on our experience of space. Smartslab
indeed represents a new and highly innovative possibil-
ity, where building materials themselves contain visual
information. Others, particularly the stunningly inge-
nious Chuck Hoberman, explored the potentials of a
practice based on physical adjustments of the built
fabric, while Stuart Veech explores the integration
of image and material. A similar division can be made
between high-tech and low-tech solutions. Crispin
Jones, Stefan Doepner and others play on this distinc-
tion by deliberately combining high-tech softwares with
low-tech material solutions that are just adequate to
their tasks, and in the process, question our reliance on
high-tech solutions.
The way in which this work is produced is a devel-
opment that is having an impact on both practice and
21
pedagogies. Brett Steele, director of the AA presented aa reviews:
the work of his students at the DRL exploring Open
Diploma 9 at Threshold ’06
Source Research; a fascinating experiment in the use of
networking technologies to share ideas that has led to
architects in residence
an explosion of creativity in a very short period of time.
These new means of interaction are important; speakers
Photos: Chifang Wu & Stephen Roe
repeatedly emphasised the importance of collaboration
to their practice. The work of Stefano Mirti’s students at
the Interactive institute of Ivrea and Marta Male Alema-
ny’s students at the University of Pennsylvania explored
different design pedagogies which incorporate the
newest technologies in playful and creative ways.
Brett Steele also addressed the more problematic
Diploma 9 at Threshold ‘06
ramifications of a networked built environment. Taking John Bell, Adam Covell and students
the example of a quaint English village inundated with from Diploma Unit 9 will be working
surveillance cameras, he asked how prepared we are with selected media artists to produce
to have every surface of our cities or homes become a collaborative installations as a part of the
potential recording device. Issues of ethics, the body Node London season of Media Arts.
and the politics of exclusion were covered more explic- The collaborations are part of
Threshold, a series of thematically linked
itly by both Marie O’Mahony and Teresa Hoskyns.
events, performances and discussions
Overall the conference laid the groundwork for
which provide a platform for the explora-
a fascinating series of discussions that will surely
tion of contemporary sound art, and
continue over the next few years, as we begin to under- examine areas of practice that intersect
Photos: Valerie Bennett
stand and grapple with the issues brought up by an with architecture. The programme is
augmented and newly interactive architecture. looking specifically at the relationship
between sound and space (physical,
Chaifang Wu and Stephen Roe are unit masters of structural, virtual, animated, performative
Diploma Unit 8 and practise as ROEWU. and technological.) A conceptual thread
will be set around ideas of threshold,
roewu.com
topology, landscape and borders.
These themes, developed throughout
March by means of a series of informal
artist showcases, exhibitions and
performances at E:vent Gallery will be
ROEWU
Solar Grass Field, Washington DC
further expanded through broadcast
discussions on Resonance fm 104.4.
Transformability The first of these, on Thursday 2 March
Symposium Speaker Chuck
Hoberman, keynote lecture. at 8.00pm had John Bell in discussion
with Usman Haque, Janek Schaefer and
SmartSlab
Flow Motion. During April Threshold
Watching Tom Barker’s Smartslab
presentation. focused on the experimental residency
in which a group of sound artists worked
with Diploma 9, to create a site-specific
sound/architecture installation in E:
vent Gallery. The Threshold season will
come to a reverberating finale with a
presentation of the work produced in
the residency, and a coinciding evening
of live performances by renowned sound
artists and musicians.
By John Bell, unit master of Diploma
Unit 9. More information at nodel.org
AArchitecture – Issue 1 Ambient + Augmented Architectures
22 AArchitecture – Issue 1 AA Reviews
Architects in residence
Diploma Unit 14 started this year with an
active network installation in the Back
Members’ Room, which ran from 7-11
November 2005. Working in and around
the proposed Thames Gateway bridge,
four student groups produced four
interdependent installations revealing
networks and accessing reciprocities
between major themes: politics and
planning, environment, local communities
and bridge design.
Hosting the first day, the politics
and planning group designed a physical
assembly of the political bodies involved
in the process. These were represented
physically, within the forum, and
virtually, through an online interface.
Visitors interacted with this assembly by
responding to a questionnaire concern-
ing their opinions of the bridge project,
and in accordance with the responses,
the opposing viewpoint was then given.
The intention of this design was to allow
a more informed opinion, through the
presentation of the arguments, on a level
playing field for and against the bridge.
Transforming Links, the bridge
design group’s installation negotiated
component based construction, and
was made using materials sourced
from Thames Gateway manufacturers.
The installation of cardboard tubes
was complemented by an exploded
drawing of the logistical network that
was implemented during the design and
fabrication of the installation.
Re-active-Lab, the environment
installation, consisted of three microcli-
mates which could be affected directly
by human interaction and indirectly
by the surrounding environment. Turf,
water and metal were the materials used
to test the reactions of living systems
to different climate conditions and
unpredictable human interferences. Four
spray nozzles allowed the visitors to
squirt different solutions into the micro-
climates, and automatically directed
them to read a postcard or think about a
topic, as a form of immediate feedback.
The last day was hosted by the local
communities group, whowhatwhere.
org.uk, who designed a local media
centre. The installation consisted of a
series of screens – installed in the Back
Members’ Room, and at two sites in
the Thames Gateway area: John Roan
School and Plumstead High Street.
These displayed films about the Thames
Gateway bridge proposal, and a series
of interviews and events held before
and during the forum. Working as a link
between the AA (Diploma 14) and the
Thames Gateway local communities,
whowhatwhere.org design, were also
involved in a series of workshops and
talks done in collaboration with the other
groups at two high schools, as a means
to engage specific groups in a debate
about the Thames Gateway bridge.
The week-long Forum allowed
the students to work continuously
in the room, interacting with visi-
tors and logging daily changes in
the installations. This was comple-
mented by seminars given by
experts and invited guests. The
result of a four-week group project,
Forum 1, also acted as a catalyst for
the development of each student’s
personal agenda for the rest of the
year.
By Paula Nascimento, a 5th year AA
student. This project was followed up by
an exhibition in the AA gallery from 29
April untill 26 May 2006. More details
on individual installations can be found
at whowhatwhere.org.uk
23
social cinema
design vanguard award 2005
riba president’s medals
Social Cinema
The second London Architecture
Biennale will take place this summer, on
the 16-25 June. Following the success
of the previous Biennale, the route now
extends beyond Clerkenwell – from
Southwark to Kings Cross. This year also
sees the introduction of the Student
Festival, inviting students from schools
of architecture throughout the UK, to
take part and design interventions along
the Biennale Route. The theme of the
Biennale is Change.
The Social Cinema project is a
collaboration between architects (and
AA alumni) Peter Thomas and Catherine
du Toit, and artists Neil Cummings and
Marysia Lewandowska. It consists of a
series of temporary cinemas installed
amongst the existing urban fabric of the
Biennale route, projecting films about,
set in or commenting on London.
A group of AA students and recent
graduates are working with Peter,
Catherine, Neil and Marysia to design
and curate The AA Social, which will
be a node of the Social Cinema project
itself and their (student) intervention at
the Biennale. Our event takes place on
Tuesday 20 June in the Scoop.
The Scoop is an open-air sunken
amphitheatre, located within the large
riverside public spaces adjacent to the
GLA building. The AA event takes as a
starting point, the history, location and
architectural context of the site, and
its integration into the City. At the very
heart of the site is the river, and so it
is our relationship with the river that
has become the central theme: River as
source, River as flow, River as change.
The aspects of change which
relate to a river are multifarious; there
is its own daily tide, which creates a
rhythm, and there are the relatively slow
changes which occur as a result of urban
AArchitecture – Issue 1 AA Reviews
reorganisation and resulting architec-
tural intervention. Within the environ-
ment created by these dual forces there
exist several layers of human activity, we
propose to explore these layers within a
series of short films.
The Thames has an iconic presence
within the City of London. To many, it
is a focal point and acts as a draw for
the transient tourist population, but of
what significance is it to Londoners?
Often cast in a supporting role within
the cinema, and occasionally as the
main subject, the river’s picturesque
image appears repeatedly in films, from
Waterloo Bridge in the 1940s through
to Hitchcock’s Frenzy in the 1970s, on
to more recent manifestations. We are
familiar with images of the massive body
of tidal water with its statuesque bridges
such as Tower Bridge, but what exists
beneath the celluloid surface? What
does the film director’s camera miss?
We propose to engage in conversation
with current users of the river and
surrounding sites, the transient and
the more permanent, in order to build
a speculation about how the site will
continue to evolve.
We will introduce a purpose-built,
billowing, horizontal screen to make the
audience lie and look up from within the
Scoop, as if floating in an imaginary river.
On this horizontal screen we will project
a selection of films drawn from feature
films and documentaries, exploring
fiction and fact, incorporate archive
footage and introduce our own new
filmic material in order to represent the
changing face of London, which can be
seen from above or below, from inside or
outside. We will invent a new cinematic
experience which will invite audiences to
go beyond their traditional passive state
of watching, to continue their journey
along the riverbank, themselves becom-
ing part of the cinema as they move.
We welcome interest from technical
specialists and other forms of sponsor-
ship. More details about this one-night
event will be available closer to the time.
For more information please contact
us at aasocialcinema@aaschool.ac.uk.
By Sarah Akigbogun, AA alumna.
Bonnie Chu, third year AA student and
Jenny Kagan, second year AA student.
Design vanguArd award 2005
Chris Lee, Diploma 6 Unit Master is one
of the recipients, with Kapil Gupta of
the Urban Design Research Institute
in Mumbai, of the Architectural Record
Design Vanguard Award for 2005,
proving that distance is no barrier to
successful collaboration. ‘We like to
think we operate between these two
extremes; neither taking the position
of the catch-all brand, nor being the
paralysed, sensitive local architect.
After all, architecture operates in messy
conditions’ The two met at the AA, where
Lee was a Diploma Honours student in
1998 and Gupta studied in the Graduate
School. Current projects include the
C House in Bangalore (2007) and Fort
School, Mumbai. (2007).
For more information see chris-lee.net
and aaschool.ac.uk/dip6
RIBA President’s Medals
Benjamin Koren (Intermediate 2) and
Adam Furman (Intermediate 5) have
been awarded Commendations in the
RIBA President’s Medals 2005. Koren
was also awarded the Iguzzini Travel
Award and the SOM Foundation’s Travel-
ling Fellowship for his project Harmonic
Proportion in Amorphic Form: A Music
Pavilion.
The software he wrote to generate
the pavilion is based on a mechanical
device that visualises musical harmony
24
bd public space winner
ees competition
open workshop hooke park
st john’s mews house
development update
through apparently spatial graphs.
Adam Furman’s project, The B’s, uses
narrative to create a time-based relation-
ship between structure and occupant,
whose imaginations create space so
that their habits and routines become
inextricable from the physical fabric.
BD Public Space Winner
Minseok Kim (Diploma Unit 6, Fifth
Year) has won the second annual
KPF/Architecture Foundation ‘Public
Space’ student travel award with his
designs for converting Olympic stadiums
into a spaghetti-junction-style road
system once the games have finished.
His winning project, Adaptive Typology,
was completed as part of his Fourth Year
work in Diploma 6 last year, with tutors
Chris Lee and Sam Jacoby. The jury,
including BD critic Ellis Woodman, David
Leventhal of KPF and Rowan Moore of
the Architecture Foundation, selected
Minseok’s design because it ‘combined
building types that usually have
destructive urban qualities to create a
positive hybrid’. Minseok wins £1000 to
spend on travel.
Ees Competition
The Architectural Association and the
Environments, Ecology and Sustain-
ability Cluster are partnering in an open
international competition in search
of pioneering ideas, design projects,
research initiatives, inventive practice
and completed works that highlight
insights into the contemporary direction
of architecture research and design
relative to environments, ecology and
sustainability.
The goal is to promote and reveal
the potency of new conceptual and
experimental work within architecture
in relation to environments, ecology and
sustainability today. The competition
AArchitecture – Issue 1 AA Reviews
is open to all architects, designers,
students, engineers, scientists and other
related professions that express interest
in the relationship between the natural
and built environments.
Submissions will be grouped by
related themes at the discretion of the
technical jury prior to final judging.
The competition winner will be publicly
announced in the Autumn of 2006 during
the opening of the competition exhibition
that will be hosted at the Architecture
Association. The exhibition will host a
forum discussion between the members
of the multidisciplinary jury.
Registration Deadline: August 2006
Submission Deadline: September 2006
For more information or to register,
contact: EES Cluster Coordinator
ees_curator@aaschool.ac.uk
www.aaschool.ac.uk/clusters/ees.shtm
Open Workshop Hooke Park
The AA’s 2006 Custerson Award Open
Workshop, ‘Crossings’ has been set up to
offer an opportunity for students from
across the School to temporarily step
outside their course of study and explore
their interests in developing applicable
designs for timber construction with
tutors Valentin Bontjes van Beek and
Nathalie Rozencwajg.
The eventual outcome of the
Workshop is to design and construct two
new compelling bridge-like structures
for Hooke Park, complementing and
improving the existing public pathway.
With designs that challenge architec-
tural expectations of ‘crossings’, the
structures will push the boundaries of
wood construction. The workshop will
comprise a group of 14 students with a
range of different interests and skills.
The Crossings Workshop will be the
subject of an AA exhibition in the Autumn
Term 2006/07.
Gianni Botsford
St John’s Mews House
Alumnus and former staff member
Gianni Botsford has been getting a lot
of media coverage for his first major
commission, St John’s Mews House.
An article by Jonathan Glancey in the
Guardian in November has been followed
up by a spread in Building Design by
Graham Bizley in February. Glancey is
very impressed by the project, admiring
the ‘intelligent planning, generous rooms,
ingenious internal views’ and the use
of light and air, as well as the discreet
exterior, which got it past the planning
authorities. Building Design’s Graham
Bizley, however, is less enthusiastic.
Whilst he admires the craftsmanship he
is not convinced that he would enjoy
living in such an environment, likening it
to a public art gallery or genetic research
laboratory, although he does concede
that the family for whom it was built are
very happy with it.
Glancey’s article can be viewed at:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/arts/critic/
feature/0,1169,1636257,00.html
and Bizley’s piece appeared in the
February 17 issue of Building Design.
DEVELOPMENT UPDATE
The AA receives no statutory funding for
either the development of the School
or for its public programme of events,
lectures and exhibitions. Consequently,
it relies upon the generous support of
its members, alumni and friends to help
maintain its status as one of the most
influential schools of architecture today.
We are therefore very grateful for the
vision and belief of all of our supporters
and for their invaluable contribution to
School activities.
In the academic year 2005/06 to
date we would like to give special thanks
to the following organisations:
25
aa exhibitions update
New aa publications
nicholas boas travel award
aa news briefs
KPF for their continued investment in
the AA’s lecture programme.
HOK who continue to generously support
both our academic and cultural life.
Davis Langdon with whom we enjoy
a support relationship, and through
whom our students are enabled to have
involvement in the Young Architect of
the Year Award.
AKT for their continued support of
the AA’s Scholarship and Bursary
programme, and their contribution to
the cultural life of the school.
Finn Forest & Arup both of whom will
be instrumental in assisting Intermedi-
ate Unit 2 with their Summer Pavilion
project.
We would also like to give thanks
to the Legacy Executors of the late Mr
Anthony Custerson, who have agreed,
in line with his interests, to fund the AV
Custerson Award for Hooke Park, provid-
ing substantial funding for the future
development of our Dorset campus site.
Meaningful and mutually beneficial
relationships continue to be forged
for various areas of School activities
including our Scholarships & Bursary
Programme, research work being carried
out, exhibitions, student projects and
the development of School facilities.
Forthcoming fundraising activities
include The Cedric Price Bursary
Campaign and our annual giving
campaign for Projects Review 2005/06.
If you are interested in learning
more about supporting the Architectural
Association please contact Nicky Wynne,
Development Director, on 020 7887 4090
or email development1@aaschool.ac.uk
aa exhibitions update
Our lives as Exhibitions Organisers
would be far simpler if the architects we
worked with said ‘here’s a picture of my
building for the wall; nothing fancy, a
AArchitecture – Issue 1 AA Reviews
drawing pin should do it’. In reality, they
come armed with elaborate sketches
of raised floors, false ceilings and the
gallery transformed into Japanese
bathhouses and German Science
Centres. High hopes and low budgets
necessitate seeking support from the
outside world to realise intentions. The
generous support of our sponsors make
the ambitious nature of the Exhibitions
programme possible. Can Buildings
Curate received £10,000 from The Arts
Council, The Elephant Trust, The Swiss
Embassy and Pro Helvetia, and went
on to tour internationally. Other AA
Exhibitions’ benefactors have included
the Gulbenkian Foundation, Silken Hotels,
Virgin Airlines and The Concrete Centre.
Blueprint and Icon magazines, the best
of the contemporary design press, have
added invaluable support with Media
sponsorship, insuring that our shows
are seen by a wide and appreciative
audience.
Nicholas Boas Travel Award
The winners of the Nicholas Boas Travel
Award 2006 are Stefania Batoeva
(Diploma 3), Hiromichi Hata (Intermedi-
ate 10) and Jonathan Smith (Diploma
16). The award allows AA students to
spend three weeks in Rome during July,
working on projects that they have
proposed, and is funded by the Nicholas
Boas Trust. It was established in memory
of former AA student Nicholas Boas who
died in 1998, and has been awarded
every year since 1999. Students are
based at the British School at Rome
where Italian history, archaeology, art
and architecture have been researched
for over 100 years.
AA news briefs
Sonja Stummerer (AA DRL 2001),
practising architect and designer in
Vienna, has co-authored Food Design,
Springer Books 2005. The book inves-
tigates the design, colour, odour, taste
and consistency of provisions as well as
their history and development over time.
www.honeyandbunny.com
Nili Portugali (AADipl 1973), lecturer at
the Bezalel Academy of Art and Design
and practising architect in Jerusalem,
is about to publish a book entitled The
Act of Creation and the Spirit of a Place.
A Holistic-Phenomenological Approach
to Architecture Edition Axel Menges,
Stuttgart, April 2006.
Dr Gordana Korolija Fontana-Giusti,
(GradDipl(AA) in History and Theory
1987) former AA tutor, was selected to
show her project in the programme of
the 2005 UIA Congress in Istanbul. The
project, which has been funded through
the EU Urban Design and Research
Scheme, related to the agora, and is
based on the connections between
public and the theatre.
Daniele Geltrudi, architect in Italy and AA
Member since 2004, has been awarded
the Premio di architettura MAESTRI
COMACINI for his Casa Rossa, a commu-
nity building in the outskirts of Como.
The independent architecture magazine
UME is celebrating 10 years of
publication! Published and edited by
former AA tutors Jackie Cooper and Haig
Beck (AADipl 1973), the magazine has
featured numerous AA notables through
the years. www.umemagazine.com
Siamak Shahneshin (AA E&E 2000),
architect urbanist and author, has
26
Recent AA Publications:
structure as space + bodyline
co-established the Shahneshin
Foundation, a not-for-profit independent
organisation for the promotion of design,
education, research and theory, based
in Zurich. The Foundation has recently
announced the Shrinkage Worldwide
Competition. Entries must be submitted
by 15 September 2006. For more info:
www.shahneshinfoundation.org
Jonathan Moorhouse (AADipl 1962)
has recently published a book entitled
Drawings by Jonathan Moorhouse, SKS
(Finnish Literature Society) 2006. An
illustrated book, presenting drawings
of the SKS interiors and surrounds,
the publication celebrates the 175th
anniversary of the Society.
Eyal Weizman (AADipl 1998) has been
appointed the director of the new Centre
for Research Architecture at Goldsmiths
College: goldsmiths.ac.uk/architecture
AArchitecture – Issue 1 AA Publications
Structure As Space: Engineering
and Architecture in the Works of
Jürg Conzett and his Partners
A companion to the AA’s highly success-
ful volume on Peter Märkli (2002), this
publication focuses on the work of the
Swiss engineer Jürg Conzett, who has
contributed more than most to redefin-
ing the role of structural engineering and
its relation to architecture.
Since setting up his own practice,
Conzett has worked with many of
Switzerland’s leading architects. Struc-
ture as Space includes many notable
collaborative works, from the Hanover
Expo pavilion with Peter Zumthor to the
Zurich Stadium with Meili & Peter. It
also presents Conzett’s beautiful bridge
designs, such as the granite stress-
ribbon Pùnt da Suransuns and the timber
Traversina footbridge.
Texts by Mohsen Mostafavi and Bruno
Reichlin explore in depth the relation of
engineering and architecture and the
impact of engineering infrastructures on
our natural environment.
Current Practices 3
£40.00 – ISBN 1 902902 01 7
Bodyline: The End of our
Meta-Mechanical Body
Bodyline, a visual essay on the human
body, approaches its subject in a spirit
both playful and seriously experimental.
Organised by themes in turn figurative
and abstract, organic and mechanical,
immaterial and ultra-material, Bodyline
contains not one predictable image of
the body. Instead it uses diffracted
views to conjure seven alternative visions
of the flesh in the age of meta-mechani-
cal reproduction, reconstructing the
human physique by means of synthetic
images, clothing patterns and technical
blueprints. As such, Bodyline is as much
about perception and delineation as it is
about the body.
The book is drawn from work of the
AA’s Diploma Unit 5 under the guidance of
George L-Legendre and Lluís Viu Rebés.
Edited by George L-Legendre
£10.00 – ISBN 1 902902 46 7
Recent AA Publications are currently
available at aaschool.info/publications
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Architectural Association
School of Architecture
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