Contents

2 The Presumed Letter

4 Letter of Response
6 What Do You Think About Pornography?
8 What Do You See?
10 The Dom-ino Effect
14 The Building of a Drawing
16 Found in Translation
Digital Prototyping Lab
17 Letter Addressed to the Spirit of the Depths
18 Little Dreams and the Tropical Vernacular
20 Against Glue one Another
22 Shaping Seagram
24 AA Confidential
26 Anarchitect's WICKED WORD Disposal Cylinder
27 Recommended Reading
28 AA Publications
29 ebooks
30 David Gray
31 News
Next Issue' s Theme
School Announcement
Student Announcement
Various AA Members were presented with a given word
and asked to respond with their first thought. The word
and Its associations run at the bottom of each page.
2
The Presumed Letter
MA in History and Critical Thinking student
Winston Hampel writes on a letter by Colin Rowe
Some time around late November 1965
a sloppily typed letter on thin reddish paper
reached John and Pat Miller. vVithout
further introduction the author set off in
developing his argument, however t his
account appears to be no more linear
than the typewritten lines themselves: it
commences with the observation that the AI
in Alan Colquhoun resembles the respective
Arabic syllable - as in Alhambra or Alcazar.
From this piece of'evidence' a tracing
of the etymological origins of the name is
constructed that spans across countries
and centuries, producing a narrative that
is constituted by the rhetorical development
of the argumentation itself and not the
'substantiality' of the actual argument. This
Gedankenspiel is eventually concluded with
the hypothesis that Colquhoun himself
must thus emanate from a moorish tradition
of knowledge. Then the letter closes, as
abruptly as it began, with 'Best love, Colin'.
In 1947 Colin Rowe graduated from
the Warburg Institute with a thesis on the
'theoretical drawings oflnigo Jones', which
reconstructed a theoretical publication
of the seventeenth-century architect (Rowe
was seemingly blind to the fact that there
was very little historic evidence that Jones
had ever set out to write such a treatise
in the first place). Focusing in on the
'universal' character of Jones' drawings
and their visual similarity to Palladio's
I quattTo libri detl'architettum, Rowe
concluded that Jones must have intended
to use them for a similar publication. Rowe
thus constructed his own narrative around
them and used Inigo Jones (who himself
had 'reconstructed' a hypothetical 'classical'
Stonehenge) as the transmitter of his
message. vVhether or not his assumpt ions
were historically accurate was of minor
importance. In the same year Rowe went
on to publish an article in The Anhitectuml
Review that was, in a certain sense, no
less speculative: in 'The Mathematics
of the Ideal Villa' he famously established
a relationship between Palladio's Villa
Malcontenta and Le Corbusier's Villa
Stein. Through a dialectic comparison
of their respective ptwtis he theorised that
there were underlying, a historic rules of
harmony and proportion to which both
buildings adhered. Just as with Inigo Jones,
it was not so much about factual evidence
and scientific exactitude, but about the
conclusions implied by its thesis: that there
are universal principles of 'beauty' that
could, and should, be employed 'today'.
This tendency to rather freely interpret,
manipulate and play with a subject in order
to develop his own argumentation becomes
most explicit in Rowe's cont ribution
to the Roma Interrotta project in 1978.
He and his team imagined an alternative
development of and for t he urban layout
of Rome (based on the plan drawn 230 years
earlier by Nolli and Piranesi) and supported
the collage-esque proposal for their
sector with a pseudo-historic essay - ratified
by completely fabricated footnotes. In
Rowe's own words: 'Presuming that the idea
of Rome Interrupted required a fake history
of Rome to explain our developments,
I wrote such a history; and I am amused
to say that I still receive letters from
such persons who assume that at least my
footnotes must be genuine.'
Colin Rowe's letter to the Millers does
not have any footnotes, but there is a single
word that is underlined with a thick red
marker: pnmme. What was his intention
Architecture: Building I Bulldozer I Life I Work
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107 CAYUGA HEIGHTS ROAD, ITHACA, NEW YORK 14850. N
0
vember 13,
John=Pat :
Elere in Ithaca Alan is !mown as Al Colqgbonn,
have you seen Al ? etc , etc.
Now all this gj.ves food for thought and I have begun to
come to the conclusion that the Al in this case is like the A1
- -
in Al Hambra, Al Cazar, and---maybe--even -:Ln Al Kaael'tzer,
Have you never thought of this ?
Anyway my suspicions became the other day when
looking through Baedeker ' s Egypt I came across a village or smell
town called Al Kahoun or (alternatively) Al Quhoun,
Which is not to say that Alan is of Egyptian descent,
One must that there are other small Arab settlements--
perhaps in Morocco, perhaps in southern must allow
for these. But this is surely enougg to indA te something Noorish
in the pedigree.
Interesting iant it ?
A
8
for me I speculate as follows: ay back there is some-
thing S
6
phardic-Moslem in the picture. In the Middle Ages one has
to imagine a location of several centuries 1n the Emirate of
Cordoba--a blissfUl period on which the arrival of Ferdinand and
Isabella rings down the curtain, So the Quhouns axe expe1.led, 'lhey
flee. First they go to Genoa and then en route to Edinburgh and
possibly points llorth they are to be found in :Freiburg in llreisgau,
Leiden, Amsterdam, etc ,
In Scotland the prefix 2! they add to the name , partly
as a result of pro-Celtic sentimentality ( Col du 'lam, etc); and
also, partly--and one has to face it--for purposes of dissimulation,
But of course the will always out and the atavistic thing
aannot be suppressed. And so --once in every three generations o
so the eXistence of an A1 QUhoun persistently testifies to the
activity of the original genes,
love,.

in highlighting just this one word? Was it
a parenthetic confession? An act of casual
disclosure? Or was it merely intended to
stress the relevance of his presumptions?
\.Vhatever the specific reasons, there can
be no doubt that presumption was central to
of the Ideal Villa' or even 'P1'esumed La
Tourette'. But Rowe - who described
himself as an mchitect manque- never
made a secret of this speculative approach
anyway, and his critiques should probably
be regarded as projects- projecting into
3
Rowe's approach- in just about every sense
of the word, but foremost in his reliance on
speculation to develop an argument. And it
is in this sense that the word presume could
well be added to the title of his most seminal
texts: 'The Presumed Theoretical Drawings
oflnigo Jones', ' The P1'esttmed Mathematics
the future - rather than as strictly historic
analyses. Which is why one can presume that
what was central to Colin Rowe's approach
was not the validity of history, but the
validity of his stories. And, after all, these
very stories went on to shape the future
history of architecture.
Threshold: Door I Raw I Grit I Door
4
Letter of Response
In response to Barbara-Ann Campbell-Lange's article
about AA honours published in 'AArchitecture 20: Time',
Peter Rich wrote the following letter about his own
experience with honours in 1961162.
2 October 2013
Dear Barbara-Ann,
Your piece on Hons touched my heart. I have not heard or seen such
a thoughtful and comprehensive analysis of the subject for many years.
You were correct to point out that although language, ideas and methods
have changed at the AA, basic educational aims (as opposed t o training
aims) and assessment crit eria have remained constant.
Some proof about the ANs flexibility and risk: In 1961/62
Birkin Howard and I did a joint graduation project. This was allowed
because of our previous individual and joint projects had demonstrated
clearly that our abilities were complementary and that we had the
potential to produce a worthwhile investigation into a hotly debated
subject of the late sos and early 6os (we were against family life in the
type of tall blocks being built at the time. Our thesis was based on high
density low rise courtyard housing.)
The AA took the risk. We were successful (as were our year
mates .M Hopkins,] Dixon, Ed .Jones, etc). Upon graduation the Head
of School, Bill Allen, asked Birkin and I t o join his practice and design
a soo-house project in Harlow New Town based on the principles
we had developed in our thesis. I was the job architect because I was a
'mature student'- I had left school at 14 and worked as a draughtsman/
architectural technician for 13 years before joining the first year at
the AA. I had failed my II+, had no 0 or A levels but had an HNC in
building. I was accepted into the AA based on 'life experience' from
working in Canada and America. My portfolio was a roll of drawings
produced at SOM in New York and a suitcase of pottery produced
at the YMCA in Montreal - another AA risk!
Of course our joint thesis produced an interesting debate
about what 'Hons' means, what does it measure?
You have explained it exactly. Birkin and I have demonstrated
it - I like to think.
Yours sincerely,
Peter Rich
Form: Function I Funct ion I Versus Function I Function
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Openi ng: Door I Eye I Spaces I Wi ndow
6
What Do You Think
About Pornography?
While discussing the strangest things the AArchitecture
editorial team had heard in a jury, it was decided that
'What do you think about pornography?' was the winner.
By posing this question to a few AA members, we
have collected thoughts regarding how the changes in
pornography reflect communication among us today.
'It's a concept that reveals an awful lot about other things in the
world. Always has and always will because of its changing status,
so it's a way of actually registering how the world changes. But
I supposed from the fact that it's always the thing that drives
technological invention, that and a few other things. Of course,
that's where Betamax, that's where the Internet comes from!'
'It taps into something which is very raw that we might be
ashamed of, and that it is very self-indulgent. This whole idea
of the selfie is very pornographic.'
'Once you had to search for pornography. It wasn't easy like now:
pornography is almost like a common base. I find it really nice!'
'I remember once my brother was using my computer. Afterwards,
I pressed "p" and saw porn this, porn that.'
'The beauty of pornography is that it creates a series of emotions
for the mass culture.'
'You know, there was a really funny objection to Seattle Public
Library 10 years ago at OMA. The city of Seattle received a dossier
rejecting the building because there was too much pornography in
S, M, L, XL: "No one like him can be in charge of a civic building!'"
'They were renting the Ennis House to shoot a porn film and
I remember really bright, pink underwear everywhere in the
bathroom. Actually, they do use these amazingly beautiful houses
to make porn films.'
'Architecture addressing the porn industry is the same as
architecture addressing the advertising industry; there's no
difference it's just an industry and it shocks more.'
Condition: Shampoo I Hysteria I Of the wall I Too much
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'It's not politically correct to talk about this but the quality of the stuff
there is really like, boring. The quality of this stuff is really low and it's
not even that fun anymore. The stuff that you find on You Porn is not
even laughable - it's just really boring because they aren't even excited
themselves. Boring!'
'Now you are much more afraid to get caught seeing pornography.
It's not used to shock its something to use.'
'Also everyone famous has a sex tape now to kind of promote
themselves. "Hey, did I see you on . .. "'
'What is a sex tape? Its saying with a smile "Oh hey darling let's
put a camera here while we are in bed!"'
'The fact that you can make your own sex tape now- it was not
something that you thought of.'
'Do you know how many porn actors have lost their jobs?'
'It's probably more interesting to see. Once you "veren't thinking
you could become the subject of pornography. It was difficult to find
but it's not like you were like "OK, then I will do one by myself!"
That's what I like about it though.'
'The last series of Big BTother- it was the first time that a couple
had sex in real time. That's pornography, no?'
'As Roman Polanski once said, "Eroticism uses a feat her, pornography
uses the whole chicken".'
7
Hybrid: Lowbred I Vampire I Solution I Multiple
8
What Do You See?
Gloria PW Lei, Diploma 7 student, discuses how
language can sometimes make us stop thinking.
Language: Engli sh I Tongue I Understanding I Swedish
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At first glance, you probably will say,
'It is a door'. Some of you may put in a
few details and say, 'It is a black door', or
'It is a front door', or 'It is an exterior door'
(if you have more architectural knowledge).
Indeed, most of the people will give
similar answers in one form or another.
Objectively speaking, you have gotten the
'standard' answer. But let us consider the
question again. What I asked is '\Vhat
do you see?', not 'What do you call that
object?' One may ask what the difference is.
The difference is in 'you', the person who
answers the question.
The word 'door' (in both verbal and
written form) is a linguistic label. The
acts of naming things and calling things
by their names presuppose the existence
a set of so-called universal or objective
truth and facts that can be clarified and
conveyed. Such presumption further
presupposes a set of symbols that can act as
'pointers' towards those higher 'universal'
or 'objective' meanings existing in one's
mind. For example, a stop sign is used to
initiate a universal reaction, "vhich is to
stop moving, regardless of its 'user'. In
this sense, urban transportation is formed
by an interconnected network of universal
symbols. This example shows how the
language approaches when we try to
understand our perception.
Every day we go around the city,
interacting with people based on these
'universal' linguistic symbols called names.
But does such universality really exist?
When you see the image of do01, am 'I',
or 'he', or 'she', seeing the same 'door' as
'you'? Returning to the question, what
I am asking is not about the object in the
image, nor its name, but simply, what do
'you' actually see beyond the name? In
other words, what are you actually looking
at when you see the doo1?
Now, you may take another look at
the o 1 ~ and tell me again about the colour,
the door number, the shape of the glazing,
the number of steps, or the decoration
on the keystone above the door, etc. When
we attempt to replace its name, the next
intuitive answer to our question would be
a description on the physical quality of the
do01. If I keep asking for more descriptions,
you may even begin to tell me about the
possible ways of experiencing the doo1:
For example, I may give you the following
description: 'To get to the door, one
will have to walk up three steps, since the
door is actually away from the pedestrian
path and connected by a platform that
bridges over the gap. You have to walk up,
then, cross the gap before you enter the
door; and not to mention the floor inside
is not the same level as the bridging
platform, as made obvious by the extra
concrete step that the door is sitting on.'
The description can go on and on. Upon
the initial observation of the door's physical
qualities, we can discern composition,
directionality, relative positions, narratives
and trajectories. In other words, on top of its
linguistic label of a 'door', you see spatiality.
If this is the o o 1 ~ through which you
enter your house every day; then, this
spatiality, instead of being 'seen', will
be 'experienced'. By taking the linguistic
proposition that supposes our daily
activity as functioning upon the universal
symbols and the order of our city as
structured by the objective boundaries of
our linguistic language, I further propose
a spatial approach to our perception. The
proposition is namely this: the order of
our mind and our subjectivity is structured
by the repetitive experience of the spatial
logic embedded within the actual objects
and places of our immediate surroundings.
So I urge you to reconsider the
importance of the curvatures of the
corners, the lines of the trimmings and the
trajectories of the door steps around you,
9
as they are all part of what is structuring the
behaviours, the sensations, and the thoughts
you are having at this very moment. So
beware, when they are staring at you in the
face at all times.
Representation: Drawing I Dinner- party I Architect I Drawing
10
The Dom-ino Effect
Pier Vittorio Aureli, Diploma 14 Unit Master, and
Eleanor Dodman discuss the legacy of the Maison Dom-ino,
soon to be built 1:1 in Bedford Square.
Eleanor Dodman: Thank you for organising the Dom-ino
Symposium. I was interested in how the representation
of this drawing is the only thing that we see when we
think about the Maison.
Pier Vittorio Aureli: Thomas Weaver and I organised the symposium to
go beyond this image and to reveal not only the process that produced
the Dom-ino, but also the concept, which, in Le Corbusier's words, was
a 'paradigm for modern housing'. In the morning you had the Corb
scholars who delved into this story and showed us what the project was
about. It was a project that Le Corbusier did when he was very young. I
had this idea to show, especially to students, what it means to be a young
architect - to start with an idea that might not be technically resolved,
but at the same time is a driving force in your work's conception.
In a way the Dom-ino is about that: an idea that is technically not
yet resolved, but is conceptually very powerful to the point that we
are still using that drawing to describe something that is even more
contemporary than what was when Le Corbusier did that project.
It was interesting how he actually "vorked through the
project again and again, which is actually different to the
way we work as students. In a way, if you don't put enough
time in something it will not be interesting.
Le Corbusier really wanted to practice in what today we would call a
research-orientated way to the point of self-initiating these projects
that very few people would really take seriously. I mean Max Dubois,
the engineer that was helping, was reluctant to support this idea which
he thought was banal. The Maison was, in fact, not very original or
special because the use of concrete was already happening. What
was actually new was the conceptual aspect- the idea that we would
conceive dwellings in those radical terms.
Kipnis starts his lectures by showing drawings of the
Dom-ino no one really sees and he says, 'This is the most
important project in the world and none of you know it.'
Yes. At the same time I wanted to use the Dom-ino to open up a
conversation on self-building which now is a huge obsession for
architects, especially after the last 10 years with the economic crisis.
More and more people are trying to push this romantic idea of
housing as a kind of self-customised place. Le Corbusier proposed
something that would really confine people to this small single family
Unit: Four I Twelve I In a Relationship I 2D
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house. So it's not at all a revolutionary project; it's actually a very
conservative one. By referring to Dom-ino, one can also criticize
self-const ruction, self-organisation and the way the romantic ideas
of capitalism are passing on this burden to survive.
Yes, especially in London. In the past 10 years with the
housing crisis, the amount of housing the government
has built sums up to nothing.
13
The scenario that romanticises self-bui lding is kind of dangerous
because you can say, ' OK- we can simply do it ourselves', but actually
we cannot. That's why I wanted to use the Dom-ino as an appealing
version of this process, as an excuse to cast some critical light. Although
there is something admirable in architects proposing projects for
poor people- for sure much more than in Zaha Hadid's latest pavilion
showing Prada shoes- there is also a dark side in that kind of 'good
intention' approach and I think Le Corbusier is a great example in that
he was very ambivalent; his efforts were politically not so clean in a way.
Young people now are definitely more historically
aware than students ro years ago who were more
technically aware.
It's interesting that at the AA, which was once a place of the DRL
and advanced technologies and the digital, the Dom-ino represents this
idea of a very simple struct ure that is technologically very poor, but still
very powerful. I mean it's been 100 years, and from Brazil to Turkey
you see this kind of model.
It wi ll be interesting to see it on the Square because
the last thing that was there was parametric.
Yes, I mean Patrick [Schumacher] is in this kind of paranoia thinking
everything that is done here is against him and so he is now thinking
that the Dom-ino is a kind of triumph to reintroduce orthogonal
architecture in the School.
Context: Concept I Site I All I Buildings
14
The Building
of a Drawing
Valentin Bontjes van Seek, Intermediate 10 Unit Master,
builds a 1:1 version of Le Corbusier's Mai son Dom-ino
in Venice' s Giardini, in anticipation of this year's biennale.
2014 is the centenary ofLe Corbusier's
l\IIaison Dom-ino drawing, which he
produced as a housing system in the
early months of the First World vVar, largely
in response to the devastation German
artillery was wrecking on the existing
building stock of France's northern towns
and villages. Of course, the design itself
never came to fruition in physical form,
but it has long held a central place within
the histories and mythologies of modern
architecture. Promoted under the thematic,
'Fundamentals', much of this history
is being celebrated in the forthcoming
Venice Architecture Biennale, directed
by Rem Koolhaas, and so with Brett Steele
and Thomas vVeaver, we decided to mark
both this centenary and the return to
architecture's core principles by building
the drawing of the Maison Dom-ino.
Like the Somme in 1914, building
anything in Venice is like operating in a
war zone, in the sense that we were working
with a tabula rasa (right in front of the l talia
Pavilion) and all materials and equipment
had to be shipped in. The panic and terror
induced by 30 different nat ional pavilions
working consecutive all-nighters close to the
opening of the biennale was also something
we wanted to avoid, and so we worked on
the construction over the Easter break,
when the Giardini was blissfully deserted,
but for the German Pavilion, which had
been finished even before we arrived.
Assisting me were AA students Josh
Penk, who worked on the design right
from the start, and Rory Sherlock, together
Site: Location I Specific I Plan I Trees
with the amazing AA Exhibitions team-
Vanessa Norwood, Lee Regan, Tim Eve
and Jai Brodie. While the original design
imagined a concrete construction - which
would have taken time to cure - and
heavy steel 1-beams, we decided to deliver
a contemporary interpretation of the
Dom-ino, using much lighter engineered
timber and prefabricated components, and
even developed our own system of timber
foundations, employing wooden stakes
from a sheep-fencing system. And while
sticking as close as we could to the original,
it was the structural properties of this
material and the ambition to have as
minimal cut-offs as possible from a standard
ply cladding sheet that determined the
structure's proportions, which resulted in
a pavilion just 45cm short ofLe Corbusier's
10.8m x 6.6m plan.
The completed structure looks
wonderful, and standing within it really
is strangely fami liar, like occupying not
a building but a drawing. And perhaps like
the original drawing's foxing, our own
pavilion should also weather, losing the pale
yellow of the fresh ply over the six months
of the biennale's duration and turn a little
greyer. The idea then is for the structure to
be disassembled and rebuilt again, hopefully
first in front of Le Corbusier's National
Museum ofvVestern Art in Tokyo, and then
back in Bedford Square in May, so that the
ANs 2015 graduating class can be framed
by perhaps the most fa mous frame of all.
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Layering: Aggregation I Textures I Complexity I Staggered
AArchitecture 22 I Ter m 3, 2013/14
www.aaschool.ac.uk
2014 All r ights reserved
Publi shed by t he
Architect ural Association
36 Bedford Square, London WC1B 3ES
Please send your news it ems for t he next
issue to aarchit ecture@aaschool.ac.uk
Student Edit orial Team:
Eleanor Dodman
Ema Kacor
Assaf Kimmel
Costandis Ki zis
Radu Remus Macovei
Bust er Ri:inngren
Roland Shaw
Pat ri cia Souza Leoo Muller
Jingming Wu
Edit orial Board:
Zak Kyes, AA Art Director
Alex Lorent e, Membership
Brett Steele, AA School Director
Graphic Design:
Claire Lyon
AA Photography:
Val eri e Bennett and Sue Barr
Printed by Blackmore, England
Architect ural Association (Inc}
Regist ered Char ity No 311083
Company l imit ed by guarant ee
Regist ered in England No 171402
Regist ered off ice as above
Cover: 'A knight's t our' of 11 Rue Simon-
Crubellier f rom Georges Perec' s Life:
A User's Manual. Perec devised t he elevation
of t he f ict ional building as a 10 x 10 gri d:
10 storeys hi gh and 10 rooms across. Each
room is assigned to a chapter, and t he order
of t he chapt ers i s given by t he knight ' s moves
on the grid. Designed by Rosa Nussbaum,
AA Print Studio
16
Found in Translation
Patricia de Souza Leao Muller, Intermediate 11 student,
explores the fantastic and often comical double
meanings in architectural speech.
How does the AA cherish and embrace
manipulation?
As an association hidden in Georgian
houses addressing the already colourful
architectural discipline. The AA is expect ed
to be an unconventional architectural
school. Nevertheless, communication
amongst students and teachers comes with
a fat baggage of implications emerging
from the architectural language in both
paper and spoken word. Such words of
justification, eccentricity, morality, intellect,
you name it, elicit ideas to validat e the
architect and architecture. Through a series
of definition and microscopic redefinition,
Found in Translation addresses these little
cultural realms of ideas put forward by
the public meaning and private intention
of words used in architecure today.
Worklife
n. A lifestyle to which tutors submit
sn1dents wherein the irreconcilability
of architectural production and living
a life causes the former to be dominant.
Outcome: a large amount of work
produced in a short amount of time.
Results: Time restraints force
the unearthing of instinctive methods
of decision making and interests.
Sexy
adj. The cliche t erm used t o describe
the elusive quality of aesthetics
enabled by obsessive precision and
detail in orchestration. Realising the
crucial importance of the mating of
the visual and conceptual through the
quasi-sexual attraction of architectural
works. Realising the power to portray
individuality through graphics.
Tutor usage: I want to see
sexy line weights.
Jury
n. A ritualistic set of minutes of exclusive
un/divided attention from tutors and
students to explain a project that has
taken weeks to develop only t o watch
the dismantling of said project; an event
that has no value in academic records yet
plays host to minds foreign to your project
with no commitment or previous contact
with your work who will question the
essence of the project and force you
to question yourself.
The City: Site I Sex I Loud I Lots of Buildings
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Digital Prototyping Lab
The Digital Prototyping Lab at the
AA School is a growing learning resource
using the latest design and fabrication
technologies.
These technologies are t ransforming
<lrchitectu ral culture. As the demand for
existing and additional technologies grows,
the Digital Prototypi ng Lab must cont inue
to expand and modernise to keep the AA
at t he forefront of developments.
The Lab collaborates with all AA
students and staff across the entire school.
Projects produced in the Lab have been
featured in the AA Public Programme

as well as in prestigious international
institutions such as the Royal Academv
. .
in London, Centre Pompidou and t he
\'enice Biennale.



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17
Letter Addressed to
the Spirit of the Depths
Intermediate 2 student Alexandra Savtchenko-Belskaia
replies to Fabrizio Ballabio on the quest ion:
' What is the contemporary?' in a discussion over
the First Year brief 'Architecture and Time'
A word comes to mind before it emerges
on t he page. From where does it come?
Sometimes it comes before you know what
it means. And then, you know it means
exactly what you want it to mean. In such
moments, the whol e of language seems to
bend to the precise intention of the speaker
in pure abstraction and infinite specificity;
in such moments it almost seems as if the
whole of language speaks through the
individual. In linguistics, there is a notion
denoting a kind of total language, whereby
a native speaker might have access to, but
not be immediately aware of its fullness.
One's lexicon is doubtless limited, however
to speak, to exercise a language, one feels
it through and through, as though residing
on the inside of it. Once this state is
attained, one will physically and intuitively
feel s more than one can formulaically know.
Then, t he speaker turns to the page in order
to fix words in material for m and make
language solid. The writer selects words,
but these words are not one's own. Here is
one such instance:
Pimwe the sun. A smface in ?!Wtion,
gliunnel'ingflashes on the deep blue. Between
the smface aud the deptb, tbe iufiuitely avemge
mingles 1vitb tbe peneptual void of the p1esent
1110111e11t. But (even more absurdly), if iu spatial
te1'1us, the smface aud tbe deptb was split
imo componems, 1vitb taugible water and ice
sepamtiug tbe political, mther tban poetical,
11otious, a m01e complicated and eveu more
preposte1ous discrepancy 1VOIIId mise in1egmd
to time. rl gap of up to a hundred yeaH oue wa)'
or anothe1 existed between the two extn:mes,
a gap 1nmked by bi::.arre confusion of directioual
sig11s at the e7oss 1oads of passing time with not
all the no-longe1'S of one wodd co1nsponding
to the 11ot-yets of the othe1: It was owing, among
other things, to this 'scimtifically ungnrspable'
concoune of divergences that miuds bimmnges
(not apt to unhobble hobgoblius)' 1ejeaed tbe
spi1'it as a fad 01 a fnnto711, aud demuged 'fllinds
(1eady to plunge imo an abyss) arL"epted it in
suppo1t and tokm of tbeh 01vn inationality.
Tbe good swirmne1 k11ows to manipulate the
tide by swimmiug ove1 aud nnde1 tbe C111"1'C1lt.
Face down in the 1Vt1te1; opmiug tbe eyes, at first
n bhwry aud distant otbenms, tmd tben sbmp,
stingiug, and iufinitely close. Letting it in,
multi-directio11nl, completely opeu .
- Vladimir Nabokov,
rlda o1 rlHlom: rl Family Cbrouicle
(London: Penguin Books, 1969), p 17
Urbanisation: Bullshit I Dystopia I Bullshit I Even More Buildings
18
Little Dreams and the
Tropical Vernacular
James Charles Mak, Intermediate 13 student,
presents a visual account of his charity's work in Cambodia
Project Little Dream designs, builds, and
runs schools in Takeo, Cambodia. Today,
6oo Cambodian children are studying
English in the four schools built by Project
Little Dream in Prey Run, Kh'na Rong,
Thon Mun and Thnouh Village in Takeo.
After founding Project Little Dream
in 2008, our work led me to pursue
architecture at t he AA. While some would
say that the practice of architecture in
a vernacular context is a form of critical
DRL: Funky I Underground I Bass I DLR
regionalistic endeavour, it can also be
understood as a thesaurus of spaces devised
t hrough humanitarian work in a foreign
count ry. On t he left are Khmer found
scenes, and on the right, our synonyms.
Just as in architecture, the meaning of
these words constantly fluctuates between
benign acts and reckless intrusions. It
is only vital that we are still learning and
seeking a balance.

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DLR: Tube I Overground I Faraway I DRL
20
Against Glue One
Another
Buster Ronngren, Intermediate 2 student, writes a second
reply to tutor Fabrizio Ballabio on the question 'What is
the contemporary?' In a discussion of the First Year brief
'Architecture and Time'.
Dear Mentor,
Looking back on our correspondence, so
far, we have passed judgment on two critical
issues: time and paper. In agreement with
the propositions and statements after they
have already been seconded, this letter
will pass sentence upon the contemporary
in terms of its language.
Given the student work on typology
presented in your last letter, one could draw
a line at the following: the contemporary
leaves traces. vVithin a visual language,
in this case, words and buildings turn into
remarks, and we are faced with that which
escapes us but that cannot be escaped.
In these examples, the main parts of a
plan, text or perspectival view, have been
blanked out in order to read certain points,
once remote, for a moment in resonance.
Against an architecture, the relevance of
a full document is so forth overwhelmed
by the irrelevance of an echo. Perhaps,
the operation of'leaving traces' could be
understood as to 'unfinish' a reality that is
entire. The contemporary makes a choice,
to be found by chance. I am moved.
To the extent which one can read,
I wi ll add. On that occasion, a problematic
corner takes place, of how to ans,ver
the contemporary. For even an unforeseen
language has addressed a subject. This
is evident in the truism that a typo goes
back on one's word. Or, as stated in your
previous letter, the contemporary cites
history 'according to a necessity that does
Pin- up: Jury /Magazine I Easy I Jury
not arise in any way from his will, but from
an exigency to which he cannot respond'.
To answer the contemporary, is likewise,
to pronounce at the risk of being unheard
of. Our position is ruled by the types of
precise errors, actual attempts to establish a
historical present, in language or elsewhere,
notwithstanding if two ends will ever meet.
With regret, there is no description
of the contemporary item itself. The reason
being that we have submitted to a language
where this term holds the function of
an adjective, to describe something else.
Conventionally, it is in its plural form
that the contemporary works as a noun.
However, this takes us the certain direction
of a standstill. Although, one could not
declare to be located in the present while
being, as time moves on - at any given
point, we could annmmce our occupation
of the same time as one another. To be
contemporaries. To be continued.
/Buster
PS In a redacted document the phrase
'down to the last and simplest of thi
conforms: down to last
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21
Crit: Jury I Grasshopper I Not so Easy I Agony
AArc hitectu re
At a titne when the interchange of ideas,
products and world views between people
is as intense as it is global, we have becotne
strongly aware of the role language plays
in cotntnunication. Under the pretext of
conversation, your editors have scattered
to the furthest corners of the AA to talk to
a variety of students, tutors and staff about
the way we communicate with each other.
These conversations form the content of
issue 22 of AArchitecture.
Breaking the ice with one discotnforting
question- what do you think about pornogra-
phy? - Inter I I 's Patricia de Souza triggers a
variety of answers from an intellectualisation of
the tnatter at hand to complete avoidance, while
Intennedi ate I3's James Mak provokes us with
juxtapositions of the Cambodian vernacular
and his hutnanitarian charity's interpretation
of these in children's libraries and schools. As
a review of the Maison Dom-ino symposiutn
organised at the AA in February, Dip I4
unit tnaster Pier Vittorio Aureli discusses
how Le Corbusier's perspectival representation
has becon1e the only way we see the project,
and Inter Io unit master Valentin Bontjes
van Beek reports on the recent building of
the Dotn-ino drawing for this year's Venice
Architecture Biennale. Similarly focusi ng on
one project, Inter 7's Assaf Kimmel reviews
Phyllis Lambert's lecture which provided first-
hand insight into the project managernent of
22
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22
Shaping Seagram
In her recent lecture at the AA, architect Phyllis Lambert
provided her personal history in managing the
design of the Seagram Building, and described her cli ent
relationship with Mies van der Rohe and Philip Johnson.
Unbuilt: Rebuilt I Unknown I Empire I Paper

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Mies van der Rohe's Seagram Building,
including a detailed account of the (mis)commu-
nication between the architects, contractors
and public authorities involved. Returning
to the realm of the AA, Inter r2's Brandon
Whitwell Mak presents the comrnunication
system he set up to spread rumours - of a
competition for a new AA logo, of a smoking
ban on the terrace, of new 24/7 opening times
for the school - while at the same time putting
an end to these whispers.
Whether imaginative, provocative or
deep, language is meant to be playful and
architects have taken full advantage of this
freedorn. Crit, autepoiesis, threshold - sound
familiar? Specific not to the language of
architecture, but to language in architecture,
are those words that we as architects use on
a daily basis - an inventory of which you can
find in a thread that follows our conversations.
Student Editors:
Eleanor Dodman - Diploma 9, 5th Year
Ema Kacor - Intermediate 9, 2nd Year
Assaf Kimmel - Intermediate 7, 2nd Year
Costandis Kizis - PhD, 3rd Year
Radu Remus Macovei - Intermediate 9, 3rd Year
Buster Ronngren - Intermediate 2, 2nd Year
Roland Shaw - Diploma 4, 5th Year
Patricia Souza Leao Muller- Intermediate 11, 2nd Year
Jingming Wu - PhD, 2nd Year
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Phyllis Lambert was only 2 7 years old when
she took over the search for the architect
who would build the new Seagram Building
in New York City. Commissioned by
her father, Samuel Bronfman, founder of
the Canadian distillery dynasty, Seagram,
she embarked on a six-week tour to
architectural practices to find the right
architect to make a statement on Park
Avenue. 'There were those who could but
shouldn't,' she explained. 'There were those
who should but couldn't, and there were
those who could and should: Le Corbusier
and Mies van der Rohe.' This exploration
finally led Lambert to commission Mies
for the design, along with Philip Johnson.
In 1959, the elegant, deceptively simple
38-storey tower finally rose in Midtown
Manhattan, with its famous seatback from
the avenue.
Speaking at the AA as part of this
winter's public programme, Lambert
provided an unprecedented personal history
of her experience in managing the Seagram
Building design and construction, and
told of her working relationship with Mies
and Johnson. This lecture coincided with
her recent publication, Building Seagmm
(Yale University Press, 2013), which tells the
biography not just of this important building,
but of the culture of postwar design,
including the significant role corporate
patronage played in the era's real estate
development, and of the project's substantial
role in shaping landmark legislation and
zoning laws in New York City.
Lambert, still unyielding at 87,
is founding director of the Canadian
Centre for architecture in Montreal. She
is an architect, preservationist, lecturer,
historian, scholar, curator, patron, citizen
activist and critic of architecture and
urbanism. For the Seagram project, she was
director of planning and therefore in charge
of the liaison between the architects, the
engineers and the construction company .
Lambert explains that her ambition as a
client managing all these different forces
was 'to allow Mies to build the building he
wanted to build'.
The conception of this building, as
described by Lambert, shows the ext ent
23
to which a client can help shape a project
when architects learn to see beyond the
imagination of their own minds. As both
the director of planning and daughter of the
client (in a way the client herself), Lambert
had an active role, from participating in
decision-making regarding the site and
the plaza in front of it, to meeting with
Mark Rothko and Picasso in an attempt to
commission works for the project.
Looking back at this period of time,
Lambert feels that building in New York
in the decade after the Second world War
belongs to a simpler and more forward-
thinking time. 'There was a boundless
conviction that we would make a better
world', she recalled. 'We felt that we could
do whatever we wanted to do, the optimism
was enormous.' This is evident in a letter
Lambert wrote at the time to her father:
'You must put up a building which expresses
the best of the society in which you live,
and at the same time your hopes for the
betterment of this society.'
Narrative: Story I Environment I Context I Architecture
24
AA Confidential
Brandon Whitwell Mak, Intermediate 12 student,
discloses the rumours he spread across the AA
to AArchitecture student editor and Intermediate 9 student
Radu Remus Macovei
'A sharing of information that expresses the needs of the community
to fill a knowledge gap'
Radu: \Vhere did the rumours start?
Brandon: In my project I'm looking at how to create an infrastructure
to support the event of rumour-spreading within Istanbul. My
project aims to prevent a 'knowledge gap' within the city by creating
a series of spaces that support the rumour event. When I had the
chance to test our events at 1:1, it gave me the oppornmity to investigate
the creation and the dissemination process of information within the
AA community.
What were the nm10urs? Can we disclose them?
Yes, there were a couple. Some were successful and others failed. In fact,
this conversation helps me end the rumours because I soon found out
that it was quick to start the dissemination of the information but I had
not thought about ending them.
Did the rumours create tension in the School?
They did, yes. The rumours didn't aim to affect anyone's routine
but I did get a few strong responses from First Year and Student Forum.
I kind of expected the strong reaction though, because I used the
existing school networks to spread the information, such as the Sn1dent
Forum email to distribute the AA being open 24 hours. Also, some
failed: no one really believed that smoking was forbidden on the terrace
due to AAMaintenance works. Belinda saw the poster, but she knew
AA Maintenance isn't officially called AA Maintenance, so she was
the first person to smoke on the terrace and everyone followed. For
the AA logo I got a response from Frank Owen, who heads Digital
Platforms. He believed it and wanted to come to the jury for it. I played
along and said there would be a jury, so there might acmally be an
exhibition in the end.
R: In a way, some rumours became fact.
That wasn't the purpose at all, but it happened with a couple. It was one
of the outcomes that I had not anticipated. Another effect of the rumour
that I hadn't planned for was that I didn't know how to stop the rumour
once it was out. Also, I didn't know that it was actually difficult to
copy the system from the school - to use the same visual language and
Procession: Pilgrimage I Religious I Ritualistic I Stockholm Library
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discreetly set up the posters. Another difficult thing was using the AA
addresses, especially finding someone from Student Forum to send the
email for me without other people knowing. It eventually got out.
25
In physical space I \Vas putting up posters which was problematic
because a couple of people saw me, and that's how it got out that I had
created these rumours. But at some point fiction became t ruth. For
instance, the AA logo competition was taken seriously by many students
and staff, and although it was 'official' it did raise awareness of the
branding of the school and how it should be represented t oday. Also,
there were rumours that created other rumours, like the fact that
some people thought I hacked the email address of Student Forum.
What are the strat egies for rumour spreading
based on?
I set out t o test different methods of information distribution. These
were via poster propaganda, public and private online networks and
live rumours which use spaces as their 'channels'. These were inspired
from a rumour manual created during the Second vVord War by the
British Office of Secret Service, which explains how to create and
spread rumours as part of psychological warfare techniques. They often
aimed to spread real information within fictional stories t o create fear,
anxiety and hope in foreign countries .
Is this a rumour too?
Could be.
Did you generate fear, anxiety and hope in AA?
I probably generated a bit of anger.
Parametri cism: Wi re Mesh I Autopoesi s I In Your Face I Patri ck
26
AnarchitectJs
WICKED WORD
Disposal Cylinder
Image from the AA Archives from one of Robin Evans'
5th Year thesis, 1969: 'Towards Anarchitecture:
Artefact Systems with Respect To Human Freedom'
PUTRESCENT TE:R MIN OLOGY
Built: Unbuilt I Form I Space I Form
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27
Recommended
Reading
r
~ ~ ~ ~
Book from tbe G1ormd: From Point to Point
Xu Bing
128pp, 220 X 1)0111111
Hardback
Cambridge, MA, 2014
17.95
Xu Bing spent seven years gathering
materials, experimenting, revising, and
arranging thousands of pictograms to
construct the Book from tbe Ground. The
result is a readable story without words,
an account of 24 hours in the life of Mr
Black, a typical urban white-collar worker
whose day is recounted with meticulous
and intimate detail. The narrative, which
uses an exclusively visual language, could
be published anywhere, without translation
or explication. Anyone with experience
in contemporary life who has internalised
the icons and logos of modernity, from
smiley faces to transit maps to menus, can
understand it.
A Pattern Language
1owns Buildings Construction
Christopher Alexander
Sara Ishikawa Murray Silverstein
1\ II II
Ma:\ Jacobson Ingrid FiksdahiKing
Shlomo Ang-el
A Pattern Language
Christopher Alexander
1216pp, 200 X 150mm
Col and b&w ills. throughout
Hardback
London, 2012
!2
You can use this book to design a house
for yourself with your family; you can use
it to design an office, a workshop or a public
building. And you can use it as a guide
you in the actual process of construction.
At its core is the acknowledgement that in
designing their environments people always
rely on cert ain 'languages', which, like the
languages we speak, allow them to articulate
and communicate an infinite variety of
designs within a syst em that gives them
coherence. A Pattern Language provides
a language of this kind, enabling a person
to design for almost any kind of building
or any part of the built environment.
Vernacul ar: Quaint I Door I Base I Hut
28
AA Publications
Panel
Panel
Pedro Ignacio Alonso and Hugo Palmarola
262 pages, 279 x 24omm
Extensive col & b/w ills, paperback
June 2014
978-J - 907896-49-I
c3o
Although marginal to histories of modern
architecture, the development of concrete
panel systems was central to debates about
architecture's industrialisation. Adapted to
numerous different contexts, these systems
went beyond borders in producing over
170 million apartments worldwide. This
book focuses on a particular aspect of this
history- systems exported from Russia into
Cuba and then on to Chile in t he 196os
and 1970s. Written from the point of view
of the worker as much as the architect, and
containing an incredible panoply of archival
material, the book offers a portrait of an
architectural and political history whose
symbolic and physical regist er all along is a
concrete panel.
AA Book 2014
Two vols (qo4pp and n28 pp)
249 X 170111m
Extensive col & b/w ills, paperback
June 2014
978-1-907896-31-6
25
AA Book 2014 provides an overview of
the ANs 20131I4 academic year. Released
to coincide with Projects Review, the
school's end-of-year show, the book
includes hundreds of works - drawings,
models, installations, photographs and
ot her materials - as it documents the most
international and experimental school of
architecture.
Undergraduate: Dip 9, Inter 9 I Intermediate I School /Experiment
-
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29
ebooks
SUPER-
CRITICAL
Peter
Eisenman
&
Rem
Koolhaas
The ANs Architecture Words was
est ablished in 2008 as a series of small,
accessible books that counter the dominance
of images in architecture by promoting
the written word, in the form of texts,
essays, conversations, interviews, manifestos
and other forms of writing by architects,
historians and critics. Since its launch the
series has proved to be very successful.
In response to this success, and in an effort
to further disseminate these particular
Words, AA Publications is producing ebook
versions of all titles in the series, available
from autumn 2013. In the future, as the
series continues t o expand, the launch of
each specific physical book will be mirrored
by its ebook launch.
Available worldwide on Apple
iBookstore and Amazon Kindle.
Download the free Kindle reading app
to read Kindle books on iOS and other
mobile and t ablet devices.
Search 'Architecture \ Nords'
From7-72
i Bookstore
amazon ki ndle
_.,
Architecture Words r
SupercTitical
Peter Eisenman, Rem Koolhaas,
Jeffrey Kipnis and Robert Somol
Architecnue Words 2
Anti- Object: The Dissolution and
Disintegration of Anhitecture
KengoKuma
Architecture Words 3
The Poetics of a Wall hojection
Jan Turnovsky
Architecn1re Words 4
Having Words
Denise Scott Brown
Architecture Words 5
Fomt, Function, Beauty = Gestalt
Max Bill
Architecmre Words 6
hojectiles
Bernard Cache
Architecn1re Words 7
Modernity Unbound
Detlef Mertins
Architecture Words 8
Tarzans in tbe Media Fo1est
Tovo Ito
-
Architecn1re Words 9
Tectonic Acts of Desire and Doubt
Mark Rakatansky
Architecture Words rr
The House of Light and Entropy
Alessandra Ponte
Architecnue Words r2
Stones Against Diamonds
Lina Bo Bardi
Map: Journey I Noll! I Nolli I Matt
30
Remembering
David Gray
Written by Peter Salter, former
AA Unit Master & AA Dipl (Hons) 1980.
David's relationship with the AA spanned
more than 45 years. That period saw him
pass from the white-shirred environment
of the drawing office as a student between
195o- ss, to become a member of the
so-called 'Gang of Four' who led the AA
during the interregnum year following
Alvin Boyarsky's death in 1990. David
undertook virtually every role in the AA:
within the School he will be particularly
remembered as a Unit Master in both
Intermediate and Diploma Schools.
David came to the AA after completing
his National Service. Postwar Britain
was a heady place for students and young
assistants. Neave Brown, his contemporary
and closest friend, writes of those destined
to become architects 'coming from the
schools committed to t he idea that British
architecture, generally sad and provincial,
needed a dose of vigour and a theoretical
basis for work.' The idea of strong strategies
for design that formulated detail stayed with
David throughout his career as practitioner
and teacher. What he taught was what
he believed in and what underpinned his
architecture. His student cohort included
Kenneth Frampton, Neave Brown, Patrick
Hodgkinson and Adrian Gale. Some fellow
students were to meet again in the practice
of Lyons Israel & Ellis which David
joined in 1957, becoming a partner in 1970,
and remaining there until the practice
closed in 1984.
Vlith the appointment of Alvin
Boyarsky in 1972 and the development
of t he unit system, David started to teach
with David Shalev. The ' two Davids',
Section: Pl an I Cut I o u l l E ~ e I Exot ic
as they were known, taught what they
practised: forms of modernism. David went
on to teach with Neave Brown and later
with Kisa Kawakami. Their prospectus
was always site specific, detailed and precise,
relating mainly to shoreline sites and often
post-industrial in character. Looking back
at Projects Review for 1987- 88, it seems
that the students in his unit were largely
divided between those who went on to teach
and those who became his friends, though
the two roles were not mutually exclusive.
It was at the end of year Diploma
Committee tables that I first met him. In a
scene sometimes tantamount to gladiatorial
combat, David was always completely
fair, generous and mild mannered. Alvin
Boyarsky recognised David's measured
response to the student portfolio and
appointed him tutor in charge of external
students, as successor to Ron Herron and
David Greene. The students in his care
were often in need of more time to complete
their work: David was careful that they
had the opportunity to develop their talent
and ideas.
In recognition of his continued support
for the School over so many years, David
was awarded an Honorary Membership
of the AA on 5 March 2013, coming out
of hospital to receive the award.
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AA News
Council
The results of this year's Election
of Officers for the 1014/15 session
are as follows:
President Sadie Morgan
(former AA tutor)
Vice President Fr ank Duffy CBE
(AADipl(Hons) 1964)
Vice President H ugh Pearman
-
Hon Secretary Yasmin Shariff
(former AA student)
Hon Treasurer P.tul \<Varner
Past President Keith Priest
(AADipl 1975)
Ordinary Members
John Andrews (AADipl 1976
and former AA Tutor)*
Joanna Chambers
Oliver Domeisen (AADipl 1996
and former AA Tutor)
Lady Parncia Hopkins (AADipl 1968)
Sho Ito (AA Student on Year Out)
David Jenkins
(former AA Vice President)
A ram Mooradi,l n (AADipl 201I)
David Porter
Richard Patterson (AADipl 1976)
Ror y Sherlock (AA 3rd Year Student)
Rebecca Spencer (AADipl101 J)
Jane \Vernick (former AA Tutor)
Elected on the 20141I5 ballot.
Published & Exhibit ed
Far ah Naz's (AA SED lvlArch 2007)
work with fashion brands and the
International Labour Organization
to improve the working conditions of
factories in Bangladesh was featured
in the March 2014 edition of the
CibseJournal. This follows on from
her AA dissertation 'Energy Efficient
Garment Factories' and in reaction
to the Ran a Plaza incident last year
in Bangladesh which killed more
than 1000 people. Farah also works
as Senior Sustainability Engineer at
Ramboll UK.
ponfolio .cpl. co.uk kibseho r4 o 3 I
fact01J -t:onditio11s-bnuglndesb
Adam Nathan iel Furman
(AADipl(Hons) 2008 and AAIS
GradDipl 2009) will exhibit in 'Space
Craft', organised by the Crafts Counci l
and Habitat. The exhibition took place
at Habitat on the Kings Road and
coincided with the international art
fair for contemporary objects Collect,
that took place nearby at the Saatchi
Gallery from 9-12 May.
Tommy H ui (AA 5th Year Student)
created interactive graphics for
Vienna dance group An Kaler. Tommy
used processing with a set of light
algorithms to produce animations
parallel to the dance movements for a
performance at the Leopold lvluseum,
Vienna on 3 May.
1V1!1711. t0111111)'b 11i!Jk .C01/J
1li1V7V. tqw. atlmlnod el g6 99
rat(LAB], the practice of Sushant
Verma and Pradeep Devadass' (both
AA EmTech MArch 20 13) project
adaptive[skins)_V4.0 was selected to be
exhibited at Maker Fa ire 2014 in Bay
Area, California, USA in May 2014.
7V7v7v. rnt -lnb.o1-gl#!nc-wslc14kg
7V7!1711. tbe1t!sidwt. co.u klnrtslnrtlbnbitnt _
mul_tbe _ cmfts _ couuci l_join_fo1ces _ iu _
exbibitiou_1_3462 001
Stefan Jo,anovic (AA Jrd Year Student)
was part of the group of artists in
residence at the What Now Festival
1014. The festival ran at the at Siobhan
Davies studio from 10-13 Apri l2014.
1li1V7V. iu depend eu t d m1 ce. co. n k I
p1ogmm1Jiepngelactivitieslwbnt-festivnl
Ta kaka Hasegawa (AA Foundation
Studio Master) presented at the
multidisciplinary symposium Sensing
Architecture at the Royal Academy
of Arts held in conjunction with
their exhibition Sensing Spaces:
Architecture Reimagined on Saturday
29 March.
7li711W .1oyttlncn demy.01g.uk leventl81
The School of Architecture for
All (SARCHA) initiated by Mar ia
T heodorou (AAPhD (H&T) 1998)
fe,ltured in Blueprint magazine, issue
332 January/February 2014-
1li7V7V. snnbn-mc bit ect /We. b logspot. co .ttk I
2 o 14lo 3 lsnrcbn-in-bluepriut-
m-cbitect-ir-uo.b tml
Rica rdo de Ostos (AA Inter 3 Unit
Master) gave a lecture at the American
University of Beirut, Lebanon.
Entitled 'The Nature of the City' the
31
lecture was held by the Department
of Architecture and Design on 17
February. de Ostos also was keynote
speaker along with fellow AA Unit
J\1aster Nannette ]<lckowski at
MATERIART 20 14 in Ankara, Turkey
wunv. till b. edu .lbleveu tslpngesl
eventdetn il.r.nspx?i temid=4 8 o
mn ter inrt.o1-glevenrslm ntel'illrt-2014 I
A new drawing workshop, Drawing
the City, ran by .\-1 ichael Kloi bofer
(AADipl 2010) and Patricia Mat e-
Mora (former AA Student) was held in
April 2014 in the city of Palma, aimed
at encouraging culture-led tourism on
the island of lvlajorca.
urur<l!. dnnllingtbec ~ y n e t
AA DRL Director T heo Spyropoulous
spoke at the Romanian Cultural
Institute on the subject of 'Rethinking
London' on 27 February. Spyropoulous
headed a research team of 12 D RL
students who presented an alternative
vision of the capital's future, exploring
possible solutions to problems
such as food supply and the import
dependence.
wunv. icr-1 ondon. co.ttk ln1ticl eketbinking-
loudou- 6 3 9 btml
Kostas Grigor i,t dis (AA Dip 2 Unit
Master) wi ll be presenting research
papers on material continuity and t
he simulation of material properties
at the ESARQ conference at the
Universitat Internacional de Catalunya
(4-6 June) and at the eCaade2014
FUSION conference at Northumbria
University (10-n September).
W<l!W. biod igitn I m-cbitectfln comlscbed ule.
btml
-www.no1tb mnb,in. nc.uk lsdlacndemicl
eel7vo1klnsenrcblllrcb itect IWelvirtttnl_
1enl ity _vis 11 n I is n ti onlec n nde
Liam Young (AA Dip 6 Unit Master)
hosted the Data Drama conference
at Princeton University School of
Architecture 4-5 April. Discussion
and workshops were based around the
spatial possibilities and consequences
of big d,lta and the network. The event
was also live streamed. Liam Young
also spoke at the FutureEverything
Festival in i\llanchest er, 31 March-
1 April 20 14.
:\ lex \ Varnock- Smit h (AADipl 2006
and AA H&U Course Master), Carlos
Nunez Davila (AA H&U MA 2012),
Juliana .\luoi z \Vest cott and Jorge
. . ~
Sanchez Herrera (both AA H&U
Figure Ground: Tabala Rasa I Emptiness I Black and White I Megalith
32
MArch 20r3) hosted the Productive
Territories networking session at the
UN World Urban Forum in Medellin
on tO April 2014. The networking
session discussed the role of urbanism
as a tool for promoting social mobility
and equity.
1v1v1v. p md u cti vetcrrito 1i es. o1g
Careers & Prizes
Elena Palacios Carra! (AADipl 2012)
and .\1anijeh \.'crghese (AADipl(Hons)
2012 and AA Inter 1 r Tutor) have
been short listed as finalists in the
Competition of Competitions. Under
the name Form Fiction Format, their
entry 'The City & The Room' was
exhibited at the Storefront for Art
and Architecture in New York from
29 Apr il 20f4.
W1vw.storefrontne<us.o7-glprogrmmningl
competitions?c=&p=&e=602
Project Little Dream, a student-run
volunteer organization and registered
charity that furthers education for
underprivileged children in rural
Cambodia, headed by .James
Mak (AA 3rd Year Student) won
the Trophy in Architecture (Student
Category) and Best of the Best
Award at the Perspective Awards 20r3
Hong Kong. His achievements also
earned him a Citation at the American
Institute of Architecture Hong
Kong Chapter.
Julia Kmg (AADipl2007 & former AA
Councillor) was named AJ Emerging
Woman Architect of the Year by
A1chitects Journal in February. King
was praised for her urban development
work in New Delhi and was described
by the judges as ' truly inspiring'.
1V1v1v. arcb i tcctsjou rna!. co.uk lbom e/
<vomeu-in-a1cbitectureljulia-kitJg-
nmlled-cme7ging-1vomnn-nrcbitect- of-
tbe-yen1"18 65 8 5 4o.anic!e
Sebastian Fry (AAGradDiplCons 2013)
has won the IHBC Student Award
2013 for his AA Building Conservation
thesis. Described by the judges as
'an impressively wide-ranging study',
the thesis investigates influences upon
the architecture of Knights Hospitall er
commanderies and associated parish
churches.
1V1V1V. bui /ding con scrvn tion. a nscbool. nc.uk I
function -trnditio1l-ideology-or-pnt1on
Natassa Ermis Chal\' atzis
( both AA DRL MArch 20n) have
been awarded an honourable mention
in the NEXT STOP-Designing
Chicago BRT Stations competition
with their project KINESIS. The
competition was organised by the
Chicago Architectural Club and
Chicago Architecture Foundation.
The two architects gave an interview
to The Tovima newspaper and they
were also featured in 'The generation
of 2010' issue ofBHMagazino.
www.linnou-cbnlvntzis.com
Luca Peralta (AA DRL MArch 2000)
won the 20 14 MIPIJ\11 Architectural
Review Future Project Awards category
'Old and New'. Luca Peralta Studio's
project 'Transforming Social Houses
into Sociable Homes' was recognised
for its visionary solution for the
regeneration of the abandoned social
housing project, Torre Tintoretto in
San Polo, Brescia, Italy.
'W"cl!W.111 ipimnrjutu1eprojects. com/
wiunen-projects
Jorge Gomeodio Kindelan (AADipl
1991) won the Int erior Innovation
Award at the Rat fUr Formgebung
(German Design Council) awards
for a clothes valet designed at the
AA in I993 His design 'Galan' was also
chosen to form part of the 'Confession
of Design' exhibition organized by
Aussenwirtschaft Austria (Advantage
Austria), which was held at the Rotonda
della Besana in Milan.
W<ll'"cl!. confess ion-of tl esign.com /exbibition
<lY"cJYcl!.gom en diok in d elan. com/en/
intlusuia /-design
Obituaries
Giampietro Parboni Arquati SIA
OTIA REGA (AADipl r982) died in
Davos, Switzerland, on 3 January 20r4
of a brain tumour. Giampietro joined
the AA in 1977, having completed
a first year at Rome University. He
joined Mike Davies and Alan Stanton's
Unit, who had just returned to London
following work on the Centre Georges
Pompidou. Giampietro had learned
English during the preceding summer
in Cambridge, where he met his wife
Si lvia. The unit system was a true
culture shock but one which he took
on with typical commitment and
dedication, joining Zaha Hadid's Unit
in his final year and graduating in 1982.
The Gri d: Overrated I Cartesian I Li nes I New York
After a brief spell working
for Greenhi ll .Jenner Architects in
London, he chose to make his own
way in Switzerland. He married Silvia
and headed for Locarno to join the
studio of Livio Vacchini . Very happy
and professionally fulfi lling times
followed, as he set up his own practice
in Locarno in 1985. Moving to Lugano
in 1990, he completed numerous
projects including private houses,
apartment bui ldings and competition
entries. From 2002 to 2008 he was
responsible for projects in Astana,
Kazakstan, including a hospital and
the headquarters of the Ministry
of Foreign Affairs. In 2009 he worked
on a large project near Caracas, a
riverfront mixed-use complex for a
hotel and apartment buildings.
Giampietro's illness was first
diagnosed in .January 2010 and he made
an almost full recovery returning
to work a year later. In 20 12 he sought
a quieter life and with Silvia decided to
move to the ski resort ofDavos. They
settled in Davos for less than a month
when Giampietro was commissioned
what was to be his last project,
the refurbishment of an important
local hotel. Although he was sti ll
convalescing he took on the challenge
with great enthusiasm and ensured that
the complex renovation was completed
on time. Unfortunately the tumour
returned in 2013 and he spent many
months in and out in hospiml. He
passed away shor tly after the New Year.
All that knew him will remember
and miss his fine humour, his smile,
his welcoming and outgoing character
always interested in hearing one's news.
He addressed his illness with great
optimism, never ceasing to enjoy and
embrace I i fe. Shortly before he died
he said: I would do it all again exactly
in the same way!
Obituary written by Luigi
Beltrandi (AADipl r983)
Lord Alistair McAlpine, who served
as Chairman of the AA Foundation
Trustees from 1989 to 1994 died
on 17 January 20 14 aged 71. For a
glimpse of the colourful life of this
truly eccentric English gent leman,
read his obituary on www.tbcgunnlinn.
comlpoliticsho I 4/)n n!I 9 /lo1d -men/ pine-
of-<vcst-green.
The AA also learnt of the recent deaths
of Bradley Knowles (AADipl 1968) and
Bryan Russell Archer (AADipl 1954).