PREFACE UNIT

Welcome to this Prospectus for the

2009/10
and academic year of the AA School
of Architecture. The following guide offers
an introduction to the incredible diversity
of courses and public programme activities
that make the AA the world’s most global
and influential school. It is divided into
three simple parts: 1) An overview of the
AA, including some of the key features
that make it so unique; 2) AA Schools,
including the full-time undergraduate and
graduate courses located at our historic
home in Bedford Square, London, as
well as our Visiting School held in cities
around the world and 3) Resources and
information about every aspect of the
school, from study to enrolment.
Unit Staff Pont, Lap Heng Fung, Ström, Luke Shixin Tan, Chappell , Mike Halliwell,
Valentin Bontjes van Beek, Madoka Furuhashi, Max Stefania Triantafyllou, Simon Houlden, Marina
David Greene, Samantha Hacke, Lyn Hayek, Yu Won Kassymkhan Ulykbanov Illum, Eva Seljan, Justus van
Hardingham, Nick Puckett Kang, Karl Karam, Ja Kyung der Hoven)
Nathalie Rozencwajg, Kim, Taeho Kim, Digital Workshop
Martina Schäfer Conrad Koslowsky, Saif Jeroen van Ameijde, Monia Fashion Workshop

AA prospectus
Lassas, Stephen Marshall,
Students Harpreet Marway, Eulalia
Eugenia Andersson, Faraz Moran, Francisco de Borja
Anoushahpour, Uliana Muguiro, Elisha Nathoo,
Apatina, Teeba Arain, Nora Nilsen, Aine O’Dwyer,
De Marchi, Claude Ballini,
Christopher Robeller, Adrian
Tung, Michal Ciomek,
Fredrik Hellberg, Kim Diego
Azevedo
Flora McLean, Janice Turner
Thames Hotel Lectures
Dr John Bold, Fergus
Henderson, Holger Kehne,

2009/10
Costantino Balbo Bertone Alex Osei-Bonsu, Jessica
di Sambuy, Frederik Bo Pappalardo, Octave Perrault,
Bojesen, Stefano Branca, Ryan Phanphensophon,
Maria-Panagiota Brewster, Perrine Planché, Kristina
Shu Susan Chai, Jin Chang, Pokrovskaya, Costantino
Hwui Zhi Cheng, Yeuh-Shen Rivetti, Elina Safarova,
Chua, James Kwang-Ho Kayvan Sarvi, Rebecca
Chung, Hussam Dakkak, Spencer, William Stanley,
Artemis Doupa, Gary Du Camille Steyaert, Anna
Brett Steele
Video Workshop
William Firebrace, Nic Thank you to all our visiting
Clear, Dana Behrman, Joel critics
Newman, Jesse Sabatier,
Takanao Todo, Ina Kapitola,
Colin Ashton, Rojia Abadeh,
Jesse Randzio, Students
of Oxford Brookes (Joel

1 Architectural Association School of Architecture

 CONTENTS
aa prospectus 2009/10
2 179
Introduction
33
AA Schools
Undergraduate School
36 Foundation–Open Studio
38 First Year
42 Intermediate
68 Diploma
98 Complementary Studies
100 History and Theory Studies
108 Media Studies
114 Technical Studies
120 Professional/Future Practice
Graduate School
124 Design Research Lab
130 EmTech
134 Histories and Theories
of Architecture
138 Housing and Urbanism
142 Landscape Urbanism
146 Sustainable Environmental
Design
150 Conservation of Historic
Buildings 186 Graduate Admissions
152 PhD Programme
154 AA Interprofessional Studio
156 Design + Make
158 Projective Cities
160 Research Clusters
162 AA Course and Examination
in Architectural Practice
Visiting School
166 Summer School
168 Summer dLab
170 Spring Semester Programme
172 One-Year Abroad
173 Visiting Teachers’ Programme
174 Global Schools
Resources & Information
Resources
180 The AA: Participatory
Democracy
181 Development Office
181 Library
181 Photo Library
182 Computer Room/
Electronic Media Lab
182 Audiovisual Lab
182 AAIR
183 Wood and Metal Workshop
183 Model Workshop
183 Digital Prototyping Lab
183 Hooke Park
184 Maeda Workshop
184 Drawing Materials Shop
184 AA Bookshop
184 Bar & Restaurant
Information
184 Undergraduate Admissions
185 Undergraduate Entry
Requirements
186 Fees
187 Scholarships and Bursaries
188 Required Qualifications
190 Staff List
introduction introduction introduction

Welcome: The Year Ahead

Welcome to this Prospectus for the 2009-10 academic year of the Archi-
tectural Association School of Architecture. The following guide offers an
introduction to the incredible diversity of courses and public programme
activities that make the AA the world’s most global and influential school
of architecture. It is divided into three simple parts: 1) An overview of the
Architectural Association, including some of the key features that make
the AA School so unique; 2) AA Schools, including the full-time under-
graduate and graduate courses located here at our historic home in
Bedford Square, London, as well as our Visiting School held in cities
around the world and 3) Resources and information about every aspect of
participation in the school, from study to enrolment.
Now in its 162nd year, the AA is an incredibly fluid, dynamic and active
learning environment. The school lies at the heart of a global association
of architects and other committed individuals dedicated, in every way
imaginable, to engaging with, and preparing for, the challenges that lie
ahead in the collective futures of our world. By design, this Prospectus
offers only a summary guide to the AA’s activities: the best way to experi-
ence them is through direct participation – whether as a full-time student <brett photo right>
or by joining as an AA Member, by coming to any one of the dozens of
evening lectures, exhibition openings, symposia or other special events
that are open to the public; or by taking part in the many open workshops
that will be held throughout the world this year. Expanding on the Pro-
spectus, countless online and print materials, including a weekly Events
List, will keep you updated on all these activities throughout the year.
The following sections of this introduction will, I hope, provide a sense
of what makes the AA School so unique. It should also give you an idea of
why 2009-10 promises to be a historic year in our continuing work to
make every aspect of the AA better, as a school and as an organisation.
To all of you who are already at the school – whose hard work, intelligent
insight and unbridled talent already lie at the centre of what we do – thank
you. To those of you who have yet to enter our world, I hope the following
Prospectus opens the door to the AA in ways that will encourage you to
become a part of this school, and our world.

Brett Steele
Director, AA School
aaschool.ac.uk, aalog.net, brettsteele.net

2 3
introduction introduction

II. The AA School: A Legacy of Experimentation

Our mission at the AA School isn’t to teach architecture as it is already
known, but rather to create the conditions for new forms of teaching,
working and – above all, thinking and learning – that will ultimately trans-
form architecture in ways not yet fully realised. This has long been the
central ambition of the AA School, which has for decades been home to
the world’s leaders – and leading experimenters – in architecture.
The AA is, at its heart, an experimental school of great independence,
ambition and expectation. As a school, we expect that architecture can
and will be more than it is today; that architecture can and will be an
essential aspect of public and political debates about our collective
futures; and that architecture can and will be central to shaping a better
world for everyone.
The AA is a famously independent educational experiment: we are
self-directed, self-motivated, even self-funded. As the UK’s oldest and
only remaining private school of architecture, it has grown up alongside –
and, to a very great degree helped, shape – the architectural profession.
It is important to stress that the AA School sits entirely outside the state
funding of higher education in the UK, and as a private school – with a
broad commitment to bringing issues of contemporary architecture, cities
and the environment to a large public audience – we are deeply commit-
ted to realising the potential that our independence allows; most espe-
cially, in adapting intelligently to the changing conditions of architecture
at a time when the profession is facing a spectacular range of challenges.
The AA’s independence also means that we able to push boundaries,
test new ideas and promote new ways of teaching and learning. The AA
takes immense pride in the opportunities that our organisation and
governance present. As a small and independent school located at the
heart of the world’s most international and multicultural city, the AA is
unique in at least three important ways. Firstly, we are by far the world’s
most international school of architecture, with nearly 90 per cent of our
full-time students and nearly as many of our teachers coming to the AA
from abroad. Secondly, we organise ourself around two distinct kinds of
activities, both of which are of immense value to our students and staff:
our formal courses and programmes, and our Public Programme of
evening lectures, symposia, exhibitions and publication launches –the
world’s largest year-round series of public events dedicated to contempo-
rary architectural culture. Thirdly, there is the famous pedagogical basis
for the school itself: our ‘unit’ system of teaching and learning in which, in
various ways, all of our students participate as the foundation for the
experimental forms of teaching that remain the hallmark of the AA.

Above: Frank Lloyd Wright outside the AA

Below: John Hejduk’s Collapse of Time, Bedford Square

4 5
introduction introduction

III. New Academic Units, Staff and Programmes

Over the past four years, the Office of the Director at the AA School has
brought in dozens of new teachers and lecturers to work in every part of
our undergraduate and graduate courses – talented and committed
architects and lecturers who are now taking the school forward in these
early years of the twenty-first century. The AA’s independence and organ-
isational structure enables the Director’s Office to make swift and target-
ed changes to existing parts of the school. It allows for the identification
of new challenges and opportunities, the launching of new academic
intiatives and the invention of entirely new kinds of educational experi-
ments, all of which figure prominently in our school today.
Like our student body, our academic staff have been attracted to the
unique opportunities at the AA and have come to London from across
Europe, Asia, Latin and North America, adding to the uniquely global
forms of architectural knowledge that make the AA School such a distinc-
tive voice in architectural education. Many of our new AA teachers have
moved here to combine practice with teaching small, focused and self-
selected groups of students. In 2009/10 many more new teachers, design
units and academic staff will join us, further enhancing the incredible
diversity of talent, agendas and experiences that make up our school.
The relaunch and redesign of our traditional AA Foundation Course
continues with the appointment of William Martyr, Takako Hasagawa and
Matthew Butcher as Studio Tutors, who this year will join Studio Master
Saskia Lewis. All three of our new tutors are experienced teachers with
important careers as artists. Their works and exhibitions will open up
great opportunities for further growing the interdisciplinary arts orienta-
tion of the course, which is aimed at UK year-out students as well as
mid-career individuals contemplating further education in architecture or
other creative, arts fields.
In our Undergraduate School, we are pleased to announce the launch
of several new units and the appointment of new teachers at every level of
the five-year ARB/RIBA accredited AA Diploma Course, which is the
historic home and centre of AA life.
In First Year, the departure of Nick Puckett (who leaves us to take up a
professorship in architecture and robotics back home in the US) has been
met with the appointment of Robert Stuart-Smith, a young London-based
Australian architect and founder of Kokkugia. The work of Robert and his
collaborators is emerging as a leading force in a generation of young
network- and computation-oriented architectural offices. Histories and
Theories in First Year will be taught by Maria Fedorchenko, who taught in
the First Year Studio last spring, in a new experimental format designed
to more closely relate the studio projects and agendas to a contemporary
culture of architecture ideas.
In the AA Intermediate School, I am pleased to announce that this
year will see the opening up of dedicated studio space for all of our Sec- Above: Maeda Workshop exhibition
ond and Third Year students. A slight increase in student numbers, Below: Working in the AA’s Ching’s Yard modelshop

6 7
introduction introduction

together with the departure of Intermediate Units 1 and 8 to the Diploma

School, has allowed us to bring in a total of five new units this year. Inter
Unit 1, led by Mark Campbell and Deane Simpson, will begin a three-year
investigation of land-, sea- and air-based infrastructural networks. Mark
knows the AA well and has taught Histories and Theories courses with us
in recent years, developing interests related to his PhD work at Princeton,
while Deane comes to the AA from the ETH Zurich, where he relocated a
few years ago from New York. Inter Unit 8, led by Francisco Gonzales de
Canales and Nuria Alvarez Lombardero, will explore the skin and surface
aspects of urban architecture in a politically charged context, working on
the iconic Ministry of Internal Affairs building in Havana, Cuba. Francisco
continues in his role as a curator in AACP, and Nuria is already known to
the school through her studies in the AA Graduate School, and both
continue as partners of an office they run in Spain, where they have
completed important, beautiful, new buildings. Inter Unit 11 is led by Theo
Sarantoglou Lalis, who joins the AA from Brussels, where his architec-
tural office ASY.EU is located. Together with Dora Sweijd he will lead a
unit focusing on the rich potential for experimentation within the residual
spaces of the contemporary European metropolis. Sam Jacob is Unit
Master and Tom Klasssnik Unit Tutor of a new Inter Unit 12, which this
year will focus on Pop Vernacular, or the idea of architecture as a media
form. Sam is a partner and founder of the well-known office and collective
FAT, working increasingly on buildings, exhibitions, installations and other
events that engage architecture in a larger (public) culture of fashion and
art. The final new unit to be launched in the Intermediate School in
2009/10 is Inter Unit 13, led by Miraj Ahmed. Miraj is a long-time, suc-
cessful director of our Foundation Course, and is well known to many
former Foundation students who have gone on to study in other parts of
the school. Martin Jameson, an AA Dipl Honours winner who graduated
from the school two years ago, will assist Miraj this year, on an agenda
that will explore spatiality and subjectivity as part of a brief for London.
Paralleling new courses and lecturers in Histories and Theories and
Media Studies, our new Intermediate School Technical Studies Master,
Wolfgang Frese, will be bringing important new adjustments to the
courses and topics of Technical Studies this year. Alongside these five
new units, Inter Unit 5 Master Stefano Rabolli Pansera will be joined by
longtime Media Studies tutor and former Unit Master Goswin Schwend-
inger, working on an agenda that focuses on performance as the basis for
architectural knowledge, learning and argumentation. Inter Unit 6 Master
Jonathan Dawes will be Dagobert Bergmans, founder of Pool Ruimte voor
Architectuur en Stedebouw, and Unit Tutor Fumiko Kato, currently a
director of Flowspace Architecture, with projects in Japan and the UK.
The AA’s successful Inter Unit 2, led by Charles Walker and Martin Self,
will shift its attention in dramatic new ways away from their well-known
summer pavilion project to the design and making of a caretaker’s house,
the first of the new structures at the AA’s Hooke Park campus in Dorset, Inter 2 Pavilion under construction at Hooke Park

8 9
introduction introduction

where their small unit of eight students will be based for the second half
of the academic year. Alongside these five new units and three new
partnerships, please also look carefully at our five other established
Intermediate Units, which are already doing great work and which this
year will be pursuing new briefs for projects located worldwide as part of
an incredibly diverse range of unit agendas, aims and interests.
A similarly exciting evolution in the personalities, projects and peda-
gogies of our AA Diploma School lies ahead for 2009/10. As previously
mentioned, two of our Intermediate Units from recent years move over to
the Diploma School to begin multi-year agendas. Marianne Mueller and
Olaf Kneer transfer the success of their ‘Mineral Architecture’ interests to
our new Diploma Unit 1, where they will continue their focus on architec-
tural form-making as a basis for articulating relationships between
physical formation and human processes. Mueller Kneer Architects are
placed at the forefront of young architects in the UK, and the unit’s pursuit
of measured drawings alongside digital modelling and architectural
economy offers a valuable addition to the Diploma School. Diploma Unit
8, led by Eugene Han and Chris Yoo, will develop their investigation into
logical frameworks, geometric infrastructures and architecture, working
on the peculiar, complex realities of the former coal-mining centre of
Hashima Island in Japan. A new Diploma Unit 4 launches, taught by John
Palmesino and Ann-Sofi Ronnskog, who in recent years have been at the
ETH Studio Basel institute of urban research headed by Jacques Herzog
and Pierre de Meuron. Their interest in the political and spatial structures
of Europe will be grounded in a unit brief exploring the coastline of Europe
from St Petersburg to Athens. Diploma Unit 5 will be led by Cristina Díaz
Moreno and Efrén Garcia Gínda, founders and partners of the well-known
office Cero9 in Madrid. The unit will explore nature as a cultural, concep-
tual and technical context for architecture. Finally, a new Diploma Unit 14
led by Pier Vittorio Aureli will take as its theme the design of an ‘Immeuble
Cité’ – a large-scale building with a critical mass comparable to that of
the city, spanning across the infrastructural landscape of northwestern
Europe. Pier Vittorio, who is a longtime studio teacher and head of the
PhD programme at the Berlage Institute in Rotterdam, is already familiar
to the students and staff of the AA as a lecturer in Diploma School Histo-
ries and Theories.
Alongside these new units and teachers, we are pleased also to note
the appointment of Tristan Simmonds, a structural engineer and founding
member of Arup AGU, as joint Unit Master of Diploma Unit 13, working
with Oliver Domiesen on an agenda that will explore the unrealised poten-
tial of contemporary architectural ornament. Together with these three
new units, two relocated units and one new unit partnership, nine other
established Diploma Units offer new contexts, agendas and briefs as part
of our much-expanded diversity of architectural experience, ambition and
experience. Above: Inter 2’s completed ‘Driftwood’ pavilion, 2009
Below: AAIS salon conversations, 2009

10 11
introduction introduction

In our AA Graduate School new studio, seminar and workshop staff

join nearly every programme. Carrying forward her spring-time appoint-
ment to the design studio of the DRL Design Research Lab, Marta Malé-
Alemany returns to lead a studio of Phase 2 Design Thesis teams and to
work with a new cycle of 2009/10 Phase 1 students. Christina Doumpioti
joins the EmTech programme as a Studio Master, while Evan Greenberg
and Kostis Karatzas are new Studio Tutors helping to support the existing
academic staff, including longtime EmTech Studio Master Achim Meng-
es, who will participate in a visiting role at key times during the year. In the
Histories and Theories programme Director Martina Lathouri is continu-
ing an important project of transforming the course and its enquiry into
new forms of architectural knowledge and research, with an emphasis on
writing as a critical practice of architectural thinking. Dominic Papa
returns to the AA’s Housing and Urbanism programme, which is con-
cerned with the interplay of urbanism, space and the political processes
of the city. The Landscape Urbanism programme is pleased to announce
the appointment of the landscape architect Tom Smith, who through his
work at EDAW has been involved in many of Europe’s leading projects and
masterplans. Tom takes over in the role of Studio Master following the
departure of longtime course master Sandra Morris, who leaves the AA to
pursue her PhD studies and independent research as a garden and
landscape historian.
2009/10 also sees the launch of the first full academic year of our new
AAIS Interprofesional Studio course directed by Theo Lorenz, which
began life only six months ago with a first cycle of students from across
creative fields related to architecture. AAIS has already realised a major
installation and performance in Jena, Germany, as well as a successful
Salon Series of cross-disciplinary conversations here at the AA. Each
season the programme is organised around the realisation of a specific
installation, performance or other public project that allows for the explo-
ration of collaborative methods of design, teaching and learning. Finally,
in the AA’s renowned Sustainable Environmental Design programme,
Programme Director Simos Yannas and existing course staff will be
joined by new Studio Master Joana Soares Gonçalves and new Studio
Tutors including Gustavo Brunelli, Jorge Rodriquez Alvarez, Alberto
Moletto and Barak Pelman.
Alongside these and many other smaller adjustments to the structur-
ing of our undergraduate and graduate courses, there are other important
announcements to make regarding our staff and spaces in 2009/10. I am
immensely pleased to announce the appointment and return to the AA of
Charles Tashima, a London-based architect and former Diploma and
Intermediate Unit Master who will work out of the Director’s Office as the
Academic Head of the AA School. Charles both knows the AA well and
brings to us a wide range of academic and professional experience gained
in other settings. He has already taken up his post and in the coming year Above: Plywood panels from Inter 9’s milling workshop
will work to provide support, guidance and advice to students and staff Below: First Year Open Day 2008

12 13
introduction diploma honours introduction

across the school. Charles takes over from Mike Weinstock, who steps 2008/09
away from his former role as Academic Head to focus not only on his
ongoing role as Director of the AA’s EmTech programme but also on a
new role as the AA Head of Research and Development, working from the
AA School Director’s Office to secure academic and research funding for
programmes and units across the entire AA School, in close collaboration
with Esther McLaughlin, Head of the AA Development Office.
Existing Inter 2 Unit Master Martin Self has been appointed the
first-ever Head of Hooke Park and the Director of the AA’s new MArch
Design + Make programme, which will launch in the 2010/11 academic
year. The programme’s teaching and learning will initially be focused on
the realisation of alternative architectures as part of the AA’s Strategic
Vision for Hooke Park. AA staff and students will make a new rural cam-
pus at Hooke that will dramatically expand the potential of the site not just
for the entire AA community, but for local and regional communities as
well. The architectural office of the AA’s Carlos Villanueva Brandt, Diplo-
ma Unit 10 Master, was appointed in 2009 to lead a group of consultants
on the preparation of an outline design concept and the supporting
material required to undertake the expansion of existing workshop,
teaching and accommodation facilities at Hooke. The process will carry
forward this year with the making of a planning application, the launch of
the new Hooke-based academic programme and the securing of addi-
tional funding so as to make the AA’s ambitions realisable.
In other areas, we are pleased to confirm the appointment of Javier
Castañon as Technical Studies Master in the Diploma School, and Wolf-
gang Frese as Technical Studies Master in the Intermediate School. Both
will apply years of experience at the AA to bringing Technical Studies
projects, courses and tutorials forward this year. In tandem with these
appointments, our administrative staff has grown in both size and experi-
ence to better support the academic lives of our students and staff.
Against this background, all of us at the AA are looking forward to a year
that will include a wealth of new and exciting teachers, academic projects
and special events.

Clockwise from top: Edmund Fowles, Diploma Unit 10, Tarek

Shamma, Diploma Unit 9, Adam Johnston, Diploma Unit 13.

14 15
introduction Student awards introduction

and prizes 2008/09

10 11

1 2 3

12 13

4 5
14 15

6 7
16 17

8
9 18 19

1. Gergely Kovacs, Diploma Unit 15, William Glover Bequest;
2. Edith Wunsch, Intermediate Unit 9, Alex Stanhope
Forbes Prize; 3. Yifan Liu, Diploma Unit 6, Henry Florence
Studentship; 4. Ragnhildur Kristjansdottir, Diploma
Unit 2, AA Travel Studentship; 5. George Alastair Barer,
Intermediate Unit 1, Alexander Memorial Travel Fund;
6. You Jin Calvin Chua, Intermediate Unit 4, AA Travel
Studentship; 7. Max Hacke, Intermediate Unit 3, Alexander
Memorial Travel Fund; 8. Fabrizio Matillana, Diploma Unit 2,
Howard Colls Studentship; 9. Rory Pennant-Rea, Diploma
Unit 10, Henry Saxon Snell Scholarship.
10. Scrap Marshall, Intermediate Unit 1, Ralph Knott
Memorial Fund; 11. Antonia Papamichael, First Year, AA
Prize; 12. Atsushi Iwata, Diploma Unit 11, Holloway Trust;
13. Marco Ginex, Diploma Unit 9, AA Prize; 14. Claus
Loebner, Diploma Unit 13, Holloway Trust; 15. Uliana
Apatina, Intermediate Unit 10, The Nicholas Boas Travel
Scholarship; 16. William Paul, Foundation, Holloway Trust;
17. Alma Wang, Intermediate Unit 3, The Nicholas Boas
Travel Scholarship; 18. Phung Hieu Minh Van, Foundation,
Julia Wood Foundation Prize; 19. Harri Williams-Jones, First
Year, The Nicholas Boas Travel Scholarship.

16 17
introduction introduction

IV. The AA School: Full-time London and Part-time Global

Visiting Schools
The AA’s five-year ARB/RIBA accredited AA undergraduate programme
leads to an AA Diploma and Parts 1 and 2 of the UK qualification as an
architect. This part of the school also includes an associated, full-time
Foundation Course for those contemplating studying in architecture or
associated creative fields at the AA or elsewhere. The focus of our under-
graduate students’ academic lives are the units, which involve year-long
design teaching and learning alongside associated Complementary
Studies courses. The AA Graduate School is accredited by the Open
University in the UK, and encompasses eight programmes that last one or
more years in graduate design or other specialised courses of study. Our
Conservation of Historic Buildings and AA Interprofessional Studio in the
Graduate School both offer options for part-time study; all other under-
graduate and graduate programmes are full-time.
In 2009, among our 600 full-time students in London, the ratio of
undergraduate to graduate students is approximately two to one. While
admission to all parts of our full-time courses is very competitive, all
interested prospective students are encouraged to visit the school and to
make an application in the knowledge that what the AA seeks above all
are self-motivated students who are able to bring with them interesting
personal, professional and other academic qualities that will allow them
to contribute to a school filled with like-minded students and staff.
The AA Visiting School was formalised and expanded in early 2008 by
the Office of the Director of the School, as the global extension of the
school’s historic and influential forms of teaching and learning in London.
In less than two years the Visiting School has arranged short design
workshop courses in two dozen cities worldwide, allowing AA tutors,
partners and outside teaching staff to come together to do work on
important projects and problems related to the challenges of contempo-
rary architecture, urbanism, culture and the environment. In Dubai,
Istanbul, Turin, Singapore, Shanghai, Tel Aviv, Berlin, Pagu Book City and
Daejon in Korea, Madrid, AA tutors have directed intensive two-week
design studios which have attracted students from around the world. In
2009/10 the AA Visiting School, which includes established summer,
springtime and year-long options in our main AA School, will add to this
roster Visiting Schools in Santiago, Beijing, Bangalore and other destina-
tions, as part of this key effort by the AA to reach out to creative partners,
students and teachers worldwide.

AA Shanghai Summer School, 2008

18 19
introduction introduction

IV. The AA in Bedford Square: An Architectural Project for an

Architectural School
In 2009/10, the AA will be carrying forward a transformation of our
historic home in Bedford Square in London’s vibrant West End. This work
is part of a long-term strategic plan, led by the Director of the School,
which seeks to create far-reaching improvements to the learning resourc-
es of the entire Architectural Association in the coming years.
The AA has been located on the west side of Bedford Square, Lon-
don’s last-remaining intact Georgian Square, since the early years of the
twentieth century. Today the surrounding area of Bloomsbury is recog-
nised as Europe’s single-largest academic precinct. It not only includes
some of the UK’s largest and best-known research universities, but also
serves as the home for leading independent academic institutions and as
the European headquarters for many overseas universities, colleges and
schools. In addition, the neighbourhood contains major cultural institu-
tions such as the British Museum.
A range of new teaching, learning, staff and other facilities have
recently been put in place or are planned as part of our works throughout
this year. These include, most importantly, a massive new expansion of
student studio space in the 4 Morwell Street building, which will provide
dedicated studio space for our Intermediate School. Elsewhere, new
studio, teaching and staff places have been prepared in two other newly
acquired buildings – at 39 Bedford Square and 16 Morwell Street – which
form part of our Bedford Square Campus.
At the time of writing negotiations continue to progress on two other
additional properties that will, if acquired, will allow the AA to finalise a
plan for the consolidation and ultimate expansion of campus facilities to
better serve the entire AA. Importantly, and for the first time in the mod-
ern history of the school, this long-term strategic vision is based upon a
single, simple, core idea: that all elements of the school, including all
students, staff, visitors, public programme spaces, membership activity
and event venues, should be located together in a single, contiguous
campus.
A next stage in realising this strategic vision is already underway. A
2009 consultation across the entire AA School and Association is intend-
ed to deliver, by the early part of 2010, a definitive client brief with which
the AA will seek out design talent in order to prepare a masterplan for our
campus, which will integrate and interconnect improved public pro-
gramme, teaching/learning and staff spaces. During the coming months
and years all members of the AA will be actively encouraged – as part of
the participatory democracy that is essential to our organisation – to be
involved in providing the kinds of feedback, ideas and aims through which
the AA can better define its future Bedford Square campus.

Above: the AA Photo Library

Below: Mini City Summer School

20 21
introduction
Above: Le Corbusier at the AA exhibition, 2008
Below: Architectural Machines symposium, 2009
22
introduction
V. AA Student Projects: A Legacy of Units, Collaboration and
Experimentation
The modern and contemporary history of the AA School is bound up in the
incredible legacy of architectural personalities, projects and pedagogies
that have emerged from within the school during the past half century,
and which have gone on to shape the architectural profession, and archi-
tectural culture more broadly, throughout the world.
When we consider that three of the past decade’s recipients of the
Pritzker Prize are AA graduates from a brief, intense 17-year period during
the 1960 and 70s – Richard Rogers (AA’60), Rem Koolhaas (AA’72) and
Zaha Hadid (AA’77) – we realise that our small, independent school has
fostered remarkable architectural careers and personalities. The AA has
long been a home for some of the most experimental advances in archi-
tectural education, teaching and learning, hosting countless avant-gardes
– from the thinking of Cedric Price or the seminal group Archigram in the
1960s, to the provocative NATO collective of the 1980s, to the formalised,
team-based experimentation across electronic design networks begun
with the formation of the DRL in the 1990s. For decades the school has
been the place where young architectural interests and agendas have
been given space to establish themselves, seek audiences, and mature
into the kinds of projects and careers that gain worldwide recognition.
Past AA Prospectuses are where architects can go to find the origins
of many of the ways of thinking that spawned some of the great archi-
tects, designers and educators of our time, from the experimentation with
classical and pre-modern architecture described in the units of Leo Krier
in the 1970s, to the studios seeking a new kind of metropolitan architec-
ture led by Elias Zenghelis and his former student and collaborator Rem
Koolhaas. During a period when it was directed by Alvin Boyarsky, one of
the twentieth-century’s leading architectural educators, the AA School
was a hive of experimentation and invention, with teachers like Jan Ka-
plicky, Ron Herron, Bernard Tschumi, Nigel Coates, Zaha Hadid, Peter
Cook and many others laying out agendas for work and careers that would
unfold over the past quarter-century.
Today this legacy of invention runs strong in a school that is commit-
ted not only to new kinds of architectural projects, practices and ideas but
also to an open experimentation with the many new ways of working and
thinking architecture. Our era has been transformed not just by the
realities of globalised economies and forms of practice, but by fundamen-
tal changes to the organisation of architectural studios and design net-
works, based on an increasingly collaborative, multidisciplinary approach.
Today the AA seeks to openly embrace, confront and transform the
conditions of architectural practice and culture – as well the very idea of
how an architectural school should be organised, operated and inhabited
in an era of great change.
At the heart of the AA’s exploration of new approaches lies our belief
that architecture will be transformed one project at a time. The school’s
23
introduction introduction

famed ‘unit’ system of teaching is built around a few, simple challenges to

a conventional school of architecture. We believe that:
1) Students learn best by working in small, highly focused groups
around a single tutor or team for an entire year. The expectation is that
our students can best direct their own path through a school that offers an
intense diversity of possible paths; at the AA, our students assume a
great part of the responsibility for defining their own future through their
selection of a specific unit (in the undergraduate school) or programme
(in the graduate school).
2) AA learning is project- and portfolio-driven. At the AA, our stu-
dents learn architecture and address the broad spectrum of associated
professional and political issues by embedding these realities within the
scope of a single, resolved, design portfolio. The AA remains deeply
committed to the pursuit of architectural learning by doing – by the
making of design projects (or in the case of some specialised graduate
programmes, dissertations). This process can best be witnessed visiting
the school: at any one time its studios are filled with countless ‘live spac-
es’ or projects at various stages of testing, prototyping, interrogation or
presentation.
3) Collective assessment and enquiry. The AA School’s unit system of
year-long teaching and learning is unique not only in its emphasis on the
close collaboration of small groups of students and tutors, but also in the
way student projects are assessed at the end of the academic year –
across a panel of tutors, who together determine the relative success of
any given project and portfolio. The AA undergraduate end-of-year review
panels, as well as our graduate school’s double-marking of design studio
results, ensures that our students’ work is seen and socialised across the
school, as part of a process that counterbalances the emphasis on the
autonomy and independence of each design unit, course or programme.
Taken together, these unique features of the AA’s internal organisa-
tion help account for how a small and independent school such as ours
can so consistently define the conditions for the emergence of unexpect-
ed and promising new architectural agendas. Year in and year out, the AA
School continues to be a unique learning environment formed not only by
the global range of experiences and expectations of the staff and stu-
dents who inhabit it, but also by the unparalleled soft academic infra-
structures that encourage individual experimentation and the communi-
cating of these new discoveries to countless audiences.

Above: F R Yerbury at the AA in the 1950s

Below: Pengium exhibition, AA Bar, 2009

24 25
introduction introduction

VI. AA Public Programme

One of the most remarkable resources of the AA, and one that sits entirely
outside the formal coursework of the school, is the AA Public Programme,
a year-long collection of evening lectures, exhibitions, publications, open
workshops, symposia, performances and other events by which the AA
seeks to create new audiences for architectural ideas, projects and
practices. Each year the AA brings to London dozens of the world’s
leading architects, artists, designers, scholars and others, as part of its
global mission to operate at the forefront of contemporary culture.
The AA Public Programme, coordinated by the AA School Director’s
Office, has grown in recent years to include not only established activities
in our lecture halls and exhibition galleries but also design competitions,
music performances and other activities. We have expanded the planning
and coordination of the activities through the research cluster initiative as
well as through the formation of AACP Critical Projects and Cultural
Practices, headed by Shumon Basar, which has overseen major exhibi-
tions and other special events.
Lecturers during the past year have included architects and others at
all stages of their careers. Last spring we saw Denise Scott Brown
(AA’52) and Robert Venturi, the Belgian architect Pierre Hebbelinck, the
American architectural curator and write Aaron Levy, Hanif Kara, Phyllis
Lambert, Greg Lynn, Michael Silver and Kelly Shannon. Autumn evening
lectures were given by Jorg Heiser, Ingo Niermann, Sam Jacob, Detlef
Mertins, Iwan Baan, Peter Cook, Paul Nakazawa, Bernard Cache and
Lars Spuybroek, among others.
In recent years the AA’s Public Programme has played host to the
architectural world’s leading thinkers, practitioners and teachers, with
lectures by Rem Koolhaas, Beatriz Colomina, Mark Wigley, Ben van
Berkel, Ross Lovegrove, Hella Jongerius, Nicolas Bourriaud, Hal Foster,
Charles Jencks, Rafael Moneo, Peter Murray, Claude Parent, Bernard
Tschumi, Jeffrey Kipnis, Zaha Hadid, Karl Chu, Julia Peyton Jones, Ken
Frampton, David Greene, Jan de Cock, Peter Bouchain, Eric Own Moss,
Stan Allen, Robert Somol, Sarah Whiting, Felicity Scott, Toyo Ito, Kengo
Kuma, Jürg Conzett, Peter Saville, Cistiano Toraldo di Francia/Super-
studio, Madelon Vriesendorp, Joseph Rykwert, Keller Easterling, Ryan
Gander, Norman Klein, Joris Laarmann, Francois Roche, Catherine
Ingraham, Sylvia Lavin and many, many, others. This year the AA will
again bring a host of visitors to the school to give evening lectures and, in
many cases, participate in juries and workshops.
Another essential component of the school’s commitment to creating
public audiences for contemporary architecture is its Exhibitions pro-
gramme. In 2009/10 we will again arrange a dozen exhibitions at the AA
School, including this autumn’s major retrospective of the 1960s and
1970s architectural avant-garde, curated by AA School Director Brett
Steele and Francisco Gonzalez de Canales. The show brings together
A selection of AA Publications from 2008/09

26 27
introduction introduction

seminal first works by 20 iconic architectural figures including Aldo Rossi,

Robert Venturi, Cedric Price, Michael Webb, Renzo Piano, Norman Foster
& Richard Rogers, Zaha Hadid, Stephen Holl and Jacques Herzog/Pierre
de Meuron. In doing so it focuses on a topic that is once again crucial to
architectural culture: namely, how careers begin at the vital moment when
young students leave school to embark on a lifetime of architectural work,
invention and experimentation. Alongside this there will be a major,
multi-year retrospective of the AA’s own Diploma Unit 10 led by Carlos
Villanueva Brandt, and another exhibition featuring a collaborative project
by AA DRL Co-Director Theo Spyrolopus and the artist Kristof Wodizco.
In addition, the AA will host a show featuring work by the renowned Italian
designer Enzo Mari and a group of artists recently commissioned to
realise a seminal 1970s visionary project for the ‘self-build’ of design
products, as well as another major springtime exhibition curated by Brett
Steele and AA Art Director Zak Kyes titled ‘BoOMA: The Books of OMA’
– a survey of more than 30 years of the published output of one of the
world’s most important architectural offices, encompassing hundreds of
examples of architectural books and catalogues.
Work is well underway for another exciting year for AA Publications,
with nearly two dozen books already in production. In addition to major
monographs for three of this year’s exhibitions, we are working on a next
cycle of our innovative AA Words and AA Agendas series. Four new
volumes this year in our Words series includes translations of essays by
the great mid-twentieth-century designer and educator Max Bill; a collec-
tion of political essays by the French theorist Bernard Cache; and collec-
tions of essays by Japan’s Toyo Ito and the American historian Detlef
Mertins. The AA Agendas series, dedicated to documenting the work of
our units and research clusters for a worldwide readership, will include
titles on the AA’s Inter Unit 2 pavilion projects, the 2008 DRL pavilion
competition and the work of AA Diploma Unit 14 led by Theo Lorenz and
Peter Straub. In an exciting development for this series, the AA will open
up the format for forthcoming volumes, seeking proposals that will cap-
ture some of the incredible depth and diversity of our student projects for
new, distant audiences. Alongside these series we will see two new issues
of AA Files, edited by Thomas Weaver, in a format that gives new life to
this long-running journal, as well as other one-off books, including one on
architectural editing that features contributions from 20 of the world’s
leading editors, and is itself edited by AA PhD student Kirk Wooler.
Alongside 2009’s launch of the AA Bookshop managed by Charlotte
Newman, the publication, exhibition, evening lecture and other public
activities at the AA are essential aspects of a key conviction at the AA –
that our job is not just to shape young architectural talent that will contrib-
ute to leading the future of architecture, but also to create new public
architectural audiences through which architectural culture will itself be
Above: Heather Lyons presents her 2008/09 AAIS work
Below: Le Corbusier at the AA symposium, 2008
communicated and carried forward.

28
introduction introduction

VI. The AA, Inc: A Unique Architectural Environment

The AA School is the core activity and cultural centre of the larger Archi-
tectural Association, which currently includes more than 3,000 members
worldwide who join us in helping to shape the future of one of the world’s
great organisations dedicated to promoting, discussing and debating the
conditions of architectural practice, learning and education.
The AA was established more than 160 years ago by two young
architectural apprentices, initially as a public forum and learned society.
Within a few years of its founding, the AA established itself as an impor-
tant space for the presentation and discussion of new architectural ideas,
attracting such illuminaries as John Ruskin, who visited the AA to give
lectures on the conditions of a newly industrialised modern world and the
challenges this presented to young architects and designers.
More than half a century passed before the AA evolved from offering
part-time evening courses to become the country’s first full-time, profes-
sional day school in architecture, providing one of the first professional
diplomas in architecture in Europe. The AA grew steadily throughout the
first half of the twentieth century and on the occasion of its centenary in
1948 became, for the first time ever, a school of more than 500 students
– a size still close to its current enrolment of 600. What has changed
most dramatically over the past half century has been the demographics
of the AA, which today makes it not only the architectural world’s most
international membership organisation, but also the world’s most interna-
tional school of architecture.
As the AA School goes forward in these early years of the twenty-first
century, all of us involved in the AA are committed to advancing both our
historical mission as well as our ongoing commitment to transforming
architecture and its potential everywhere. We actively seek out new
members who will join us in this project, and continue to welcome any and
all enquiries by those interested in helping us make the AA the world’s
most unique environment for the learning and promotion of architecture.

Above: Barkow Leibinger exhibition, 2009

Below: AKT at Work exibition, 2009

30 31
introduction

Above: Introduction Week picnic, 2008

Below: AA graduation ceremony, 2008

32
 AA schools

undergraduate
graduate
visiting
undergraduate undergraduate undergraduate

school
The AA Undergraduate School is a RIBA/ARB- accredited five-year,
full-time course of studies in architecture leading to the AA Intermediate
Examination (RIBA/ARB Part 1) and AA Final Examination (RIBA/ARB
Part 2). Students join the school in October and attend three terms of
study concluding the following July. Applications are accepted for admis-
sion to Years 1 to 4, depending on prior experience. For students who do
not have an extensive visual or design background, the AA Foundation–
Open Studio provides an opportunity to explore, and prepare for, a univer-
sity-based course in architecture or the arts.
The Undergraduate School is divided into three distinct parts: First
Year, Intermediate School (Second and Third Years), and Diploma School
(Fourth and FIfth Years). First Year is organised as a studio-based pro-
gramme of design projects undertaken with a group of teachers, exposing
students to a range of interests, skills and knowledge. In the Intermediate
and Diploma Schools independent units pursue their own highly individual
year-long design agendas addressing contemporary architectural and
urban projects, culture and programmes. Work within First Year and the
undergraduate units is supported by Complementary Studies courses in
History and Theory, Technical, Media and Professional Studies.

First Year studio

Photo Valerie Bennett

34 35
undergraduate Foundation
The Foundation course offers a year-
long introduction to an art and design-
based education. It allows students to
develop their ideas through experimen-
tation with a wide range of media and
opens pathways towards a variety of
creative disciplines from fine art to
architecture. Students are taught in a
studio environment that fosters both
individual and group projects. Drawing
on a number of pedagogical practices,
experienced tutors and visiting practi-
tioners, Foundation offers a unique
cross-disciplinary education within an
architectural institution.
All great deeds and all great thoughts
have a ridiculous beginning. Great works
are often born on a street corner
or in a restaurant’s revolving door.
– Albert Camus
Do it Yourself
Inspired by the interactive installations
of Robert Morris and the imagined
characters in Cindy Sherman’s Film Still
series, this year will explore scale, site,
scenario and identity. The Foundation
cohort will feature as both makers and
players during the year.
Tool-up
The first term will encourage students
to discipline themselves to observe,
research, explore, analyse and experi-
ment by providing a series of work-
Foundation Master
Saskia Lewis
Studio Staff
Matthew Butcher
undergraduate
Takako Hasegawa
William Martyr
shops, exercises and discussions that
serve as an introduction to the methods
and skills used in visual and verbal
analysis and representation. Students
will develop their strategies through
photography, drawing, painting, model-
making, casting, mapping, material
studies, form and structure. The second
term will extend investigations with
respect to both scale and dialogue by
investigating the body in place, looking
at site and performance. Workshops
will explore pattern-cutting, costume,
weaving, textiles, performance, lighting
and filmmaking. The third term will
concentrate on using these techniques
to develop a self-generated series of
explorations and discoveries.
Know Your Place
A series of trips will invite students
to broaden their personal references
to culture and context, taking the form
of audio tours across London, gallery
visits, residential stays in Hooke Park
and a trip to Paris. Introductory lectures
in history and theory will encourage
a provocative dialogue among the
students while talks from visiting artists
will offer personal insights into a range
of practices. Alongside studio and
workshop exploration, students will be
encouraged to develop and identify
their own intellectual ambitions within
and beyond the boundaries of their
direct experience and context.

Foundation Master
Saskia Lewis has taught
at the AA since 2001
and also teaches at the
Bartlett School of
Architecture. She is
co-author and photographer
of Architectural Voices:
Listening to Old Buildings,
published by Wiley Academy
in October 2007.
Studio Staff
Matthew Butcher runs his
own practice, Post Works,
whose work has been widely
published and exhibited.
He recently designed a
set for choreographer
Rosemary Butcher and
the 2008 Dance Umbrella
festival, and he teaches at
Nottingham University.
Takako Hasegawa was
born in Tokyo and educated
at the AA. Working on the
periphery of architecture,
art and performance, her
interests focus on the
ordinary and everyday.
A photographer and
installation artist, she also
teaches at Chelsea College
of Art & Design.
Will Martyr is an artist
and graduate of the Slade
School of Fine Art, the
New York Studio School
of Drawing, Painting and
Sculpture and the Royal
College of Art, London.
His work features in many
private and corporate
collections worldwide.
Vasiliki Antonopoulou, Body Survey, 2009

36 37
undergraduate first year
Imagine yourself as a First Year stu-
dent. You are an explorer of a planet we
might call architecture. Your task is to
find the things you need to pack for this
journey. There are some things we all
need, and others that only you think you
need. There is a lot to pack for a journey
without a clear destination.
  The First Year at the AA introduces
students to architectural design, critical
thinking and experimental ways of
working, with an emphasis on preparing
young architects for the challenges
facing the profession in the twenty-first
century. In recent years architectural
practice, learning and knowledge have
been transformed by the arrival of new
communication and information tech-
nologies which continue to change what
it means to be an architect.
The AA’s First Year programme
addresses this challenge by preparing
students for the complexities of the
professional, critical and cultural
activities associated with architectural
innovation and experimentation today.
Each year young students from around
the world come to the AA and, joining
those who have spent an initial year
in the AA’s Foundation Unit, begin the
five-year AA Diploma Course. In First
Year students gain knowledge, skills
and experience in a strategically diverse
range of design ideas, agendas and
interests from which they begin to form
their own architectural identities and
personalities. The year is organised
around the combination of a year-long
Design Studio, Technical Studies,
History & Theory Studies and Media
Studies. Together these courses lead
to the preparation of a portfolio of the
year’s work, the successful completion
of which becomes the basis for en-
trance into the AA Intermediate School.
38
First Year Staff
Valentin Bontjes van Beek
Tobias Klein
Robert Stuart-Smith
undergraduate
David Greene Martina Schäfer
Samantha Hardingham
Requirements
The principal course requirement is
participation in the year-long design
studio, including daily work and tutori-
als in the studio. All the developed work
is presented at the end of each project
and compiled in the year-long portfolio,
which is the basis for the end-of-year
final assessment of the course. In
addition to the Design Studio each
student selects four First Year Media
Studies courses, two each in the au-
tumn and spring terms from the list
of those on offer. Students write three
short essays throughout the year as
part of the First Year History & Theory
Studies Course, and prepare a project
analysis submission as part of First
Year Technical Studies. All Comple-
mentary Studies incorporate introduc-
tions to their specific areas and inte-
grate with the studio project in the
spring term.
 
Special Events
In addition to scheduled coursework
there will be a number of workshops
with outside critics and specialists.
A critical part of studio activity this year
is the in-studio lecture series, ‘First
Year Talks’, where established artists,
writers and scientists come to show
their work to the First Year students.
We will also take full advantage of
London as a cultural think-tank for
museum visits, film screenings, music
events and live performances. Other
site visits, design competitions and
festive events are also part of the year.
First Year digital modelling/digital production workshop,
2008/09
39
undergraduate first year
Autumn Term
In the Autumn Term students are
introduced to a range of architectural
concepts, techniques and working
methods. The term is organised into a
series of three projects and a week-long
workshop which cover digital and
physical means of design, material
enquiries and production as well as
conceptual thinking skills.
 
01. Introduction project – Residues
of a meal_building_beauty
The year begins with a short individual
design project in which students are
asked to prepare/fix/invent/assemble/
rustle up a lightly industrious construc-
tion around the notion of the food
(production) of a city – the city of food.
 
02. Localised scale – Making-
Scaling-Re-Scaling-Mis-Scaling  video workshop will introduce film and
This project will explore reconfiguration,
placement and composition using a
menu of materials (animal–vegetable–
mineral) over various scales and loca-
tions. Working in groups, students will
be introduced to three pre-selected
ingredients for fabrication and model-
ling, examining what scale means in
terms of materials and structure via
inventive technical design.
 
03. Motions of Measurement –
Agnus Apparatus
This project is in two stages and intro-
duces students to methods of transpos-
ing information from one medium to
another, specifically through measure-
ment and drawing. It begins with
explorations into technical drawings
to address precision, proportion and
materiality. In stage 2, we will expand
our studies to different modes of repre-
sentation and drawing techniques.
40
Additive +1
During the AA’s Open Week the scaled
formations are further explored through
digital construction – an intensive work-
shop will introduce students to various
digital software for drawing and model
production.
 
Spring Term
Spring Term begins with a project
focused around video followed by an
extended design project in which
Technical Studies will play an integral
role. Students will deploy ideas and
lessons learned in previous projects
to develop their individual approaches.
 
04. AA Speed Stop
As starter on the menu of our term-long
occupation with site, the AA will func-
tion as a testing-ground. An intensive
editing tools as techniques for exploring
the performative aspect of architectural
space and its social context.
 
05. Design 1 – Site with
an ever-changing view –
the dining-car is now open.  in Berlin, New York and
For the extended design project, First
Year students will begin by being
introduced to the multitude of ways
in which architects contemplate ‘site’
in the making of design proposals.
Students will explore and draw out
a number of possible sites along the
multi-storey route of the new East
London line (due for completion in
2010). Fixed and transitory points,
spatial configurations, programmatic
convergences and ideological confec-
tions will inspire them to make new
design proposals for a light-short-life-
urban-industrial typology.
 
first year undergraduate
Additive + 2 06. Design 2
The extended design project will be Each of the six studio groups will ask
supplemented by a number of day trips students to address specific topics and
(mostly by rail) to visit light-industrial techniques in terms of their initial
areas in and around Greater London that designs. This second phase demands
accommodate everything from a school that students are critical of their own
of architecture to a sushi factory. work and find methods of applying what
they have learned to their project.
Summer Term  
During the summer term students will 07. Linking and Contrasting
divide into six groups, each working Following portfolio assessment stu-
with one tutor, who will set a specific dents will work together as one group
focus for revisiting the designs of the to develop a full-scale installation for
previous term. Open studio days will be Projects Review.
used for cross-studio discussions that
will relate the work back to the larger
First Year learning experience.
 
Studio Staff Over time a seemingly the work of Cedric Price. Robert Stuart-Smith
Valentin Bontjes van Beek irresistible drift into She studied at the AA is an AADRL graduate,
trained as a carpenter in teaching, writing, imagining (1987–93), was a research co-director of the design
Germany before attending and making projects on fellow in the Research practice Kokkugia and
the AA, from where he an ephemeral architecture Centre for Experimental algorithmic design research
graduated in 1998. He for the third industrial age. Practice at the University consultant in Ove Arup’s
has practised architecture Has taught variously in of Westminster 2003-09, Advanced Geometry Unit.
Europe, Scandinavia, North co-organising and authoring He has previously taught
London, and has taught America and Asia, work the Supercrit series of at RMIT University and the
at the AA since 2001. He published and exhibited events and publications. University of East London
was a member of the AA’s similarly. RIBA Gold Medal She is currently researching while working in the offices
Interim Management Group 2002 (Archigram). Joint material for a ‘Complete
Works of Cedric Price’
of Lab Architecture Studio
and Sir Nicholas Grimshaw
in 2004/05 and recently Annie Spinks Award with
completed the ‘crossings’ Sir Peter Cook (2002). publication. & Partners.
project in Hooke Park, Currently visiting Professor
Dorset. He is in practice of Architecture at Oxford Tobias Klein studied Martina Schäfer is an
under the name vbvb. Brookes University, research architecture at the RWTH architect and partner of
fellow at the University of Aachen, the University Foresites, an architecture
David Greene, born Westminster/Experimental of Applied Arts in Vienna and design practice based
Nottingham 1937, usual Practice, External Examiner and finished his diploma in London. She has taught
English provincial suburban on the MA in Design at and MArch at the Bartlett, at the AA since 2004 and,
upbringing, Art School, the Bartlett School of UCL. He has worked before that, at Kassel
elected Associate member Architecture and the BA in for Coop Himmelb(l)au, University and the University
of the RIBA then down the Architecture at Greenwich co-founded the experimen- of Kentucky. She received
motorway to London to University. tal architectural design her professional education
begin a nervous twitchy platform .horhizon and from the University
career, swerving from big Samantha Hardingham is is currently researching of Stuttgart, Ecole
buildings to t-shirts for Paul an architectural writer and narrative design in digital d’Architecture de Lyon and
Smith to freelance practical editor whose published environments as a tutor at SCI-ARC and has practised
speculations for developers work includes several the Royal College of Art and in Germany and the US.
to conceptual speculations editions in the original as a First Year Unit Master
for Archigram which he ellipsis architecture guide at the AA since 2008.
founded with Peter Cook. series and two volumes on
41
undergraduate intermediate 1
The Lost Highway
This unit begins a three-year investiga-
tion into the architectural possibilities
of land-, sea- and air-based networks.
In 2009/10, we will study the Dwight
D Eisenhower National System
of Interstate and Defense Highways
(STRAHNET) in the United States.
A relic of Cold War logistics, the US
Interstate system extends for 46,837
miles, connecting all aspects of Ameri-
can life from the domestic to the trans-
continental and supporting the majority
of all commercial and private vehicle
traffic. Stretching across 48 states, the
infrastructure of freeways and high-
ways, tributaries and underpasses lays
out America as ‘flat as birdshit on a
Buick’ (as Don Delillo once said).
The architectural implications of
the Interstate are as pragmatic and
manifest as they are symbolically and
mythically resonant. The unit will
examine how the serpentine stretch
of this system allows new architectural
and urban typologies, from the sponta-
neous communities of retiree RV
enthusiasts which spring up in the
desert, to the Walmart distribution
network which re-routes trucks as they
drive across the US according to fluctu-
ating consumer demand and weather
conditions. By critiquing representa-
tional precedents such as road maps
and automobile manuals, as well as
intellectual precepts such as Venturi
Unit Staff University, Princeton
Mark Campbell is a PhD University, the Cooper
candidate in the School of Union and the Architectural
Architecture at Princeton Association.
University. His research
interests include American Deane Simpson received
culture between 1960 and his graduate degree in
1975, paranoia, cultural architecture from Columbia
exhaustion and dreams. University and worked with
A practising architect, he Diller + Scofidio between
has taught at Auckland 1997 and 2003, running
42
Unit Staff
Mark Campbell
undergraduate
Deane Simpson
and Scott Brown’s ‘forgotten symbol-
ism’ in Learning from Las Vegas (1972),
or Koolhaas’s hypersymbolic in
S,M,L,XL (1995) and Great Leap For-
ward (2002), we will examine how
architects utilise – and distort – re-
search during the design process.
As a unit based largely around 2D
modes of representation, we will employ
a range of graphic methods including
drawing, mapping, photography, film
and television advertising to explore the
Interstate system and work toward
defining a new type of research-based
design studio. After collecting spurious
research data, debatable information
and seemingly irrelevant documents,
students will reinterpret and design a
‘drive-thru’ – a junction between the
driver, the vehicle and the Interstate
which offers a rich variety of exchanges
and architectural possibilities. Typically
located in anonymous and neglected
locations – outside city limits or in the
blank expanses of the desert – these
facilities are not so much destinations
or points of departure as a pause along
a never-ending route.
a number of projects and
competitions. He has
taught at the ETH Zürich
and has published in
Volume, Archithese,
The Architectural Review
and MONU and is co-author
of The Ciliary Function
(2007).
Stephen Shore, Parking Lot, Mount Blue Shopping Center,
Farmington, Maine, 30 July 1974
43
undergraduate intermediate 2 Unit Staff
Charles Walker
undergraduate
Martin Self

Hooke Park to embed four pairs of students within

Caretaker’s House
Intermediate Unit 2 is breaking with its
format of the last four years. Taking
forward the design-and-make experi-
ence that has already been established,
we will move beyond the experimental
folly of pavilion building to fully embrace
the process of architecture: we will
design and build the new caretaker’s
house at Hooke Park.
In part, this move has been moti-
vated by a pent-up anxiety over the
absence of a direct social purpose in
the unit’s past work, combined with a
feeling that perhaps the age of digital
experimentation and showmanship is
coming to an end. In a credit-crunched
context we seek to apply ourselves
directly to the minimal use of material
for a maximal long-term measurable
benefit for human occupation.
Our work will be no less ambitious
or experimental. We hope to develop
new techniques, test assumptions and
challenge dogma, all at the scale of a
human dwelling. Inspired by the Hooke
Park project itself, as initiated by Frei
Otto, we hope to visit Frei in Stuttgart.
We will research afresh the seminal
ideologies of his Institute of Light-
weight Structures, the pioneering work
of Buckminster Fuller and the origins
of the 1960s ecology movement.
The unit will be limited to eight
students. In the autumn term we hope
Manser Medal-winning architectural
offices as a mentorship programme
(the medal is awarded to the best house
design in Britain), and we will also work
with engineers Buro Happold. At the
end of the first term, four house designs
will be presented to the Hooke Park
Steering Committee, who will select
one design for construction.
In the second term the unit will
move to Hooke Park, living off-site in
rented cottages in Beaminster. From
the offices at Hooke we will produce
drawings for submission to the planning
authorities and cost estimates for AA
Council approval. Access to the work-
shop and forest will allow prototypes
to be built and tested. By term end we
will have completed the construction
drawings and prepared final bills of
quantities.
In the third term construction will
commence. Foundations will be poured
as timber is cut in the workshop. The
unit will complete the assembly of the
structural frame and roofing before
celebrating our accomplishment at
an end-of-term topping-out ceremony.
After we leave, electricians and plumb-
ers will install their first fix, and by
autumn 2010 the new caretaker’s house
will be watertight.

Unit Staff
Martin Self holds degrees
in aerospace engineering
and architectural theory.
He worked at Arup for
several years as a structural
engineer and was a founder
member of its Advanced
Geometry Unit. He currently
provides geometrical and
engineering consultancy to
Zaha Hadid Architects and
Antony Gormley Studio.
Charles Walker is a
chartered architect and
structural engineer. A Unit
Master at the AA since
2003, he has worked in
design-based engineering
offices Atelier One and
at Arup, where he jointly
founded and led the
Advanced Geometry Unit
for eight years. He is also
a founding director of form-
work projects. He joined
Zaha Hadid Architects in
early 2007.
Grant Wood, American Gothic, 1930

44 45
undergraduate intermediate 3
Myths of the Artificial
Sacred waters carry us beyond the
marketplace into a world charged with
myths and stories, beliefs and devotion,
culture and celebration. – Vandana Shiva
Focusing on life’s most precious re-
source, water, Inter 3 will journey from
the poetics of the small and the crafted
to the effectiveness of engineered
architectural projects. We will research
symbiotic building networks combining
urban, technological and sacred narra-
tives. The artificial will be explored as
the interface between man and nature,
city and resources, culture and environ-
ment. Local and global expertise will be
learned and applied to highly personal
and engaged designs. Between the
myths of now and the rituals of how, the
mythology of us will take shape.
The unit will investigate the cross-
breeding of architecture and infrastruc-
ture in relation to different scales and
disciplines. Incursions into extreme
scales, from the microscopic to the
global, will enable speculation and
eccentric curiosity. Analysing coopera-
tion networks between city and country-
side, nations and the globe, we will
discuss the growing demand for effi-
cient infrastructures versus the need for
architectural comfort and sensibility. In
this broad canvas of interrelations,
small spatial interventions will be our
Unit Staff Zaha Hadid. She has taught
Nannette Jackowski at the AA-SAKIA Summer
and Ricardo de Ostos School 2009 in Daejeon,
are principals of NaJa South Korea as part of
& deOstos, a studio the AA Visiting School’s
developed as a platform for programme.
experimental architecture.
Ricardo has taught at
Nannette is a former project Lund University in Sweden
architect at Wilkinson Eyre and at Ecole Speciale
and currently works for d’Architecture in Paris.
46
Unit Staff
Nannette Jackowski
undergraduate
Ricardo de Ostos
departure point. Students will create
mechanical devices and design and
build provocative spaces mixing low-
tech and high-tech aesthetic expres-
sions and functionality. Literary inspira-
tions and architectural case studies will
frame and assist each project. There
will be lots of the personal, something
of the familiar and much of the uncanny.
Following our discussions of cultural
plurality, social need and collective
ownership of water, we will travel to the
world’s largest democracy – India.
While studying the current severe
drought, we will draw inspiration from
India’s ultra-rich urban rituals, ancestral
water infrastructures, the sacred river
Ganges, ceremonial baths and the
extreme contrasts of India’s contempo-
rary cities. In the first term students will
define and narrow down their interests
by investigating water-related infra-
structures and architecture through
drawing and model-making experi-
ments. The final project over the second
and third terms will build upon these
initial ideas, personal observations and
research. Over the course of the year
we will team up with specialist consult-
ants for a series of talks, workshops and
tutorials. Through these interactions
Inter 3 aims to stimulate an architec-
tural debate based on constant produc-
tion, with ideas being shaped into
elegant and informative drawings,
models, animations and prototypes.
He is the coordinator of Together they are the
the AA-IE Summer School authors of The Hanging
in Madrid and he has Cemetery of Baghdad
been appointed curator (Springer, 2007) and
of the Brazilian Pavilion Pamphlet Architecture
for the London Festival of 29: Ambiguous Spaces
Architecture in 2010. He (Princeton Architectural
has worked for Peter Cook, Press, 2008).
Future Systems and Foster naja-deostos.com
+ Partners.
Luke Tan, Penemue, AA Inter 3 2008/09
47
undergraduate intermediate 4 Unit Staff
Nathalie Rozencwajg
undergraduate
Michel da Costa Gonçalves

Envelop(e): inner beauty architectural vocabularies, considering

Inter 4 will pursue its investigation of
creative limits by dwelling on the sec-
tional conditions of building envelopes
within a specific and speculative urban
context. Our exploration through the
seamless and highly regulated decorum
of Paris will engage with the core of
both the contrived building skin and the
residual city block in order to under-
stand how its richness eludes or con-
centrates its visible surfaces.
Considering the ‘envelope’ as a
receptacle of forthcoming and past
architectural statements, we will ask
ourselves how this surface of stature,
mediation and shelter can enter a new
phase of evolution that will absorb the
complex intricacies of urban conditions
while commenting on the city’s immuta-
ble cosmetic image. Beyond its public
face to the street, we will develop a
sectional understanding of the envelope
as a space that conceals, distributes,
encompasses and reveals a convoluted
and wrinkled inner life.
The internal pressures of urban life,
combined with contextual and environ-
mental factors, will feed our generative
processes through a staged sequence
of projective tools, yielding organisa-
tional patterns as the potential basis for
new spatial and cultural interfaces
within a regulated urban fabric. Based
on a programme-less postulate, the unit
will develop a collection of individual
form, material and narrative techniques
for prospective building envelopes.
Formulating a design strategy by
analysing and abstracting ‘objective’
and ‘subjective’ information, proposals
will emerge from the translation of
these into creative parameters, reveal-
ing critical relations between predictive
design and the richness of individual
inventions and behaviours.
Inherent to our design process and
methodology will be the development of
individual modes of representation of
form and data, and their relationship to
each other, engaging the unit’s appetite
for codified drawings and diagrammatic
models. Throughout the year, work-
shops and collaborative design phases
will be enriched by unit conversations to
advance collective examination and
cultural analysis. These will be exploited
to develop design proposals and their
potential to generate local phenomenal
qualities, as well as a broader commen-
tary on the urban streetscape. Individu-
al design hypotheses and prospective
strategies will inscribe projects in the
unit’s questioning of the Parisian city
block’s potential evolutions.

Unit Staff integrating research, design project architect for Shigeru

Nathalie Rozencwajg has
been teaching at the AA
since 2004 and is
coordinator of the AA
Visiting Workshop in
Singapore. She is cofounder
of rare architects, based
both in Paris and London.
The office emphasises work
at different scales
and experiment.
r-are.net
Michel da Costa Gonçalves
studied in Spain and France,
and later graduated from
the Emergent Technologies
& Design programme.
Cofounder of rare
architects, he is a former
Ban and AS in Paris working
on various prestigious
international projects.
Director and author of ‘City’
series for Autrement
publishers, he has previously
taught at the ENSAPL and Olafur Eliasson, Your House, 2006.
is coordinator of the AA Published by the Library Council of the Museum of Modern
Singapore Visiting Art, New York, 2006. Photo: Studio Olafur Eliasson
Workshop since 2006. © Olafur Eliasson 2006

48 49
undergraduate intermediate 5 Unit Staff
Stefano Rabolli Pansera
undergraduate
Goswin Schwendinger

Dwarf Village The Trip

Intermediate 5 focuses on performance
as the driving force for the development
of an architectural argument. In a
constant dialectic between making and
unmaking, discerned production and
critical assessment, we hope to define
tectonic invention and spatial resolu-
tion. Through performance we will
stage fictional dwelling scenarios,
negotiating the boundaries between the
real and the virtual, the physicality of
architecture and its spatial implications.
The Making
An awakening, a statement.
The making of a space: a house, a
shelter. Live-scale installation: a perfect
positioning into the urban context.
The Unmaking
A repositioning, a critique.
Staging as a critical reflection,
an evaluation of the making, a type
of understanding. Performance as
a fictional dwelling.
The Remaking
An awkward revealing, a trauma.
Meeting the parents.
The Shooting
A positioning, a deliberate act of vio-
lence. An image of the final scene, the
final step of research. The beginning
of a buildable place.
Hollywood preceding London, Bedford
Square preceding Los Angeles. Univer-
sal Studios, a fictional construction site.
The Dwarf Village
A 1:2 installation in Bedford Square,
a disruptive utopia. The construction
of a place, a possible destabilisation,
a down-sized architectural machine.
All gained in translation.
The End
Performance, an opening, a beginning.
During the first term, the unit will
schedule history and theory seminars in
collaboration with Mark Rappolt, editor
of Art Review, and other external con-
tributors in order to investigate the
purposefulness of staging and fiction
as a force to reconfigure the idea of how
we conceive space and formulate
critical alternatives. In the second term
we will organise workshops for mock-
ups and the construction of the dwarf
village. We will fully engage with 1:2
scale, where space is neither a real
scale presentation nor a scaled re-pres-
entation. Representation/translation
techniques looking at the still and
moving image and model making will
be applied to question architectural
conventions and modes of production.
Forward-Backward thinking. Yes.

Unit Staff Goswin Schwendinger was

Stefano Rabolli Pansera is
director of Rabolli Pansera
Ltd. After graduating from
the AA, he worked for
two years with Herzog &
de Meuron and has been
teaching in Intermediate
Unit 5 since 2007.
born in Belgium, became
an architect in Switzerland,
went to Spain to learn
photography and moved
to London to live. He has
been teaching at the AA
since 1999 and recently Paul McCarthy, Bossy Burger, 1991
collaborated with artist Paul TV studio set, two monitors, various performance props and
McCarthy on a Tate Modern videotape, Hauser & Wirth Collection, St Gallen, Switzerland
publication. © Paul McCarthy, photo Rachel Vaughn

50 51
undergraduate intermediate 6
Camouflage
Camouflage patterns and forms in the
animal kingdom are the outcome of
both genetics and the physical condi-
tions of the habitat: creatures mutate to
‘become’ their surroundings. We are
interested in this interactive process of
becoming, which is not uniquely about
disguise but also about changes in our
perception. We will study instances of
camouflage, both artificial and naturally
occurring, and investigate their poten-
tial relevance and application within
architecture.
Unit Staff
Jonathan Dawes
undergraduate
Dagobert Bergmans
Fumiko Kato
Lineage
Our approach will be both experimental
and analytical. Research will oscillate
between the fabrication of material
constructs and a critical evaluation
of iterations and their effects. Specific
surfaces, textures and geometries will
be created using both digital and
analogue fabrication techniques.
Repetition will be explored and applied
through evolutionary processes such as
unfolded nets or woven organisations.
The task will be to produce new tectonic
patterns with inherent spatial qualities.

Disruptive Pattern Fieldwork

Disruptive Pattern Material was first
used as battle costume or applied to
military vehicles or warships. Differing
forms such as dazzle (borrowed from
cubism) don’t actually conceal a ship’s
presence but instead distort its per-
ceived trajectory and proximity.
Buildings are generally inanimate,
but inhabiting them engages the effects
of stillness and motion. The unit will
explore disruptive pattern as a device
for making and evolving material
approaches that are responsive to
movement and light and applicable at
various scales of operation.
Fieldwork in Tokyo will examine the
complex pattern of the city and the roles
of camouflage at the scale of a building.
A unit-wide catalogue of our findings
will be published, classifying key princi-
ples for future spatial intervention and
strategic use at an urban level.
Endgame
The conflict of different uses and users
will be the context in which we test
building skins, morphologies and
programmes. Polarised programmatic
types will test effects such as conceal-
ment alongside models that highlight
awareness. The objective will be to
crystallise the sensation and effects
of camouflage through the construction
of tactile drawings, relief and sectional
models and large-scale fabrications.

Unit Staff
Jonathan Dawes graduated
from the AA Diploma
School and the University
of East London (where
he taught from 2002 to
2006 as Degree & Diploma
Unit Master). Founder of
Flowspace Architecture
(www.flowspace.com), he is
currently Project Architect
for Brentwood Sixth Architecture & Urbanism Fumiko Kato studied
Form Centre at Cottrell & and founded Pool Ruimte at Osaka Institute of
Vermeulen Architecture. voor Architectuur en Technology in Japan and the
AA Unit Master since 2007. Stedebouw. Won Europan University of East London.
8 in Erfurt, Germany, 2006. She is currently a director
Dagobert Bergmans studied Design Tutor at the TU in of Flowspace Architecture,
at Technical University Eindhoven from 2003 to with ongoing projects both
Eindhoven and at the AA 2005, he is now working for in the UK and Japan.
with Pascal Schöning Dana Ponec Architects in
and Raoul Bunschoten. Amsterdam. aainter6camouflage. Dazzle painting plan by Norman Wilkinson, British marine
He has worked for S333 blogspot.com artist and inventor of dazzle.

52 53
undergraduate intermediate 7 Unit Staff
Liam Young
undergraduate
Kate Davies

The End of the World and
Other Bedtime Stories
‘The End of the Universe is very popular’,
said Zaphod… ‘People like to dress up
for it… Gives it a sense of occasion.’
– Douglas Adams, The Restaurant at
the End of the Universe
We stare out through Hubble at the light
from the creation of the universe. At
CERN we hurl electrons at each other
looking for clues to its beginning only to
set in motion our collective anxieties
about our demise in black-hole oblivion.
We sit in wait for the end of the world.
We have always regaled ourselves
with unnerving tales of a day yet to
come. Tomorrow is a dark place and our
culture is full of tales of a natural world
out of control. Whether it be nuclear
apocalypse, viral epidemic, tumbling
asteroids or eco catastrophe our anxie-
ties about our future demise chronicle
the flaws and frailties of the everyday.
This year Inter 7 continues to slip
suggestively between the real and the
imagined, in the space where architec-
ture enters into new relations with the
territories of science and fiction. It is an
experience of the present as a site of
strange and extraordinary futures.
Last year in the living wunderkam-
mer of the Galapagos Islands, we
explored the origin of the species and
breathed life into a menagerie of archi-
tectural monsters. This year we will
once again investigate our preserva-
tionist and conservationist attitudes
toward the natural world but this time
we embark on a voyage to bear witness
to the alien landscapes of technology.
We have mused on evolution and now
we will flirt with extinction.
We will set forth on a psychedelic
road trip, a last chance saloon tour of
sites at their point of collapse. We will
clamber over the wreckage of the future
to visit a no-man’s land between cultiva-
tion and nature and spin a cautionary
tale of a new kind of wilderness. Here
the radio crackles, skies darken, the
weather warms, grey goo seeps from
between the cracks, mutant crops roam
free – it’s a beautiful day in the strange
landscapes that lie behind the scenes of
modern living.
Our projects may be militant solu-
tions or last gasp redemptions; a call to
arms or a head in the sand; swan songs,
manifestos or glorious celebrations in
the shadow of an imminent end. We will
be both visionaries and reporters, part
documentary and part science fiction,
we will critically engage with the condi-
tions of today through speculation
about the coming of tomorrow. Stand-
ing at the brink we will contemplate an
end that is laden with fears and incon-
sistencies yet at the same time proves
to be ripe with unknown escapes and
wondrous possibilities.

Unit Staff
Liam Young studied
architecture in Australia and
works as an independent
designer and critic
(liamyoung.variousartists.
com.au). He has worked
for offices including Zaha
Hadid and LAB Architecture
Studio and teaches design
studios at schools in both
Europe and Australia. He is
a founder of the urban think
tank Tomorrows Thoughts
Today which explores
fantastic, perverse and
underrated urbanisms. He
is a regular contributor to a
number of publications as
well as self publishing works
of architectural fictions and
futures.
Kate Davies graduated Chelsea College of Art and
from the Bartlett School has worked for a number of
of Architecture. She is a architectural practices in the
co-founder of Liquidfactory UK and abroad.
(liquidfactory.co.uk), a
partnership that seeks to
to explore the hinterland
of art, architecture and
performance. Kate has
taught at London Metro-
politan University and Storm clouds on the horizon

54 55
undergraduate intermediate 8
The Politics of Skin Grafting
This unit explores skin grafting as
a sociopolitical tool able to infiltrate
subjectivity into the urban fabric.
Politics, as it relates to contemporary
cities, no longer conceives the social as
a cohesive force but as a loose associa-
tion of individual experiences scattered
across the different surfaces that shape
the urban experience. Design issues are
no longer addressed to constituencies
and social groups but to individuals and
audiences. In this context, direct and
reciprocal relations between individuals
and building skins can provide the
potential for political activation. Graft-
ing processes, exchanges in flesh and
skin – transposition and translation into
multiple layers of action, inscription and
projection of interests interwoven with
the surface of the urban fabric – define
intricate hybrid construction processes
for active political inquiry.
The work of the unit will be framed
by a specific, politically charged urban
condition, La Plaza de la Revolución in
Havana, Cuba, a place where city and
national politics are particularly bound
to everyday experience. This urban
location embodies a richness of scales,
social practices and political conflict,
epitomised by the presence of the iconic
Ministry of Internal Affairs. Constructed
under the Batista dictatorship, the
building is an archetypal example of
colonial modernism (now turned into a
Unit Staff
Francisco Gonzalez
undergraduate
de Canales
Nuria Alvarez Lombardero
monument to Ernesto Che Guevara).
The unit will take the Ministry as the
ideal platform for showcasing plural
responses to democratisation and
political processes in Cuba.
Students are expected to work
individually in developing rigorous
investigation through consistent
portfolios, although collaborative and
group work in small workshops will also
be required. They will develop a range of
skin proposals for the Ministry, working
across various phases of production.
Projects will address sociopolitical
urban issues in combination with
specific fabrication methods, continu-
ously shifting from the urban scale to
the level of fabrication, moving towards
a final collapsing of both into a hybrid
scalar practice. The unit encourages
material experimentation – through
drawings, images and models – only in
relation to specific intellectual and
theoretical enquiries. All students will
be required to submit a mock-up of their
final proposals.

Unit Staff
Francisco Gonzalez
de Canales studied
architecture at ETSA
Seville, ETSA Barcelona
and Harvard University,
and worked for Foster +
Partners and Rafael
Moneo before establishing
Canales & Lombardero.
An active architectural critic,
he has previously lectured
in England, Mexico, Spain
and the USA, collaborated
and worked on different
architectural publications,
and is currently the AACP
coordinator. He has recently
completed his PhD on the
radical domestic self-
experimentations of the
1940s and 1950s.
Nuria Alvarez Lombardero
studied architecture at
ETSA Madrid and the
Housing and Urbanism
MA at the AA. She has
worked for Machado &
Silvetti in Boston, and was
part of the editorial board
of Neutra magazine. She
has co-directed Canales
& Lombardero since 2003
and has lectured at the
University of Seville and
worked as a researcher
at Harvard University, the
University of Cambridge
and the AA. She is currently
finalising her PhD on the
dissolution of boundaries
traced by modern urban
planning.
Cuban Ministry of Internal Affairs, Havana

56 57
undergraduate intermediate 9 Unit Staff
Christopher Pierce
undergraduate
Christopher Matthews

Ziga-Zaga and June every other Sunday nearly

This year will be the third of Inter 9’s
projects located in sunny Barcelona. So
far we have tackled two of the Catalan
capital’s defining cultural allegiances
– the sea and food. Last up (and rel-
egating sex to fourth spot) is the city’s
favourite pastime: football. In 2009/10
we will look to Lionel Messi, Xavi,
Iniesta and any number of the city’s
diehard Barcelona FC fans to offer us
some kind of instruction, and we will
regularly call again on Benedetta
Tagliabue, John Outram and Peter
Wilson. The club’s recent brief for the
stadium redevelopment will be our
programmatic basis, but our own
architectural and drawing processes
will determine whether you refashion
the late-50s iron and concrete behe-
moth or start from a tabula rasa. Re-
gardless, projects will be sited on the
stadium’s current location, Avenida
Arístides Maillol, 3km northwest of the
tourist centre around the Ramblas.
We will continue to define and
aestheticise the role of drawing, further
exorcise our typological hang-ups and
for the first time diagram flows, both of
our programme and the players, people
and transport in and around Camp Nou.
Any typological critique of the existing
and proposed stadium must start with
the facts, which have obvious implica-
tions on how the building interacts with
other urban typologies: between August
100,000 people empty this contempo-
rary Colosseum at 11 at night to drink,
dine, cavort or just go home.
We will generate ideas internally as
well as externally and continue to blur
the boundary between drawing and 3D
printing. The objet trouvé, exquisite
corpse and other Surrealist and Dadaist
techniques are the backbone of our
method. But so are the ‘thick 2D’ and
3D prints we have been producing over
the last couple of years. Birch ply,
cardboard and acrylic-based photopoly-
mer are also three of the unit’s essential
drawing tools. We are going to continue
to expand on Libeskind, Webb and
Wilson by making ever more sumptuous
images; consider cross-programming
tools and techniques to form a critique;
and employ ceramics with ceramist
to the stars, Toni Cumella. And as
opposed to the £80 you would be
spending to see a match in Manchester,
in Barcelona nothing will cost more than
£40. In this, as in everything, we will be
more Vicky and a little less Cristina.

Unit Staff
Christopher Pierce studied
at Virginia Polytechnic
Institute and State
University and gained
a PhD from the University
of Edinburgh. Among his
recent publications are
essays on Cloud 9, ‘Seven-
year Itch: Another Note from
Empuriabrava’ (2008);
and Diller Scofidio + Renfro,
‘Three’s a Crowd’ (2009);
and Jacob van Ruisdael,
‘Navel Gazing’ (2009). He
formed Mis-Architecture
(mis-architecture.co.uk)
with Chris Matthews in
2000.
Christopher Matthews, the Lowry Centre and No
principal of Pastina 1 Poultry before setting up
Matthews Architects (PMA), PMA in 2000.
was educated at
the Bartlett School of
Architecture. For nearly
a decade he worked with
James Stirling, Michael
Wilford and Associates
on projects including the 1950s aerial photograph of Camp Nou in Barcelona
Singapore Arts Centre, © Revista Deportiva Barça

58 59
undergraduate intermediate 10 Unit Staff
Claudia Pasquero
undergraduate
Marco Poletto

EcoMachines v3.0: Students will start by working on

Dubai Marine Life Incubators
Inter 10 is an experimental unit and this
year our urban laboratory will be the city
of Dubai, where we will explore how
architecture can co-exist and co-evolve
with the natural processes of the local
marine habitat.
In recent years Dubai has been the
site of a series of highly ambitious
projects, among them groups of artifi-
cial islands built along its coastline. The
construction of the islands has pro-
voked strong protests from environmen-
tal groups, who are concerned about
the loss of marine biodiversity. The local
government has rejected these criti-
cisms, claiming that the islands are
promoting an enhanced experience of
urban living through a more direct
relationship with its marine ecology.
The unit will address this claim
and convert it into a manifest ambition:
the design of a marine biodiversity
leisure and research centre. Acting as
an incubator for urban life, this building
will contain both an educational public
space and a research centre devoted to
the development of techniques and
models for the regeneration of the coral
reefs that perform such a vital ecologi-
cal role (providing food and shelter for a
wide range of marine species, prevent-
ing coastal erosion and supporting
commercial fishing and recreational
activities).
material systems and experiment with
the feedback loops that occur in every
process of life. A dedicated workshop
on ‘embodied intelligence’ will offer
insights into the use of sensing and
actuating mechanisms via both ana-
logue and digital means (physical
experiments and drawings).
The project site will be ‘the World’,
a $14 billion development featuring 300
individual artificial islands arranged
to mimic the shape of the globe’s
landmasses. In January the unit will
produce a group installation, master-
planning the island and research centre.
Individual projects will then continue
with the detail design of the incubators
and their testing models (through large
maps and technical details).
In the third term each student will
produce a final model and video
illustrating the real-time qualities and
effects of their own ecoMachine
(prototypes and video).
The unit field trip will take us to
the city of Dubai, where we will join local
students, dive the coral reef, collect
material samples, measure environ-
mental forces, visit the project site
and explore the city’s iconic projects
and attractions.

Unit Staff aainter10.wordpress.com Machines Symposium.

Marco Poletto and Claudia
Pasquero are directors of
the experimental design
practice ecoLogicStudio
(ecoLogicstudio.com).
They have lectured and
worked internationally, and
have been AA Inter 10 Unit
Masters since 2007.
For unit work see
(2007/08) and
aainter10.blogspot.com
(2008/09). Claudia and
Marco have also directed
AA Visiting Workshops
in Turin (Prototyping the
City) and Istanbul (Fibrous
Structures); and together
with Marie-Ange Brayer they
curated the AA Architectural
ecoLogicStudio’s research
projects have been exhibited
at the London, Venice and
Seville biennales in 2006
and 2008, and they recently
completed a shopping mall
eco-roof in Carugate, Milan.
‘The World’ artificial archipelago in Dubai
Photo ©Nakheel

60 61
undergraduate intermediate 11
Latent Territories
Intermediate Unit 11 will look at the
contemporary European metropolis,
focusing on the rich potential for experi-
mentation that is emerging from the
residual urban spaces around transport
networks such as airports, harbours,
rail and highway interchanges. Liber-
ated from the tyranny of building codes,
historical preservation and existing
property law, these territories were
originally planned for the periphery but
have gradually been absorbed into the
city. Inter 11 will explore the previously
inaccessible archipelago of traffic
islands adjacent to a highway inter-
change, investigating its potential new
building typologies, programmatic and
organisational opportunities and
defining the level of connection with the
surrounding city.
The unit will pursue its design
methodology through the production of
architectural prototypes at the small
scale. This research will form the basis
for the vocabulary, material strategy
and distinctive aesthetic that will later
be deployed at the urban scale of the
archipelago. Such an approach was
common practice in twentieth-century
art movements, from de Stijl to Super-
studio, through the development of
environments, design/art or sculptural
pieces. The unit is interested in the
synergy between the critical engage-
ment and playfulness of 60s/70s
Unit Staff commissions in Egypt,
Theo Sarantoglou Lalis Greece and Korea as well
and Dora Sweijd are the as entering international
principals of LA.S.S.A, competitions.
a design practice based
in London and Brussels Theo Sarantoglou Lalis
working on international studied in Brussels and
projects ranging from at the Bartlett. He has
furniture and architecture taught at Columbia and
to landscape urbanism. Harvard and prior to
The office is focusing on founding LA.S.S.A he
62
Unit Staff
Theo Sarantoglou Lalis
undergraduate
Dora Sweijd
architectural avant-gardes and today’s
enthusiasm for computation and new
manufacturing processes.
The year’s research will be struc-
tured in two complementary phases.
During the first, students will be encour-
aged to develop personal research
agendas through architectural proto-
types, which will be produced in the
form of physical models and design/art
pieces or constructed environments.
A series of workshops will introduce
the digital design and fabrication
techniques that will act as the catalysts
for materialising these creative explora-
tions. As part of the unit’s interest in the
transfer of technologies, we will organ-
ise a series of short trips across Europe
where we will be visiting artists’ and
design studios as well as their fabrica-
tors from the aerospace, automotive
and naval industries.
During phase two, each student will
investigate strategies for deploying the
architectural prototypes in more com-
plex geometrical organisations. Con-
ceptual models and material studies
developed in phase one will have to
mutate into an architectural proposition
able to respond to different criteria such
as programme, adjacencies and site
conditions (disconnection, speed and
flow, 3D infrastructure, wind, sound,
etc.) as well as each student’s vision for
inhabiting the latent territories.
worked at Future Systems Dora Sweijd graduated from
and Asymptote in NYC. In the Bartlett. She previously
2008 he led Asymptote’s worked at a number of
European office as well as practices in London and
being one of the directors NYC including REX and
in charge of Yas Marina Foster + Partners where she
Hotel in Abu Dhabi. He has worked on the World Trade
also lectured internationally, Center project. 
led workshops and taught
undergraduate studios in
LTU Sweden. Andreas Gursky, Bahrain, 2005
63
undergraduate intermediate 12
The Pop Vernacular
The unit will explore the idea of archi-
tecture as a media form (communicat-
ing through the languages it employs).
In order to get to grips with architecture
as culture, rather than architecture as
technology, we need to engage with the
idea of image or, more specifically, with
the way the ‘image’ of architecture
addresses issues of taste and meaning
in contemporary culture. We might term
this approach Pop Vernacular – pop in
the sense of a collective, shared, con-
temporary folk; vernacular in the way it
surrounds us, in the way the everyday
landscape is altered by the imprint of
surface media and information. Pop
Vernacular draws on time and space –
it’s both a graveyard for the superseded
and the spawning ground of unexpected
futures. The studio will pursue what
Busta Rhymes calls ‘spectacular
vernacular’ – a radically reanimated
zombie postmodernism. To do this we
will unravel the mechanisms of pop
vernacularism – or how repro, neo and
knock-off are used to create something
that seems to glow with optimism and
freshness where, as Douglas Coupland
puts it, ‘nostalgia is a weapon’.
We will use varied graphic tech-
niques to develop a language that
becomes a significant and speculative
architectural act, extending the possi-
bilities of architectural representation.
Techniques of collage, juxtaposition,
Unit Staff exhibitions at Arc en Rêve
Sam Jacob is a director and forthcoming Rotterdam
of FAT (fat.co.uk) and and Shenzen/Hong Kong
a contributing editor to Architecture Biennials.
Icon and columnist for Art
Review. Current projects Tomas Klassnik is director
include the design of of The Klassnik Corporation
schools in the UK and (klassnik.com), a design
The Netherlands, an practice focused on
interior for Selfridges, architectural speculation.
London, contributions to Recent projects include
64
Unit Staff
Sam Jacob
undergraduate
Tomas Klassnik
overlay and montage will be employed
to precipitate hybrid graphic languages.
The exaggerated stylisation of cartoon-
ing will also become a means of height-
ening communication. Equally, model-
making will be a significant element in
the unit’s activities. It will be used first
at a small scale, to explore the strange
transubstantive nature of Pop Vernacu-
lar, where ‘wood’, for example, comes in
a thousand different flavours or ‘gold’
represents an idea rather than a chemi-
cal element. Secondly, large-scale
modelmaking will construct explicit and
expansive proposals, such as dolls’
houses with narratives that extend from
the nostalgically domestic to confront
complex issues of identity and meaning.
These models will become tools that
resist the idea of architecture as ab-
straction. Borrowing from vernacular
modelmaking techniques (model
railways, craft kits and so on), the
constructions will synthesise an icono-
graphically rich, spatially complex idea
of architecture.
To complement these studies, the
unit will visit model villages and utopian
towns where the relationship of image
to ideology is made explicit. These will
become the sites first for research and
then for proposals, through which we
will suggest how programme, typology
and language can combine to address
specific social and cultural issues.
proposals for a superheated
London in 2035, fantasy bus
stops and an arts strategy
for the 2012 Olympics. UK
correspondent for Deutsche
Bauzeitung, he has also
taught at Chelsea College
of Art and the RCA.
FAT, Sint Lucas Art Academy, Boxtel, The Netherlands, 2006
65
undergraduate intermediate 13 Unit Staff
Miraj Ahmed
undergraduate
Martin Jameson

Heterotopia We will explore what constitutes

There are also, probably in every culture,
in every civilisation, real places… which
are something like counter-sites, a kind of
effectively enacted utopia in which the
real sites, all the other real sites that can
be found within the culture, are simulta-
neously represented, contested, and
inverted. Places of this kind are outside of
all places, even though it may be possible
to indicate their location in reality. Be-
cause these places are absolutely differ-
ent from all the sites that they reflect and
speak about, I shall call them, by way of
contrast to utopias, heterotopias.
– Michel Foucault,
Of Other Spaces, 1967
The unit works with the perception and
cultural understanding of space. Our
cultural reading of space is rooted in
two aspects of the urban condition.
Firstly, the increasing social and cul-
tural diversity of our cities. Secondly,
our cities are already densely built.
These observations raise the question
of how, as architects, we should think
about the creation of spaces that
embrace this condition of intense urban
diversity – spaces that seek to serve or
create the ‘other’ – and that at the same
time are somehow grafted or inserted
into an existing city fabric.
‘other’ spaces in architectural terms.
Michel Foucault’s tantalising descrip-
tion of ‘heterotopia’ enumerates various
typologies, from the museum to the
asylum and the sacred to the profane.
This will form the springboard for the
unit’s investigations and proposals for
sites that are not only a part of the city
fabric, but also create spaces that both
mirror and challenge their locale.
Our methodology is to immerse
ourselves in the seamier locales of
central London in search of the ‘other’.
We will pay close attention to both
atmosphere and to measured analytical
description and will encourage the use
of a wide range of representative
techniques. Above all we will emphasise
as the core of our architectural strategy
the elucidation of programmatic re-
sponses. The result will be a diverse set
of architectural propositions that are
rooted in the contemporary urban
context, that emphasise spatial and
programmatic invention, that resist the
mundane and celebrate the heterotopic.

Unit Staff Martin Jameson is advising corporations on

Miraj Ahmed is a practising
painter and architect. He
has taught at the AA since
2000 and also teaches as a
Design Fellow at the
University of Cambridge.
an associate at Serie
Architects. He studied for
five years at the AA and
received his Diploma with
honours. He was a Building
Design magazine ‘stand-out
student’ in both his fourth
and fifth years. Before
studying architecture he
was a business consultant
strategy and organisational
design. He has a BA from
Oxford University where he
studied Kantian philosophy
and political theory and an
MBA from IMD, Switzerland.
Heterotopia, noun Pathology.
1. Misplacement or displacement, as of an organ.
2. The formation of tissue in a part where its presence is abnormal.
Photo Miraj Ahmed, 2009

66 67
undergraduate diploma 1 Unit Staff
Olaf Kneer
undergraduate
Marianne Mueller

Mineral Architecture tation as the measured drawing. Physi-

Not quite a century ago the Crystal
Chain Group led by Bruno Taut sought
to give physical form to their mythical
belief in a new type of architecture, as
the expression of a new society. Their
symbol was the crystal; their vision an
earthly paradise founded on a new
architecture of colour and glass.
Moving up to the Diploma School,
Unit 1 continues its search for a mineral
architecture that is socially and experi-
entially relevant. This year we will
attempt to write a genealogy of mineral
manifestos and position ours within it.
Navigating between utopian models
and the realities of building we will
explore how this approach can chal-
lenge spatial and material conventions
and radicalise architecture.
The current preference for complex
geometries provides structures but not
necessarily spaces. The unit focuses on
the relevance of form-making as a way
of articulating relationships between
physical formations and human pro-
cesses. We will work with mapping,
scripting and modelling of crystalline
properties to create a reservoir of
formal and material systems. We will
then use empirical experimentation to
exploit their habits and capacities to
produce physical and sensory effects.
Working obsessively to capture and
control these effects, we will reintro-
duce such forgotten modes of represen-
cal and digital models utilising boolean
operations will explore ideas of solids,
mass, interiority and envelope.
Searching for an architecture of
solidity, economy of form and construc-
tion, the unit focuses on monolithic
construction and single material articu-
lations. Grounded yet autonomous, the
monolith radicalises ideas of pro-
gramme and context. Mineral matter,
silicates, clays, gypsum and amorphous
solids are going to form the technical
focus for the year, initiating a research
into constructional consequences.
Students are expected to work
coherently throughout the year on a
single proposal for a public building.
We will involve specialists from geology,
crystallography, neuroscience and
contemporary art to develop the agen-
da across professional boundaries.

Unit Staff Marianne and Olaf are also

Olaf Kneer and Marianne
Mueller are directors of
Mueller Kneer Associates
(muellerkneer.com), cur-
rently working on a number
of buildings for the arts.
The practice’s work has
been recognised through a
number of awards including
the ‘AJ Corus 40 under 40’.
Programme Directors of AA
Berlin Laboratory and cura-
tors of the new ‘Concrete
Geometries’ research clus-
ter (concrete-geometries.
net), starting in autumn
2009. aadip1.net
Alexander Laing, proposal for Hastings Geology Research
Centre, Intermediate Unit 1, 2008/09

68 69
undergraduate diploma 2
Choreographing Micro-Revolutions
Continuing research conducted over the
last four years, Diploma 2 sets out to
invent a new social and aesthetic
agenda for ecological architecture,
using computation to calibrate environ-
mentally responsive geometries that
are able to choreograph both climatic
and cultural flows within precarious
urban conditions. The unit seeks alter-
native urban organisational structures
to mediate between private interests
and government bodies, as a way of
transforming stagnant urban forms that
are currently disconnected from the
local culture and natural environment.
In ‘Molecular Revolution in Brazil’,
Félix Guattari and Suely Rolnik investi-
gate how micro-political movements
escape the ‘standardisation of desire’
imposed by capitalist and autocratic
governments, so defining ‘completely
original forms of expression’. We will
collaborate with micro-organisations,
networking between the public and
private sectors to create multiple-
scaled ‘micro-infrastructures’ that
mediate between formal and informal
socio-economic, environmental and
cultural forces.
Students choose their own site for
intervention – a disused site in São
Paulo’s centre or urban residue in any
other city in the world – proposing their
own programmatic, formal and aesthet-
ic ‘protest’ against the dominant cult-
Unit Staff in New York, and received
Anne Save de Beaurecueil master’s degrees from
and Franklin Lee Columbia University. They
(www.subdv.com) use have published, exhibited
computation to generate and lectured on their
environmentally responsive work worldwide, including
geometries for architecture the Beijing Biennale,
and urban design projects Rotterdam Biennale, Athens
worldwide, primarily in Brazil Synthasoris Exhibition,
and China. They previously London Festival of
taught at the Pratt Institute Architecture and Festival
70
Unit Staff
undergraduate
Anne Save de Beaurecueil
Franklin Lee
tures controlling a specific urban
phenomenon. We will propose new
social programmes to empower inhabit-
ants, collaborating with local govern-
ments, NGOs, and urban activists, such
as the Union of Inhabitants of the
Paraisópolis shanty-town’s Literacy
School, or the champion boxer Garrido’s
informal Sports Academy under the
viaducts in São Paulo.
Informed by seminars on Guattari
and Rolnik’s writing, and the films of
Eliane Caffé, the unit will reject prevail-
ing tendencies in favour of creating
personal ‘formal revolutions’. For this
choreography of aesthetic, program-
matic and environmental negotiations,
we will employ generative agency
scripting and associative modelling.
There will be workshops on processing
with Shajay Bhooshan; environmentally
responsive parametric design with
Adam Davis of Foster & Partners’
Specialist Modelling Group; and envi-
ronmental structure integration and
extensive physical modelling with
Lawrence Friesen of Generative Geom-
etry. The unit will collaborate with the
AA’s Sustainable Environmental Design
programme to conduct testing of
environmental structures, including
shadow and lighting studies and ventila-
tion analyses.
of Electronic Language
(FILE) in São Paulo. The
work of Diploma Unit 2
has been featured in AD,
ArchiCree and the AA
Agendas 7 Articulated
Grounds: Mediating
Environment and Culture
publication.
Residual Infrastructures, São Paulo: Moinho Fluminese–Luz
and Piscinão–Taboão da Serra.
71
undergraduate diploma 3 Unit Staff
Alison Brooks
undergraduate
Max Kahlen

Meta Urbanism 2/ urban environment, or the places where

Ecothetical Dwelling
Storytelling… does not aim to convey the
pure essence of a thing, like information
or a report, it sinks the thing into the life
of the storyteller, in order to bring it out of
him again. Thus traces of the storyteller
cling to the story the way the handprints
of the potter cling to the clay vessel.
– Walter Benjamin
Architecture’s conservatism…does not
exclude radicalism; on the contrary, archi-
tecture must reinforce our existential
experience in a radical manner against
the forces of alienation and detachment…
This dense authenticity enables us to
dwell with dignity. – Juhani Pallasmaa
This year Dip 3’s Metaurbanism will
radically address collective, ecological
urban housing and the role of master-
plans in the aftershock of 2008’s global
economic crisis. With reference to Felix
Guattari’s 1989 text ‘The Three Ecolo-
gies’, the unit will build on the notion of
‘creative autonomy’ as a tool for re-
sponding to redundant models of urban
development and increasing social
isolation. Transformations in communi-
cation such as blogging, youtube and
facebook have spawned vast new
realms of creativity, connectivity and
e-communities, but is the impact of
these tools/networks reflected in our
we live? Guattari argues that in order to
resist the homogenising forces of
visual/electronic media, rampant
consumerism and the global climate
change, societies should respond
through highly individualised means of
expression within a collective cultural-
environmental project. This work will
contribute to ‘a widespread shift in
current value systems’ – encouraging
our evolution into a more deeply eco-
logical society.
To respond to this challenge Dip 3
will devise individual strategies for
experimental, ‘ecothetical’ housing in
the abandoned site of OMA’s 2004
White City masterplan. Working from
the small to the large scale, we will
intensively interpret, collage and docu-
ment current social networks and
behaviours as seeds for re-inventing
spatial and environmental paradigms
for dwelling. The ‘living-room’ will be
the initial point of reference. Subse-
quently experiencing the ‘abandoned’
site will both introduce a scale shift and
will enrich our process of storytelling,
enabling transformations of spatial/
organisational typologies into idiosyn-
cratic dwelling ecologies. These will
spawn a collective anti-masterplan, an
alternative urbanism attuned to the
crises of our time.

Unit Staff Stephen Lawrence Prize; Max Kahlen graduated

Alison Brooks is a Canadian-
born architect and director
of the London-based
practice Alison Brooks
Architects (ABA), which
she founded in 1996. ABA
is the first UK practice to
have won Britain’s three
most prestigious awards
for architecture – the
Manser Medal and the 2008
Stirlling Prize for Accordia,
Cambridge. Alison has
served as an RIBA awards
juror and has taught and
lectured on architecture
internationally.
from the AA with Honours
in 2007. He has recently
worked with IJP (London),
Information Based
Architecture (Amsterdam)
and developed a bar project
together with APMT
(Germany). Above: The American Family
Below: Niklaus Paegle, Lea Valley Housing Fields,
Diploma Unit 3, 2008/09

72 73
undergraduate diploma 4
The Coast of Europe
The work of Diploma Unit 4 will be a
project for the re-modernisation of the
coast of Europe, exploring the layered
modalities of change – combining
intensification, preservation, moderni-
sation, stagnation, downturn, stasis,
decay, growth, conservation, dispersal,
abandonment, erosion, consolidation,
densification – that are reshaping the
shores of Europe and its seas in the
twenty-first century.
The work will examine the possibili-
ties of integrated spatial transformation
in the complex contemporary maritime
territories of Europe. Relating architec-
ture and urbanism to other disciplines,
it will investigate the current condition
of coastal regions from St Petersburg
to the Kattegat, from Norway to Finis-
terre, from the Strait of Gibraltar to
Naples, from Venice to Athens, from the
Golden Horn to Odessa.
Our research and design work will
focus on how architecture and urbanism
can interact with the multiple natural,
mineral, social, technological, economi-
cal, political and cultural processes that
mould the form of the inhabited territory
to elucidate the potential lying within
their physical and spatial structures.
Architecture is used as both the
object of investigation and the method
of enquiry into the many ways in which
European coastal territories are adapt-
ing and reconfiguring their specific
Unit Staff Ann-Sofi was a researcher
John Palmesino and and John head of a
Ann-Sofi Rönnskog are research group on a series
founders of Territorial on international cities at
Agency, an independent ETH Zurich, Studio Basel/
organisation that combines Contemporary City Institute
architectural analysis, with Jacques Herzog
projects, advocacy and and Pierre de Meuron.
action for the integrated John is the co-founder of
spatial transformation of multiplicity in Milan. He is
contemporary territories. currently pursuing a PhD at
74
Unit Staff
John Palmesino
undergraduate
Ann-Sofi Rönnskog
forms, bodies and structures. The
136,106 kilometres of Europe’s coast-
line, ranging over four seas (the Medi-
terranean, North Sea, Baltic and Black
Sea) and two oceans (the Atlantic and
the Arctic), are almost equal in length to
the Equator. They represent the liminal
zone between territories undergoing
rapid transformation – a liquid space
crossed by a multiplicity of trajectories,
populations and economies. Accommo-
dating almost 50 per cent of the EU
coastal countries’ 500 million inhabit-
ants, the coast of Europe is a vital and
strategic element in the well-being of its
populations.
A number of primary investigations
will focus on the physical aspects and
implications of territorial transforma-
tions and their relation to new modes of
inhabitation. These investigations will
help to single out specific territorial
structures where the project will experi-
ment with innovative strategic integrat-
ed spatial plans, working towards
concrete architectural and urban
proposals.
The unit work will be accompanied
by a History and Theory seminar that
analyses the contemporary relations
between polities and space.
the Research Architecture
Centre at Goldsmiths, where
he also teaches. Ann-Sofi
has studied architecture in
Helsinki, Copenhagen and
Zurich.
Territorial Agency, Studies for Helsinki
75
undergraduate diploma 5 Unit Staff
Cristina Díaz Moreno
undergraduate
Efrén García Grinda

Third Natures: Carnal and space of a disco to the translation of

Mundane Assemblies
The redefinition of the global post-capi-
talist model of society, new forms of
social interaction, digital fabrication
procedures, the current economic
meltdown, ever-improving object
performance and concerns about the
consequences of everyday actions on
the conditions for survival call for a
rethinking of the role of buildings in our
culture and even the nature of what we
typically call a building.
Once it was easy to draw a line
between humans, non-humans and
objects. Now, however, the blurred
interrelations between these categories
offer an exciting field for research. This
year, Dip 5 will focus on the role of
architecture as assemblies or complex
ecologies that act as linking mecha-
nisms between living beings, social
groups and technological objects.
The unit will explore the notion of
buildings as third natures – deliberate
material and intellectual manipulations
of our biotope. To encourage a deep
rethinking of buildings as public and,
more specifically, congregational
spaces, we will focus on the conceptual
and technical development of a medi-
um-scale project that involves linking
inert and living materials. A series of
typological investigations on decontex-
tualised historical examples will be
carried out, ranging from the ecstatic
complete ecosystems inside green-
houses, in a quest for surreal and exces-
sive ideas of beauty.
Students will begin by selecting a
social group as the context and scenar-
io for their research. From this, they will
develop a technically inventive material
system and process of fabrication that
will ultimately be applied to the project
at various scales. The unit will travel to
Budapest to study built examples of
congregational spaces related to water.
Our working methods will be an
adaptation of those of an experimental
design office involved in the develop-
ment of buildings. They will include
brainstorming sessions, collective
seminars, constant pin-ups, micro-lec-
tures, work with consultants, presenta-
tions by special guests and ‘fast archi-
tecture’ workshops designed to
stimulate creativity. Advanced digital
analysis and design techniques will be
integrated into a combination of sys-
tems and tools that will come close to a
‘methodological anarchy’ propelled by
novelty, the unconventional, innovative
thinking, audacity and fresh solutions.
This will extend the range of areas
covered, from programmatic, social,
structural and climatic interests to
representational, contextual or concep-
tual ones.

Unit Staff Paris-Malaquais, ESARQ

Cristina Díaz Moreno and
Efrén García Grinda are
both architects, regular
contributors to El Croquis
and founders of the Madrid-
based office amid.cero9
(cero9.com). Since 1998
they have taught at ETSAM
and ESAYA, and have been
visiting teachers at Cornell,
and EPSA. They have won
more than 30 prizes in
national and international
competitions, and their
projects and writings have
been collected in Breathable
and From Cero9 to AMID.
Max Peintner, Die ungebrochene Anziehungskraft der Natur
(The Unswerving Appeal of Nature), 1970-71

76 77
undergraduate diploma 7 Unit Staff
Simon Beames
undergraduate
Kenneth Fraser

School Grammar is a focus for restoring communities

When deciding priorities for rebuilding
the destroyed town of Cabra in Kosovo
the town chose to rebuild the school
first. Schools are amongst our most
important public buildings and the
experience of school offers a defining
and enduring moment in our personal
and cultural development. Yet school
design remains largely indifferent to
recent approaches to teaching, technol-
ogy and the broader agenda of the role
of education within the social structure
of communities – as a result, perhaps,
of a certain antipathy towards any new
kind of paradigm.
Our interest lies in extending the
design of schools to shape the many
reciprocal relationships that can be
established through all aspects of their
settings – ecological, hydrological,
material, climatic as well as cultural and
aesthetic. The projects developed by
the unit will survey a broad range of
interactions to generate interventions
at differing scales. Optimistically, we
will also pursue a rigorously green
agenda, one which by its nature is
transdisciplinary and reliant on collabo-
ration and context.
The typological studies will be
tested on a territorial level in multiple
locations and climates, led by develop-
ing collaborative networks and part-
ners. The set-piece focus is southern
Lebanon, where the school building
and a safe haven in an area that has
always known conflict.
Diploma 7 will explore the philo-
sophical, social, political and technical
response to the provision of long-term
development through the legacies of
disaster-relief. Working with a research
group that includes technologists,
theorists and NGOs responsible for
live-field projects, we will apply the
emergent strategy in response to their
requirements.
Two technical ambitions will guide
the unit’s work and research. The first
involves an investigation into digital
toolmaking (with the inherent obsoles-
cence of high-end fabrication machin-
ery broadening the scope for re-appro-
priating these machines and adapting
them into low-cost analogue tools).
Secondly, we will research methods of
accurately predicting the behaviour of
natural light, restoring (to the architect)
an operational means of calculation and
manipulation through digital and reality
modelling. Expressed in these terms,
the expectations of the unit are techni-
cal, social and critical, emphasising the
development of workable systems
for addressing a scarcity of resources.

Unit Staff Kenneth Fraser is a principal

Simon Beames is a
director of Youmeheshe
(youmeheshe.com) and
architect for COTE, an NGO
involved in construction and
re-socialisation following
conflict and disaster.
of Kirkland Fraser Moor
(k-f-m.com). He previously
worked with Renzo Piano
Building Workshop, where
he was project leader for
the Rome Auditorium and
the Padre Pio Pilgrimage
Church. School Building in Bint Jbeil, near the World Heritage site
of Tyre, South Lebanon. Torn apart during the 2006 Israel-
Lebanon conflict.

78 79
undergraduate diploma 8
Divide and Conquer
Diploma 8 will continue its investigation
of logical frameworks within the context
of geometric infrastructures to develop
the basis on which architectural propos-
als can be founded. By examining the
design of an underlying organisational
stimulus of infrastructural development
– the framework – the unit seeks to
validate the medium on which architec-
ture operates, refining the input signals
of projects to more accurately process
and output a set of developed design
motives. In past years, the unit has
approached its interest in the structure
of organisation through briefs such as
the development of urban network
systems, central transportation hubs
and, most recently, the redesign of a
large-scale dam. Due to the magnitude
of scale at which the unit sets itself,
project proposals inherently offer
common applicability to a range of
contemporary architectural concerns.
To most effectively integrate the
design of a logical framework in relation
to an architectural proposal, the unit will
appropriate a parallel investigation of
the anatomy and behaviour of logic. By
examining the vast works of logicians in
related fields alongside contemporary
models of logical processing, students
will be responsible for the constitution,
construction and deployment of asser-
tions that validate an architectural
thesis. Fundamentally, such an ambi-
Unit Staff Chris Yoo studied at
Eugene Han runs AVA- Columbia University and
Studio, researching and the University of Auckland.
developing systems He previously worked at
in industrial design, FOA and NOX and is a
computation, and co-director of the London-
architecture. based architectural practice
poly.m.ur.
80
Unit Staff
Eugene Han
undergraduate
Chris Yoo
tion would necessitate the study of logic
itself, or simply, the logic of logic. Only
once an ontological development of a
branch of architecture is established
can students then utilise such a frame-
work as an effective design tool and
foundation.
To apply such studies, the unit will
set as its brief the reconsideration of an
abandoned coal-mining facility on
Hashima Island in Japan’s Nagasaki
Prefecture. Continuing the unit’s
agenda of relatively time-independent
project proposals, students will develop
their designs adopting a novel critique
towards the failures that the historical
infrastructural administration of the
island facility produced, most notably in
its precarious, narrow objectives of
industrial production and management.
This redesign will focus primarily on the
logistical dynamics and behaviour of
infrastructural proposals as an adaptive
template for an evolving architecture.
By researching the nature of the facil-
ity’s inability to sustain its function and
relevance, students will develop
projects that present alternative specu-
lations applicable as a prototype for
infrastructural development to a gen-
eral range of architectural contexts.
Hashima Island (Gunkanjima), Nagasaki Prefecture, Japan
81
undergraduate diploma 9 Unit Staff
Natasha Sandmeier
undergraduate
Monia De Marchi

New Iconic Architectures 3 cultural boundaries. As in previous

Iconic Fictions
Architects have long used fiction as a
tool: first to explore and design unchart-
ed territories, and second as a presen-
tation device. Fiction, both written and
visual, is an experimental practice to try
out spatial and relational ideas in the
unconfined territory of an imagined
world. This year we will invent fictions to
theorise and visualise space and form.
This third year of the Iconic series
will hover between fiction and reality, as
the unit sets out to imagine our possible
futures. While economic and cultural
ambitions generally have shrunk drasti-
cally since we first introduced this
agenda two years ago, the unit’s
projects have followed a decidedly
contrary path – becoming increasingly
bold and far-fetched as the Dow Jones
decreased. And so this year we will
carry the momentum forward as we blur
the line between the real and the imagi-
nary, weaving fictional stories around
and through our projects as we develop
truly fantastical iconic proposals.
The unit believes that the icon is not
only still possible, but is crucial at a time
of waning optimism. The unit demands
above all an unselfconscious and highly
personal belief in architectural poten-
tial, imagination, criticality and profun-
dity. This year we will push this to
extremes as we use fiction as a device
to stretch architectural, spatial and
years, we will demand highly individu-
ated student investigations into a
deliberately broad spectrum of project
considerations, including context,
publicity, programme, image and
beauty.
The students of Diploma 9 begin
the year with the making of a highly
personal, individual manifesto, whose
expression frames the year ahead. This
year your manifesto will also set up the
fiction that will weave around your
personality, project, site, and cultural
context as you shape your icon. Taking
account of the optical dominance of the
way we view our environment, we place
a heavy emphasis on the deliberate
construction of images and scenarios to
illustrate the manifesto. These images
will exaggerate – even downright lie – in
the telling of their tales, a quality we feel
is a fundamental aspect of designing
and manipulating an iconic image
alongside its proposal and story.
Students will choose their own sites
as they relate to the first project of the
year. They will be real sites in real cities.
Seminars on the topic will be held in
collaboration with students from the MA
in Histories and Theories throughout
terms 1 and 2.

Unit Staff Monia De Marchi is an

Natasha Sandmeier is an
architect and partner of Big
Picture Studio. An AA Unit
Master since 2001, she also
co-directs the AA Summer
School. She was project
architect for the Seattle
Public Library and has
worked at offices in Europe
and the US.
architect who studied in
Venice and completed her
MArch at the AA graduate
programme. In addition to
being a Unit Master at the
AA since 2005, she teaches
Media Studies and co-
directs the Spring Semester
programme at the AA.
Tarek Shamma, Circus Lumens, Diploma Unit 9, 2008/09

82 83
undergraduate diploma 10
Direct Urbanism: Interactive Rules
The interactive city and composite
space.
Last year we focused on ‘current
events as urbanism’ in order to design
interactive hubs for London. ‘Food’ led
to an interactive interface in Hackney
Central that injected a new social
dimension into the food supply chain
and ‘Sex’ led to a series of points and
two redesigned public squares that
serviced the different vice cultures of
Soho. Current events are inseparable
from the urban fabric and together form
the reality of urban space: the real city.
Diploma 10 will continue to experi-
ment with the relationship between
physical and social structures and
further develop the concept of direct
urbanism.
This year we will concentrate on
rules and the role they play in making
architectural and urban space.
We will work with urban, spatial,
social and interactive rules.
What is the relationship between
rules and the physical structures
of the city?
We will devise methods for working
with and communicating the interactive
spaces that allow for the overlap of rule
systems and mediate between the
internal and external spaces of the city.
We will work in London and in a
contrasting capital city.
We will design the following social
Unit Staff formed in 1984, has been
Carlos Villanueva Brandt published widely and
has been Diploma 10 exhibited internationally.
Unit Master since 1986
and was awarded the RIBA
President’s Silver Medal
Tutor Prize in 2000.
The varied work of
Carlos Villanueva
Brandt Architecture
(villanuevabrandt.com),
84
Unit Staff
Carlos Villanueva Brandt
undergraduate
structures: a constructed situation, an
interactive perimeter and a strategic
circle of influence.
We will design the following physical
structures: a building, an interactive
perimeter, an expanded perimeter and
adaptations to the urban fabric within
the circle of influence.
The emphasis will be on space.
Space that expands beyond its physical
boundaries into the urban condition.
What is the relationship between an
architectural structure and its perim-
eter?
What is the relationship between
the architectural perimeter and an
urban perimeter?
What is the relationship between
these perimeters and their surrounding
territory or circle of influence?
The aim is to experiment with rules
and structures, the emphasis is on the
spatial, but the intention is to design
spatial interventions that work with live
situations, conditions, fabric, strategies
and rules that make up the live realm of
the city. How do interactive rules inform
direct urbanism?
Food: without food there is no urbanism; re-centralising
distribution in Hackney Central (Edmund Fowles);
Sex: the complex arrangement of interwoven vice layers in
Soho (Amber Wood); Fear: inclusion, identified mechanisms
for social belonging (Larissa Begault), 2008/09
85
undergraduate diploma 11
Micro City Phase 3
The unit continues its preoccupation
with developing architectural design
strategies for the post-infrastructural
landscape, learning from the ‘inner-
periphery’ of London and in particular
the area around Whitechapel. The
effects of the economic downturn are
becoming increasingly evident in the
speed of production as well as the
erasure of London’s buildings. The city
has been left with an assortment of
different territories with strange adja-
cencies, an increase in the uncertainty
of spaces, delayed infrastructure and
accidental architectures within the city.
As architects, we will respond to this
condition as the city’s metabolism
slows – and before it actually starts to
shrink. Our research will begin by
reinterpreting the city as a catalogue of
beautifully incomplete objects that have
been excluded from urban gentrifica-
tion. We will gather fragments of
textural detail, leftover gaps, exposed
edges and subsidiary service networks:
the unwritten histories that generate
the city’s present-day interiority. We will
then reclassify, de-collage and aggre-
gate these resources, condensing them
into small families of micro-compo-
nents in anticipation of a smaller city.
These assemblages increasingly and
perhaps accidentally become architec-
ture of a city inside the city: a micro city.
We will experiment by making
Unit Staff in the remote village of
Shin Egashira worked in Koshirakura each summer
Tokyo, Beijing and New York for more than a decade.
before coming to London,
and has exhibited artwork
and installations worldwide.
He is the author of Before
Object, After Image
(AA Publications, 2006),
a documentation of the
workshop he has organised
86
Unit Staff
Shin Egashira
undergraduate
models which will un-make the architec-
ture of the city, borrowing the notion of
reverse urban engineering. Material
studies will be made in non-scale, 1:5
and 1:10, and we will develop a new
structural and formal vocabulary as well
as textural expressions of chosen
materials, mixing digital analysis and
material qualities, in particular in
relation to qualities revealed through
various methods of fabrication.
While observing the realities of
Whitechapel through direct sampling
methods, we will examine existing
urban development plans as well as
earlier masterplans. Moments of
disjunction during infrastructural
transition will be a particular focus,
revealing the adjacencies of textures,
scales, structures and programmes.
Final proposals should demonstrate
diverse architectural resolutions in
response to the future scenarios of
chosen areas in un-planned Whitechap-
el; they will speculate on the intricate
cross-utilisation of service infrastruc-
tures and public facilities in the making
of inner-city-based prototype architec-
ture, contextualised by the uncertainties
of its future histories.
Our objects of study this year also
include a revisiting of the Endless
House by Frederick Kiesler; a Tokyo
study with research on urban erasure;
and material experiment sessions at
Hooke Park.
Diploma 11 exhibition space, Projects Review, 2009
Photo Sue Barr
87
undergraduate diploma 12
Nip and Tuck
Since 2003 Diploma 12 has pursued an
agenda to develop and construct new
spatial and social constellations from
an engagement with infrastructure.
This year we will develop a visionary
network of public bridging systems for
the Los Angeles Metropolitan region.
Before modernism and the develop-
ment of regional planning practices
such as those notoriously enacted by
Robert Moses in New York, infrastruc-
ture was integrated within the experi-
ence and performance of cities and
buildings. By contrast – in accordance
with the modernist paradigm which
conceives urban space as a series of
rationalised and functionally distinct
operations – infrastructural projects
built to network transport at a regional
or national scale tend to sever connec-
tions at a local scale. The resulting
disjunctions and social fragmentations
have produced what Stephan Graham
and Simon Marvin term a condition of
‘splintering urbanism’, where the local
public realm is ill-served by privately
funded and monoprogrammatic large-
scale projects.
In response to this condition, and
in the context of the multi-billion dollar
investment in infrastructural renewal
currently underway in the US, we will
explore alternative futures for infra-
structure, using Los Angeles – one of
the most radical, innovative and yet
Unit Staff: Award and Europe 40
Holger Kehne is a founding under 40. Plasma Studio
partner of Plasma Studio is lead designer for the
(plasmastudio.com) and International Horticultural
GroundLab (groundlab.org) Fair in Xi’an, China with a
and winner of the Next wide range of buildings due
Generation Architects to open in 2011.
Award, The Young Architect
of the Year Award, The
HotDip Galvanising
Award, the ContractWorld
88
Unit Staff
Holger Kehne
Technical Tutor
Federico Rossi
undergraduate
Jeffrey Turko
fragile of urban ecologies – as our
location. Here the unit will address the
potential of architecture to mediate
across the different scales of networked
infrastructures, while also exploring
their capacity to respond to an array of
local and public interests as well as the
demands for more global forms of
connectivity. To this end, the typically
linear trajectory and narrow functional-
ity of the bridge typology will be reori-
ented towards a field condition in which
multiple programmes are articulated.
The unit will travel to LA to study the
complex conditions surrounding infra-
structural settings, visiting a wide range
of modernist and contemporary build-
ings as well as some of the most excit-
ing architectural practices currently
working in this region.
Each student will select and study
a condition that runs along, over, under
and/or across an existing freeway in
terms of structure, topography, geom-
etry, programme and potential. Accord-
ingly, we will again employ the diagram
and the index as methodological tools
for reading and reconfiguring these
conditions. Exploiting architecture’s
capacities to fuse the functional, the
projective and the spiritual, we will
propose visionary material structures
that will transpose the term ‘freeway’
into a sustainable and inclusive future.
Jeffrey Turko founded
JEFF TURKO – NEKTON
(nekton.org) and is a
member of the Ocean group
(ocean-designresearch.net).
He also teaches at the
University of East London
School of Architecture and
Visual Arts where he has
taught since 2001. Aerial photo of Los Angeles by Bureau of Reclamation
(aquafornia.com/archives/2701)
89
undergraduate diploma 13
The Reformed Grammar
of Ornament
Great ornament neither negates strife nor
moves to anesthetise or homogenise
passion with a colorless veil of morbid
geometry. To the contrary, it resides and
revels in the convergence of differences,
dislocations and conflict.
– Kent Bloomer, The Nature of Ornament
The bible of ornamental design, Owen
Jones’s The Grammar of Ornament
(1856), consists of 37 propositions
outlining its principles and 100 plates
illustrating motifs from various civilisa-
tions. Thus it proclaims ornament
to be a truly global language, subject
to shared maxims; but it also demon-
strates its power as an emblematic
expression of diverse cultural identities.
This year Dip 13 will not only question
the nineteenth-century rules of orna-
ment but also test their capacities in
establishing contemporary national,
geographic and political identification.
Beyond Jones’s world of Moorish,
Chinese or Elizabethan ornament Dip
13 will reform his Grammar. Our con-
temporary iterations of iconographic,
naturalist, materialist and geometric
ornament for a glocalised world will be
free of defunct patriotism and vulgar
symbolism. With the elegance and
ferocity of an art nouveau whiplash
curve Dip 13 will turn its back on optimi-
Unit Staff and lectures – and has
Oliver Domeisen studied curated an exhibition – on
at ETH Zurich and the AA. the topic of ornament.
From 1997-2000 he worked
as Project Architect for Tristan Simmonds studied
Zaha Hadid; since 2000 Structural Engineering
as director of dlm ltd; from at Bath University. From
2001-07 as Unit Master for 1995-2008 he worked
Inter 9; and from 2005- as a specialist engineer
07 as a Studio Master for at Arup AGU (founding
AAVSP. He currently writes member), and now runs
90
Unit Staff
Oliver Domeisen
undergraduate
Tristan Simmonds
sation, homogeneity and singularity.
Instead we will revel in tactile beauty,
savour aesthetic plurality, and pursue a
meaningful complexity that is not
exclusively formal. The fantastical
nature of our ornamental designs will
only be eclipsed by the realism of their
technical resolution.
The Reform: As an extension to
Jones’s catalogue you will devise a
system of ornament for a new embassy/
high commission of a country of your
choice in central London. The client,
site, programme and choice of contex-
tual materials will infuse these initial
graphic plates.
The Verification: You will produce a
catalogue of architectural elements
pertaining to the structure, circulation,
surfaces, joints, openings and services
of your building employing your orna-
mental grammar. Chosen details will be
constructed as material prototypes.
The Resolution: As an inversion of
traditional methods, your building will
emerge from the detail scale – and as
such will be an adaptation of your
ornamental strategy. Only ornamental
aspects of the final design will be
revealed at appropriate scales.
The unit will be accompanied by a
Diploma History and Theory course and
lectures on the topic of ornament.
Drawing workshops will also be held.
Ornamental treasure hunts will take us
to Paris, Brussels and Munich.
his own company Tristan
Simmonds Studio providing
geometry and engineering
services to artists and
architects including Antony
Gormley. Specialist in form
generation and digital
sculpting.
Owen Jones, The Grammar of Ornament, 1856,
chromolithograph half-title to the first edition.
91
undergraduate diploma 14 Unit Staff
Pier Vittorio Aureli
undergraduate

Making the City: The Immeuble Cité
In recent years complex form, paramet-
ric systems of design and diagrams
have become the norm in architecture.
If these devices promise endless differ-
entiation and adaptability to multiple
situations, identities and performances,
the results in fact contribute to a mono-
tonous landscape of (value-free) diver-
sity. Against this landscape, Diploma 14
proposes a return to simple forms – not
as retreat into the vacuum of self-refer-
entiality (as in the glossy minimalism of
contemporary architecture), but as a
polemical way to confront (and under-
stand) the insurmountable complexity
of the city. Instead of naively mimicking
urban complexity with architectural
complexity, the unit proposes to criti-
cally understand urbanity as something
that provides architecture with its very
raison d’être, while being itself irreduc-
ible to architectural form. For this
reason the unit encourages a rigorous
(but not cause-and-effect) relationship
between enquiries on the nature of the
contemporary city and the development
of architectural forms based on the
composition and estrangement of
physical space’s most literal attributes,
such as walls, rooms, openings, con-
nections and obstructions.
The aim of the unit is to define an
intelligible vocabulary of forms as a
basis for rethinking the form of the
contemporary city. Consequently, the
use of diagrams, gratuitous iconic
gestures and parametric complexity is
strongly discouraged.
The theme for this year will be the
design of an ‘Immeuble Cité’ – a large-
scale building with a critical mass
comparable to that of the city. The
simple premise for such a building will
be to reduce the footprint to a minimum
impact on the ground, thus countering
the sprawl of urbanity. The Immeuble
Cité must go beyond the commercial
form of towers or any facile iconic or
utopian gesture: instead, it is to be
conceived as a radical (architectural)
test for a number of spatial and political
issues such as the relationship between
living and work space, new forms of
welfare and systems of bio-political
government, the will to community or
segregation, urban government and the
possibility of conflict. The impulse
behind this design problem is twofold:
on the one hand it aims at a critique and
revision of architecture and its specific
history, on the other it challenges the
present state of architectural form
vis-à-vis the politics of the city. The con-
text for this exercise will be the North-
Western Metropolitan Area (NWMA), a
region of 137 million inhabitants encom-
passing the old core of the EU (France,
Belgium, UK, Germany and The Nether-
lands). The unit will consider this region
as one city and, as such, the framework
for the Immeuble Cité.

Unit Staff architectural form, political

Pier Vittorio Aureli is an
architect and educator.
After graduating from the
Istituto di Architettura
di Venezia, he obtained
masters and PhD degrees at
the Berlage Institute/Delft
University of Technology.
His theoretical studies focus
on the relationship between
theory and urban history.
He currently teaches at the
Berlage Institute, where he
heads the ‘City as a Project’
PhD programme. Together
with Martino Tattara he is
the co-founder of Dogma, a
prize-winning architectural
collective focusing on the Photograph by Oswald Mathias Ungers of Le Corbusier’s
project of the city. Unité d’Habitation in Berlin, 1956.

92 93
undergraduate diploma 15
Antique Futures II
I should like to describe the novel and
unusual things I noticed during my stay
on the moon. – Verae Historiae, Lucian
(AD 120–180)
Back to the Future
While nineteenth-century Grand Tour-
ists were visiting Pompeii and the
Pantheon by candlelight, Charles
Babbage’s analytical machine, Wallace
Farmer’s electric dynamo and Ead-
weard Muybridge’s zoopraxiscope
(precursors of the computer, the light-
bulb and the movies) were being un-
veiled back home, within the purpose-
built pyramids and pantheonic domes of
the London, Paris and Philadelphia
World Fairs. The artifice of the antique
has always been embedded with map-
pings of the present’s desired futures
and, conversely, the future has often
dressed itself in antique trappings. Two
supercontexts – Antiquity and The
Future – are again engaged with this
year via the vehicles of the Grand Tour
and the World Fair, focusing on the
extraordinary nineteenth-century
moment when the two coexisted. If, as
our research last year demonstrated,
the Grand Tour can be understood as a
generative cultural infrastructure
connecting a set of technological,
cultural and natural contexts which
organised and reconstructed our
relations to the Antique past, then the
Unit Staff entitled False Economies:
Francesca Hughes joined The Architecture of Error.
the AA in 2003. She has Hughes Meyer Studio is a
lectured internationally multidisciplinary practice
and served as an external whose work has been
examiner both in the UK published by AR, ANY,
and abroad. Author/ Art Forum, Merrell and
editor of The Architect: Routlege.
Reconstructing Her Practice
(MIT Press, 1996), she is
currently completing a book
94
Unit Staff
Francesca Hughes
undergraduate
Noam Andrews
World Fair similarly reorganised our
relations to the technologically promis-
cuous future, transplanting and central-
ising a set of destinations, events and
technologies into a hyper-condensed,
singular event – such as an entire
Madagascan village for the Human Zoo
exhibit (Paris Fair, 1889). The future
and its relations to the past were never
more multiple than at this contentious
site of empirical performance, scientific
quackery and seemingly promising
technologies.
The political visions of the twentieth
century were the undoing of The Future
as an effective category: architecture
no longer knows how to use it without
burdening it with (now vacuous) utopian
or ideological content. The unit’s
continuing research into the perform-
ance of post-digital ‘context’ and the
instrumentalisation of its role in con-
temporary architectural production and
epistemology takes us this year to the
artifice-laden fabrication of Antique
Futures. We will mine the ancient past
for alternative models to both the failed
heroics of the twentieth century and the
dubious historicism of the nineteenth in
order to evade the cul de sac of ‘future
now’. The acrobatics of historicity will
be our trade, its saturated artifice the
nemesis of the instrumentalist ration-
ale. The unit maintains relations with
structural engineer and historian of civil
engineering, Matthew Wells.
Noam Andrews is director
of Wunderkammer
(wk-studio.com). He
previously worked in New
York and Paris, including
spells at Studio Daniel
Libeskind and Atelier Seraji,
and is currently writing a
dissertation at the London
Consortium on space in Karl Kjlestrup-Johnson, Temporal GIS of Hannibal crossing
parametric design. the Alps, 2009
95
undergraduate
Adaptive Ecologies 2:
Composite Production
Dip 16 will pursue its research into
environmentally specific yet highly
articulated spatial production. Our
areas of investigation will range from
recent developments in environmental
science, digital design/manufacturing
and material science, through proc-
esses of industrialised building and
industrial production economies, to new
organisational models and methods of
procurement.
We will continue our search for a
new architectural aesthetic and spatial
qualities based on the idea of the
composite. Our end goal: an increas-
ingly articulated, context-specific
architectural space arising from an
environmentally conscious ecology of
industrialised architectural production,
with an innate capacity for redeploy-
ment and adaptation. We view new
environmental conditions, building
standards and legislation as a spring-
board for imaginative and innovative
environmentally conscious design.
After revisiting traditional forms
of building taxonomy and production
techniques in a range of materials –
stone, concrete, metal, timber, fabric
and polymers – Dip 16 will consider
more high-tech means of fabrication
including milling, folding, laminating,
sewing, stacking, interlocking, hanging,
injection moulding, compositing,
Unit Staff Beijing Biennales and was
Jonas Lundberg, Andrew recently featured in 10X10 v.
Yau, Jonas Runberger and 2. An overview of Diploma
Tom Tong are part of Urban Unit 16’s work can be seen
Future Organization, an online at dip16.net.
international architecture
practice research
collaborative. UFO has won
a number of international
competitions, exhibited
its work at the Venice and
96
diploma 16 Unit Staff
Jonas Lundberg
Assisted by
Jonas Runberger
undergraduate
Andrew Yau Tom Tong
extrusion, weaving and bundling.
Spatially and programmatically this
will entail various degrees of articula-
tion from the standardised, low-tech
component to the highly articulated
formal element, avoiding self-similar
repetition in favour of the diversity of
the composite.
The year will initially evolve around a
series of intensive project-based digital
design workshops focusing on paramet-
ric modelling and simulation. There will
also be a strong emphasis on the
development of individual research
consultancies and an individual formal
research abstract. We will go on an
extended unit trip, and strongly encour-
age an individual site trip as well.
As always Dip 16 will engage with
the question of how to nurture environ-
mentally conscious design talent by
exploring how one goes about appropri-
ating and developing individual design
techniques and directing one’s own
research. The choice of site and brief
will remain entirely open.
Maryam Pousti, Inhabitable Bridge, Istanbul, Turkey
97
undergraduate complementary undergraduate

studies
Three kinds of Complementary Studies courses in History and Theory,
Media and Technical Studies are an essential part of every year of the
Undergraduate School. In term-long courses or shorter projects students
obtain knowledge and gain experience related to a wide range of
architectural learning. Third and Fifth Year students additionally take a
Professional Practice course as part of their RIBA Part I and II
requirements. These courses also provide opportunities for students
approaching architecture from the different agendas of the units to come
together in shared settings.
History and Theory Studies includes courses that develop historical
and theoretical knowledge related to architectural discourses, concepts
and ways of thinking. Media Studies helps students to develop skills in
traditional forms of architectural representation as well as today’s most
experimental forms of information and communication technology.
Technical Studies offers surveys as well as in-depth instruction in
particular material, structural, environmental and other architectural
systems, leading to Technical Submissions that build upon the ideas and
ambitions of projects related to work within the units. Together, the
various courses on offer in Complementary Studies allow students the
opportunity to establish and develop their own individual interests and
direction within the school.

Technical Studies, Second Year bridge test

Photo Valerie Bennett

98 99
undergraduate history & theory
studies
History & Theory Studies courses in the
First Year and Intermediate School will
undergo further changes in the coming
year. They continue to provide students
with a fundamental introduction to the
concepts and categories which inform
architectural design and architectural
practice, and are particularly concerned
to demystify the often complex forms of
argument within design so that stu-
dents can quickly enter the field of
architectural debate. This year a par-
ticular emphasis is being placed on
helping students to acquire the writing
skills which they will need not only in
professional practice but also if they
wish to make an individual contribution
to architectural discussion. Students
are encouraged to contribute to and
question the lectures and classes which
they attend. In the first term the focus
will be on writing, particularly essay
writing, and in the second term atten-
tion will be given to acquiring the skills
to present projects in a clear and
rational manner.
In the First Year students are
introduced to the elements of architec-
tural discourse and practice so that they
can readily understand questions of
architectural representation (plans,
sections, etc) as being a crucial part of
architectural design. In the Second Year
this is developed by looking at architec-
ture and its pasts. This is radically
different from an architectural history
course and bases itself upon the way in
which architects – rather than histori-
ans – look at the past. In the Third Year
a number of concepts and strategies for
architecture are examined with a view to
clarifying them and enabling students
to enter into critical exchanges with
100
each other without feeling excluded by
what can seem to be the technical
character of much current architectural
discourse.
The courses each term are deliv-
ered in two blocks of four with a week’s
gap between them. This is designed to
enable students to participate actively
in schoolwide activities but also to allow
time during the term to work on their
History & Theory submissions. The
submissions have a renewed signifi-
cance in the new courses and a full
range of seminar and tutorial times will
be provided to help with this. In addition
to the weekly lectures a new system of
class work is provided in which students
will be set small writing tasks linked to
their preparation of the term’s essay,
and this work will be included in the
overall assessment. The programme of
the Intermediate School is now fully
integrated and aims to provide a clear
common ground of knowledge for all
students approaching Part 1.
The Diploma School continues to
offer both new courses as well as more
established ones that bear upon work
and issues which are influential within
the school. These courses are more
specialised and their range intends to
demonstrate the breadth of interests
represented by the units. But as in the
Intermediate School it is important that
students use the courses to develop
their own writing. Diploma students are
required to successfully complete three
courses and their essays, or alterna-
tively they can complete one course and
elect to develop and write a longer
thesis which must be completed by
January of the Fifth Year. History &
Theory Studies only run courses in the
Programme Director
Mark Cousins
first term of the Fourth and Fifth Years
so that students have adequate time to
devote to their architectural design
during the rest of the year.
The value of the programme as a
whole must be judged by its capacity to
help students think about architecture
as well as to express their ideas in a
clear but critical fashion. In a culture
where it can seem to students that their
work for design is paramount it should
not be forgotten that an ability to write
about architecture and to present
projects in an intellectually and coher-
ent manner is of vital importance.
History & Theory Studies also
organises an evening programme of
lectures, workshops and discussions,
conferences and symposia as well as a
full programme of freestanding lec-
tures. In May 2010 there will be a major
international conference on ‘Architec-
ture and its Pasts’.
The Prospectus contains a brief
summary of the timetabled courses on
offer. Full details of the syllabuses and a
statement of the submission require-
ments will be found in the ‘HTS/TS/
Communications Studies Handbook’
available at the beginning of the autumn
term. All events organised by History &
Theory Studies are advertised in the
weekly Events List:
aaschool.ac.uk/diary
aaschool.ac.uk/lectures
undergraduate
The courses in First, Second and
Third Year take place in the Autumn
and Spring Terms.
First Year
Architecture and its Fundamentals
Maria Fedorchenko
This course looks at elements of archi-
tecture that are so inherent to both
theory and practice that their influence
is frequently taken for granted, while
their changes go unchallenged. It
approaches a series of architectural
concepts not simply as technical issues
but as embodiments of contemporary
assumptions as well as outcomes of
long histories. The aim of the course is
not to find a fixed meaning for each
term but rather to investigate how it has
been used in theoretical arguments and
practical experiments, and to discuss
its relevance to the built environment. A
related target is to contrast the defini-
tions architects and theorists have
given to the word ‘architecture’ and how
it has been associated with specific
elements. Students will be able to
expand their understanding of key
conceptual categories in order to inform
individual design attitudes. The course
is organised thematically with selected
readings each week. The first term will
examine highlights of architectural
discourse and their expressions in
practice. The second term will develop
the student’s ability to analyse sympto-
matic projects in both words and graph-
ic presentation and to channel analysis
into design. A weekly lecture will be
followed by a seminar and/or workshop
where students will have a chance to
discuss theoretical texts. In addition,
assigned exercises will help them
101
undergraduate history & theory studies history & theory studies undergraduate

engage with the topics on both abstract
and concrete levels by relating readings
to case studies. Course material will be
aligned with the First Year Studio
projects in order to bridge thinking and
making.
Second Year
Architecture and its Pasts
Mark Cousins
This is not a course on architectural
history. It aims to present something
that is more directly relevant to archi-
tecture and design. Firstly we look at
the relation of architects to buildings of
the past, starting with the relation of Le
Corbusier to the Parthenon. From there
we look at how architects have under-
stood the classical both in the Renais-
sance and in the Modern period. This
enables us to pass on to the question of
style: we look at how architects have
interpreted national traditions, religious
traditions and political ideologies as the
basis for design proposals. This will
include architects’ interpretations of
vernacular architecture and also of
modernism itself. All these will be
shown to have a relation not strictly to
architectural history but to the way
architects experience the past. In
conclusion the course will consider the
nature of the city as a site for the
coexistence of contemporary and past
architectures. Students will be required
to fulfil a number of exercises and
projects to demonstrate an understand-
ing of the various types of relations to
the past. These exercises will include
drawing, the interpretation of buildings,
and for example the appreciation of how
film and novels represent aspects of the
architectural past.
Third Year
16 Canonical Buildings and Texts
Chris Pierce and Brett Steele
This course will tackle head-on the
canonic architectural projects and
theories in the twentieth and twenty-
first century. From the Amsterdam
Bourse to CCTV we will closely scruti-
nise the buildings and texts that have
defined modern and contemporary
architecture. On a week-by-week basis
students will come to understand and
interpret the key texts and decipher
their different terms and issues. At the
same time, they will learn ways to
comprehend and analyse some of the
most important architectural projects
and consider and question the con-
stantly changing role of the architect in
practice. Between design and architec-
tural theory there is a constant ex-
change of categories and students will
develop a knowledge of these and the
wide range of debates and practices
defining this period. In short, this
course will make the discourse of
modern and contemporary architecture
more intelligible and ground the idea of
an experimental or critical modern/
contemporary practice and the relation-
ship between architectural theories and
projects.
Diploma Courses
In the Diploma School students are able
to choose to satisfy their coursework
obligation to be satisfied either by
taking three courses and completing
the coursework component for each of
them OR by taking one course with its
coursework component in addition to
producing a thesis of 7,500 words, for
which the HTS will provide appropriate
tutorial assistance. Diploma Courses
take place in the Autumn Term only
The Possibility of an
Absolute Architecture
Pier Vittorio Aureli
‘What is Architecture? – the seminar will
begin to answer this question, not in a
straightforward way, but by considering
six ‘projects’ in which the notion and the
practice of architecture has been deeply
theorised in its most essential aspects.
The projects presented week by week
will be the theories and work of Donato
Bramante, Domenico Fontana, Andrea
Palladio, Etienne Louis Boullée, Oswald
Mathias Ungers and OMA. The seminar
will maintain that the essential nature of
architecture has emerged not so much
in vacuo – meaning the abstract space
of treatises and rules – as in the acci-
dental, critical and precarious space of
the city. It is precisely through its
struggle with the city that architecture
has revealed its absolute form.
Don’t Look Now
Mark Campbell
Paranoia is usually understood as a
suspiciously hostile experience of the
world and the people within it. While
strictly speaking a severe psychiatric
disorder, paranoia has become a
cultural reference for describing a state
of malign influence in which the para-
noiac imbues everything and everyone
with an undue significance. This refer-
ence, despite its delusional character,
can elicit a unique understanding
because, as William Burroughs once
quipped, ‘paranoia is the state you enter
when you realize what’s going on’.
Following a reading of Daniel Paul
Schreber’s Memoirs of My Nervous
Illness, this seminar will argue there is
something inherently modern about the
paranoiac, especially in his relation to
cause and effect, and this disjunction
can have distinct architectural conse-
quences. Extending the argument to an
examination of America during the
1970s, including the Watergate scandal
and a number of paranoid genre films,
such as the Parallax View, The Conversa-
tion and Jaws, the seminar will explore
the architectural dimensions of the
paranoid state of mind.
Curating Fashion
Judith Clark
Judith Clark curated the major V+A
exhibition ‘Spectres: When Fashion
Turns Back 2005’. In this course she
will discuss the curatorial process and
the initial reactions to the exhibition.
This will provide the basis for looking at
the international conversations about
curating dress.
The History of Homecoming
Mark Cousins
Part of the definition of Home stems
from the drama and the thematics of
Homecoming. This course traces the
history of Homecoming from Homer’s
Odyssey to Godard’s remake of the epic,
Le Mépris. The course covers issues of
exile, dwelling and returning.
The Jean-Eric (or ‘Eight lectures
on everything Zaha hates’)
Paul Davies
Jonathan Meades’ 10-page essay
(‘Zaha; The First Great Female Archi-
tect’, Intelligent Life: The Economist
2008) is the ‘best thing I’ve read about
architecture for years’, said a good
friend of mine, who was the best archi-
tect I knew till he started throwing so
much coke up his nose. In that sentence
resides the content of the course: a
penetrating if oblique and over-stylish
essay; a smart but inebriated and now

102 103
undergraduate history & theory studies
dulled individual (lost); a hoity, self-
aggrandising and often preposterous
discourse to be slapped around; a
concern for the everyday, for the wider
facts (whatever they are) with Bukowsk-
iesque leanings.
Ornament: Reconstructing
Architecture’s Battle Royal
Oliver Domeisen
The resurrection of architectural orna-
ment in current practice remains largely
unfettered by a concurrent discourse or
historical awareness. This course will
test the suitability of past ornamental
theories from the eighteenth, nine-
teenth and early twentieth centuries as
interpretative tools for the critique of
contemporary buildings by Herzog & de
Meuron, OMA, Toyo Ito, et al. Through-
out the history of architecture battles
over the definition of the term ornament
have occurred during stylistic transi-
tions, paradigm shifts and technologi-
cal revolutions. We will see how in these
moments of crisis writers such as
William Hogarth, Gottfried Semper,
Owen Jones, Alois Riegl, John Ruskin,
Louis Sullivan or Adolf Loos exploited
the equivocal nature of ornament to
their own ends. We will discuss the
underlying pathologies and resultant
legacies of these seminal conflicting
texts, and will determine their relevance
in establishing a desperately needed
contemporary theoretical framework.
Some of the issues addressed include
the geometric obsessions of the rococo,
tectonic shifts, stylistic eclecticism, the
victory of the machines in the nine-
teenth century, the puritan legacy of
modernism and postmodern obses-
sions with patterned surfaces. Ex nihilo
nihil fit.
104
Wandering in the Open Plan
Brian Hatton
This course goes in search of the
imaginary subject of modern architec-
ture, the conjectural denizen of ‘the
open plan’. Buildings are fixed objects,
but their builders are mobile subjects.
Therefrom springs a tension that has
racked architecture from the first
settlement. Myths of Arcadian days and
yearnings to rove again haunt the
stories of farmers and townsfolk fenced
in by routines, rituals and laws. Yet
dreams of escape are shadowed by
fears of exile and disorientation. Odys-
seus eventually made his way home; not
so the Flying Dutchman or the Wander-
ing Jew. Ranging from cave art to
cubism, Joyce’s Ulysses, film and
topology, we will set out to trace the
‘divagations of the wanderer’.
Projective Cities
Christopher Lee/Sam Jacoby
Since the nineteenth century, the
discourse of architecture in relation to
its larger context has been predomi-
nantly discussed and reasoned through
concepts of urbanism, with little or no
relevant new architectural theories.
However, in the recent past a number of
theories on the contemporary city have
emerged that promise an alternative to
the traditional history of urban planning.
The course will identify and discuss
these theories and their potential to
rewrite the role of architecture to
participate in the formation of the city,
and examines how the idea of the city
increasingly becomes a critical contem-
porary field of theory that reconnects
architecture with the larger challenges
and questions raised by ongoing relent-
less urbanisation.
history & theory studies
Polity and Space
John Palmesino
The seminar investigates the relations
between the process of construction of
inhabited space and the forms of polity
in the twenty-first century. Using
architecture as both the object and the
method of inquiry, we will analyse a
series of complex territorial transforma-
tions to reveal the underlying organisa-
tional processes in the theoretical
junctures between notions of inhabita-
tion, architecture, space, governmental
territory, intervention. The contempo-
rary territory is the seat of a multiplicity
of transformational patterns and evolu-
tive rhythms wrought by concurrent and
often distant interests and promoted by
a growing number of actors. Their
interplay and competition reshapes,
carves, moulds and reorganises their
spaces of operation. Natural, mineral,
technological, linguistic, biological,
economic, political, cultural, social and
institutional factors constantly interact
and form the materials that constitute
the complex dynamics of the contempo-
rary territory. The seminar with explore
a series of transformations in the
connections between organisation of
contemporary politics and their spaces
of operation with architecture and
urbanism being agents of that relation.
Anti-(Anti-)Rationalism
Martin Self
Movements in architecture are tradi-
tionally positioned relative to the con-
cept of the rational, and consequently
perceived as favouring either ‘the
objective’ or ‘the sensual’. This course
will explore the sources, implications
and dangers of this distinction, testing
its validity. It will challenge the assumed
rationality of engineering and scientific
undergraduate
practice – where intuition, instinct and
aesthetic judgement all have a place
– and inspect the phenomenological
argument that corporeal, embodied
experience is necessary for architec-
tural judgement. We will debate how
these issues inform judgement of
today’s formal expressionism and
explore how these arguments are
reframed by the dominance of compu-
tation in design practice.
BoOMA: The Bookspace of OMA
Brett Steele/Zak Kyes
For more than 30 years OMA has been
dedicated to the production of experi-
mental architectural ideas through the
thinking, making and production of
experimental architectural publications.
This seminar – foregrounding an AA
retrospective exhibition in 2010 – will
survey this oeuvre and consider how it
relates to the twentieth-century legacy
of monographs, magazines and mani-
festos which are largely the location of
modern architecture’s invention, com-
munication and evolution.
Cold War Architecture and its Ghost
Ines Weizman
The course introduces students to the
history of Cold War architecture and its
urbanisms. It shows how opposed
political ideologies determined archi-
tecture both at the level of the city and
its cultural production. It focuses
particularly on the 1980s, a period of
the meltdown of the Cold War and its
aftermath.
105
undergraduate history & theory studies
Landscape and Mobility
Patrick Wright
This course is the report of work in
progress on a project shared by the
writer Patrick Wright and the filmmaker
Patrick Keiller, which will lead to both a
book and a film. The course deals with
Keiller’s films and with Wright’s writings
on landscape and place.
Myths and Theories of
Sustainable Architecture
Simos Yannas
Many architects and students take
sustainable environmental design for
granted, as if it were now standard
practice. Others see environmental
performance as a mere genetic corol-
lary of the digital revolution. For others
still, energy and environment are techni-
calities best dealt with outside architec-
ture. The course will start by dispelling
such myths, which continue to obscure
the architectural discourse of sustain-
able design. Far from being an issue of
engineering, the environmental per-
formance of buildings is fundamentally
a matter for architecture, being a direct
outcome of programmatic, formal and
operational choices made – or ignored
– by design. Sustainable environmental
design requires essential architectural
knowledge that recent generations of
architects simply have not received. The
course will introduce its key concepts
and criteria, providing the grounding
and critical framework required for
design research and applications.
106
Open Courses/Lecture Series
The Neighbour
Mark Cousins
Fridays at 5pm in the
Autumn and Spring Terms
Since the emergence of agriculture and
the appearance of the city, human
proximity has been a central issue for
culture. Most religious thought has
privileged the idea of the neighbour as
expressing the supreme religious value
of Love Thy Neighbour. This is common
to Christianity, Islam and Judaism. In
philosophy it has emerged more in
terms of the ‘polis’ and then as the idea
of a community. At the same time it has
always been noticed that relations with
neighbours have been particularly tense
and have frequently been the basis for
outbreaks of hostility.
The lectures consider arguments in
the twentieth century that cast doubt on
the value of the idea of the neighbour as
a guiding principle for ethics and for
social solidarity. It pursues these
arguments in an analysis of the way in
which hostility and antagonism fre-
quently erupt between neighbours, and
then links this to the continuing failure
of architecture and urbanism to provide
an alternative approach to human
proximity.
Artist Lectures
Fridays at 7pm in the Spring Term
Organised by Parveen Adams
In the spring term there will be a
series of Artist Talks. A full schedule will
be published during the autumn term.
Programme Director and
2nd Year Course Lecturer
Mark Cousins directs the
AA’s History & Theory
Studies programme. In
addition he is visiting
professor of architecture at
Columbia University and
visiting professor designate
at the University of Navarre,
Pamplona. He is a founding
member of the Graduate
School at the London
Consortium.
markcousins@
aaschool.ac.uk
1st Year Course Lecturer
Maria Fedorchenko
3rd Year Lecturer
Christopher Pierce studied
at Virginia Polytechnic
Institute and State
University and gained
a PhD from the University
of Edinburgh. Among his
recent publications are
essays on Cloud 9, ‘Seven-
year Itch: Another Note from
Empuriabrava’ (2008);
and Diller Scofidio + Renfro,
‘Three’s a Crowd’ (2009);
and Jacob van Ruisdael,
‘Navel Gazing’ (2009).
He is Unit Master of
Intermediate 9, and formed
Mis-Architecture (mis-
architecture.co.uk) with
Chris Matthews in 2000.
3rd Year Lecturer and
Diploma Course Lecturer
Brett Steele is Director of
the AA School. His research
and writings can be found
online at brettsteele.net
history & theory studies
Course Lecturers
(Diploma Consultants)
Pier Vittorio Aureli is an
architect and educator.
After graduating from the
Istituto di Architettura
di Venezia, he obtained
masters and PhD degrees at
the Berlage Institute/Delft
University of Technology.
His theoretical studies focus
on the relationship between
architectural form, political
theory and urban history.
He currently teaches at the
Berlage Institute where he
heads the ‘City as a Project’
PhD programme. Together
with Martino Tattara he is
the co-founder of Dogma, a
prize-winning architectural
collective focusing on the
project of the city.
Mark Campbell is a PhD
candidate in the School of
Architecture at Princeton
University. His research
interests include American
culture between 1955 and
1975, paranoia, cultural
exhaustion and dreams.
A practising architect and
critic, he has taught at
Princeton University and the
Cooper Union.
Judith Clark is the Director
of the MA in Fashion
Curating and Reader in
Fashion and Museology at
the London College of
Fashion. She works
internationally and opens a
new exhibition in Rotterdam
this autumn.
Paul Davies has lectured
at the AA since 1997,
predominantly on the
subject of Las Vegas
and entertainment
architecture. He writes for
Modern Painters and other
magazines, and is coeditor
of The Architect’s Guide to
Fame (2005).
Oliver Domeisen studied
at ETH Zurich and the AA.
From 1997-2000 he worked
as Project Architect for
Zaha Hadid; since 2000
as director of dlm ltd; from
2001-07 as Unit Master for
Inter 9; and from 2005-
07 as a Studio Master for
AAVSP. He currently writes
and lectures – and has
curated an exhibition – on
the topic of ornament.
Brian Hatton has taught at
the AA for more than 20
years. A critic for many art
and architecture journals,
he has written studies of
Dan Graham, Cedric Price,
Zaha Hadid and Langlands
& Bell, among others.
Sam Jacoby graduated
from the AA and is an
architect in private practice
in London. Before becoming
an architect he trained as a
cabinet-maker in Germany.
Has taught at the AA since
2002 and at the University
of Nottingham since
2007. Currently a doctoral
candidate at the TU Berlin.
Christopher CM Lee
graduated with the AA Dipl
(Hons) and has taught in
the AA since 2002. He is
the principal of award-
winning Serie Architects in
London, Mumbai, Beijing
and Chengdu. His practice
is working on numerous
projects worldwide including
a 440-unit residential
complex in Bratislava, a
20Ha masterplan in Pune
and a floating pavilion in
Marina Bay Singapore.
He is currently a doctoral
candidate at the Berlage
Institute inRotterdam.
serie.co.uk
John Palmesino is a co-
founder (with Ann-Sofi
Rönnskog) of Territorial
Agency, an independent
organisation that combines
architectural analysis,
projects, advocacy and
action for the integrated
spatial transformation of
contemporary territories.
He previously led a research
group on a series on
international cities at ETH
Zurich, Studio Basel /
Contemporary City Institute
with Jacques Herzog
and Pierre de Meuron.
Co-founder of multiplicity
in Milan, he is currently
researching for his PhD at
the Research Architecture
Centre at Goldsmiths,
where he also teaches.
undergraduate
Martin Self holds a degree
in aerospace engineering.
He was a founder member
of the Advanced Geometry
Unit at Arup, where he
has worked as a structural
engineer with many
internationally prominent
architects. 
Ines Weizman was trained
at the Bauhaus University in
Weimar and the Ecole
d’Architecture Belleville,
Paris. After graduate work
at Cambridge she
completed her PhD at the
Architectural Association in
2004. Since then she has
taught a graduate course at
London Metropolitan and
continues with her
architectural practice.
Patrick Wright is a writer,
author amongst other works
of Living in an Old Country
(1985), The Village that
Died for England (1995) and
Tank – The Progress of a
Monstrous War Machine
(2000). He wrote a regular
column for the Guardian in
the 1990s and regularly
contributes to the
Washington Post,
Independent and Guardian
newspapers.
Simos Yannas is Director
of the AA’s MSc & MArch
programmes in Sustainable
Environmental Design and
the academic coordinator
of the school’s PhD
programme.
107
undergraduate media studies
Media Studies courses are a required
part of the First Year and Intermediate
School, providing students with the
knowledge and skills associated with a
wide range of contemporary design,
communication and fabrication media.
Studio-based courses offered to Sec-
ond Year students are also open to
participation by Third and Fourth Year
students, while laboratory-based
courses are open to students through-
out the entire school.
These weekly courses are taught by
AA unit staff, the school’s AV depart-
ment, workshop and computing staff,
as well as by invited outside architects,
artists, media and other creative spe-
cialists. Each course focuses on the
conceptual and technical aspects of a
specified topic of design media, and
emphasises the sustained development
of a student’s ability to use design
techniques as a means for conceiving,
developing and producing design
projects and strategies.
As digital design technologies have
now matured as an integral part of
architectural education, Media Studies
works closely with the AA Computer
Lab to provide concise one-day courses
that cover the fundamentals of the most
common computer applications, includ-
ing 3D Modelling, Computer Aided
Drafting, Imaging, Publication, Digital
Computation and Scripting, various
Physics-Based Analyses and other
relevant software.
Together the many classes and
special events comprising Media
Studies expose students to the work of
architects, artists and other practition-
ers, the innovative skills associated with
traditional forms of architectural media
and representation, and today’s most
experimental forms of information,
108
Head of Media Studies
Eugene Han
undergraduate
communication and fabrication tech-
nologies. Media Studies works to
integrate established techniques in
design with the potential of progressive
media and production methods.
First Year Courses
The Violet Hour
Sue Barr
Autumn & Spring Terms
Photographs made during the fleeting
light of dusk present technical chal-
lenges but also an opportunity to
explore the notions of transience and
mysterious psychological states that
this time of the day suggests. Through-
out the history of art this liminal state
has inspired images that suggest both
an ambiguous, fleeting beauty and the
growing elusiveness of once hard facts.
After an introduction to the basics
of photography and digital cameras
students will produce images shot
within this transient time.
Translation Object to Drawing
Shin Egashira
Autumn Term
The links between procedures used in
representing and making space are
explored through the translation of
objects into drawings and the interpre-
tation of sets of drawing into models.
One-to-One Instruments
Shin Egashira
Spring Term
Techniques for constructing performa-
tive instruments, including collage and
bricolage, are tested through their
application to the city. We will be using
both drawings and physical assemblag-
es to develop design concepts.
Georges Massoud, First Year
Course: The Violet Hour, Sue Barr
109
undergraduate media studies
Life Drawing
Trevor Flynn
Autumn & Spring Terms
The figure will be used as a point of
departure as we work through several
exercises that enable us to study tone,
mass, line and simple underlying
structures in a range of drawing media
and in short and longer poses from male
and female models. We will also explore
concept sketches, viewpoint, biomor-
phic improvisations and remind our-
selves of the Matisse maxim, ‘exacti-
tude isn’t truth’.
Introduction to Information
Eugene Han
Autumn & Spring Terms
Students will be introduced to the
management and communication of
quantity-dependent numerical systems,
and will learn to develop techniques to
manage, utilise and explain information
based environments.
Materiality of Colour
Antoni Malinowski
Autumn Term
The course focuses on the potential of
subtractive colour in creating/manipu-
lating space. In a series of workshops
students will develop sensitivity to the
use of colour and tone in relation to the
dynamics of space and movement.
Colour of Light
Antoni Malinowski
Spring Term
The emphasis in the spring term will be
on the interaction of subtractive and
additive colour. We shall be considering
microstructure of pigments and other
materials as a source of the perceptual
interdependence of micro and macro
scales.
110
Video: First Year
Joel Newman
Spring Term
Students taking this course will be
required to make a one-minute anima-
tion. We will start by looking at and
discussing various techniques, soft-
wares and directions. Any soundtrack
must be composed by the student,
while the final piece itself must be
submitted as a DVD.
Second Year Courses
Coding As Thought Process/
Emergence
Shajay Bhooshan
Autumn & Spring Terms
As ‘creative’ code-writing and computa-
tional tools increasingly become part of
the architectural repertoire, the seminar
will provide, over two terms, a sound
conceptual footing into the world of
computation and design. The seminar
will use processing as an easy-to-use
software platform to make this foray.
Drawing(s) Animation
Valentin Bontjes Van Beek
Autumn Term
In this course we will animate ideas by
creating and erasing drawings both
analogue and digitally. Animation is
what gives life to the static. This dis-
tance between drawings and anima-
tions is what we wish to explore, mani-
pulate and convey simultaneously. The
course will culminate with a short
animated filmic clip. scripted logic to customise geometry
Pending Structures
Valentin Bontjes Van Beek
Spring Term
Going beyond the scale of the standard
model, this course focuses on develop-
ing a working understanding of fabrica-
media studies
tion through designing on the CNC for
an actual scale. Throughout the term,
students will develop projects that
address the design of installation
pieces within the school, examining the
relationship of material structures and
physical resolution. The course will
culminate with the fabrication of a final
project at Hooke Park.
Tagging Contours
Monia De Marchi
Autumn & Spring Terms
This year’s investigation will focus on
how to superimpose streams of figures
on a formulated context. After defining
an organisational method, you will use
the CNC machine to scratch out mate-
rial to allow for the positioning of distant
figures and objects. Employing specific
toolpaths and methods of manufactur-
ing, you will investigate ways of tagging
contours between different figures,
moving from the seamless and homo-
genous to a lush and distinct outcome.
The final output will be a relief investi-
gating a systematic objectification of
contours between incongruent figures
and operations.
Customised Computation
Eugene Han
Spring Term
This course will focus on the manipula-
tion of digital geometry using scripted
techniques within a NURBS modelling
environment. We will cover the basics of
using iterative logic. Students will also
be introduced to the basics behind the
theory of computation as a means to
establish intelligent geometrical sys-
tems that can be applied to their on-
going unit projects.
undergraduate
Driving Miss Data
Eugene Han
Spring Term
Students will extend their knowledge of
scripted techniques, learning how to
request from and return to value-driven
databases using Rhino as the primary
platform. Various representational
media will be used to document the
process of individual design projects.
Rendering Environments
Matej Hosek
Autumn & Spring Terms
Using both 2D digital collage and 3D
renderings, we will experiment with the
genius loci phenomenon, aiming to
achieve a seamless manipulation of the
mainly photographic environment.
Embodied Landscapes
Tobias Klein
Autumn Term
This course seeks to cross voxel-based
software (used for Magnetic Resonance
Imaging) with representational mesh-
based 3d packages. In particular we will
use Osirix and 3dmax to manipulate
voxel body data and create/render
hybrid embodied landscape models.
Voxel Cathedrals –
Contoured Embodiment
Tobias Klein
Spring Term
A continuation of the investigation into
the realms of voxel-based medical data
geometries and traditional poly-model-
ling/mesh geometries. In the spring
term the focus will shift to the manufac-
turing of manipulated data sets fusing
sheet material technologies (eg,
CNC,laser-cutting) and 3D-printing
volumetric techniques.
111
undergraduate media studies
Publish On Demand
Zak Kyes
Autumn & Spring Terms
What happens when the designer
assumes the role of editor, publisher
and distributor? This course will provide
an introduction to the history, graphics
and production of architectural publica-
tions. Each student will edit/publish/
distribute a small publication printed on
Bedford Press, a private press recently
established at the AA.
WireForm/Skin Form
Anne Save de Beaurecueil
Autumn & Spring Terms
Digital fabrication course developing
variable algorithmic organisations and
their translation into ornamental struc-
tural physical models using Rhino, in
combination with laser-cutting and
rapid prototyping technologies.
Physico-Logical Parametrics
Toni Kotnik
Autumn Term
The course explores the permeability of
the boundary between the physical and
the digital realms by investigating
patterns of movement of bodies in
space and the architectural utilisation
of these patterns by means of paramet-
ric and geometric variation. Grasshop-
per will be the major tool for exploring
themes such as parametric control,
material behaviour, structural integrity,
tessellations and component systems,
or spatial organisation.
Architectural Geometry
Toni Kotnik
Spring Term
Taking up the relationship between
geometry and architecture, this course
will examine the architectural potential
112
of geometry on an individual basis,
using geometric problems related to
the unit design work. Rhinoscript and
Grasshopper will be used to investigate
formal systems and their phenomeno-
logical behaviour.
Video: Intermediate
Joel Newman
Spring Term
This course gives students the opportu-
nity to plan, shoot, edit and author a
video. Special attention will be paid to
the use of sound this year.
All Fake/Parts One and Two
Goswin Schwendinger
Autumn & Spring Terms
This colour photography course scruti-
nises notions of the space of identity
and the identity of space, exploring the
fake as a substitution for the real.
Photography becomes a tool of private
investigation as well as the orchestrator
of a rehearsed drama. Students use a
personal camera to reshape their own
life-story, moving towards a false
identity through repetitive recordings.
Ultimately, the real is altered not
through digital means but exclusively
through desire.
The first term’s investigation culti-
mates in an all-encompassing image,
constructed according to all things
fake. The second term requires the
remake of a Fake. Students become
counterfeiters of term one’s final im-
ages, working backwards, reinventing
identities, spaces and biographies,
moving towards an all-encompassing
remake of a given image in all its
artificiality.
Head of Media Studies
Eugene Han is the founder
of AVA-Studio, researching
and developing systems
in industrial design,
architecture and planning.
eugenehan@aaschool.ac.uk
Staff
Sue Barr
heathcotebarr.org
Shajay Bhooshan
is a researcher in the
Computation and Design
(colde) group at Zaha Hadid
Architects. He is a graduate
of the DRL (v.8) and has
taught computational
design at various schools.
Valentin Bontjes Van Beek
trained as a carpenter in
Germany before attending
the AA, from which he
graduated in 1998. He
has practised architecture
in Berlin, New York and
London, and has taught at
the AA since 2001, where
he is currently a First Year
Tutor.
Monia De Marchi is an
architect who studied in
Venice and completed her
MArch in the AA graduate
design programme. In
addition to teaching in
Media Studies, she has
been an AA Unit Master
since 2005, and co-directs
the Spring Semester
programme.
Shin Egashira worked in
Tokyo, Beijing and New York
before coming to London.
Artworks and installations
include ‘English House’ at
the Camden Arts Centre,
‘Impossible Vehicle’ at the
Spiral Garden, Tokyo, and
‘Slow Box/Afterimage’ for
the Tsunami Trienale 2000.
He has taught at the AA
since 1990 and is currently
Unit Master of Diploma
Unit 11.
media studies
Trevor Flynn MFA
Goldsmiths, is Course
Director of Drawing At Work
and a freehand drawing
tutor at several architectural
and engineering offices
including Foster & Partners,
Future Systems and
Rogers, Stirk, Harbour
and Partners. He is visiting
tutor at Central St Martins
College of Art and Design
and RISD.
Matej Hosek studied
architecture at the
Technical University of
Liberec and has worked at
MilkStudio Architects. He
is a regular consultant on
computational and imaging
platforms.
Toni Kotnik is founder
of Kotnik.archForm, a
Zurich-based architectural
office, and principal
researcher in OCEAN. He
studied architecture and
mathematics at the ETH in
Zurich and the Universities
of Tübingen and Utah,
and received his doctoral
degree from the University
of Zurich. Besides teaching
at the AA he works as senior
researcher at the ETH
Zurich with a focus on the
interplay of architectural
design, geometry and
structural system.
Tobias Klein studied
architecture at the RWTH
(Aachen), University of
Applied Arts (Vienna) and
the Bartlett in London,
and has worked for Coop
Himmelb(l)au. He is a
founder of .horhizon, an
experimental architectural
design platform and is
researching narrative design
in digital environments as a
tutor at the RCA and a First
Year Unit Master at the AA
since 2008.
Zak Kyes is a Swiss-
American graphic designer
working in London. Kyes
is the Art Director of the
Architectural Association
and runs his own studio
Z.A.K.. He is visiting faculty
at ECAL, University of art
and design Lausanne.
undergraduate
Antoni Malinowski is an
artist whose practice
comprises painting and
large-scale drawing
installations. He has
exhibited widely in the
UK and Europe, and his
paintings are in most major
collections, including the
Tate’s. He is currently
working as artist-colourist
with MJP Architects on the
redevelopment of the BBC’s
Broadcasting House.
Joel Newman was born in
1971 in rural Hertfordshire.
He studied fine art at
Reading University and
has exhibited in the UK and
abroad. He has run the AA’s
Audio Visual department
since 1994 and taught Video
within Media Studies since
1998.
Anne Save de Beaurecueil
(subdv.com) uses
computation to generate
environmentally responsive
geometries for architecture
and urban design projects
worldwide, primarily in
Brazil and China. Along
with partner Franklin Lee,
she previously taught at the
Pratt Institute in New York
and received a master’s
degree from Columbia
University. Subdv have
published, exhibited and
lectured about their work
worldwide.
Goswin Schwendinger was
born in Belgium, became
an architect in Switzerland,
went to Spain to learn
photography and moved
to London to live. He has
been teaching at the AA
since 1999 and recently
collaborated with Paul
McCarthy on a Tate Modern
publication.
aa-mediastudies.net
113
undergraduate technical studies
The Technical Studies programme
offers a coherent technical education
that develops a creative collaboration
with the material demands of individual
unit agendas over a five-year period.
The programme continues to evolve
from discussions with leading engineer-
ing practices and research institutions
and is founded on the provision of a
substantial knowledge base of contem-
porary fabrication processes, con-
structed artefacts and buildings.
Information acquired here generates a
‘means’, a set of precepts capable of
negotiating the technical requirements
of construction in unforeseen futures
and unpredictable contexts.
Lecture courses form a portion of
each year’s requirements with a particu-
lar emphasis on the First, Second and
Fourth Years, when students concen-
trate on critical case studies, analysis
and material experiments, undertaking
two courses in each year.
In the Third Year, lecture course-
work and workshop experiments are
synthesised in a detailed Technical
Design. Students conduct research and
experiments to explore and resolve the
technical issues of the main project of
their unit portfolio.
Fifth Year students undertake a
Technical Design Thesis, contextual-
ised as part of a broader dialogue in
which the technical and architectural
agendas that arise within the unit are
synthesised, and its critical develop-
ment pursued through case studies,
material experiments and extensive
research and consultation. requires making choices about materi-
This Prospectus contains a brief
summary of the courses offered. Full
details of the courses and a statement
of the regulations will be found in the
Complementary Studies Handbook.
114
Director
Michael Weinstock
Intermediate Master
Wolfgang Frese
Diploma Master
Javier Castañón
undergraduate
First Year
Workshop Introduction
Making is an important part of the
programme for the year, and students
spend a significant portion of their time
in the workshop. The induction sessions
are run by the workshop staff and cover
the use of tools, machines and facilities,
including correct safety procedures.
Case Study (Compulsory Course)
Marissa Kretsch
This autumn term course teaches
students the foundation skills required
to examine a building with a critical and
technical eye, ranging through re-
search, analysis and drawing to first-
hand experience, site visits and physical
modelling. Assembled in groups,
students will make a case study of a
London structure. Students will explore
the core topics of structure, materials
and construction and identify how these
relate to their specific building. Each
student group will build a physical
model of their structure and in the
penultimate class will test it to failure.
In the final class, each team will be
required to present their case study.
Structures (Compulsory Course)
Phil Cooper and Anderson Inge
This spring term course aims to develop
a feel for forces in structures. Basic
structural behaviour is demonstrated
through models and theory, so that
students can see how shape and mate-
rial influence the performance of real
structures. To design a structure
als, assembly and performance in use,
so it is essential to have the tools to
predict the behaviour of the unbuilt
object when it is still only an idea. Second Year Technical Studies model investigations,
During the programme students will 2008/09
Photo Valerie Bennett
115
undergraduate technical studies
design, make and test a structural
model as a competition.
Intermediate School
Second Year students take Structures
and one of two other courses offered.
Third Year students, in addition to the
Structures course, undertake a Techni-
cal Design study which synthesises the
individual architectural ambitions of
their unit project with an account of its
material production.
Structures (Second Year
Compulsory Course)
Phil Cooper and Anderson Inge
This course examines how the struc-
tural elements of a building carry load.
Well-known buildings are analysed to
show how strength and safety can be
predicted by calculation. Physical
models are made and load-tested to
illustrate deformation and failure.
Emphasis is also placed on finding
idealised conceptual models to demon-
strate structural behaviour, in particular
the stability of the whole building
structure. Examinations are made of
how forces create stresses and defor-
mations in architectural structures,
taking account material properties.
Material and Technologies
(Second Year Optional Course)
Carolina Bartram
An investigation of the use in contem-
porary structures of a range of materi-
als including concrete, timber, brick and
blocks, glass, fabrics and composites.
Material properties, methods of manu-
facture, durability, cost and appearance
are all factors that will be reviewed,
leading to an understanding of how
different materials can be used in a
variety of applications.
116
Engineering the Future
(Second Year Optional Course)
Ian Duncombe
This course informs students about the
broad and fast-evolving role of environ-
mental engineering in architecture,
inspiring them to develop concepts for
their own projects. As well as teaching
some fundamental principles, lectures
demonstrate ways in which cutting-
edge technologies and computer
simulations can be used to develop
design concepts through an iterative
process of ‘virtual prototyping’, similar
to design methods already used for
many years in the car and aircraft
industries. Case studies are used to
illustrate principles and techniques.
Structures (Third Year
Compulsory Course)
Phil Cooper and Anderson Inge
In this introduction to structural model
analysis students make and test scale
models to predict the static and dynam-
ic behaviour of structures under load.
The model testing demonstrates the
theory and practice of the effects of
scale and promotes the analytical skills
required for predicting the behaviour of
real, full-size structures.
Third Year Design Project
Wolfgang Frese, Manja de Worp esses and materials used in the con-
and Phil Cooper
Third Year students undertake a com-
prehensive design study that explores
and resolves the central technical
issues of their projects, in collaboration
with individual unit agendas. The study
records the strategic technical deci-
sions made as the design is developed,
integrating knowledge of the environ-
mental context, use of materials,
structural forms and processes of
technical studies
assembly. It also documents the re-
search carried out in the process of
developing the design project. The
individual projects are developed with
support from technical teaching staff
within the unit and from tutorials with
Wolfgang Frese, Manja de Worp and
Phil Cooper. Seminars on specific
relevant subject are organised by the
technical teaching staff and guest
speakers as a further means of support.
Fourth Year Seminar Courses
Fourth Years choose two courses from
those on offer and may attend others
according to their interests.
Process in the Making
Wolfgang Frese
This course aims to highlight and
explain the complex forces underlying
the transformation of architectural
designs into built form. Particular
attention is paid to the importance of
interdisciplinary collaboration, since the
architect as lead consultant has con-
stantly to adjust and re-evaluate his
designs in response to competing
forces. Guest speakers from a range of
consultancies and specialist manufac-
turers will also offer their own perspec-
tive on the importance of collaboration
within a project team.
Small in Large: The Interrelation
of Component and System
Martin Hagemann
For reasons of rationalisation, prefabri-
cation, flexibility, exchangeability and
maintenance, the use of components in
architecture has become very common.
The course aims to give the designing
architect an insight into the theory and
practice of component-based struc-
tures – how they are organised and
undergraduate
assembled, how they perform, where
research currently stands and where the
journey can potentially go. Researchers
from different European and American
research institutes will be invited to
show their latest experiments in theory
and practice.
Studies in Advanced
Structural Design
Emanuele Marfisi
Structures are complex systems provid-
ing strength and stability to buildings.
This course will analyse these systems
by disassembling them into finite
components, examining the geometry,
boundary conditions and material
properties that define each element and
its behaviour within the global context.
The approach, which has parallels in
element-based computer analysis
methods, provides a simple means of
understanding even the most complex
structures.
Technology Transfers or
Technomimetics
John Noel
This course pushes the boundaries of
precedence studies, exploring the
relevance of both the manufacture of
everyday artefacts and the formation of
living things to the technologies, proc-
struction industry. Through studies
ranging from food packaging tech-
niques to automobile chain-production
processes to nanotechnology material
research, the course will aim to expand
the student’s technical awareness
beyond the realms of traditional con-
struction and encourage the application
of these technology transfers to archi-
tectural designs.
117
undergraduate technical studies
Sustainable Urban Design
Randall Thomas
This course provides a detailed exami-
nation of the concepts and techniques
associated with the idea of the sustain-
able city, beginning with urban mor-
phologies and densities, particularly in
relation to energy. The design of indi-
vidual buildings is studied in this con-
text, as are the urban effects of spatial
planning, energy, materials, light and
water. The course includes a case study
of a large urban regeneration project.
Environmental Modelling
& Simulation
Simos Yannas
This is a hands-on technical course on
the use of environmental design soft-
ware for the generation and assess-
ment of climate data and the simulation
of solar, thermal and lighting processes
in and around real or virtual buildings.
The course starts with an introduction
to fundamental environmental design
parameters and with manual computa-
tions that illustrate the range of values
that these parameters take and the
effect they can have on the environmen-
tal performance and energy balance of
buildings. This is followed by study of
adaptive comfort mechanisms relating
to the different climatic, programmatic
and operational conditions characteris-
ing unit projects. All of the above then
becomes input to modelling and simula-
tion studies using software aimed at
achieving thermal and visual comfort
with minimum use of non-renewable
energy sources. Students should bring
their laptops so that software demon-
strations can be followed by workshop
sessions.
118
Form, Energy and Environment
Mohsen Zikri
The course explores territories where
architecture and engineering meet. It
examines the interesting links between
building form, energy and the micro/
macro environment and reviews the
development of building skins in rela-
tion to their critical influence on building
behaviour and occupant comfort, as
well as in terms of their carbon-foot-
print. In parallel with an investigation of
passive energy design and renewable
energy sources, diverse methods of
exploiting natural forces are presented
through the example of real projects.
The application of computer modelling
tools is explored in the context of
stretching the design boundaries for
buildings. Completed buildings that
benefited from modelling by Computa-
tional Fluid Dynamics (CFD) are criti-
cally reviewed in terms of human com-
fort and energy use. To conclude the
course, students will be asked to under-
take a design assignment that will
involve researching case studies of
completed buildings in different climatic
zones. Students will also be given the
opportunity to conceive a futuristic
building that extends design and social
boundaries.
Fifth Year Technical
Design Thesis
The Technical Design Thesis is a
substantial individual work developed
under the guidance of Michael Wein-
stock and supported by Javier
Castañón, Martin Hagemann, Toni
Kotnik, Wolf Mangelsdorf, John Noel
and individual unit staff. The central
interests and concerns may emerge
from current or past design work, or
from one of the many lecture and
technical studies undergraduate
seminar courses the student has production of a series of lamps. Ad-
attended in previous years. Assessment dressing problems of parametric
is by a panel of Technical Studies tutors control, material behaviour, structural
and unit staff, and full details are set out integrity, tessellations and component
in the Complementary Studies hand- systems, spatial organisation and
book. inaccuracy, this task raises many of the
same issues that are involved in the
Open Courses design and production of large-scale
In addition to the syllabus, students are architectural elements.
invited to attend the following open
courses: Architectural Geometry
Toni Kotnik (Spring Term)
Physico-logical Parametrics The historian Robin Evans pointed out
Toni Kotnik (Autumn Term) that geometry is one subject, architec-
Digital design is not about working in ture another, but there is geometry in
virtual space. It’s about informing the architecture. Its presence is assumed,
physical reality of buildings and materi- much as the presence of mathematics
als, production process and assembly is assumed in physics, or letters in
logic. Accordingly, this course engages words. The course will take up this
with the question of the permeability of intimate relationship and look for the
the threshold between the physical and architectural potential of geometry
the digital realms. Grasshopper, an embedded within the design. Using
algorithm editor for Rhinoceros, will be geometric problems related to individu-
the major tool for our formal explora- al unit work we will be examine formal
tions of the threshold. Digitally control- systems and their phenomenological
led machines will be used in order to set behaviour through Rhinoscript and
physical constraints on the computa- Grasshopper. Ideally integrated with
tional design process and build proto- your design projects, this investigation
types of the design. This year’s design will act as a geometric input in support
proposal will involve the design and of the unit brief.
Director Technical Studies Technical Studies Staff Austin before completing Manager and Project
Michael Weinstock Philip Cooper is technical additional academic training Leader at Buro Happold
mweinstock@ director of Cameron Taylor in structural engineering (at for projects including the
aaschool.ac.uk Bedford, Consulting MIT) and sculpture Battersea Power Station,
Engineers, in Cambridge. (at St Martins). London, and the Museum of
Intermediate Master He has taught at Cambridge Transport, Glasgow.
Javier Castañón is in University and at Leeds Toni Kotnik is founder
private practice as director University (as Professor of of Kotnik.archForm, a John Noel studied
of Castañón Associates Structural Design) as well Zurich-based architectural mathematics and physics
(London) and Castañón as at the AA. office, principal researcher in Clermont-Ferrand
Asociados (Madrid). in OCEAN, and senior before completing a civil
Martin Hagemann is an researcher at the ETH, engineering degree at
Diploma Master architect at Grimshaw’s, focusing on the interplay Imperial College, London
Wolfgang Frese studied at where he is a member of of architectural design, and the RWTH Aachen,
Stuttgart and the Bartlett. the computational design geometry and structural Germany. He is a structural
As an associate at Alsop research and biomimicry system. engineer at Buro Happold.
Architects he has worked on research groups.
the Theatres on the Bay in Wolf Mangelsdorf studied Manja Van de Worp is
Singapore and Federation Anderson Inge studied architecture and civil a graduate of the AA’s
Square in Melbourne, architecture at the AA and engineering at Karlsruhe Emergent Technologies &
among other projects. at the University of Texas at University. He is Group Design programme.
119
undergraduate professional/ Programme Staff
Javier Castañón
undergraduate

future practice
Hugo Hinsley

Developing an understanding of archi-
tectural practice is a mandatory re-
quirement within the Intermediate and
Diploma schools. Architectural practice
is also the focus of a final Part 3 exami-
nation that students take after they
have spent at least a couple of years
gaining experience on live building
projects during their ‘year out’ after
Part 1 and after they have completed
the AA Diploma and Part 2 (see pages
162–63 of the Graduate School).
Professional Practice for Third Year
Javier Castañón
This course prepares Third Year stu-
dents for their year out, a time for
practical training taken after comple-
tion of RIBA Part I. In giving an idea of
what working in an architectural prac-
tice entails, this course aims to teach
students how to ‘make themselves
useful’, the idea being that the sooner
they are perceived as useful, the sooner
they will become part of the action in
the office and the more they will get out
of the experience. The first lecture,
titled ‘Roadmap to Architectural Regis-
tration’, describes the steps required for
registration as an architect. Four
additional lectures cover a wide range
of subjects, illustrating issues with
real-life examples and well-known case
studies. The final lecture consists of a
15-minute presentation by four groups
of students on a topic selected from
those covered in the previous sessions.
Those students not participating in this
presentation will need to submit a short
written essay. Since AA students come
from all over the world, and many of
them intend to practise back home, the
essays are encouraged to be compara-
tive in nature, for example studies of
situations arising both in Britain and in
home countries. The essays should
present concepts, facts, points of law,
etc., clearly and succinctly, in no more
than 1,500 words.
Future Practice for Fifth Year
Hugo Hinsley
The context and conditions of architec-
tural work are changing rapidly. Prac-
tice needs to adapt, both conceptually
and practically. Being a good designer
is not, in itself, enough to succeed in
practice. This course provides an
opportunity to investigate how design
work is implemented in the real world,
and the implications of this for develop-
ing a practice of architecture. There
is no standard model of practice,
and each student should address the
question of how to design a concept
and structure of practice that will best
support the type of work they aim to
achieve. A series of lectures and discus-
sion sessions explores issues relating
to the changing context of design and
production of the built environment,
and different concepts and models
of practice. These issues include the
changing context in which projects are
realised; different responsibilities
towards clients and users; economic
and cultural impacts; political and
legislative considerations; environmen-
tal issues and ethical implications.
There are also more practical points,
including ways to collaborate with other
disciplines and consultants; effective
ways to engage with the construction
process; and suitable models and
scales of an ‘office’. Students work with
a tutor to develop a critical paper of
around 3,000 words. This should
discuss, in relation to the issues cov-
ered in the course, some implications
for developing a practice of design, as
well as potential techniques and struc-
tures to support the evolution of the
most effective future practice. ARB/
RIBA validation procedures for Part II
require evidence of Professional Stud-
ies. Fifth Year students must achieve
a pass in this course and include the
assessed paper in their final portfolios.

Unit Staff Hugo Hinsley is an architect Docklands; European urban

Javier Castañon is in
private practice as Director
of Castañón Associates
(London) and Castañón
Asociados (Madrid). He has
taught at the AA since 1978.
with experience in housing, policy and design; and
community buildings housing and urban density.
and urban development
projects. He also teaches
in the Housing & Urbanism
programme in the Graduate
School. His recent research
explores London’s design
and planning, particularly
in the East End and

120 121
graduate graduate school graduate

The AA Graduate School includes eight postgraduate programmes

offering advanced studies in one of the world’s most dynamic learning
environments. All students join the school in October at the outset of an
academic year, and attend full-time studies according to the length of the
course selected.
Full-time masters programmes include 12-month MA and Msc and
16-month MArch options. The Design Research Lab (AADRL), the AA’s
innovative team-based course in experimental architecture and urbanism,
offers a Masters (MArch). Emergent Technologies & Design (MArch/
MSc) emphasises forms of architectural design that proceed from
innovative technologies. Sustainable Environmental Design (MArch/
MSc) introduces new forms of architectural practice and design related to
the environment and sustainability. Landscape Urbanism (MA)
investigates the processes, techniques and knowledge related to the
practices of contemporary urbanism. Housing & Urbanism (MA) rethinks
urbanism as a spatial discipline through a combination of design projects
and contemporary theory. Histories & Theories (MA) encourages a
critical understanding of contemporary architecture and urban culture
grounded in a knowledge of histories and forms of practice.
Complementing these masters programmes, the AA PhD programme
fosters advanced scholarship and innovative research in the fields of
architecture and urbanism through full-time doctoral studies. In 2009/10
the school will launch a new PhD by Design programme, providing a
setting for advanced research and learning for architects, designers and
other qualified professionals. The part-time Building Conservation course
offers a two-year programme leading to an AA Graduate Diploma.
All graduate degrees at the AA are validated by the Open University.

PhD ‘one minute, one manifesto, one beer’ summit, 2009

122 123
graduate design
research lab
Design Research:
Experimentation and
Innovation (v.13)
The DRL is a 16-month post-profes-
sional design programme leading to a
master’s of Architecture and Urbanism
(MArch) degree. The DRL develops
design skills with which to capture,
control and shape a continuous flow of
information across the distributed
electronic networks of today’s rapidly
evolving digital design disciplines.
Course Structure
Four terms of study are divided into two
phases. Phase I, a three-term academic
year beginning each autumn, introduc-
es design techniques and topics
through a combination of team-based
studio, workshop and seminar courses.
In Phase II, beginning the following
autumn, teams carry forward their
Phase I work in the form of comprehen-
sive thesis design projects. At the end
of January these projects are presented
to a panel of distinguished visiting
critics, after which each team docu-
ments their 16 months of design re-
search work in a hardbound book.
Phase I design research agenda: formal organisation. Alisa Andrasek’s
Proto Design (v.2)
In autumn term the DRL will continue
work on its design research agenda,
Proto Design, investigating digital and
material prototyping as both the meth-
odology and the primary design out-
come of studio work. Parametric
modelling and coding systems are
emphasised as the vehicles in this new
field of experimentation on multiple,
sequential and recursive prototypical
systems and spaces. Far from heralding
the end of the design project as a form
124
Directors
Yusuke Obuchi
Course Tutors
Jeroen van Ameijde
Technical Tutors
Lawrence Friesen
graduate
Theodore Spyropoulos Shajay Bhooshan Hanif Kara
Founder Kristine Mun Andrew Murray
Patrik Schumacher Christos Passas Riccardo Merello
Course Masters Robert Stuart-Smith
Marta Malé-Alemany
of research, this new performance-driv- Alisa Andrasek
en approach aims for more specific
design proposals concerned with
concrete design problems. The iterative
methodologies of the studio will be
targeted at the investigation of new
spatial, structural and material organi-
sations as well as the formulation of
new discourses on computation and
materialisation in the disciplines of
architecture and urbanism.
Phase II design research agenda:
Proto Design (v.1)
Proto-Design systems developed in
Phase I will be tested in site-specific
scenarios. Yusuke Obuchi’s studio,
Proto Tectonics, investigates material
systems and multi-scalar fractal logic
for large-span structures. The Theod-
ore Spyropoulos studio, Digital Materi-
alism, explores new forms of prototypi-
cal housing through innovative
morphologies. Interiority, the studio led
by Patrik Schumacher and Christos
Passas, develops complex, layered and
highly differentiated tectonic systems
that can start to compete with the best
historical examples in terms of their
richness, coherency and precision of
studio, Wetware, pursues computation
through the development of poly-scalar
coastal infrastructures within high-
pressure flooding zones. Marta Malé-
Alemany’s studio with Jeroen van
Ameijde, Machinic Control, examines
architectural design processes incorpo-
rating novel digital fabrication methods
that are not optimised (as in the cur-
rent, industrial, repetitive modes of
production) but instead can be itiner-
ant, adaptive and highly specific.
Team Chimera (Pierandrea Angius, Alkis Dikaios, Thomas
Jacobsen, Carlos Parraga), an urban model of ecology
based on the social principles of the mangrove plant
125
graduate design research lab design research lab graduate

Phase I Design Studio:
Proto-Architectures
Marta Malé-Alemany, Alisa
Andrasek, Yusuke Obuchi, Patrik
Schumacher, Theodore Spyropoulos
Five design studios will continue to
challenge the notion of the design
project driven exclusively by contextual
and programmatic parameters. Each
design studio will introduce a specific
arena of design concepts, tools and
intended outcomes, ranging from
prototypes of urbanism, architecture
and detail systems. This body of initial
design research work will be carried
forward to Phase II in 2010-2011, and
applied to a series of specific briefs and
sites for each studio.
Phase I Design Workshops:
Material Behaviour
Marta Malé-Alemany, Alisa
Andrasek, Jeroen van Ameijde,
Lawrence Friesen, Riccardo Merello,
Yusuke Obuchi, Theodore
Spyropoulos, Robert Stuart-Smith,
Autumn Term
Autumn term begins with two sets of
three design workshop modules, em-
phasising computational and material
prototyping as both an analytical
methodology and the prime mode of
design production and representation.
Each 5-week module focuses on a
specific set of methods and intended
design output, introducing Phase I
students to a broad range of concepts
and techniques that can be taken
forward to further workshops and the
year-long Phase I and Phase II studio
projects.
Phase II Design Workshop:
Adaptive Systems and Structures
Marta Malé-Alemany, Alisa
Andrasek, Yusuke Obuchi, Theodore
Spyropoulos, DRL technical tutors,
Autumn Term
This five-week workshop in the mid-
stage of Phase II addresses a detailed
part of the spatial, structural, material
and environmental systems of each
team’s thesis project, with an emphasis
on modelling techniques which act as
feedback for the testing and develop-
ment of the larger-scale design propos-
als. A presentation in November will
serve as a major interim review.
Phase II Design Studio:
Urban Protocols
Marta Malé-Alemany, Alisa
Andrasek, Yusuke Obuchi, Patrik
Schumacher, Theodore Spyropoulos,
Design teams in five studios will carry
forward their Phase I work on genera-
tive design systems, structures and
prototypes in developing thorough
Phase II design proposals. The aim is to
develop adaptive models through
proto-versioning that affords genera-
tive, transformative and parametric
controlled systems that can be de-
ployed on multiple sites. Systems will
be developed to construct context-spe-
cificity, developing models of spatial
practice that are hyperspecific rather
than generic. The ambition is to design
open systems that have the capacity to
rethink conventions of practice through
the design and fabrication of architec-
tural prototypes and processes. Con-
temporary fabrication protocols will be
explored to create correlations of
nonstandard elemental distributions
through an active engagement between
digital and material interaction.
Phase I Core Seminars:
Design as Research I:
Open Source
Theodore Spyropoulos,
Autumn Term
Pursuing design as a form of research
raises a series of questions that this
course will examine in relation to larger
technological, economic and cultural
contexts. The seminar will explore ways
of associating design with forms of
research, as well as the implications of
this for architectural and design prac-
tice. Weekly sessions will include
presentations related to course reading.
New Anatomies of Architecture:
Examining the Parametric
Theodore Spyropoulos,
Autumn Term
An examination of key concepts of
parametric design through the interplay
between physical and digital forms of
computation and experimentation. The
works of Otto, Le Ricolais, Fuller and
Dieste will be analysed in relation to
contemporary research on computation
and information systems. Team-based
presentations will examine these
methods and resultant outputs as case
studies for studio experimentation.
Synthesis: Project Submission
Writing & Research Documentation
Kristine Mun, Autumn and
Spring Terms
These weekly sessions will review the
basics of writing and research related to
DRL course submissions. Presenta-
tions will cover resources in London, the
preparation of thesis abstracts, writing
styles and issues related to essays,
papers and project booklets. Tutorials
will discuss ongoing research topics
and seminar and studio presentations.
Proto-Design: Case Studies
Alisa Andrasek, Spring Term
Under the umbrella topic of Proto-De-
sign, this seminar will investigate
different specimens, from material and
structural prototypes found in the work
of Antoni Gaudí and Frei Otto, via
poly-scalar proto-worlds of Daniel
Libeskind’s Micromegas, Karl Chu’s
morphogenetic proto-languages, John
Frazer’s computational proto-entities,
Gramazio-Kohler’s proto-behaviours for
the robotic construction, François
Roche’s proto-narratives, towards the
acute singularisations in proto-architec-
tures carried by the emerging genera-
tion of designers working with explicit
protocols in code and generative proto-
ecologies.
Design as Research II:
Computational Space
Yusuke Obuchi, Spring Term
An overview of computational ap-
proaches to architectural design,
strategies and processes. Weekly
readings on software technologies and
design systems will relate computation-
al work in art, music, new media, sci-
ence and other sources to contempo-
rary architectural discourses around
parametric design. Teams will make
weekly presentations related to the
readings and an analysis of selected
projects.
Phase I Optional Seminars:
Embodied Patterns
Alisa Andrasek, Autumn Term
This seminar will investigate key ideas
from the history of computation and
contemporary sciences and their
reverberations in the domain of archi-
tecture and design. It will probe con-
cepts such as generative design,

126 127
graduate design research lab
DRL Directors
algorithmic information theory, key Yusuke Obuchi studied at
ideas from quantum physics, biology, Princeton, Sci-Arc and the
University of Toronto. He
systems theory and similar as a knowl- has worked at ROTO
edge resource and means of produc- Architects and Reiser +
Umemoto and is cofounder
tion. A productive dialogue will be of Foresites, based in
London. He has been a
instigated with experts from other visiting professor at the
fields, including mathematics, compu- University of Kentucky and
New Jersey Institute of
ter science, quantum physics and Technology.
engineering, under the larger collabora- yobuchi@gmail.com
tive platform of Computational Salon. Theodore Spyropoulos is
director of the architecture
and design practice
Discourses on Proto-Design Minimaforms and a visiting
research fellow at MIT. He
DRL Directors and guests, has taught at the graduate
Spring Term schools of UPenn and Royal
College of Art and has
Following on last year’s ‘Discourses on previously worked with the
offices of Peter Eisenman
Innovation’ seminar series, with invited and Zaha Hadid Architects.
guests including Bernard Cache, theo@minimaforms.com
Charles Jencks, Philippe Morel and Founder
others to discuss issues of innovation Patrik Schumacher is
partner at Zaha Hadid
and urbanism. The DRL will focus on a Architects. He studied
series of lectures and seminars examin- philosophy and architecture
in Bonn, Stuttgart, London
ing contemporary issues of fabrication and received his doctorate
at the Institute for Cultural
and prototyping through agency, Science at Klagenfurt
machinic protocols, cnc technologies University. He is a visiting
professor at the University
and material behaviour. of Applied Arts in Vienna,
and university professor at
Innsbruck University.
Digital Tools: Maya, Rhino, Patrik.Schumacher@
zaha-hadid.com
3D Studio, Catia & Macromedia –
Software & Scripting
Shajay Bhooshan, Kristof Crolla,
Robert Stuart-Smith,
Autumn and Spring Terms
These optional workshops provide an
introduction to the digital tools and
systems used in the DRL, introducing
the basic skills needed to build and
control parametric models and interac-
tive presentations. Sessions will build
up to advanced scripting, programming
and dynamic modelling techniques.
128
design research lab
DRL Programme Tutors
Marta Malé-Alemany is
Co-director of the Masters
Programme of the IAAC
Institut d’Arquitectura
Avancada de Catalunya.
She previously taught at
Sci-Arc and UCLA School of
Architecture.
Alisa Andrasek is an
experimental practitioner of
architecture and
computation in design and
director of Biothing. She
studied at the University of
Zagreb and Columbia
University and has taught at
Columbia, Pratt, UPenn,
RMIT Melbourne and RPI.
She has won many awards,
including FEIDAD 2004,
and has published and
exhibited extensively.
andrasek@gmail.com
Jeroen van Ameijde studied
at the Delft University of
Technology and has worked
in various offices in Holland,
New York and Hong Kong.
Has taught at the University
of Pennsylvania with Ali
Rahim. Head of Digital
Prototyping at the AA and
taught various courses and
workshops in London,
Innsbruck and Singapore.
Shajay Bhooshan is a
researcher in the
Computation and Design
(co|de) group at Zaha
Hadid Architects. He is a
graduate of the DRL, and
has taught computational
design at various schools.
Lawrence Friesen studied at
Dalhousie University,
Canada, and worked at a
number of architectural
practices in Canada before
setting up the design
geometry studio at Buro
Happold. Over the past nine
years he has participated in
a number of complex
projects whose innovative
realisation has entailed
digital fabrication.
Hanif Kara is a co-founder
of Adams Kara Taylor, a
design-led structural
engineering practice. He
has assisted various
diploma units at the AA
since 1998 and is currently
an examiner for the Institute
of Structural Engineers and
CABE Commissioner.
Riccardo Merello
specialises in developing
innovative design
methodologies based on
multi-disciplinary systems
optimisation. He has a
MEng in structural
engineering from MIT. He
works in the Advanced
Technology and Research
Group and Arup Associates’
Unified Design Research
Unit and other R&D teams
at Arup.
Kristine Mun received her
master’s from the
Cranbrook Academy of Art
and is currently pursuing a
doctorate at the AA. She
previously worked at NOX
with Lars Spuybroek and is
a cofounder of ASPX, an
experimental architecture
studio in London and Italy.
graduate
Christos Passas studied at
the AA, completing the
AAGradDes in 1998. As
Associate Director at Zaha
Hadid Architects, he led the
design for the Phaeno
Science Centre in
Wolfsburg, among many
other prestigious projects.
Robert Stuart-Smith is a
graduate of AADRL and
RMIT, and codirector of the
design practice Kokkugia.
He is a consultant in Arup’s
Advanced Geometry Unit
and has previously worked
in the offices of Lab and
Grimshaw & Partners while
teaching at RMIT.
Workshop Consultant
Kristof Crolla is a graduate
of the AADRL, currently
working at Zaha Hadid
Architects, London. He has
led digital fabrication
workshops internationally
with Jeroen Van Ameijde.
129
graduate emergent
technologies
The Emergent Technologies and
Design programme is open to gradu-
ates in architecture, engineering and
industrial design who wish to pursue
design research that proceeds from
innovative technologies. The pro-
gramme is focused on the development
of skills and knowledge located in new
production paradigms.
Course Structure
The EmTech programme takes place
over four terms (from October 2009 to
October 2010) for MSc candidates and
over five terms (October 2009 to
January 2011) for MArch candidates.
Phase 1 offers a wide range of theories,
concepts, methods and techniques that
are designed to help students develop
their skills, explore across the bounda-
ries of contingent disciplines and
practices and engage with the theoreti-
cal discourses in Emergent Technolo-
gies. Students are also encouraged to
attend relevant courses in Technical
Studies and those offered elsewhere in
the Graduate School.
Successful completion of Phase 1
is a precondition of progress to Phase 2
of the programme. At the end of
Phase 1 students present their disserta-
tion proposals to programme staff.
Once these are approved, they com-
mence the dissertation phase. During
Phase 2 students develop a disserta-
tion in teams of two, working with
programme staff and external advisers.
Experimentation
and Construction
Construction experiments are an
important part of the programme – over
the last three years two material con-
structions have been installed on the
130
Programme Director
Michael Weinstock
Studio Master
Christina Doumpioti
Studio Tutors
Evan Greenberg
graduate
Codirector (Cohort 08/09) Kostis Karatzas
Michael Hensel
upper terrace at the AA. A shelter/
viewing platform and a pedestrian
footbridge (the Net-bridge) have also
been constructed at Hazienda Quitralco
in Chilean Patagonia.
Core Studio
Michael Hensel and Michael
Weinstock with Christina Doumpioti
and visiting staff
Performance-oriented Design
and Structural Morphologies
Terms 1 & 2
The Core Studio begins with an inten-
sive period of knowledge and skill-build-
ing sessions. Studio discussions focus
on concepts such as morphogenesis,
emergence and self-organisation, while
a first module focuses on skills in Rhino
NURBS modelling, parametrics, script-
ing and skills in the Rhino plugin ‘Grass-
hopper’. An intensive module introduces
concepts and methods of analysis and
simulation before the design charrette
commences. In the manufacturing and
assembly module the designs are
further elaborated, and designs evolve
in the context of digital and handcrafted
construction processes.
Material characteristics and behav-
iour, manufacturing and assembly
logics, together with the behaviour and
performance of the designed system,
are key elements of the integral design
approach introduced in the Core Studio.
Modelling and analysis of natural and
manufactured systems are introduced
to provide the techniques necessary for
the development of morphological
complexity and performance in designs
for the built environment.
EmTech terrace canopy, 2009
131
graduate emergent technologies
Seminar Courses
Emergence and Design Term 1
Term 1
Michael Weinstock with
Evan Greenberg and Kostis Karatzas
‘Emergent’ is defined as that which is
produced by multiple causes, but
cannot be said to be the sum of their
individual effects. It has been an impor-
tant concept in biology and mathemat-
ics, in artificial intelligence, information
theory and computer science, and in the
newer domains of weather and climatic
studies, the material sciences, and in
particular biomimetic engineering.
The seminar course will begin with a
survey of the origins of the science and
technologies associated with emer-
gence, commencing with D’Arcy
Thompson and Alfred North Whitehead,
through Turing’s work on cryptographic
analysis and on the mathematics of
biological development, to the develop-
ment of evolutionary algorithms. The
conceptual structures and philosophies
of Emergence in Evolutionary Compu-
tation and Artificial Life will be re-
viewed, and the course will conclude
with a series of digital experiments in
algorithmic design.
132
Natural Systems and Biomimetics
Michael Weinstock with Dr George
Jeronimidis, Evan Greenberg
and Kostis Karatzas
This course examines the ways in which
biological organisms achieve complex
‘emergent’ structures and perform-
ances from simple components, relat-
ing this to an exploration of current
architectural/industrial component
design, prototyping and production.
The course will show how the boundary
between the ‘natural’ and the man-
made has been reconfigured by biomi-
metic engineering, and will introduce
students to the thinking that has led to
the evolution of new materials that may
play a significant role in shaping the
future of our built environment. It aims
to explain how materials can be de-
signed to produce varied properties,
such as concrete that can ‘heal’ itself,
glazing that can change its optical
properties, and materials that have
a memory. An introduction to the ways
in which organisms have evolved their
form, materials and structures in
response to varied functions and envi-
ronments will be followed by an account
of the way in which engineering design
principles have been abstracted from
nature in current research projects for
industry and material science. An
in-depth study of articulated shell
morphologies (general form) and
anatomy (structure) will be carried out,
and their interrelations explored, using
digital geometric modelling and digital
structural analysis. Exact geometric
models created in Rhino and Maya will
then be converted and imported into
the ‘ANSYS’ analysis software.
emergent technologies graduate
Design and Technology material forms and formulations of
Term 2 thought in architectural projects of the
Michael Weinstock with twentieth century will be set out, and a
Kostis Karatzas discussion opened up around the ways
This course aims to provoke a re-exami- material practices are currently under-
nation of the theories and practices of going a substantial reconfiguration.
design from the point of view of their The historical context of these forces is
embedded material implications, so as examined through the work of Buckmin-
to reveal the ways in which ‘design’ and ster Fuller, Charles and Ray Eames and
the ‘technical’ exist within the general Jean Prouvé: the identification of their
culture of architecture, the processes material agendas will be focused on the
leading to technological innovation in contradictions and oppositions of the
material objects, and the particular role universal and the individual, of the
of the protoype in the design and mass-produced object and the ‘tailored’
production of artefacts and buildings craft product.
of different scales. An examination of
the prototype in the small, the mass-
produced and the individually crafted
architectures in contemporary produc-
tion will be presented. The relations of
EmTech Director a member in the indepen- Germany, and of the of architectural, biological
Michael Weinstock is an dent, interdisciplinary and editorial board of the and cultural systems. He
architect. Born in Germany, international research International Journal has worked in architecture
lived as a child in the Far network OCEAN, professor of Virtual and Physical and engineering offices and
East and then West Africa, for research by design at Prototyping. with product designers
attended an English public AHO – the Oslo School of and artists in both New York
school. Ran away to sea at Architecture and Design, Studio Master and London, and is currently
age 17 after reading innovation fellow at the Christina Doumpioti [Dipl a design consultant for
Conrad. Years at sea in University of Technology in Arch/Eng MArch AA RIBA II Plasma Studio. Evan earned
traditional sailing ships, with Sydney, board member of Architect GR TCG] studied his MSc with Distinction in
shipyard and shipbuilding BIONIS – the Biomimetics architecture at the Aristotle Emergent Technologies and
experience. Studied Network for Industrial Univeristy of Thessaloniki Design from the AA in 2008,
architecture at the Sustainability, editorial and is a registered architect and his BSc in Architecture
Architectural Association board member of AD Wiley in Greece. She earned her from the University of
and has taught there since and JBE – Journal of Bionic MArch with Distinction in Virginia in 2005.
1989. Founder and Director Engineering, Elsevier Emergent Technologies and
of Emergent Technologies Scientific Press. Design, and followed this Kostis Karatzas is an
master’s programme. with a postgraduate course engineer and a researcher,
Master of Technical Studies Senior Professor on Computing and Design with research interests
since 1997, and Academic George Jeronimidis is the at UEL. Since 2008 she has in smart materials,
Head of the AA from 2006 Director of the Centre for been working as an biomimetics, lightweight
to 2009. He has lectured Biomimetics in the School architect and computational structures and advanced
and published widely, and of Construction consultant at Arup simulation and analysis
has been Visiting Professor Management and Associates, as part of a techniques. He was
at Rome, Barcelona and Engineering at the multi-disciplinary team awarded the MSc in
Yale. He is currently University of Reading. He aiming at integrated Emergent Technologies
international advisor to the is an active member of the solutions across different and Design from the AA in
Delft School of Design PhD Smart Materials and design fields. 2009, and his Diploma in
programme and editorial Structures Committee of Civil Engineering from the
board member of AD Wiley. the Institute of Materials, Studio Tutors Polytechnic School of
Minerals and Mining (IoM3). Evan Greenberg is an the Aristotle University of
Codirector (Cohort 08/09) He is a member of the architectural designer and Thessaloniki in 2008.
Michael U Hensel [Dipl Ing scientific advisory board of co-director of the research
Grad Dipl Des AA Architekt the Max Planck Institute for collaborative Network
AKNW] is an architect, Colloid and Interface Research + Design,
researcher and writer. He is Research in Golm, exploring the convergence
133
graduate histories
& theories
Histories & Theories provides a plat-
form for critical enquiry into theoretical
debates and forms of architectural and
urban practice. The aim is threefold: to
connect contemporary arguments and
projects with a wider historical, cultural
and political context; to produce a
knowledge which will relate to design
and public cultures in architecture,
including the AA School; to enquire into
new forms of knowledge, research and
practice.
The 12-month programme is de-
signed to enable students to develop
critical thought in the context of archi-
tecture and city culture as well as
design speculation rigorously grounded
in knowledge of histories and practices.
The investigation of the question of the
modern and modernity and the critical
reassessment of modernism in terms of
its narratives and controversies is our
point of departure towards an under-
standing of contemporary architecture
and debates.
Central to the course is an empha-
sis on writing as critical practice of
thinking. Different forms of writing,
such as essays, reviews, short com-
mentaries, publications, interviews,
allow students to engage with diverse
forms of enquiry and articulate the
various aspects of their study. that becomes a test for any doctrine of
The Histories & Theories pro-
gramme also provides research facili-
ties and supervision to research degree
candidates (MPhil and PhD) registered
under the AA’s joint PhD programme, a
cross-disciplinary initiative supported
by all the graduate programmes.
134
Programme Director
Marina Lathouri
Programme Staff
Mark Cousins
graduate
Pedro Ignacio Alonso
Francisco Gonzalez
de Canales
Autumn Term
The first term’s lectures, seminars and
conversations aim to help students
acquire a clear understanding of the
development of the question of modern-
ism and the modern subject as well as
engage with tools of investigation and
analysis specific to architecture.
Narratives of Modernism
Marina Lathouri
This seminar series revisits several key
texts and examines the role they played
in the formation and critical reception of
a modernist architectural canon.
Through a detailed consideration of the
texts, the seminar will provide a forum
to assess how an identifiably modernist
vocabulary and agenda was construct-
ed during the first half of the twentieth
century and then came to be dismantled
in the run up to 1968.
Architectural Form and History
Mark Cousins
This course addresses the issue of how
architecture is experienced and judged.
After looking briefly at the contribution
of thought in antiquity and in the Ren-
aissance, it moves directly to the central
role of Kant’s Third Critique, which
establishes a discourse of aesthetics
the experience of art within modernity.
Architecture Criticism and Writing
Marina Lathouri
This course is organised around a
series of conversations with invited
architects, critics and scholars and
writing sessions. Architectural ideas are
seen to circulate within diverse econo-
mies which extend beyond the academ- Histories & Theories MA students present their thesis
proposals to an invited panel of scholars, May 2009.
ic and professional domains. Architects Photo Valerie Bennett
135
graduate histories and theories
participate in a broader public culture
both by drawing and by writing.
The course has two aims. The first
is to discuss conceptual, verbal and
visual tools in relation to the emergence
and transformations of the discipline
and clarify their different usages in
order to move towards a contemporary
sense of these operations; without this,
students would lack the historical terms
necessary for the analysis and interpre-
tation of architecture and urbanism.
The second aim is to look at examples
of ways to generate and write about,
represent and communicate architec-
tural knowledge. Each of these exam-
ples will be understood not only as a
specific mechanism for the dissemina-
tion of architectural ideas but also as
the basis for architectural production.
Spring Term
The spring term provides a platform for
critical enquiry into contemporary
theoretical debates, modes of design
research and practices. Organised
around a number of seminar courses,
lectures and events, it offers students a
range of approaches to investigating
the contemporary from historical,
theoretical and cross-disciplinary points
of view.
Reinventing the Contemporary
Critical Theories and Fabrications
Marina Lathouri/Pedro Alonso
Architecture has been transformed by
its appropriation of thinking from other
disciplines and discourses, but at the
same time it has in turn started to
transform that very thinking. The
course considers the terms, issues and
mechanisms that are used in current
architectural debates and practices in
order to provide a clear historical sense
136
of their emergence and the ways they
are used in arguments and architectural
projects. The course has two parts. It
begins by considering the distinct
conditions of the production of architec-
tural knowledge that organise its
particular responses to current debates,
investigating the way they either rein-
force or displace mechanisms tradition-
ally intrinsic to architecture. The second
part builds on this basis to provide a
means of understanding how the
contemporary notion of ‘fabrication’ has
come to supplant the status once held
by notions of ‘construction’ (and the
‘new construction’) within modernist
narratives.
Reinventing the Contemporary
Critical Practices
Francisco Gonzalez de Canales
Largely involved with cultural studies,
philosophical thinking and media and
literary studies, architectural theory has
distanced itself from explicitly assess-
ing the work of the most influential
architectural practices of its own time.
More than denying the validity of these
different forms of criticism, this course
makes use of a heterogeneous baggage
of cultural references to refocus atten-
tion on the production and design
strategies employed by architects. The
final objective of this seminar is to
recover the capacity to exercise judge-
ment on recent architectural production
and to develop consistent theoretical
tools for its scrutiny and installation.
histories and theories graduate
Histories and Theories Debates: political philosophy that has questioned
The City, Politics and Spaces the communal? Is it possible that the
Organised by Marina Lathouri various regimes of the architectural
To enable students to pursue certain project might still engage conceptions
questions in an informal setting, the of space, conflicts of appropriation and
H&T programme holds the debates norms of use nearing the juridical
series with invited architects, urban delimitation of the public and private
planners, theorists and historians. domains? These are some of the ques-
A theme that will cut across the tions which will be addressed this year.
discussions this year is the city. Al-
though continuing urban growth has Summer Term
prompted arguments on economic Thesis Research Seminar
policies, new organisational models, The thesis is the most significant
environmental strategies and sustain- component of students’ work within the
able development patterns, there overall MA structure. The choice of
seems to be a lack of reflection on the topic, the organisation of research and
fundamental question of the city as a the development of the central argu-
composite environment and political ment are all organised within the Re-
space. search Seminar, which may be supple-
Many of the emerging urban forma- mented by individual tutorials. Central
tions are partially or completely novel to the development of the thesis is the
institutional orders or systems of collective seminar where students learn
relations. What is it, then, that we are about the nature of a dissertation from
trying to name with the term city? the shared experiences of the group.
Would that mean that the emerging The unit trip at the beginning of the
spaces are also spaces for a new third term includes intense sessions to
politics? Is it possible to proceed help students solidify their topic, field
through a critical body of architectural and argument. At the end of term, the
references, existing or to be consti- thesis outline is presented to a jury of
tuted, in order to rethink urban space critics, and it is developed and complet-
against a background of a recent ed over term 4 in the summer.
H&T Director at the AA and the School of Architecture at Columbia completed his PhD on the
Marina Lathouri an Architecture at Cambridge University and a founding radical domestic self-experi-
architect and critic, studied University. Her current member of the Graduate mentations of the 1940s
architecture in Greece and research focuses on School at the London and 1950s.
the Berlage Institute and contemporary forms of Consortium.
philosophy of art and architectural and urban Pedro Ignacio Alonso
aesthetics at the Université practice. Most recently, she Francisco Gonzalez de studied architecture at the
de Paris I, Sorbonne. She co-authored and co-edited Canales studied architec- Universidad Católica de
previously taught at the the book Intimate ture at ESTA Seville, ETSA Chile and completed his
Graduate School of Fine Metropolis: Urban Subjects Barcelona and Harvard PhD on the rhetorical and
Arts, University of in the Modern City University, and worked for discursive strategies of
Pennsylvania, where she (Routledge 2009). Foster + Partners and assemblage in modern
also completed her PhD on Rafael Moneo. A practising architecture at the AA.
the urban debates and H&T Staff architect and critic, he has Since 2005 he has taught
architectural arguments Mark Cousins directs the previously lectured in architectural theory at the
that reorganised the AA’s History and Theory England, Mexico, Spain and AA and worked for Arup’s
knowledge on the modern Studies at the undergradu- the USA, and was director Urban Design on a number
city in the 1940s and 1950s. ate level. He has been of the Spanish magazine of projects in the UK, China,
Since 1999 she has taught Visiting Professor of Neutra. He recently Russia and Saudi Arabia. 
137
graduate housing
& urbanism
The Housing & Urbanism programme
is concerned with the interplay of the
spatial discipline of urbanism and
the political processes of the city. It
addresses the relation between spatial
design strategies and the redesigning
of urban institutions through a critique
of dominant practices in urbanism and
experimentation with alternative meth-
ods and tools of spatial design.
Design Workshop
The Design Workshop is the core
course of the programme, providing a
framework for linking design investiga-
tion to a politically and historically
informed approach to issues of contem-
porary urbanism. It has two compo-
nents: the Group Workshop in which
small teams explore and develop design
responses to well-defined urban chal-
lenges, and the Urban Seminar, which
opens up a debate on approaches to key
themes in the programme’s areas of
research. The course consists of indi-
vidual and group projects, and students
present both design and written work.
While each of the Group Workshop
teams pursues distinct lines of investi-
gation, the Urban Seminar and individu-
al work gives the opportunity to evalu-
ate and reflect on different approaches
to key issues within urbanism today.
The H&U programme places particular
emphasis upon the urban inner periph-
ery, where the complexity of the urban
process is plainly visible, and our
project work in the Design Workshop
reflects this emphasis. Each team will
define the balance and integration of
architectural, social and political con-
cepts that drive its work, giving each
project a distinctive style and character.
Our main site for design investigation
138
Programme Directors
Jorge Fiori
Programme Staff
Lawrence Barth
Dominic Papa
Elena Pascolo
graduate
Hugo Hinsley Nicholas Bullock Alex Warnock-Smith
Kathryn Firth
will be an inner-peripheral area of
northeast London. We will engage with
the urban process of this site in the
larger frame of London and of its
metropolitan region. This will involve
considering the site’s connections both
to inner-city districts and the eastward
expansion of London; and to the knowl-
edge-economy environments around
Cambridge and the growing airport at
Stansted. We will also hold a shorter
intensive design workshop in Taipei,
Taiwan, which gives us the opportunity
to collaborate with other programmes
and to test our design and conceptual
approaches in a different context.
Lecture Courses and Seminars
Cities in a Transnational World
Term 1
This course explores the social and
economic context of housing and
urbanism as it interacts with the formu-
lation and implementation of strategies
of urban development and with the
reshaping of the role of architects and
planners in the making of cities. It offers
a comparative analysis of the restruc-
turing of cities in the context of the
current stage of internationalisation
of the world economy, placing strong
emphasis on issues of policy and
planning and on current reforms in
systems of urban governance.
The Reason of Urbanism
Term 1
This lecture and discussion series
provides the foundations for an engage-
ment with the urban as a problem-field
in western governmental reasoning.
The course will trace the twentieth-cen-
Hybridity study, part of an exploration of the Lower Lea
tury development of urbanism so as to Valley as a ‘productive city’ in the rapidly changing eastern
highlight the inherent political issues, periphery of London, 2009
139
graduate housing & urbanism
and will develop a theoretical perspec-
tive through an engagement with the
work of Arendt, Foucault, Sennett and
others. Through this perspective stu-
dents will investigate the relationship of
key political concepts to the generation
of new urban spatialities.
Critical Urbanism
Terms 1 and 2
This course will explore urbanism’s role
as an instrument of diagnosis and
critique. Beginning with lectures and
readings in the first term and building
toward a seminar format in the second
term, the course explores the ways
architecture has generated a range of
critical and reflexive responses to the
city over the last four decades. Empha-
sis will be placed on developing stu-
dents’ ability to critically analyse con-
temporary urban projects: background
readings will include Koolhaas, Rowe,
Rossi, Eisenman and Tschumi, extend-
ing into present-day writings on post-
criticality by Somol and others.
Shaping the Modern City
Terms 1 and 2
This course explores the various nation-
al and local strategies evolved by the
state to meet the challenge of urban
expansion during the twentieth century.
Rather than presenting a continuous
narrative history, the lectures and
seminars will look at key events,
projects and texts that illustrate con-
temporary responses to the opportuni-
ties and problems created by growth.
The course will focus on post-1945
housing and planning in a number of
European and US cities, offering a
vantage point from which to consider
critical issues such as density, regen-
eration, mixed-use and new working
140
and living patterns. It will also review
the development of ideas about housing
form and production.
Housing and the Informal City
Term 2
This course uses housing as a strategic
vehicle for investigating the evolution
of ideas and approaches to the informal
and irregular processes of city making.
In particular, it reviews critically the
growing despatialisation of strategies
to deal with urban informality and the
social conditions associated with it,
and explores the role of urbanism and
spatial design in addressing those
conditions. It draws from the extreme
circumstances of irregularity and
socio-spatial segregation of the cities
of the developing world. With reference
to relevant projects and programmes,
it attempts to identify appropriate tools
and instruments of spatial intervention
and design and to examine their articu-
lation through the redesigning of urban
institutions and rules.
Domesticity
Term 2
This seminar series explores trends in
contemporary multi-residential housing
against the background of a discursive
formation linking together domesticity
and urbanism. Taking Mies van der
Rohe’s patio houses of the 1930s and
Karel Teige’s 1932 critique of the
minimum dwelling as opening counter-
points, this course investigates the
broad spatial and political domain upon
which the challenge of securing per-
sonal autonomy is drawn into engage-
ment with the forces of urban living. The
lectures draw on the theoretical and
historical writings of Michel Foucault,
Jacques Donzelot and Nikolas Rose.
Dissertation Seminar
Term 3
This seminar is organised around
students’ work towards the final disser-
tation and provides a forum for them to
discuss work in progress with members
of staff and invited critics.
H&U Directors
Jorge Fiori is a sociologist
and urban planner. He
studied in Chile and has
worked in academic
institutions there and in
Brazil and England. He is a
visiting lecturer at several
Latin American and
European universities, and
consultant to international
and national urban
development agencies. He
researches and publishes on
housing and urban
development, with particular
focus on the interplay of
spatial strategies and urban
social policy.
fiori@aaschool.ac.uk
Hugo Hinsley is an architect
with expertise in housing
design, community
buildings and urban
development projects. He
has a wide range of practice
experience, mainly in
London, and has been a
consultant to many projects
in Europe, Australia and the
US. He is a member of the
research committee of
Europan, and has taught,
lectured and published
internationally. Recent
research includes London’s
design and planning,
particularly in Docklands
and Spitalfields; urban
policy and structure in
European cities; and
rethinking density for
housing and urban
development.
housing & urbanism
H&U Staff
Lawrence Barth lectures on
urbanism and political
theory, and has written on
the themes of politics and
critical theory in relation to
the urban. He practises as a
consultant urbanist, most
recently collaborating with
Zaha Hadid Architects and
s333 Studio on large-scale
projects. He is engaged in
research on urban
intensification and
innovation environments.
Nicholas Bullock studied
architecture at Cambridge
University and completed a
PhD under Leslie Martin.
Research on questions of
housing and housing reform
with a special interest in
Germany; on postwar
housing design and policy;
and on the architecture and
planning of reconstruction
after World War II.
Kathryn Firth is a Senior
Associate Principal at Kohn
Pedersen Fox Associates in
London, where she has led
many international projects
in masterplanning, urban
design and urban
regeneration. She has been
involved in research projects
that inform urban design
policy and practice, and
lectures internationally on
issues of urbanism and
urban design. She has
taught in the Cities
Programme at the London
School of Economics, and
at Harvard GSD, Rhode
Island School of Design and
the University of Toronto.
graduate
Other Events
We will make a study trip to Hamburg
in the spring term. Students are encour-
aged to attend complementary courses
offered by other Graduate School
programmes and by History & Theory
Studies. The programme also invites a
number of academics and practitioners
from all over the world to contribute to
its activities during the year.
Dominic Papa is an
architect and urban
designer with experience in
urban and architectural
projects and also on
teaching and research. He
is a founding partner of
s333 Studio for Architecture
and Urbanism which has
won awards for projects
across Europe. He is also a
Design Review Panel
member for CABE and the
West Midlands and has
been a jury member for
several international
competitions.
Elena Pascolo trained and
practised in the fields of
housing, urban planning and
policy development, both in
South Africa and London.
She is a practising architect
in London, and is developing
research on transactive
urbanism and on irregular
and informal urban
conditions.
Alex Warnock-Smith is an
architect and urban
designer. Alex trained at the
University of Cambridge
and the Architectural
Association, and has a
range of experience in
practice, teaching and
research. His work is
broadly concerned with the
relationship between social
experience and urban
space. He has taught at the
AA, London Metropolitan
University, and London
Southbank University.
aaschool.ac.uk/hu
141
graduate landscape
urbanism
Landscape Urbanism is, by definition,
transdisciplinary. Whilst drawing on the
legacy of landscape design to address
the dynamics of contemporary urban-
ism, it integrates knowledge and tech-
niques from environmental engineering,
urban strategy and landscape ecology,
deploying the science of complexity and
emergence, the tools of digital design
and the thought of political ecology. All
these means are combined to project
new material interventions that operate
within an urbanism conceived as social,
material, ecological and continually
modulated by the spatial and temporal
forces in which it is networked.
The Landscape Urbanism MA is a
12-month studio-based programme
designed for students with prior aca-
demic and professional qualifications. It
comprises a design studio, interrelated
workshops and a series of lectures and
seminars that form the core of project
development.
Prototypical Urbanities 03:
The Yangtze River Delta
Building on a body of research estab-
lished over the past two years, the
09/10 design agenda will focus on
‘Prototypical Urbanities’. Our testbed
will be the urban agglomerations of the
Yangtze River Delta – including Shang-
hai, Suzhou, Ningbo – with students
focusing on three benchmark issues:
Metabolic rurbanism: the emer-
gence of ‘desakota’ (urban villages)
combining urban and rural processes of
land use
Tactical resistance: as generic,
top-down masterplanning collides with
informally developed urban cores, it
opens up the potential for a territorially
142
Programme Director
Eva Castro
Programme Staff
Eduardo Rico
Workshop Tutors
Jorge Alaya
graduate
Alfredo Ramirez Bridget MacKean
Tom Smith Teruyuki Nomura
Douglas Spencer Enriqueta Llabres
Clara Oloriz
specific tactical urbanism
Material identities: the inadequacy
of attempts to provide new urban
settlements with an instant ‘identity’ by
applying either vernacular or western
styles of building.
Framework 2009/10
1. Indexical Models: mediation
between typical organisational
paradigms and local conditions
The autumn term is based on a series of
intensive workshops that aim to initiate
a dialogue between the techniques
being acquired and their application in
the development of new organisational
– or indexical – models. At the end of
this term a field trip to China will provide
us with the opportunity to engage
directly with a real large-scale urban
project and a body of consultants
including local planners and architects.
2. Sensitive Systems: development
of a prototype
In the spring term, following the field
trip, the organisational models will
acquire a sense of local ‘urgency’
informing both top-down strategic
intentions and allowing for a fluid
negotiation with bottom-up local
conditions. Central to this phase will be
the development of a malleable proto-
type capable of continuous transforma-
tions. An intensive workshop in Barce-
lona during the Easter break will allow
students to synthesise their prototype’s
formative process and investigate its
scalar limitations.
3. & 4. Network Urbanism:
global behaviour
During the third term work is directed
towards developing different logics of Hossein Kachabi. AALU 07/08. Intercropping city sustaining local food sources. Productive urban agricultural
The project focuses on the productive capacity of urban lands are integrated with new developments and add
proliferation. By this point, projects will agriculture as a means of exploring the new ways of diversity to tourist attractions.
colonising the rural or the urban while providing self-
143
graduate landscape urbanism
have acquired a certain relevance based
on a tangible argument and will be
clearly positioned within the field.
Over the summer, the aim is to
definitively formulate the operating
rationale for the projects. A grounding
logic directly related to the existing
political framework is developed, so
that the work acquires the character of
a time-based plan.
Investigations developed during the
year will be presented as a final Design
Thesis in a public review at the end of
September.
Seminars and Lectures
Each year, an international and diverse
range of speakers are invited to offer
new perspectives on the issues that
concern the practice of Landscape
Urbanism. Past speakers have includ-
ed: Charles Waldheim, Andreas Ruby,
Kelly Shannon, Richard Weller, David
Cunningham, Matthew Gandy, Douglas
Spencer and Gareth Doherty. In addi-
tion, the programme offers the core
courses and workshops outlined below.
Landscaping Urbanism
Douglas Spencer,
Autumn & Spring Terms
This unit – the theoretical core of the
programme – is designed to synergise
with its workshops, projects and field
trips. Over its two terms it introduces
the transdisciplinary origins of Land-
scape Urbanism whilst defining its
unique configuration and potential in
the context of contemporary urban
conditions. In addition to lectures, it
includes seminars with student presen-
tations (both individual and group) and
contributions from other specialists,
researchers and graduates of the AALU
programme.
144
Machining Landscapes
Tom Smith, Autumn & Spring Terms
This new lecture series introduces
students to a range of construction
techniques related to the design of
landscape projects. Rather than a
remedial or problem-solving approach,
then, it addresses the generative
potential of technical methods and their
capacity to produce new territories
openly engaged with environmental,
social and subjective conditions.
Ecology & Environment
Ian Carradice & Ove Arup
Associates, Autumn Term
Lectures by experts from the Ove Arup
Environmental Unit will address envi-
ronmental concerns, introducing a wide
range of techniques aiming to ensure
sustainable management and design.
Workshops
Diagramming Cities
Eva Castro, Alfredo Ramirez,
Eduardo Rico
Students will learn how to conceptual-
ise urban conditions through diagram-
ming. They will investigate the underly-
ing logics and complexities of urban
networks, exploring various representa-
tional techniques for establishing clear
and specific readings of the urban
supra-organisation.
Indexing Territories
Eva Castro, Teruyuki Nomura, ContractWorld Award and
Bridget MacKean
This workshop aims to develop stu-
dents’ capacity to read information from
fields and then decode, synthesise and
systematically process it into indexical
models. There will be tutorials on
software packages such as Rhino,
Maya, Land-desktop and Space Syntax.
landscape urbanism graduate
Scripting Prototypes sentational capacity of different digital
Eduardo Rico, Clara Oloriz fabrication techniques, exploring
Different scripting techniques will be instead their creative potential. The aim
explored as a means of creating flexible is to acquire an instrumental deploy-
design tools that are capable of accom- ment of these tools and create a feed-
modating change and a degree of back loop between the digital and the
indeterminacy in the design process. physical that will overcome the tradi-
tional bidimensional reading of the city.
Relational Urbanism
Eduardo Rico, Enriqueta Llabres Metropolis_ 09-10
This workshop deals with the mediation AALU + Fundacion Metropoli
of bottom-up readings and strategic This is the third of a series of workshops
decision-making concepts. The overall held each year during the spring break
arrangement of the material compo- in conjunction with different LU collabo-
nents produced in the previous work- rators. Its aim is to serve as a quick and
shop will be further articulated to intensive testbed in the application of
respond locally to specific conditions techniques to a real project in a new
and globally to relational strategies. political context. The workshop will
conclude with a final public presenta-
DFC (Digitally Fabricated Cities) tion of the project to the body of clients.
Eva Castro, Jorge Ayala
This workshop goes beyond the repre-
Director Staff joining EDAW AECOM Tom performed research in the
Eva Castro is the director of Douglas Spencer has has developed into one of fields of infrastructure and
the Landscape Urbanism studied design and EDAW AECOM’s leading landscape in Spain and the
programme and has been architectural history, designers. His work over the UK. Currently he is involved
teaching at the AA since cultural studies and critical last 11 years has been in the development of
2003. She studied theory, and has taught diverse, ranging from infrastructural strategies for
large-scale urban projects
architecture and urbanism history and theory at a masterplanning for the
at the Universidad Central number of architectural Chelsea Flower Show to within the Arup engineerig
de Venezuela and schools. His research and developing networks of rural team as well as being part
subsequently completed the writing on urbanism, communities on the of the collective Groundlab.
AA Graduate Design architecture, film and critical Portuguese coast to
programme with Jeff Kipnis. theory has been published in large-scale multidisciplinary Alfredo Ramirez studied
She is cofounder of Plasma journals including The landscape, engineering and Architecture at the
Studio and GroundLab. Journal of Architecture, architecture projects. Universidad Iberoamericana
Awards include the Next Radical Philosophy, AA Files Over the past five years he in Mexico City, where he
Generation Architects and Culture Machine. He has been instrumental in the received his Diploma in
Award, the Young Architect has contributed chapters to design of the London 2012 Architecture 2000, and
of the Year Award, the collections on urban design, Olympic and Legacy subsequently completed the
utopian literature and Masterplan. He is currently AA graduate programme
the HotDip Galvanising contemporary architecture, focusing on leading the Landscape Urbanism in
Award. Her work has been and is currently researching design and delivery of the 2005. He has practised in
published and exhibited for a book which formulates Olympic and Legacy several architectural offices
worldwide. Plasma and a Marxian critique of Parklands, and on the and institutions in Mexico
GroundLab are currently contemporary architecture development of the Legacy City and London where he
lead designers for the and ‘control society’. masterplan framework. focused on architectural and
International Horticultural urban design projects.
Fair in Xi’an, China a 37ha Tom Smith is a landscape Eduardo Rico studied civil Curretly he is involved in the
landscape with a wide range architect and urban engineering in Spain and Olympic Park design for
of buildings due to open in designer whose expertise graduated from the AA’s London 2012 as well as
2011. ranges from detailed Landscape Urbanism being part of the collective
landscape design to large programme. He has acted Groundlab.
complex masterplans. Since as consultant and
145
graduate sustainable
environmental
design
The main research object of the mas-
ter’s programme in Sustainable Envi-
ronmental Design is the relationship
between architectural form, materiality
and environmental performance,
and how this relation evolves in re-
sponse to climate change and emerging
technical capabilities. Sustainable
environmental design is not a fixed
ideal, but an evolving concept to be
redefined and reassessed with each
new project. Observation, measure-
ment and computer modelling and
simulation are fundamental techniques
that underpin the programme’s design
research. These are applied at various
levels of detail and intensity, extending
the understanding of theoretical princi-
ples to inform the design process. The
MSc option runs over 12 months (from
October 2009 to September 2010) and
is offered to both architects and engi-
neers. The MArch option is addressed
to architects and teachers of architec-
tural design. Its 16-month duration
(from October 2009 to January 2011)
enables the exploration of detailed
design agendas that can include the
realisation of experimental structures.
The taught programme is in two
parts. The first part (Phase I, October-
April) is common to both the MSc and
MArch candidates and is structured
around a series of joint studio projects
undertaken in teams combining the two
groups. Projects are supported by
weekly lectures, seminars and work-
shops. The second part of the course
(Phase II, May to end September 2010
for MSc, May 2010 to end January 2011
for MArch) is organised around candi-
dates’ dissertation projects. for uniform daylighting in Art Gallery in Bangkok, MArch
146
Programme Director
Simos Yannas
Programme Staff
Klaus Bode
Raul Moura
Jorge Rodríguez Álvarez
graduate
Gustavo Brunelli Alberto Moletto
Joana Soares Gonçalves Barak Pelman
Studio Projects
Phase I Studio: What Can Buildings
Tell Us, What Can We Tell Back
Autumn & Spring Terms
Autumn term building studies around
London combine occupant and design-
er interviews with on-site observations
and environmental measurements.
These provide a first glimpse of the
dynamic interactions between building,
occupant and outdoor environment.
Measurements help calibrate digital
models which are then applied to
simulate environmental performance as
a first stage of parametric analysis and
design research. The findings of this
fieldwork provide starting points for the
following term’s design research agen-
das. The objective of the spring term
studio is to explore innovative as well as
performative designs that address
climate change and maximise use of
natural resources, aiming at zero-car-
bon buildings.
MSc Dissertations
Summer Term
Phase II of the MSc takes place over an
extended summer term of some 24
weeks representing half of the total
duration of the taught programme.
During this term MSc candidates are
expected to undertake a significant
piece of research that addresses the
programme’s areas of research as well
as their own backgrounds, professional
interests and special skills. Dissertation
topics are decided by the end of the
spring term.
Top: Ekachai Sophonudomporn, roof component optimised Bottom: SED students preparing to start the presentation
of their project exhibition at PLEA 2009 International
Phase II Dissertation Project, February 2009 Conference in Quebec, 24 June 2009
147
graduate sustainable environmental design
MArch Dissertations
Autumn, Spring & Summer Terms
In the autumn and early spring terms
the MArch studio hosts the final stage
of Phase II dissertations begun in the
previous academic year. In the coming
year these comprise eleven individual
projects encompassing a wide range of
design briefs and climates, including
proposals for emergency housing in
Chilean Patagonia, a low-income
community in Bangkok, sustainable
urban development in Reykjavik and-
façade design for office buildings in
Belgrade. These projects are due for
completion in early February 2010. The
MArch studio will then resume in the
summer term with a new group of
Phase II projects.
Lectures, Seminars & Workshops
Myths & Theories of
Sustainable Architecture
Autumn Term
The environmental performance of
buildings is fundamentally a matter for
architecture, being a direct outcome of
programmatic, formal and operational
choices made, or ignored, by design.
Sustainable environmental design
requires essential architectural knowl-
edge that recent generations of archi-
tects did not receive. Its key concepts
and performative criteria are introduced
in this course, providing the cognitive
grounding and critical framework
needed for design research.
Environmental Design Primer
Autumn & Spring Terms
The course deals with key topics in
building science drawn from current
thinking and research in sustainable
environmental design as it applies to
architecture and urbanism. Lectures
148
will look at the relationship between
climate and architectural evolution;
people, buildings and sustainability;
occupant environmental comfort and
thermal performance of buildings;
daylight in architecture; daylight,
artificial light, and energy; natural and
mechanical ventilation; health and
energy expenditure in buildings and
related topics.
Lessons from Practice
Spring Term
The course looks at both historical and
contemporary approaches using built
examples from the research and prac-
tices of the programme’s teaching staff
as well as guest lecturers to discuss
design concepts and environmental
performance in practice.
Environmental Analysis Tools
Autumn & Spring Terms
This is a technical course on methods
and tools applied before and during
design to test ideas and environmental
targets, simulate and compare the likely
performance of alternative designs,
assess predictions of environmental
conditions against measured data and
benchmarks, finetune design proposals
and inform final design decisions.
Design Research Workshop
Autumn & Spring Terms developments in Berlin.
Following the weekly sessions of the
Environmental Analysis Tools course,
this is a hands-on workshop that pro-
vides training in the application of
digital tools and procedures introduced
in the course, helping to build the
necessary knowledge and experience in
stages under close supervision.
sustainable environmental design graduate
Productive Research Other Events
Autumn, Spring & Summer Terms Forthcoming events in 2009/10 include
The purpose of the seminar is to foster the PALENC 2010 Cooling the Cities
the development of the research skills conference, to be held on Rhodes in late
required for studio projects and profes- September and collaboration in a new
sional work in this master’s programme. project on environmental design and
These include selecting research topics architectural training in Europe.
for papers and dissertation projects,
writing technical papers and reports for
presentation and publication, and devel-
oping a visual language for communi-
cating the principles and outcomes of
sustainable environmental design.
SED Director Joana Carla Soares co-founded SAAI in 2009, written and contributed to
Gonçalves is an architect an environmental several books including
Simos Yannas is currently a
Sir Isaac Newton Design and urbanist from Rio de consultancy firm with Daylighting Design and
Fellow in Architecture at the Janeiro where she practised projects in Europe, Asia and Sustainable Refurbishment.
University of Cambridge and with Ana Maria Niemeyer America.
visiting professor at before undertaking an MA in Paula Cadima has taught at
Queensland University of Environment and Energy Alberto Moletto studied both the AA Graduate
Technology. His book Roof Studies at the AA and a PhD architecture in Chile where School and at the Technical
Cooling Techniques was on the sustainability of tall Ramirez-Moletto, his University of Lisbon, where
shortlisted for an RIBA Book buildings at the University of Santiago-based she created and directed the
Award and Lessons from São Paulo, where she has architectural practice, has master’s course on
Traditional Architecture is been teaching since 1998. completed a wide range of Bioclimatic Architecture.
due for publication in 2009. She has worked as an building projects and had its Working for the European
He was awarded the PLEA environmental consultant on work published and Commission in Brussels
(Passive and Low Energy projects around Brazil and exhibited extensively in Chile since 2005, she is involved
Architecture) International won awards in a number of and abroad. in the promotion of energy
Awards in 2001 and 2008. design competitions. efficiency and renewable
Barak Pelman studied energy sources.
SED Staff Raul Moura studied architecture in Tel-Aviv
Klaus Bode co-founded architecture and urbanism University and at Helsinki Catherine Harrington is an
BDSP Partnership, a at the Technical University University of Technology, associate with the London
London-based of Lisbon and worked for the and trained in traditional office of Architype, winners
environmental engineering Department of Strategic and contemporary crafting of the RIBA Sustainability
firm with projects the world Planning of Lisbon City techniques, working with Award in 2007 and the
over. He was project Council before moving to various building materials Ashden Award in 2009.
engineer on Foster + London. He was awarded including iron, wood, Since 1999 she has been
Partners’ Commerzbank the MA in Environment & concrete and earth. He won responsible for a wide
and on Rogers/Piano’s Energy Studies from the AA several design awards and portfolio of low-energy
Potsdamer Platz in 1998 and has been has exhibited works at the buildings and competition-
teaching in the programme Helsinki Museum of winning schemes, including
since 1999. He has worked Architecture and at the the Chiltern Hills Visitor
Gustavo Brunelli graduated as a sustainability International Biennale of Centre, Singleton
from the Faculty of consultant since 2002. Architecture in Bat-Yam. Environment Centre and a
Architecture and Urbanism number of educational and
of the University of São Jorge Rodríguez Álvarez Visiting Lecturer cultural buildings.
Paulo and won an Alban graduated from the Nick Baker studied physics
scholarship to the MA in Architectural School of but has spent the majority
Environment & Energy A Coruña, Spain and was of his professional life
Studies at the AA, which he awarded an MA in Building working in building physics
completed with Distinction Conservation and Urban as a teacher, researcher and
in 2004. He has worked as Regeneration from the consultant. His particular
environmental consultant on University of Santiago. He interests lie in energy
the new headquarters for completed the MSc in modelling, thermal comfort
Petrobras in Rio de Janeiro Sustainable Environmental and daylighting. He is
and with BDSP on projects Design at the AA with author of the LT Method, an
in the UK and abroad. Distinction in 2008. He energy design tool, and has
149
graduate Conservation of
HIstoric buildings
The stewardship of the historic environ-
ment requires heritage practitioners
with special skills in understanding,
managing and communicating the
legacy of the past. It is the ambition of
this programme to inspire the partici-
pants to build upon their existing knowl-
edge and skills, so as to become more
effective practitioners.
This two-year part-time programme
takes place on 32 Fridays over each of
the two academic years and is designed
to offer a comprehensive and innovative
approach to the conservation of historic
buildings. It attempts to address why
we conserve, what it is that is being
conserved and how the artefact is
to be conserved. Philosophical issues
and craft techniques are explored and
modern value systems of assessing
significance are investigated. The
programme includes site visits con-
nected with study exercises and current
conservation issues of interest, togeth-
er with visits to craft workshops.
The First Year engages the stu-
dents in developing their own conserva-
tion philosophies, allied with the study
of early and medieval building types.
Students begin to learn about causes
of defects to buildings as well as their
diagnosis and repair. Amongst the
required pieces of written work are a
materials essay/investigation, a church
development study, a conservation
Programme Director Programme Staff
Andrew Shepherd is an Judith Roebuck is an
architect and has run archaeologist and an
a practice specialising ancient monuments
in conservation work, inspector for English
principally in the eccles- Heritage. She is also a past
iastical field, for nearly graduate of the course.
30 years. He is involved
in international training
programmes and is a past
graduate of the course.
150
Programme Director
Andrew Shepherd
Programme Staff
Judith Roebuck
graduate
David Heath
statement exercise and a fabric condi-
tion survey of a building.
The Second Year extends the scope
of these studies including the issues
associated with the development and
repair of historic interiors, the introduc-
tion of services into historic buildings
and ongoing philosophical develop-
ments. The principal assignment for
students is a thesis of 10–15,000 words
on a subject of their choice to be ap-
proved by the staff. This is developed
with the assistance of a specialist exter-
nal tutor for submission to external
examiners.
Those directing the programme also
benefit from the expertise of its advi-
sors, Richard Halsey, Elain Harwood,
John Redmill, Clive Richardson and
Robert Thorne. Many former students
show their continuing commitment
to the course by returning to lecture
to current students. There are informal
links with practitioners, and there is
usually an annual study tour.
For over 30 years the AA’s Building
Conservation programme has been
recognised as one of the leading cours-
es of its kind. The course is designed
to meet the ICOMOS Guidelines for
Education and Training, but is also
informed by more recent developments
in conservation practice.
David Heath was latterly
Chief Conservation
Architect to English
Heritage, and is the Thesis
Tutor. He is also a past
graduate of the course.
aaschool.ac.uk/bc
Students on site visits
151
graduate phd programme
The AA School’s PhD programme
fosters critical discourse and innovative
research in architecture and urbanism.
Within these fields the thematic and
methodological origins of current
projects derive from three main areas of
research: architectural theory and
history (mainly the critical reassess-
ment of twentieth-century architecture
and urbanism); architectural urbanism
(its role in addressing central issues in
contemporary urban conditions and
debates); and sustainable environmen-
tal design (its critical dimension and
innovative applications in architecture
and urbanism). From this academic
year eligible candidates may also enrol
for the PhD in Architectural Design, an
option for qualified architects with
experience in design research and an
interest in relating theory to design
practice.
The PhD programme combines
advanced research with a broader
educational agenda preparing gradu-
ates for practice in global academic and
professional environments. The pre-
ferred entry route is through one of the
AA School’s post-professional MA, MSc
or MArch programmes which provide
the theoretical grounding and appropri-
ate tools for engaging in advanced
research in their respective fields.
Applicants from outside the school
must hold a post-professional master’s
degree in their proposed area of PhD
research.
Study for the PhD at the AA is
full-time, with a minimum duration of
two calendar years and a maximum of
four years. PhD (and MPhil) research
degrees are administered by the AA
Graduate School’s Research Commit-
tee in conjunction with the Architecture
152
Academic Coordinator
Simos Yannas
Programme Staff
Lawrence Barth
Jorge Fiori
Hugo Hinsley
graduate
Mark Cousins Marina Lathouri
& Urbanism Management Group in
partnership with the Open University.
PhD in Architectural Design
The purpose of the new option of the
PhD in Architectural Design is to enable
as well as encourage candidates from
an architectural background to make
productive and creative use of their
design skills within the scholarly tradi-
tion of doctoral research. This is a
full-time, post-professional research
degree option that can be taken over a
minimum of two calendar years and a
maximum of four years. Entry require-
ments are a five-year professional
degree in architecture and a master’s
degree from one of the AA School’s
postgraduate programmes, or equiva-
lent academic qualifications and experi-
ence in the area of the proposed re-
search. Applicants will be assessed on
design portfolio, reference letters,
interview and research statement.
Seminars & Special Events
Seminar series are commonly of one or
two terms’ duration. Topics reflect the
evolution of research interests and
training requirements. PhD candidates
may take one or more seminars. An
international symposium is held regu-
larly in the Summer Term.
Marina Lathouri leads a PhD history and theory discussion group
153
graduate AA Studio Director
Theo Lorenz
Studio Master
Tanja Siems
Studio Tutor
Jan Brüggemeier
graduate

Interprofessional
Studio
Launched in 2008/09, the AA Interpro-
fessional Studio operates in the areas
between Art, Architecture and Perform-
ance reaching professions, partners
and students who would not normally
have the opportunity to study at the AA
School. AAIS can provide either a
full-time year of studying (leading to an
AA Graduate Diploma) or a part-time
two days a week option (leading to an
AAIS certificate ).
Real applied projects within creative
fields serve as generators for the year’s
work; collaborations guarantee a high
level of focus, outcome and public
participation. The aim of the course is
to explore the area between the disci-
plines and therefore it seeks works as
experimental and independent as
possible. The AAIS offers itself as a
forum for discussion beyond the imme-
diate scope of the studio and as an
interdisciplinary project office realising
creative, collaborative work. The AAIS
will invite a huge variety of people
throughout the disciplines to be part of
our workshops, events and discussions.
This year we will be organising,
designing and curating a festival of
Spatial Performance in London. This
project will be not just a single framed
activity but a series of events of differ-
ent scale, media and scope with each
realisation initiating and promoting the
next. We will develop urban interven-
tions that manifest themselves in
performances, exhibitions and con-
structions that will be used as a staging
of events, as platforms of discussion
and finally as an urban film set.
The work of the studio will be
divided into four distinct phases:
Act One: Knowledge Exchange
In a series of workshops, looking at
interactive design, writing, performance
and curation as well as theatre and film
production, we will explore various
knowledge transfers.
Act Two: Design
The second term focuses on the design
of various elements for the Spatial
Performance festival, the scale and
scope of which will vary considerably.
Act Three: Construction
The third term will concentrate entirely
on the delivery of these projects.
Act Four: Conclusion
After the events in June and July AAIS
participants will have time to document
their specific take on the interprofes-
sional work in the form of an essay or
thesis.

Theo Lorenz is a registered
architect in England and
Germany, as well as a
painter and media artist.
Trespassing between art
and architecture, his interest
lies in the relation of digital
and physical space and the
associations between
subjects and objects. He
has been teaching at the AA
since 2000 and has directed
the AAIS programme since
2008.
Tanja Siems is an urban
designer and infrastructural
planner and the director of
the interdisciplinary practice
T2 spatial work (to.spatial-
work.net). The office tackles
social, political, economic
and environmental problems
as fuel to the design proc-
ess and the development of
a dialogue that can lead to
an enhanced built proposal
or solution rather than a
reduced compromise. She
co-leads the AAIS pro- since 2001 he has curated
gramme and organises the a number of art and media
programme’s support and festivals across Europe.
funding.
aais.aaschool.ac.uk
Jan Brüggemeier graduated
in Media Art and Design at
the Bauhaus University Wei-
mar and his work focuses on
sound art, new media and
participatory urban projects.
He has presented this inter-
nationally at festivals and Laura Boffi, Projection of Breath3, Theatherhaus Jena, 2009
numerous exhibitions and Photo Takako Hasegawa

154 155
graduate design + make
AA Design & Make is a new full-time
16-month residential graduate design
programme, located at the AA’s Hooke
Park forest estate in Dorset. Starting in
Autumn 2010, AA D&M is open to
graduate students of architecture and
related disciplines who wish to pursue
studio- and workshop-based design
and realisation of alternative rural
architectures. On a yearly cycle, the
programme will design and construct
experimental buildings at Hooke Park,
in the process creating a new rural AA
campus as a demonstrator of ecologi-
cally sustainable design.
The course is based on the philoso-
phy that architects today learn best by
imagining, developing and realising
full-scale prototype structures through
which ideas can be tested, documented
and communicated. Through actual
engagement in making and building,
students have a unique opportunity to
develop a rich phenomenal understand-
ing of architecture. Similarly, through
realising real-world sustainable solu-
tions within the environmental context
provided by Hooke Park, a deep indi-
vidual appreciation of ecological issues
can be gained. The course is uniquely
placed to benefit from exposure to the
AA’s design culture, the workshops and
working forestry of Hooke Park, and the
expertise of a body of consultants and
advisors engaged at the leading edge of
design thinking.
Programme Director
Martin Self holds degrees
in aerospace engineering
and architectural theory.
He was a founder member
of Arup’s Advanced
Geometry Unit. He currently
provides geometrical and
engineering consultancy to
Zaha Hadid Architects and
Antony Gormley Studio.
156
Programme Director
Martin Self
graduate
The four-term course starts with a
series of seminars to build a theoretical
foundation, and a core studio in which
students engage in relevant contempo-
rary design practices. Workshop-based
experimentation proceeds in parallel
with studio-based design explorations.
Design studios, planning submissions
and on-site construction form the heart
of AA D&M’s project-driven pedagogy.
Students will live in a village com-
munity near Hooke Park. Ideas will be
shared through engagement with that
community, with visiting students and
tutors, and the wider school community
in London. The aim is that the student
intake will produce, as a group, a
compelling local response (in the form
of both discourse and artefact) to the
global challenges facing architecture.
This will be informed by their studies in
ecological thinking, the theories and
practices of sustainable architecture
and new philosophies of design.
Through access to the forest and
workshop, the opportunity is presented
to reinvent traditional timber building
techniques using the current technolo-
gies of computer-aided design and
manufacture. By maximising the build-
ing material provided by the forest, and
aiming towards resource autonomy for
the Hooke Park project, students will
directly experience, in microcosm, the
wider challenges of achieving self-suffi-
ciency in the built environment.
The existing structures at Hooke Park were designed by Happold, features a grass roof and the extensive use of
teams dedicated to pushing the boundaries of building with unmilled, untreated timber. There are other structures by
wood. Westminster Lodge, by Edward Cullinan and Buro Frei Otto and Ahrends Burton & Koralek.
157
graduate projective cities Programme Staff
Christopher CM Lee
graduate
Sam Jacoby

The Projective Cities programme is typological reasoning and experimenta-

dedicated to the study of the city as a
projective site for new architectural
knowledge. Through a distinctive mix
of taught and research components,
it aims at redefining and reclaiming
the role of architecture as the essential
element to theorise, conceptualise,
describe, form, organise and ultimately
project new ideas of and for the city.
The focus of the programme
is the formation and design of the city,
explicated within its dominant types
and large-scale architectural artefacts.
The rapidly emerging phenomena – and
design challenges – of the contempo-
rary city are systematically examined
through both theoretical and specific
architectural design investigations,
which are developed into a rigorous
Design Thesis.
For the past two decades, the
discourse of architecture in relation
to its larger context has been predomi-
nantly discussed and reasoned through
concepts of urbanism, with little
reference to alternative overarching
architectural theories. By contrast,
this programme pursues a meaningful
production of new ideas by overlaying
the conjectural potential of architectural
experimentation onto the city itself,
as the overt site of new architectural
knowledge. Instrumental to this
approach is a process of design and
research that is premised on a renewed
tion, enabling architecture to re-engage
with the city in both a critical and
conjectural manner.
Course Structure
The Projective Cities programme is a
two-year full-time MPhil course open to
postgraduate students with a minimum
five-year professional architectural
degree (BArch, Diploma or equivalent).
In the first year – the taught phase –
seminar courses provide the theoretical
foundation and research methods for
analysing cities and researching and
discussing their histories, theories,
instruments and practices. All courses
are extensively cross-linked, themati-
cally and instrumentally, with the core
design studio and are developed into
a proposal for a Design Thesis. During
the second phase in year two, students
carry out individual research under
close supervision, leading to a Design
Thesis complemented by a written
dissertation of around 15,000 words.
The programme will be launched
in autumn 2010. For more information
please contact:
Graduate School Admissions
Registrar’s Office
AA School of Architecture
36 Bedford Square
London WC1B 3ES
T: +44 (0)20 7887 4067
gradinfo@aaschool.ac.uk

Programme Staff a 440-unit residential Sam Jacoby graduated

Christopher CM Lee
graduated with the AA Dipl
(Hons) and has taught in
the AA since 2002. He
is the principal of award-
winning Serie Architects in
London, Mumbai, Beijing
and Chengdu. His practice
is working on numerous
projects worldwide including
complex in Bratislava, a from the AA and is an
20ha masterplan in Pune architect in private practice
and a floating pavilion in in London. Before becoming
Marina Bay Singapore. an architect he trained as a
He is currently a doctoral cabinet-maker in Germany.
candidate at the Berlage Has taught at the AA since
Institute in Rotterdam. 2002 and at the University
serie.co.uk of Nottingham since
2007. Currently a doctoral
candidate at the TU Berlin. Udayan Mazumdar, Zero Ground, Diploma Unit 6, 2007/08

158 159
graduate research
clusters
AA Research Clusters are a programme
of year-long special projects, activities
and events that bring together diverse
groups of AA students, staff and out-
side partners for the purposes of
realising research initiatives inside the
AA School. The programme itself was
initiated in 2005 as a means to connect
different parts of the diverse, unit- and
programme-oriented academic life of
the AA, as well as to generate greater
levels of outside partnership, support
and funding.
Each year the AA Research Cluster
Group, managed by the AA’s Academic
Head in consultation with existing
cluster curators, takes applications
from across the school for a new cycle
of clusters; so that at any one time there
are four clusters operating at different
stages of their 18-month programme.
Since their launch four years ago,
cluster catalogues and publications
have been produced taking this work to
a larger audience. These include Cities
from Zero, edited by Shumon Basar and
Environmental Techtonics, edited by
Steve Hardy. Other past clusters have
included, ‘New Media: Design Systems
& Tools’, ‘Architectural Urbanism’,
‘Future Practice’ and ‘The Architecture
of Innovation’.
For 2009/10 Research Clusters
include ‘FAB: A Platform for Material
and Manufacturing Innovation’ curated
by Alan Dempsey and Theo Sarantoglou
Lalis. The cluster has organised an
international design competition, and in
recent months has commissioned
prototypes by competition winners that
will be exhibited in London during
autumn 2009.
160
Coordinator
Charles Tashima
Cluster Curators
Alan Dempsey
Marianne Mueller
Olaf Kneer
graduate
Theo Sarantoglou Lalis Marina Lathouri
Stefano Rabolli Pansera
‘Art, Architecture and Energy’,
curated by Stefano Rabolli Pansera,
was launched at the 2009 Venice Art
Biennale as a new cluster that will
organise a series of workshops bringing
together AA students and staff with out-
side architects, artists and scientists to
explore the connected cultures of
science and the arts in the twenty-first
century. Conferences, installations and
a publication are planned.
‘Concrete Geometries’, curated by
Marianne Mueller and Olaf Kneer, will
explore an area of research currently
under-represented in architectural
culture – geometry as a site for human
interaction and bodily experience.
Exhibitions, public conversations and
live experiments are planned this year.
‘City Cultures’, curated by Marina
Lathouri, looks at the contemporary
idea of the city. During 2008/09 the
cluster held an open seminar that
brought together AA tutors and outside
visitors to identify a range of contempo-
rary positions on the city. The ideas
generated in this seminar will feed into
a 2010 conference seeking new mani-
festos on the city.
During 2009/10 the school will
again seek proposals from interested
students and staff, which will be coordi-
nated and announced by Charles
Tashima, AA School Academic Head.
‘New Media: Design Systems & Tools’ cluster meeting, 2008
161
GRaduate aa course and exam
in architectural
practice
The AA provides two architectural
practice programmes each year, each
lasting for around ten weeks. One
begins in March, the other in mid-Sep-
tember. Alastair Robertson, the AA’s
Professional Studies Advisor (PSA) and
Rob Sparrow, the Architectural Practice
Co-ordinator are there to advise and to
help students through the process.
To pass the ‘Part 3’ and thus be
recognised as competent in architec-
tural practice is the gold standard. The
AA’s examination is formally recognised
by the Architects Registration Board
(ARB) and the Royal Institute of British
Architects (RIBA) and means that
students can not only become regis-
tered without further examination and
use the title ‘Architect’ but also that
employers, potential clients and insur-
ers in the UK and most other countries
in the world will recognise that they
have reached the most critical bench-
mark in their career.
The intensive, full-time two-week
course that introduces the examination
process covers all the topics central to
professional practice including building
contract, planning and building regula-
tions as well as business management
and soft skills such as personal presen-
tation. It is delivered by experts from the
world of architectural practice who are
Tutor organisations in the UK and
Alastair Robertson trained several governments in the
at the AA and Manchester Middle East on vocational
Business School and has training and qualification
taught at the AA since 1971. systems and policies.
As a senior consultant
he has worked on several
English new towns and
St Katharine Docks in
London and currently
advises industry sector
162
up-to-date with the latest changes in
practice and procedure. It is not a
foundation course, but the AA does
provide an extensive bibliography,
lecture notes and past papers, all on
a CD-ROM.
The AA Part 3 programme is unique
in that it brings together a group of
around 30 graduates from the AA, other
UK schools, from schools outside
the UK and also qualified practitioners
doing the course as part of their con-
tinuing professional development.
The examination itself is a two-step
process: firstly, candidates must estab-
lish their eligibility by submitting an
essay and related documentation to the
PSA for an initial assessment. Second-
ly, candidates must undertake four
written papers in a scenario-based
examination and present themselves for
a professional review by two examiners
from the AA Board of Part 3 Examiners.
The review is based on a student’s
record of professional experience
(normally a PEDR record – see
pedr.co.uk), documents submitted for
their initial assessment and exam
papers.
To be eligible to sit the exam,
candidates must have exemption from
the ARB/RIBA Part 1 and 2 Examina-
tions and at least two year’s practice
experience (three to four years is more
normal) of which one year must be after
passing Part 2 and one year must be
working in the UK on UK-based projects
under the supervision of a UK-regis-
tered architect. All of these details,
including fees, are documented in the
AA’s Part 3 Prospectus that can be
downloaded from the professional
practice section of the AA website.
Although the Part 3 process at the
AA follows the same standards adopted
by all other recognised schools in the
UK there are some differences. For
example, the AA does not, like most
other schools, require a case study.
Our approach to grading examination
papers also follows a legal model where
everything the candidate presents to
the examiners forms part of a single
‘body of evidence’. The examiners can
weight the component parts of the
exam however they wish to reach their
decision of ‘competent’ or ‘not yet
competent’.
To support Part 3 candidates,
Alastair Robertson and Rob Sparrow
provide a 48-week advisory and support
programme for students out in the
practice environment. Meetings with
Alastair are by appointment, through
Rob Sparrow, and usually take place
in the AA Front Members’ Room over
Tutor
Alastair Robertson
graduate
a cup of coffee. Alastair will also visit
students in their offices if the situation
warrants it.
For those embarking on the
Part 3 process, the essential starting
point is to register with the AA School
(through Rob Sparrow –
sparrow_ro@aaschool.ac.uk ) as soon
as possible after completing the
Diploma School/Part 2. The registra-
tion fee for 2009 is £250 which covers
the costs of practice monitoring, the
PEDR review and sign-off, an initial
Part 3 assessment and tutorials as
required. For those subject to visa
regulations, this is critical because the
AA cannot meet its sponsorship obliga-
tions to the UK Borders Agency without
this. The PSA also cannot sign PEDR
forms unless the student is registered
with the AA School.
Alastair Robertson
163
visiting visiting school visiting

The AA Visiting School features a wide variety of courses, programmes

and workshops for visiting and international students, from short, one-
week courses in London or abroad to an entire year of full-time study.
The AA’s Summer Architecture School, held over three weeks every
July, is aimed at those who wish to explore a possible career in
architecture, enhance their existing studies, or contemplate a change in
their current career by sampling the AA’s way of teaching and learning.
Now in its fifth year, the Summer dLab is a well recognised two-week
workshop in early August that introduces and advances digital and
computational design and fabrication skills. International students
interested in a longer-term participation in the AA undergraduate school
can apply for admission to the 15-Week AA Spring Semester or the
One-Year Abroad programme, both of which allow for the transfer of study
credits. In June each year the AA Visiting Teachers’ Programme provides
an opportunity for teachers from around the world to experience at first
hand the AA’s unique teaching and learning strategies.
In the 2007/08 year the AA launched an exciting new initiative for
a series of Global Schools in cities around the world. Attended by a mix
of local students, architects and designers and visiting overseas
participants (including current or recent AA graduates), these intensive
courses are based around a tightly focused design programme and
supported by a series of seminars and presentations by AA and eminent
local experts on topics related to the setting. Projects are pursued in the
format of the AA unit system. Over the past year these courses have been
held in Tel Aviv, Madrid, Singapore, Daejon, Shanghai and Berlin. In the
coming year, Santiago de Chile, Beijing, Bangalore and Tokyo are among
the new destinations.
To obtain further information and register for any of the programmes
listed here please go to the Visiting School section of the AA website
or contact the Visiting School Director, Christopher Pierce, at
visitingschool@aaschool.ac.uk

Final jury, AA CSI 2009 workshop in Tel Aviv

164 165
visiting summer Tutors
Natasha Sandmeier
visiting

architecture school
Shumon Basar

5–23 July 2010 With fees of £1,500, the course is

The three-week, full time AA Summer aimed at undergraduate architectural
Architecture School presents a chal- students who would like to experience
lenging programme of design studios, the AA environment and/or those who
field study, seminars and lectures that are considering a change of school; and
emphasise the importance of both newcomers to architecture, both recent
practice and theory in contemporary school leavers and those considering a
architecture. Based on the AA’s unit career change.
system, it offers participants a selection
of varying design approaches, agendas
and techniques, and represents a
uniquely intensive and intimate environ-
ment that aims to expand formal and
intellectual resources.
Based in London, each of the
school’s units creatively use the city’s
surroundings as their focus of research.
Past themes for the Summer Architec-
ture School have included speed,
visions of the future, disaster and, most
recently, modest micro-strategies for
difficult financial times.
Tutors, lecturers and critics include
past and present AA unit masters as
well as professionals pooled from
disciplines as diverse as fashion, art,
graphics, industrial design, urbanism
and film. Dynamic group work is en-
couraged, with over 80 students work-
ing in distinct groups hailing from over
35 countries. Numerous techniques of
working are promoted that include both
analogue fabrication as well as digital
production.

Tutors Shumon Basar is a writer,

Natasha Sandmeier is an
architect and partner of Big
Picture Studio. She is Unit
Master of Diploma 9 and
co-directs the AA Summer
Architecture School. She
was project architect for
the Seattle Public Library
at OMA, and at other offices
in the US.
editor, curator and director
of the AA’s Cultural Projects.
Co-founder of sexymachin-
ery magazine, and contrib-
uting editor at Tank and
Bidoun magazines. Recent
books include Cities from
Zero and The World
of Madelon Vriesendorp
(with Stephan Trüby). Final catwalk jury for the AA Summer School 2009

166 167
visiting summer dLab Tutor
Eugene Han
visiting

2–13 August 2010 student group’s work will be guided

The AA Summer dLab offers visiting
architects and students an opportunity
to be involved in an intense two-week
workshop that openly experiments with
the potential of innovative digital design
and its relationship to prototyping,
manufacturing and communication
technologies. The programme intro-
duces participants to a changing array
of computational platforms, while
providing a forum to openly discuss and
exchange ideas on progressive takes on
digital design.
dLab participants will be introduced
to the basics of digital modelling, script-
ing, portability between applications
and experimentation in the integration
of software-based environments to
prototyped production. They will also
explore laser cutting, CNC-milling, 3D
printing and other forms of design
output, pursuing an opportunity to work
directly with these and other advanced
design technologies while furthering
their knowledge, skills and understand-
ing of some of today’s most advanced
computational tools.
The course itself is organised as an
intensive two-week workshop combin-
ing seminars and design exercises with
presentations and discussions with
teaching staff and visiting critics.
Students will be enrolled in one dLab
unit in which they will continue through-
out the course of the programme. Each
towards a design proposal presented
as a finished design project at the end
of the two weeks. These projects will
provide a solid foundation for the
further development of their interests
and abilities.
The AA Summer dLab is open to
current architecture students, recent
graduates and mid-career professionals
wishing to further their understanding
of digital and computational design
concepts, operations and their applica-
tions. Interested applicants should have
a working knowledge of computers and
some previous software modelling
experience is preferred. It is recom-
mended that participants bring their
own laptop, however use of the school’s
Computer Lab may be allowed. Com-
puters and equipment, software and
prototyping materials will be provided.

Tutor
Eugene Han is the founder
of AVA-Studio, researching
and developing systems
in industrial design,
architecture and planning.

4+1 Yijun Huang, Georgios Manousis and Revano Satria,

Component Parameter Design and Global Configuration
Demonstration, Summer dLab 2009

168 169
visiting spring semester Tutors
Monia De Marchi
Sam Jacoby
visiting

programme
18 January – 14 May 2010
The AA Visiting School Spring Semes-
ter Programme is a 15-week intensive
studio-based course open to talented
undergraduate and graduate students
from around the world. The programme
gives visiting students the opportunity
to gain exposure to the international life
of the AA and its unique unit system and
provides a challenging design agenda
supported by complementary work-
shops and seminars. All participants in
the course enjoy full attendance in the
AA’s Public Programme of exhibitions,
evening lectures, publication launches,
symposia and other special events.
The programme’s curriculum
includes the core design studio along-
side elective courses from the AA’s
undergraduate history and theory
seminars, media studies workshops
and electronic media courses. Students
study alongside other full-time AA
students working in design units and
complementary study courses, whilst
attending regular weekly individual and
group design tutorials within their
dedicated studio inside the AA’s premis-
es on Bedford Square.
The course is specifically designed
to allow study credits to be transferable
as a complete semester abroad pro-
gramme. This transfer is the responsi-
bility of individual students and is
subject to approval by their affiliated
school but the AA provides letters and
other documentation to assist with this
process. An AA School Certificate of
Completion and a final written report
with a recommended grade will be
awarded at the end of the programme
including submission assessments for
other required elective courses.
The Programme: London Calling
The programme combines conceptual
and material design research with the
rigorous production of architectural
projects and ideas, tested and present-
ed in the form of comprehensive design
proposals. Project briefs engage with
the rapidly changing conditions found in
London, a world city undergoing radical
transformations in its built environment,
public spaces and urban infrastruc-
tures. All are conditions that give the
Spring Semester Programme a strong
identity as an internationally-recog-
nised London study abroad programme.

Tutors Sam Jacoby trained as a Applications should

Monia De Marchi is an
architect and graduate of
the Venice and AA schools
of architecture. In addition
to teaching the Spring
Semester Programme,
she has been an AA Unit
Master since 2005 and
also teaches in the Media
Studies programme.
cabinet-maker in Germany
before graduating from
the AA. He has taught in
the school since 2002
and at the University of
Nottingham since 2007.
He currently works as an
architect in private practice
in London and is a doctoral
candidate at the TU Berlin.
be made via the main
undergraduate application
form. For further information
please contact:
Meneesha Kellay on
ssp@aaschool.ac.uk
Spring Semester Programme trip to Moscow

170 171
VISITING one year abroad
The AA offers places to students from
schools of architecture overseas who
wish to participate in the activities of
the AA as a year away from their home
institutions. Students are accepted into
the Second, Third or Fourth Year,
depending on their previous experience
and the portfolio of work they submit
as part of the application process.
Students are expected to stay for the
entire three terms of the AA’s academic
year, which begins in October and
concludes the following July.
The three-term, 32-week pro-
gramme involves students in all aspects
of undergraduate life at the AA, includ-
ing participation in Intermediate or
Diploma School units, Complementary
Studies courses and the AA’s evening
lecture series, exhibitions and
other special events. As part of the
programme students have access to
the full range of resources at the AA,
including the workshops, libraries,
digital prototyping, computing and
audio-visual labs and other facilities.
During the four-week break be-
tween terms, students (subject to their
visa status) are able to travel abroad,
experiencing the architecture and cities
of Europe.
Applications should
be made via the main
undergraduate application
form. For further information
please contact:
Meneesha Kellay on
ssp@aaschool.ac.uk
172
Coordinator
Hugo Hinsley visiting teachers’ VISITING
programme
Many overseas schools are pre-
pared to grant credit to their students
The AA’s innovative teaching tradition   The programme is open to a small
during their study at the AA, and ar-
attracts the interest of academic group of participants who are currently
rangements for this should be made by
visitors from all over the world. In teaching architecture or related sub-
the students prior to their arrival in the
response to this interest we offer a jects, and will run for three weeks in
programme. This will help to clarify the
short programme to give teachers of June 2010. There is no fee for the
kinds of Complementary Studies
architecture an opportunity to engage programme. Applicants will be selected
courses, in addition to the unit work,
with the teaching and research of the on the basis of a short written state-
they will be required to attend.
school, and to develop a debate about ment outlining the issues of architec-
the aims and strategies of teaching tural education that they find particu-
architecture.  larly interesting and challenging, and
The programme offers meetings which should include details of their
with students and teachers, involve- teaching and research experience.
ment in the review and assessment
activities throughout the school and the
opportunity for detailed discussion of
ideas and methods of education. Partic-
ipants will present work for debate
in a seminar on educational ideas and
methods and immersion in the culture
of the school through its programme
of lectures, seminars and exhibitions is
encouraged. Visits are also organised
to important examples of architecture
and planning in London, a city that
offers a rich historical and contempo-
rary record and is a laboratory of urban-
ism and architecture.
Coordinator
Hugo Hinsley is an
architect with expertise
in community buildings,
housing design and urban
development projects. He
has a wide range of practice
experience, mainly in
London, and with Jorge Fiori
he currently directs the AA’s
MA in Housing & Urbanism.
173
VISITING
Santiago de chile
Game (On)
Catholic University Tsinghua University
6 – 15 January 2010
In Chile the construction of a new
sports infrastructure to house the 2014
Pan-American Olympics – ODESUR –
is being treated as an unparalleled
opportunity to transform a range of
environments. By taking a critical look
at the ambitious plans currently under
development, and proposing design
alternatives, the workshop aims at
defining strategies applicable to urban
processes in different cities. Partici-
pants will approach this project by
integrating different scales and fields
of architectural action. This design
research will encourage explorations
ranging through material properties,
construction processes, parametric
design and digital fabrication, right
up to the urban and landscape scales,
taking account of the local cultures
and Chile’s spectacular landscape.
Director
Pedro Alonso
174
Beijing
Super-Blend
19 – 27 February 2010
This AA visiting school takes Beijing
not only as its physical venue but also
as the basis for its design agenda,
which sets out to identify new kinds
of spatial prototypes by parametrically
super-blending existing typologies of
Beijing with digital computational tools
and approaches. The essential para-
metric design technique will be taught
alongside the team-based design
studio exercise. The intensive nine-day
international workshop will also give
students a chance to explore Beijing
right after the Chinese New Year.
Director
Yan Gao
Bangalore
Hyper Threads AA CSI 2010
B M Sreenivasaiah College
April 2010
With its ancient history, growing econo-
my, disproportionately youthful popula-
tion and innate technological skill base,
India represents a fascinating architec-
tural test case. This workshop will
operate at the confluence of multiple
disciplinary and cultural strands and
offers young Indian and international
architects a chance to imagine scenari-
os for this global stage. Emphasis in its
teaching will be placed on emergent
computational design tools and the
architectural appropriation of India’s
growing manufacturing capacities.
Over ten intense days, the workshop’s
objective is to analyse contemporary
design and fabrication methods and
through them learn from Bangalore’s
labour and ancient building cultures.
Director
Shajay Bhooshan
VISITING
Tel Aviv
David Azrieli School of Architecture
July 2010
AA CSI 2010 is the second of three
annual summer workshops focused
on developing innovative methods for
synthesising drawing and 3D printing.
Working with Object Geometries,
participants will be involved in an
intensive 10-day programme of making
and testing 2D, ‘thick 2D’ and 3D digital
printing techniques. The workshop
programme is inspired by British pio-
neers of art and architectural represen-
tation – Joseph Gandy, James Stirling,
David Hockney and John Outram – and
influenced by Israel’s unique cultural
heritage of textiles and ceramics. The
workshop’s objective is to deliver an
atlas of objects from each participant
that they will incorporate into future
theoretical and built projects, giving the
workshop a wide-ranging material and
intellectual influence.
Directors
Christopher Pierce
Chris Matthews
175
VISITING
Madrid
Bleaching Green
IE School of Architecture
July 2010
In its second year, the AA/IE Madrid
Summer School will explore the relation
between architecture and energy use in
the near future. Through Madrid as a
research ground, case study and base,
students will investigate specific urban
sustainable challenges. Moving away
from green clichés, the Bleaching
Green workshop will venture into un-
charted territories, blending design
intuition and technological invention.
New materials, creative partnerships
and prototype pieces will be part of this
design and research led workshop. As
part of the AA/IE Madrid Summer
School evening lectures, site visits and
architectural tours will offer insights
into the subject and the city itself.
Director
Ricardo de Ostos
176
Singapore
Designed Geographies
Singapore Polytechnic
July 2010 August 2010
For the fifth year the AA will be migrat-
ing to southeast Asia to pursue a series
of experiments, initiated last year,
around the idea of designed geogra-
phies. Participants will propose alterna-
tive ways of reading the city, informed
by an introduction to contemporary
methods of physical and digital map-
ping and modelling. The ten-day work-
shop offers an opportunity to engage
with the AA’s design agendas through a
hands-on approach and is complement-
ed by a series of seminars and lectures
as well as discussions, debates and
visits. This workshop is made possible
through the support of the Design
Singapore Council and the School of
Design, Singapore Polytechnic.
Directors
Nathalie Rozencwajg
Michel Da Costa Goncalves
Daejeon
Awakening the River
Daejeon University
The third AA South Korean global
school will continue to explore the topic
of rivers, with investigations focusing on
proposals that engage the river with its
wider natural infrastructure. Specifi-
cally we will consider four rivers in the
southwest of the country presently
demarcated as redevelopment sites.
The workshop will last approximately
two weeks and will contain six separate
units (each led by an AA tutor) accom-
modating 15 students. The focus of the
programme will centre on design
exploration via a rich selection of
different methodologies, including
physical models, cinematic screenings
and digital media. The venue will be
Daejeon University and the workshop
will be a joint AA and SAKIA (School of
Architecture Korean Institute of Archi-
tects) collaboration.
Director
Peter Ferretto
VISITING
Shanghai
Post-Expo 2010++
Shanghai Study Centre, Hong Kong
August 2010
This fourth consecutive AA Shanghai
Summer School will be hosted at the
University of Hong Kong Faculty of
Architecture Shanghai Study Centre.
As an intensive nine-day studio-based
course, we will investigate new compu-
tational design approaches in architec-
ture and urbanism, within the context
of Shanghai, one of the world’s most
rapidly growing, emblematic twenty-
first-century cities of commerce and
industry. The subject of this year’s
summer school is the 5.3 km2 site for
the Shanghai Expo 2010, focusing on
proposals for developing the area after
the expo. Parametric design systems
will serve as the vehicles for prototyping
new kinds of adaptive cultural facilities,
driven by scenarios of future incremen-
tal growth and change.
Director
Tom Verebes
177
VISITING
Tokyo
The City After-Image
F-2 Site/Spiral Arts Centre
14 – 23 August 2010 TBC
The F-2 project is an ongoing urban
redevelopment scheme in Fujimi
2-Chome 10 Ban Area in the Iidabashi
district of central Tokyo. The workshop
will coincide with the demolition phase
of the F-2 project. By working directly
within the periphery of this city under
de-construction, we will create an
ephemeral architecture that explores
creative forms of reverse construction.
How can we make architecture in the
city by making its building disappear
beautifully? The workshop will be
located in the F-2 project construction
site, liaised by the Spiral Arts Centre in
Omotesando, Aoyama Tokyo. The
Maeda Corporation of Tokyo makes this
workshop possible.
Director
Shin Egashira
178
Berlin
AA Berlin Laboratory
Aedes Network Campus
3 – 12 September 2010
Berlin has emerged as a major player
for contemporary cultural production
within Europe, if not the world. Post-
wall Berlin, a laboratory of lifestyles and
modes of production, gathers an influ-
ential community of highly creative
people from around the globe. AA Berlin
Laboratory harvests this exceptional
moment in time by pairing AA- and
Berlin-based skills. The Laboratory
is an intense nine-day workshop that
explores the role of experimentation
in creative processes. Located at the
Aedes Network Campus in the midst
of East Berlin, the workshop is accom-
panied by a public programme with
participants from architecture, science
and art. This year we will focus on tools
and systems of experimentation.
Directors
Olaf Kneer
Marianne Mueller
 resources

resources and
information
179
resources
The AA: Participatory
Democracy and Membership
The AA is more than a school of
archi­tecture. In its constitutional
structure it is first and foremost
an association of members,
originally established by students
in 1847. Currently there are 3,200
members of the AA internationally,
including some of the world’s
leading architects, who play a
vital role in shaping the identity
and assisting in the develop­
ment of the school. Registered
students and staff of the AA
automatically become members,
and membership is open to anyone
with an interest in architecture.
Members participate in lectures
and events, visit exhibitions and
make use of the AA’s facilities. For
further information contact:
T +44 (0)20 7887 4076
membership@aaschool.ac.uk
AA Council
The AA council – the governing
body of the Architectural
Association (Inc) – is elected
each year by the membership
of the Architectural Association
including staff and students.
The Architectural Association is
governed constitutionally as a
charitable company, the primary
object of which is the running
of a school of archi­tecture. The
Architectural Association (Inc)
is both a registered charity and a
company limited by guarantee
and its council are the trustees of
the charity and directors of
the company.
The council of the Architectural
Association for 2008/09 is as
follows:
President
Alex Lifschutz, BSc
Vice Presidents
Julia Barfield, MBE RIBA
Henrik Lønberg, AADipl
Honorary Secretary
Christopher Libby, AADipl RIBA
Honorary Treasurer
Sadie Morgan, BA(IntDes)
MA(RCA)
180
Past President

Jim Eyre, OBE BA(Hons)
AADipl RIBA
Ordinary Members
John Andrews, AADipl
Daniel Aram, MA MBA
Mike Davies, CBE AADipl MArch
RIBA FRSA FRGS FICPD
David Jenkins, BA(Arch)
DipArch FRSA
Julia King, AADipl
Sophie Le Bourva,
Ceng MIStructE
Diana Periton, MPhil DipArch
Kenneth Powell, MA HonFRIBA
Dennis Sharp, AADipl MA RIBA
Christina Smith
Rebecca Spencer
Brendan Woods, AADipl RIBA
The council meets at least six
times each academic year in
order to monitor the Association’s
financial health, approve new
business and review current
initiatives and activities. The
meetings are open to all AA
members (including staff and
students), and the minutes of past
meetings are made available for
viewing in the library.
On a yearly basis, the council
endorses the school’s academic
agenda, reviews the educational
and cultural development of the
school and Association, and
considers and approves the
Association’s financial statements
and proposed budgets.
On an ongoing basis, the council
confirms the appointment of all
staff, approves new applications
to the membership, ratifies all AA
Diplomas and other academic
awards, and promotes the work
of the Architectural Association
through participation in its
cultural events and support of its
fundraising initiatives. The council
appoints a company secretary
to execute and administer the
Architectural Association’s legal
and statutory affairs.
Decision-making in the
School Community
As trustees and directors,
the council carries ultimate
responsibility for the proper
conduct and execution of the
Architectural Association’s affairs.
Day-to-day responsibility for the
running of the school, however,
is delegated to the AA director.
Since 1971, council has chosen to
exercise these responsibilities in
a triangular relationship between
itself, the director of the school
and the school community, a
structure which has become an
important hallmark of the school’s
independent status.
The council also consults the
school community on important
governance decisions, such as
the selection of the director of the
school. Although the director is
fully accountable to the council,
his contract with the council
is dependent on maintaining
the confidence of the school
community. The process of
decision-making between director,
council and school community
makes the school unique in the
world of architectural education.
Along with the council itself,
all registered students and
contracted members of staff (with
the exception of the director of
the school) are constituents of
the school community, where
every individual has an equal
vote. The school community has,
at particular times, influenced
the future direction, not just of
the school but of the association
as a whole. School community
meetings are therefore a very
important part of the Architectural
Association’s governance.
The Architectural Association
is proud to have the benefit
of an active and participatory
democracy. Through membership
participation in its governance,
as well as student and staff
involvement, the Architectural
Association has maintained and
developed as an independent,
self-governing democratic body.
It is this independence from state
and institutional control, at times
fiercely fought for, which has
allowed it to sustain continual
success and renewal.
For information concerning
the AA’s council, or its charitable
status, contact Kathleen Formosa,
company secretary, on
+44 (0)20 7887 4018. Information
on the AA’s constitution, minutes
of council meetings, and the rules
governing school community
meetings, can be found in the
AA library.
Development Office
Since its founding in 1847, the AA
has remained both independent
and self-supporting. A pioneering
higher educational UK educational
charity, the AA School receives
no statutory funding either for
its teaching activities or for its
acclaimed cultural programme,
which operates one of the world’s
largest calendars of lectures,
exhibitions and other public
events dedicated to contemporary
architectural culture. Each year the
AA attracts the world’s foremost
architects, engineers, designers,
critics, theorists, artists and other
leaders as part of its academic
and cultural programmes. The
AA takes very seriously its role
as an independent setting for the
teaching, learning, discussion and
debate of architecture, including
the vital role it can play in bridging
between public, professional and
political interests in the future
of the world’s cities and built
environment. Like the city of
London that is its home, the AA is
distinguished by its inter­national
and multicultural make-up.
Maintaining the AA’s
independence is the key to the
school’s ability to remain at
the forefront of architectural
education, and its leading position
is made viable and enhanced
through the generous support,
both financial and in-kind,
provided by many individuals and
organisations throughout the
world. The AA’s development office
cultivates mutually beneficial
relationships between the school
and individuals, organisations,
institutions and corporate
companies. Interested parties
are actively encouraged to join
the AA’s international network
of supporters and partners, and
can gain more information by
contacting Esther McLaughlin,
Head of Development at the
Architectural Association School
of Architecture, on
+44 (0)20 7887 4090. Direct
funding or sponsorship enquiries
can also be sent to:
development@aaschool.ac.uk.
Library
Term-time hours:
10am–9pm Monday to Friday
11am–5pm Saturday
aaschool.ac.uk/library
The AA library was founded in
1862 with a stock of ten books,
various societies’ Transactions
and Proceedings, and a number of
journals. It now has almost 41,000
volumes, with books and journals
on the history of architecture of
all countries and periods, current
architectural design and theory,
building types, interior design
and landscape design. It holds
rare and early works – the earliest
is the Nuremburg Chronicle of
1493 – and special collections
on the modern movement, the
AA, international exhibitions,
the nineteenth century and
garden cities. A large collection
of CD-ROMs/DVDs is available.
In addition to online access
to the Avery Index, the Art
Index (full text), JSTOR, and
the Construction Information
Service, the library has full text
subscriptions to a number of art
and architecture journals. The
library also receives print editions
of more than 137 periodicals and
holds a substantial number of key
historical magazines, including
Wendingen and L’Architecture
Vivante.
The library has just begun the
process of organising the Archives
of the Architectural Association,
and making it available to users.
The Archives (approximately 450
cubic feet of documents) primarily
contains the organisational
and administrative records of
the Association and the school.
Dating back to 1847, it also holds a
wealth of AA ephemera including
posters, leaflets, photographs and
medals, together with over 250
plans, drawings and paintings. The
Archives contains the institutional
memory and history of the AA and
serves as a key resource for the
study of architectural education
over the last 160 years.
resources
The library’s loan, reference and
information services are available
only to staff and registered
students and members of the
Association. Most materials may
be borrowed from the library,
although periodicals and some
books are for reference only.
Up to eight books at a time can
be borrowed by members and
undergraduate students.
Graduate students can borrow
a maximum of ten books.
The library website provides
information about opening hours
and policies and acts as a portal
through which research can be
undertaken on the internet. The
online catalogue allows users to
check the library’s holdings and
their availability, as well as to
reserve and renew books online.
Photo Library
10am–1pm and 2pm–6pm
Monday to Friday
aaschool.ac.uk/photolib
The Photo Library holds around
150,000 slides of both historical
and contemporary buildings,
25,000 slides of AA student work
and several valuable photographic
archives by F R Yerbury, Eric de
Maré and Reyner Banham. The
unique collection was originally
created by AA students and staff
returning from school trips and
other travels. Many were members
of the AA Camera Club (founded in
1893, relaunched in 2006).
AA students and staff can
download low-res images from a
fully searchable website featuring
8,000 images from the collection
together with comprehensive
information about each building.
Although the collection is primarily
for use within the school, we
operate as a commercial photo
library, providing images for
publication in books and journals
worldwide. We also publish cards
and postcards from the collection
which are available from the
AA Bookshop and hold regular
181
resources
exhibitions featuring the work
of photographers who have made
the biggest contributions to the
collection in recent decades.
The photo library also holds
archive recordings of over 1,000
AA lectures and conferences
dating back to the 1970s that
include titles by Cedric Price, Peter
Cook, Robin Evans, Rem Koolhaas
and Zaha Hadid. A broad selection
of the 08/09 lectures are available
online at: aaschool.ac.uk/lectures.
There is also a collection of over
800 films and documentaries
which can be viewed in the library
or borrowed overnight.
Computer Room
Term-time hours:
9am–9pm Monday to Friday
10am–4.30pm Saturday
The proliferation of digital design
technologies has had a profound
effect on architecture. As part
of its educational remit, the AA
equips its students to use current
design systems and software
packages to their fullest extent.
Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign,
Flash, AutoCad, Microstation,
3DS Studio Max and Maya will
be introduced through one-day
workshops in the autumn term.
Software introductions will
consist of six-hour teaching
sessions and will be held in
Morwell Street Studio Room
101 and the electronic media
lab back room. The spring term
programme offers introductions
to the advanced use of selected
software packages for interactive
presentations, digital 3D
modelling and the preparation of
files for digital fabrication. There
will be eight full-day Saturday
workshops in the Morwell Street
Studio Room 101.
It is important to note that all
students need to register for the
182
software workshops online. The
registration for each term will
be in the second week of term.
More specific details about the
workshops and registration can be
found in the Course Booklet.
Audiovisual Lab
Term-time hours:
10am–6pm Monday to Friday for
video editing
2pm–5pm Monday to Friday for
student equipment loans
enquiries:
manager/tutor:
joel@aaschool.ac.uk
technician:
nick.wayne@aaschool.ac.uk
aaschool.ac.uk/aalife/av.htm
The audiovisual department is
concerned with video, sound and
display technology, supporting
teaching and events throughout
the AA. It lends equipment to
staff and registered students,
assists guest speakers presenting
lectures, documents and digitally
archives public events and
operates a video-editing resource
studio presently in the Computer
Room.
Equipment for teaching and the
Event series is booked through an
established procedure. Staff and
students should liaise with their
relevant coordinator at least one
week prior to when the equipment
is required. The department is
unable to provide support for late
or impromptu classes or events.
The video studio is an open area
for those undertaking video and
sound work. Courses run within
Media Studies allow students
to develop skills in this area.
For those not able to take these
courses, instruction can be found
with the AV Manager / Video tutor.
Software commonly used includes
Final Cut Pro Studio, Adobe CS,
After Effects and Garage Band;
additional software is sourced
based on demand. Outside of
teaching times, the area is run
on a booking system that allows
students to work in a focused
manner. Staff and students must
be aware that this area is for video
and sound work only, and that they
may not occupy the space without
prior agreement. Unit-based
projects (those outside of Media
Studies) are possible if arranged
in advance; teaching staff should
speak to the AV Manager with
regards to technical instruction.
Students are advised to discuss
proposals at an early stage to
assess their viability.
Students wishing to borrow
equipment (such as video cameras
or sound recorders) should speak
to the AV technician to check
availability and discuss conditions.
Those borrowing equipment
from the AV department are fully
responsible for its security and
care. An agreement form must be
signed to this effect.
Groups may borrow equipment
as part of a well-defined unit
project on or off school premises
only after discussion with the AV
Manager. Students are reminded
that loan requests should be made
between 2.00pm and 5.00pm and
that most equipment is lent for a
period of two days.
AAIR
listen: aaschool.ac.uk/radio
contact: radio@aaschool.ac.uk
Created and produced by AA
students, AAIR broadcasts music,
interviews, events, documentaries,
field and found recordings,
compositions, spoken word and
various other shows contributed
by listeners. AAIR projects include
Radio Anacapri (radioanacapri.
com) and AAIR Salon evenings at
the AA with live performances by
students and invited artists.
Wood and Metal Workshop
10am–6pm Monday to Friday
10am–2.30pm Saturday
(term time)
aaschool.ac.uk/workshop.shtm
The workshop is well equipped
with machine and hand tools
for working in wood and metal.
Facilities are available for working
in steel and nonferrous metals, and
for precise working in hardwoods,
softwoods and panel products.
Facilities may be used by all
registered students and members
of staff; external registered
students may do so at the
discretion of the workshop staff
and on payment of a prearranged
fee. Hand tools and portable
power tools may be borrowed when
available. All First Year and new
students will be required to attend
a short induction course on safe
working practices before they can
use the workshop. Workshop staff
have a broad range of experience
in design, materials and
processes. Their aim is to support
individual projects as well as units
whose programmes depend upon
the use of the workshop.
Model Workshop
10am–6pm Monday to Friday
Saturday by appointment
aaschool.ac.uk/modelshop.shtm
The model workshop offers
assistance and equipment to
construct small-scale objects. It
specialises in casting, plastics
and small-scale modelmaking, and
has an adjoining yard for larger
work. All registered students are
able to use these facilities. New
students must attend a short
induction course.
Digital Prototyping Lab
10am–6pm Monday to Friday
aaschool.ac.uk/digitalprototyping
Set up in the summer of 2007,
the digital prototyping lab is a
new facility containing various
rapid prototyping machines and a
teaching space. The lab currently
has two laser-cutting machines,
two CNC-milling machines and
an STL printer, and is designed
to evolve in future years to keep
pace with the latest developments
in hardware and software
technologies.
The lab is available to all parts
of the school, to the units that
incorporate digital fabrication
technologies into their briefs as
well as the graduate programmes.
Registered students are able to
reserve machine-time through an
online booking system. All those
interested in using the lab facilities
are first required to attend an
induction course.
The digital prototyping lab
staff have experience with digital
design processes and knowledge
of 3D and parametric modelling
applications. To support the work
of the units and programmes,
the lab will offer tutorials and
short courses on how to design
and prepare models for digital
production. Integrated at an
early stage, the introductions are
intended to raise awareness of
the potential of digital fabrication
technologies and capitalise
on their possibilities in the
contemporary design process.
resources
Hooke Park
aaschool.ac.uk/hookepark
Hooke Park is a 350-acre
woodland site in an area of
outstanding natural beauty in west
Dorset, approximately four miles
from Beaminster, near the village
of Hooke, and 12.5 miles from
Dorchester. Hooke Park provides
the AA with a platform from
which to research future material
concepts in the building industry
and operates as a showcase
for experimental sustainable
construction.
The facilities were originally
developed by an institute
researching new uses for
working with wood in modern
construction. This ‘laboratory of
experimentation and research’ will
be further developed in a way that
takes account of the biodiversity
of the natural environment, which
includes woodlands, wetlands,
boundary banks and meadows.
The spacious facilities and outdoor
environment provide a setting
for workshops and projects that
might be problematic to carry out
in the confines of central London.
Students are able to explore
techniques ranging from model-
making to object fabrication and
prototyping and to produce work
on a larger scale, supported by
specialist staff based at the site.
The existing structures at
Hooke Park were designed by
teams dedicated to pushing the
boundaries of building with wood.
The workshop, a collaboration by
Frei Otto, ABK and Buro Happold,
experiments with bending ‘green’
wood and carrying loads across
large spans on small-diameter
roundwood beams. The refectory,
by the same team, is a prototype
for a house in which the structure
hangs like a tent on four A-frames.
Westminster Lodge, by Edward
Cullinan and Buro Happold,
183
resources/information
features a grass roof and the use
of unmilled, untreated timber.
Located around a central common
room are eight double study-
bedrooms, each with its own
shower and toilet, in pods that
penetrate the exterior wall of
the building. In addition there is
accommodation for another two
people in a cabin close by.
Hooke Park is open to registered
students and staff from all sections
of the school. The A V Custerson
Annual Award provides funding to
carry out projects associated with
timber at Hooke Park. Projects are
open to all registered AA students
in the Undergraduate or Graduate
Schools. See the Scholarships
& Bursaries section of this
Prospectus for more details.
Maeda Workshop
Generously supported by the
Maeda Corporation in Japan,
who have sponsored exhibitions
and other events at the AA for
more than a decade, the Maeda
Workshops have brought in a
series of visiting artists who have
worked closely with registered AA
students and staff on intensive
short-term projects leading to
installations within the school.
Workshops have been led by
internationally renowned artists
including Richard Wilson,
Krzysztof Wodiczko, Tadashi
Kawamata and others. A second
three-year cycle has focused
on the use and long-term
development of Hooke Park as a
vital part of the school.
184
Drawing Materials Shop
10am–5.45pm Monday to Friday
aaschool.info/drawingmaterials
The drawing materials shop is
located on the ground floor of
34 Bedford Square. It stocks
a wide range of stationery,
drawing instruments, computer
consumables, videotapes and
other essential equipment and
supplies – all at very competitive
prices. This includes a range of AA
merchandise items. The shop also
runs an overnight ordering facility
for items not regularly kept in
stock. Additional services include
large-scale printing on the plotter
and fax sending.
AA Bookshop
10am–6pm Monday to Friday
T+ 44(0)20 7436 7863
aabookshop.net
Situated in the front basement
of 36 Bedford Square the AA
Bookshop stocks a wide range
of recent books on architecture,
including all titles published by the
AA. The bookshop is able to supply
recommended course books and
any title that is in print.
Bar & Restaurant
aaschool.ac.uk/restaurant
The bar and restaurant are open in
term time to students, members,
staff, friends and guests from
Monday to Friday. Coffee, tea,
pastries, sandwiches, snacks and
drinks are served in the bar on
the first floor from 9.30am until
9.00pm. Lunch is served from
12.30pm to 2.00pm in the dining
room in the basement, opposite
the AA Bookshop.
Undergraduate Admissions
LEA and EU Awards
The following information applies
to undergraduate students
on the five-year RIBA/ARB
undergraduate course only and
is subject to current govern­ment
legislation.
Tuition Fee Loan
New AA students (2009/10
onwards) from the UK and EU
are eligible for a Tuition Fee Loan
(non-income assessed). For
further up-to-date information
students should go to the student
finance section of the website
direct.gov.uk bearing in mind that
the AA is a private institution and
so not all this information applies.
New students who have been
offered a place should apply to
their LEA/SLC. Those transferring
from other British schools must
inform their LEA/SLC.
Student Loans
Student loans are available to
home students, or those who have
lived in the UK for three years prior
to embarking on higher education,
for living expenses. The SLC
website is slc.co.uk
At the present time EU students
are not eligible for student loans
for living expenses, unless they
have been resident in the UK for
three years prior to embarking on
higher education.
Undergraduate Entry
Requirements
All applicants are expected to
submit a bound portfolio of art/
design work (no larger than A3
and between 10 and 30 pages)
accompanied by a CD/DVD of
additional material if so desired.
Upon signature of the appli­cation
form applicants certify that the
work submitted is entirely their
own. Plagiarism is unacceptable
in the academic setting. Students
are subject to penalties including
dismissal from the programme if
they commit an act of plagiarism.
Applications and portfolios will
be assessed by the admissions
panel, and applicants will be
informed if they are invited to an
interview at the AA. The interview
takes the form of a discussion
around the applicant’s range
of interests and focuses on the
portfolio of work in architecture,
the arts or related areas. Students
are strongly encouraged to visit
the AA before applying.
Students are admitted into
the Undergraduate programme
at any level except the Fifth
Year. Both school-leavers and
mature applicants with previous
experience are encouraged to
take advantage of the wide range
of possibilities offered within the
school. Scholarships are available
for new First, Second and Fourth
Year applicants who demonstrate
both outstanding merit in their
portfolio and financial need. For
further information see:
aaschool.ac.uk/admissions
The minimum academic
requirements for students entering
the First Year of the course are
two passes (grade C or above) at
A level with at least five passes
(grade C or above) in other
subjects at GCSE. If one A level is
in an art/design subject, it must
be accompanied by at least one
non-art/design subject. Maths and
a Science subject, together with
English Language, are compulsory
at least at GCSE level. The AA
Open Studio foundation course
is recognised by the RIBA as
the equivalent of an Art A level.
Therefore the minimum entry
requirements for students entering
the Open Studio foundation course
are as above for GCSE level, but
only one A level pass (grade C or
above) in a non-art/design subject
is required, although two A level
passes are preferred. Foundations
in art and design must be
accompanied by one A level (or
equivalent) in a non art/design
subject.
Applicants for Fourth Year who
have studied for Part 1 in the UK
(or other countries using the same
grading system) must have gained
at least a 2:2 in their degree.
Overseas applicants are required
to have the recognised equivalent
to the above examinations, such as
the International Baccalaureate,
Abitur, etc, plus the required
English language qualification.
Applicants without conventional
entry qualifications are also
considered, provided they are able
to provide acceptable alternatives.
English Language
Qualifications accepted: IELTS
6.5 (academic), O level, GCSE,
IGCSE, Cambridge Certificate
of Advanced English Grade C, SL
IB English and SAT reading 550.
Please note we do not accept
TOEFL.
For applicants to Diploma
School we can accept three years
of study in a UK university instead
of an English language
qualification, subject to conditions
below. The AA reserves the right to
ask you to gain an appropriate level
of English before you apply or are
interviewed. The AA reserves the
right to make a place in the school
conditional on gaining a further
English language qualification if
deemed necessary. A recognised
English language qualification is
required by 25 June prior to entry
to the school.
Portfolio Guidelines
Suggestions on preparing your
portfolio can be found online at:
aaschool.ac.uk/admissions/
portfolioguidelines.shtm
Entry to First Year
Students applying for First Year
are not necessarily expected to
submit an ‘architectural’ portfolio.
The panel particularly likes to see
evidence of current interests and
activities in the form of freehand
sketches, drawings, essays or
photographs.
information
Entry to Second or Third Year
(Intermediate School)
Students with previous
architectural or design
experience may apply to enter the
Intermediate School. They will
be expected to submit a portfolio
of their work to date, including
not only finished drawings but
also sketches, photographs and
independent interests. Evidence
of full-time architectural study is
essential. Students entering the
Third Year must be registered for
a period of one academic year
(three terms) to be eligible to
submit for the AA Intermediate
Examination (RIBA/ARB Part 1,
the professional qualification)
through the school.
Entry to Fourth Year
Many students apply to enter the
Fourth Year from other schools
after completing Part I. Applicants
wishing to enter the Diploma
School to gain the AA Final
Examination (RIBA/ARB Part 2,
the professional qualification),
must have the AA Intermediate
Examination (RIBA/ARB Part 1)
or have gained exemption from
RIBA/ARB Part 1. This can be
gained either by successful
completion of Third Year at the
AA for a period of one academic
year (three terms) as a full-time
student, or by applying directly
to the ARB for Part 1 exemption.
Part 1 must be gained by 31 August
prior to entry to the school.
In order to be eligible for the
AA Diploma and the AA Final
Examination (RIBA/ARB Part
2), the Fourth and Fifth Years
(minimum six terms) must be
successfully completed.
Entry to the Open Studio
Foundation
It is hoped that all applicants
will include in their portfolios
a good selection of work that
reveals their individual interests
and skills. Essays, photographs,
video, photos of 3D objects or
self-generated projects can all be
included. Offers of admission are
based on evidence of motivation
as well as intellectual and practical
creative ability.
185
information
Acceptance of Places
To accept a place, a completed
signed admission form and a one
term non-refundable deposit must
be received by the Registrar’s
Office by the due date stated on
the admission form.
Open Days
Open Studio/First Year – Monday
9 November 2009
Fourth Year – Monday 26 October
2009, Thursday 14 January 2010
Further details will be available
on the AA website closer to the
dates. Individual or group visits for
those interested in applying can
also be arranged with advance
notice. For further details please
contact the Undergraduate
Admissions Coordinator (see
below).
Applications
The AA does not belong to UCAS,
and all applicants must complete
an AA application form. These
forms can be downloaded from
the website or are available from
the Registrar’s Office. The closing
date for applications is 15 January
2010 (application fee £30); late
applications will be accepted up
to 12 March 2010 (fee £60).
Applications made after this date
will be accepted at the discretion
of the AA School.
Enquiries to:
Undergraduate Admissions,
Registrar’s Office
undergraduateadmissions@
aaschool.ac.uk
T +44 (0)20 7887 4051
F +44 (0)20 7414 0779
Graduate Admissions
Application Procedure:
Mandatory Requirements
All applicants are required to
complete an application form,
accompanied by the appropriate
186
registration fee and original
evidence of qualifications and
the standard attained (copies
will not be accepted). Academic
and/or work references should
also be provided. With the
exception of Histories & Theories,
and in addition to the previous
requirements, applicants to
all programmes are required
to submit a portfolio of design
work (no larger than A4 format)
showing a combination of both
academic and professional work
(if applicable). All applicants are
encouraged to attend a personal
interview. All documentation is
to be provided in English. Upon
signature of the application form
applicants certify that the work
submitted is entirely their own.
Plagiarism is unacceptable in
the academic setting. Students
are subject to penalties including
dismissal from the programme if
they commit an act of plagiarism.
English Language
Overseas students from non-
English-speaking countries will be
asked to demonstrate their fluency
in written and spoken English,
and will be required to pass the
IELTS academic examination
with a grade of not less than
6.5, Cambridge Certificate of
Advanced English Grade C or three
years’ study in a UK university
instead of an English-language
qualification, subject to the
conditions below. TOEFL is not
accepted. The AA reserves the
right to make a place in the school
conditional on gaining a further
English language qualification if
deemed necessary. Any student
without the required IELTS grade
(6.5 or above) must register in
an English-language school, and
book and pass the examination
before 1 May 2010 prior to entry in
the Autumn Term.
Fees
Fees are reviewed annually. For
the academic year 2009/10 they
are as follows:
Undergraduate School
Open Studio Foundation: £13,578
Five-year undergraduate
programme: £15,273
Graduate School
12-month MA and MSc: £17,571
16-month MArch: £23,453
PhD: £15,747
Graduate Building Conservation
Diploma (day-release course):
£5,139
AAIS £13,578 full time, £5,850
part time (2 days per week)
Visiting School
Spring Semester Programme:
£7,500
1-year Abroad Programme:
£15,273
dLab: £1,750
Summer School: £1,450
Global programmes: see AA
website for individual programme
fee updates
There is an additional £50
member­ship fee and £35 student
forum fee per year.
AA Assistantships
A limited number of assistantships
are offered to full-time registered
students who are experiencing
financial hardship. Students work
between seven and ten hours
per week, providing administrative
or secretarial assistance in return
for an agreed remission of part of
their fees. New students wishing
to apply will be told the procedure
when they register at the beginning
of the academic year.
Scholarships and Bursaries
The AA is committed to giving
as many talented students as
possible the opportunity to study
at its school in London. Around one
in six AA students receive financial
assistance from the Scholarship,
Bursary and Assistantship
programme.
What is the Difference Between a
Scholarship and a Bursary?
Scholarships are offered to new
First, Second and Fourth Year
applicants who demonstrate
academic excellence and financial
need. They are available for two or
three years, subject to continuing
progress. Bursaries are offered
to existing AA students and new
Graduate students, and must be
applied for on a yearly basis.
How to Apply for a Scholarship
Undergraduate applicants must
complete the main application
form no later than 15 January 2010,
stating their interest in an AA
Scholarship in the ‘Scholarships
and Awards’ section. Students
whose work is considered to be
of scholarship standard will be
asked, after an entry interview, to
complete a scholarship application
form, provide financial information
and prepare a portfolio for the
scholarship committee.
For further information contact:
T +44 (0)20 7887 4051
undergraduateadmissions@
aaschool.ac.uk
How to Apply for a Bursary for
Undergraduate Students
Bursary application forms are
available from the Registrar’s
Office from the end of March and
should be returned by mid-May.
The Under­graduate Bursary
Committee, which meets in
July to distribute the awards,
bases its decisions on academic
performance, recommendation
from the tutor and financial need.
Named Scholarship and Bursary
Awards, with their 2009/10
recipients, are listed below.
See also:
aaschool.ac.uk/admissions
How to Apply for a Bursary for
Graduate School Students
Bursary application forms are
available from the Registrar’s
Office upon an official offer of a
place. Completed bursary forms
to be returned by beginning of
March. The Graduate Bursary
Committee, which meets in
mid-April to distribute the
awards, bases its decisions on
academic performance, tutor
recommendations and financial
need. (Bursary awards range from
half a term to one and a half terms,
covering a proportion of student
fees per year.)
David Allford Scholarship
Adam Holloway
This full-fee (three-term)
scholarship has been set up to
honour the memory of David
Allford, a partner of YRM
Architects and trustee of the AA
Foundation. It is funded by David
Allford’s friends and family and is
awarded to a British student who
demonstrates excellence and a
need for financial aid.
Baylight Scholarships
Elliott Krause, Imogen Long, John
Ng, Emily Thurlow, Claudia White
Thanks to the generosity of the
Baylight Foundation, headed by
AA Past President Crispin Kelly,
a number of full-fee scholarships
are available to British students
entering the Diploma School.
Candidates need to demonstrate
both outstanding merit and
financial need.
Alvin Boyarsky Scholarship
Jiehwoo Seung
As AA Chairman from 1971 to
1990, Alvin Boyarsky transformed
the AA into an internationally
respected school and a forum
for architectural experiment and
debate. The scholarship is for one
term’s fees.
Martin Caroe Memorial Scholarship
Established in memory of Martin
Bragg Caroe, whose collaboration
with the AA was instrumental in
establishing the postgraduate
course in Conservation of Historic
information
Buildings. Made possible through
the support of Martin Caroe’s
practice, Caroe & Partners, the
scholarship is awarded to a second
year student of the Conservation
of Historic Buildings course based
on an assessment of merit and
financial need.
Stephen Lawrence Scholarship
This award, in memory of the
young man who was murdered in a
racist attack on 22 April 1993, has
been established with the
support of Stephen Lawrence’s
family, the Stephen Lawrence
Trust and a number of generous
private donations. Appli­cations
are particularly welcome from
members of ethnic minorities
entering the First Year. Applicants
must demon-strate both merit and
the need for financial aid.
Eileen Gray Fund
The Eileen Gray Fund for AA
students was established in 1980
by the distinguished architect and
furniture-designer’s niece Prunella
Clough-Taylor. A bequest received
from Ms Clough-Taylor in 2000
has expanded the scope of this
fund, which now awards a series
of bursaries and scholarships
every year to talented students in
need of financial assistance.
Marjorie Morrison Bursary
Conrad Koslowsky
Marjorie Morrison MBE, AA
Slide Librarian from 1935 to
1975 and researcher until 1985,
bequeathed a generous sum to
the AA Foundation. The sum
was increased by donations from
among Marjorie’s friends.
Enid Caldicott Bursary
A bursary was established in 1978
in memory of Enid Caldicott, who
was involved with the AA first as a
student and then as a member of
staff, working for 35 years in the
library. It is awarded annually to
British students.
Max Lock Bursary
Max Lock studied at the AA from
1926 to 1931 and taught at the
school during the late 1930s. The
bursary is funded by his generous
bequest to the AA Foundation.
187
information
Elizabeth Chesterton Bursary Fund
AA alumna and former Councillor
Dame Elizabeth Chesterton OBE
left a generous bequest in support
of bur­saries for British students
at the AA.
Anne Gregory Bursary
Charlotte Moe
A bursary is offered each year in
memory of Anne Gregory, who died
while in her first year of studies.
R D Hammett Bursary
Denis Hegie
This bursary is funded by the
generous bequest of graduate
R D Hammett.
Mercers’ Bursary
Simon Whittle
This one-term bursary has been
made available since 2002 thanks
to the generous support of the
Mercers’ Company, the City of
London’s premier livery company.
It is awarded annually to a British
student.
Nicholas Boas Travel Award
Uliana Apatina, Alma Wang, Harri
Williams-Jones
A travel award open to AA
students who wish to study Roman
architecture and urbanism has
been established in memory
of AA graduate Nicholas Boas
(1975–1998). It provides funds for
a one-month study visit based at
the British School in Rome.
A V Custerson Award
Anthony Custerson was
passionate about Hooke Park
and the use of indigenous and
sustainable sources of timber,
and he left a generous legacy to
support students working in this
area. Open to all AA students, the
annual award of £7,500 provides
funding to carry out projects at
Hooke Park.
Anthony Pott Memorial Award
As trustees of this fund, the AA
offers an award to assist a study
project related to architecture
and design. The award is intended
to fund original study or the
publication of completed work.
Further details available from the
AA Secretary’s Office.
188
Michael Ventris Memorial Fund
This award is open to candidates
of at least RIBA/ARB Intermediate
status or equivalent. The fund
was established in 1957 in
memory of Michael Ventris and
in appreciation of his work in the
fields of Mycenaean civilisation
and architecture. It is intended
to promote study in those areas
and is available to support a
specifically defined and achievable
project. The closing date for
applications is 31 October 2009.
Further details are available from
the AA Secretary’s Office.
Mike Davies Bursary Fund
Stephen Marshall, Sarah Huelin
This bursary fund, established
in 2008 in support of British
or UK-based students within
the AA’s five-year architecture
programme, will reward innovative
thinking and application in design.
It is generously supported by
AA alumnus Mike Davies CBE,
founding partner of Richard
Rogers & Partners (now Rogers
Stirk Harbour & Partners) and
current AA council member.
Doris Lockhart Bursary
Kory Kromm
A new bursary has been set up
this year by AA supporter and
former AA council member Doris
Lockhart, in support of UK and
international students in need
of financial assistance. The
bursary looks to reward, at an
undergraduate level, a student’s
ability to represent architectural
ideas in writing.
Fletcher Priest Foundation Bursary
Taneli Mansikkamaki
The Fletcher Priest Foundation,
established by AA alumni Keith
Priest and Michael Fletcher, has
initiated this year a generous
commitment to the AA Foundation,
to support over the coming years a
number of bursaries for deserving
undergraduate AA students in
need of financial assistance.
Required Qualifications
MA 12-month courses in
Histories & Theories
Housing & Urbanism
Second Class or above Honours
degree in architecture or a related
discipline from a British university,
or an overseas qualification of
equivalent standard (from a course
lasting not less than three years in
a university or educational
institution of university rank).
MA 12-month course in
Landscape Urbanism
Professional degree or diploma
in architecture/ landscape
architecture or urbanism.
MSc 12-month course in
Sustainable Environmental Design
Professional degree or diploma in
architecture, engineering or other
relevant disciplines.
MSc 12-month course in
Emergent Technologies & Design
Professional degree or diploma
in architecture, engineering,
industrial/ product design or other
relevant disciplines.
MArch 16-month course in
Architecture and Urbanism
(Design Research Laboratory)
Five-year professional architecture
degree (BArch/Diploma
equivalent).
MArch 16-month course in
Emergent Technologies & Design
Five-year professional degree
or diploma in architecture,
engineering, industrial/product
design or other relevant disciplines
(BArch/Diploma equivalent).
MArch 16-month course in
Sustainable Environmental Design
Five-year professional architecture
degree (BArch/Diploma
equivalent).
AA Graduate Diploma in AA
Interproffesional Studies
12 months full time
12 months part time (2 days per
week). Applications assessed
individually upon receipt. CV,
a short statement and original
evidence of qualification.
AA Gradute Diploma in
Conservation of Historic Buildings
This two-year part-time (day
release) course is open to students
or professionals with Part 2 (RIBA/
ARB) or equivalent recognised
qualifications. Suitably qualified
members of other disciplines (eg,
surveyors) may be considered.
MPhil/PhD
Candidates for MPhil/PhD
research degrees are expected to
have reached a level equivalent to
that of an MA/MSc or MArch and
must show evidence of previous
experience in their proposed areas
of research.
Application Date
Students are asked to apply by
15 January 2010 (application fee
£30). Late applications will be
accepted up until 12 March 2010
(late fee £60). Applications made
after this date will be accepted
at the discretion of the school.
Enquiries to:
Graduate School Admissions
Registrar’s Office
T +44 (0)20 7887 4067
F +44 (0)20 7414 0779
graduateadmissions@
aaschool.ac.uk
Open Day
Friday 22 January 2010
Further details will be made
available through the AA’s website
nearer the date. Individual or group
visits can also be arranged with
advance notice. For further details
please contact:
Graduate School Admissions
Registrar’s Office
T +44 (0)20 7887 4067
F +44 (0)20 7414 0779
Graduate and Undergraduate
Assessment
Full information will be given in the
Student Handbook 2009/10.
Equality
The AA aims to create conditions
to ensure that students are
treated solely on the basis of their
merits, abilities and potential,
regardless of their gender, colour,
religious/political beliefs, ethnic
or national origin, disability,
family background, age, sexual
orientation or other irrelevant
distinction.
Disability and Learning
Difficulties
The Architectural Association
School of Architecture aims to
provide a high-quality personalised
service tailored to the individual
student’s needs. Support and
information is provided at every
opportunity to encourage students
to disclose their circumstances
and thereby access the most
appropriate support for their
needs. Prospective students are
encouraged to contact or visit
the Registrar’s Office to discuss
their needs and to assess what
support is available prior to
starting the course. Students who
are registered at the AA School
are also encouraged to contact
the Registrar’s Office and/or their
Programme Director, Unit Master/
Tutor or Complementary Studies
Course Master to assess what
support would be available. This
is an ongoing process throughout
the academic year, to ensure that
if a student omits to declare a
disability/learning difficulty prior to
or during registration, or becomes
disabled during the course,
appropriate support is put in place
so that the student can achieve
maximum success in their studies.
Data Protection
Upon registration in the school
students will be required to sign
a statement consenting to the
processing of personal information
by AA Inc in compliance with
the requirements of the Data
Protection Act 1998. Data will only
be disclosed internally to members
of the AA staff who need to know;
and when required, to third parties
outside the AA in accordance with
the Act. Data will not be provided
to third parties for direct marketing
purposes.
information
Plagiarism
Plagiarism is treated as a serious
offence and the AA may impose all
or any of the following penalties on
a student found guilty of it:
• expulsion from the school
• suspension from registration at
the school or from particular courses
for such period as it thinks fit
• denial of credit or partial credit
in any course or courses
• an official warning
Door Security Policy
From time to time it may be
necessary to amend the AA’s
normal open-door policy for
Bedford Square. Entry may be
gained at these times by using the
AA Membership swipe card or the
entry buzzer.
Contacts
Foundation
undergraduateadmissions@
aaschool.ac.uk
Undergraduate School Admissions
undergraduateadmissions@
aaschool.ac.uk
Graduate School Admissions
graduateadmissions@
aaschool.ac.uk
Visiting School
visitingschool@aaschool.ac.uk
Spring Semester Programme/
One Year Abroad
ssp@aaschool.ac.uk
Professional Studies
(Year Out & Part 3)
psco@aaschool.ac.uk
Interprofessional Studio
aais@aaschool.ac.uk
189
information STAFF LIST STAFF LIST information

Director’s Office First Year Diploma School Course Master Hugo Hinsley Studio Tutor Administrative Digital Photo AA Foundation Drawing
Director Studio Masters Unit 1 Alisa Andrasek Nicholas Bullock Jan Brüggemeier Coordinator Studio Secretary Materials Shop
Brett Steele Valentin Marianne Mueller Marta Kathryn Firth Belinda Flaherty Sue Barr Marilyn Dyer Manager
Personal Assistant Bontjes van Beek Olaf Kneer Malé-Alemany Dominic Papa History & Theory Intermediate Master Administrator Liz Griffiths
Philip Hartstein David Greene Unit 2 Course Tutors Elena Pascolo Studies Wolfgang Frese Digital Platforms Alex Lorente
Academic Head Samantha Anne Save Jeroen van Ameijde Alex Warnock- Administrative Diploma Master Head of Digital Exhibitions Facilities
Charles Tashima Hardingham de Beaurecueil Shajay Bhooshan Smith Coordinator Javier Castañon Platorms/ Head of Exhibitions Manager
Tobias Klein Franklin Lee Christos Passas Belinda Flaherty Programme Staff Web Designer Vanessa Norwood Anita Pfauntsch
AACP Martina Schäfer Unit 3 Robert Sustainable Director Phil Cooper Frank Owen Exhibitions Project Assistant Manager
Shumon Basar Robert Stuart- Alison Brooks Stuart-Smith Environmental Mark Cousins Kostis Karatzas Content Editor Manager Peter Keiff
Staff Smith Max Kahlen Technical Tutors Design Course Lecturers Martin Hagemann Rosa Ainley Lee Regan Maintenance
Francisco Gonzalez Dip 4 Lawrence Friesen Director Brett Steele Anderson Inge Images & Videos Exhibitions & Security
de Canales Intermediate John Palmesino Hanif Kara Simos Yannas Mark Cousins Toni Kotnik Joel Newman Coordinator Lea Ketsawang
Oliver Domeisen School Ann-Sofi Rönnskog Riccardo Merello Programme Staff Maria Fedorchenko Wolf Mangelsdorf Luke Currall Colin Prendergast
Unit 1 Dip 5 Klaus Bode Chris Pierce John Noel Workshops Leszak Skrzypiec
Registrar’s Office Deane Simpson Cristina Díaz Emtech Joana Soares Consultants Manja Van Model Making Library Bogdan Swidzinski
Registrar Mark Campbell Moreno Director Gonçalves Judith Clark de Worp Trystrem Smith Librarian Matthew Hanrahan
Marilyn Dyer Unit 2 Efrén García Grinda Michael Weinstock Raul Moura Sam Jacoby Simos Yannas Wood and Metal Hinda Sklar Adam Okuniewski
Assistant Registrar Martin Self Unit 6 Codirector Jorge Rodriguez Christopher M Lee Consultants Workshop Deputy Librarian Patrick Ridge
Belinda Flaherty Charles Walker On Sabbatical (Cohort 08/09) Alvarez Patrick Wright Carolina Bartram Technicians Aileen Smith Sebastian Wyatt
Registrar’s Office/ Unit 3 Unit 7 Michael Hensel Gustavo Brunelli John Palmesino Ian Duncombe Robert Busher Archivist
External Students Nanette Jackowski Simon Beames Studio Master Alberto Moletto Ines Weizman Marissa Kretsch Will Fausset Edward Bottoms Front of House
Administrative Ricardo de Ostos Kenneth Fraser Christina Barak Pelman Pier Vittorio Aureli Randall Thomas Head of Digital Cataloguer Reception &
Coordinator Unit 4 Unit 8 Doumpioti Mark Campbell Mohsen Zikri Prototyping Beatriz Flora Switchboard/
Sabrina Blakstad Nathalie Eugene Han Studio Tutors Conservation of Paul Davies Emmanuele Marfisi Jeroen van Ameijde Outside Events
Admissions Rozencwajg Chris Yoo Evan Greenberg Historic Buildings Oliver Domeisen Prototyping Lab Print Studio Booking/
(Undergraduate)/ Michel da Costa Unit 9 George Director Brian Hatton Research Technician Print Studio Managing Editor
Visiting Students Gonçalves Natasha Sandmeier Jeronimides Andrew Shepherd Martin Self Clusters Kar Leung Wai Manager/Editor AArchitecture
Programme Unit 5 Monia De Marchi Kostis Karatzas Programme Staff Brett Steele Alan Dempsey Hooke Park AA Files Nicola Quinn
Coordinators Stefano Rabolli Unit 10 Judith Roebuck Simos Yannas Theo Sarantoglou Bruce Thomas Weaver Reception &
Ruth Lie/Meneesha Pansera Carlos Villanueva Landscape David Heath Programme Staff Lalis Hunter-Inglis Publications Editor Switchboard
Kellay Goswin Brandt Urbanism William Firebrace Olaf Kneer Charles Corry Pamela Johnston Sandra Sanna
Admissions Schewendinger Unit 11 Director PhD Programme Teaching Marina Lathouri Wright Editor, Events List
(Graduate) Unit 6 Shin Egashira Eva Castro Academic Assistants Stefano Rabolli Chris Sadd Rosa Ainley Catering/Bar
Coordinator Jonathan Dawes Unit 12 Programme Staff Coordinator Eva Eylers Ponsera Editorial Assistant Manager/Chef
Claire Perry Fumiko Kato Holger Kehne Eduardo Rico Simos Yannas Emanuel de Sousa Marianne Mueller Association Clare Barrett Pascal Babeau
Admissions Dagobert Jeffrey Turko Alfredo Ramirez Programme Staff Secretary Art Director Deputy Manager/
Imogen Evans Bergmans Unit 13 Douglas Spencer Lawrence Barth Media Studies Media Services Kathleen Formosa Zak Kyes Barman
Undergraduate Unit 7 Oliver Domeisen Tom Smith Mark Cousins Director Audiovisual Secretary’s Office Graphic Designers Darko Calina
School Liam Young Tristan Simmonds Workshop Tutors Jorge Fiori Eugene Han Manager Personal Assistant Wayne Daly Catering Assistants
Administrative Kate Davies Unit 14 Enriqueta Llabres Hugo Hinsley Programme Staff Joel Newman Cristian Sanchez Claire McManus Brigitte Ayoro
Coordinator Unit 8 Pier Vittorio Aureli Bridget Mackean Marina Lathouri Sue Barr Audiovisual Gonzalez Daniel Swidzinski
Victoria Bahia Francisco Gonzalez Unit 15 Jorge Ayala Shajay Bhooshan Assistant Head of AA Publications Miodrag Ristic
Visiting School de Canales Francesca Hughes Teruyuki Nomura Professional Valentin Bontjes Nick Wayne Membership Marketing &
Coordinator Nuria Alvarez Noam Andrews Clara Oloriz Practice van Beek Head of Computing Alex Lorente Distribution Human
Chris Pierce Lombardero Unit 16 Professional Monia De Marchi Julia Frazer Membership Kirsten Morphet Resources
Visiting/Global Unit 9 Jonas Lundberg Histories & Studies Shin Egashira Assistant Head Coordinator Marilyn Sparrow Head of Human
Schools/Visiting Christopher Pierce Andrew Yau Theories Coordinator Trevor Flynn of Computing Jenny Keiff Resources
Teachers’ Christopher Director Rob Sparrow Matej Hosek Mathew Bielecki Membership Events Photo Library Tehmina Mahmood
Programme Matthews Marina Lathouri Professional Toni Kotnik Computer Coordinator Librarian
Administrative Unit 10 Graduate School Programme Staff Studies Advisor Zak Kyes Engineers Luisa Miller Valerie Bennett AA Bookshop
Coordinator Claudia Pasquero Administrative Pedro Ignacio Alastair Robertson Antoni Malinowski David Hopkins Bookshop Manager
Sandra Sanna Marco Poletto Coordinator Alonso Part 1 Joel Newman Timothy Ling Development Accounts Office Charlotte Newman
Unit 11 Clement Chung Francisco Gonzalez Javier Castañón Anne Save Deron Marrett Office Manager Bookshop Assistant
Foundation Theodore de Canales Future Practice/ de Beaurecueil Kevin Seddon Head of Steve Livett Luz Hincapie
Studio Masters Sarantoglou Lalis Graduate Design Mark Cousins Part 2 Goswin Syed Qadri Development Assistants
Saskia Lewis Dora Sweijd DRL Hugo Hinsley Schwendinger Digital Platforms Esther McLaughlin Fozia Munshi
William Martyr Unit 12 Directors Housing & Tobias Klein Network & Special Projects Lauren Harcourt
Takako Hasegawa Sam Jacob Yusuke Obuchi Urbanism Interprofessional Database Officer Eve Livett
Matthew Butcher Tomas Klassnik Theodore Directors Studio Technical Studies Michael Jan Brüggemeier Linda Keifff
Unit 13 Spyropoulos Jorge Fiori Studio Director Director of Papapavlou
Miraj Ahmed Founding Director Hugo Hinsley Theo Lorenz Research & Dev Computing Course
Martin Jameson Patrik Schumacher Programme Staff Studio Master Michael Weinstock Coordinator
Lawrence Barth Tanja Siems Eugene Han

190 191
 colophon

The Prospectus is issued for guidance The Prospectus is produced through

only, and the AA reserves the right to
vary or omit all or any of the facilities,
tuition or activities described therein,
or amend in any substantial way any
of the facilities, tuition or activities for
which students may have enrolled.
Students shall have no claim against
the AA regarding any alteration made
to the course.
the AA Print Studio
Editors: Pamela Johnston,
Thomas Weaver
Editorial Assistant: Clare Barrett
Art Director: Zak Kyes
Design: Claire McManus, Wayne Daly
Printed in England by Beacon Press

The School is part of the Architectural Architectural Association

Association (Inc.), which is a company School of Architecture
limited by guarantee and a registered 36 Bedford Square
charity. Company no 171402. Charity London WC1B 3ES
no 311083. Registered Office as below. T + 44 (0)20 7887 4000
F + 44 (0)20 7414 0782
Reader Assistance Clause info@aascchool.ac.uk
AA Members wishing to request aaschool.ac.uk
a black and white and/or larger
print version of specific printed items
can do so by contacting Nicola Quinn
(reception@aaschool.ac.uk/
020 7887 4000), or by accessing the
AA website at aaschool.ac.uk.
For an audio recording of AA Events
List, please call 020 7887 4111.

192
 academic year 2009/10
key dates
Autumn Term (12 weeks)
28 September – 18 December 2009
Introduction week: Monday 21 – Friday 25 September
Open week: Monday 2 – Friday 6 November

Spring Term (10 weeks)

11 January – 19 March 2010

Summer Term (10 weeks)

19 April – 25 June 2010

Autumn Term 2009 Spring Term 2010 Summer Term 2010

Intro Week: 25 September Week 1 Week 1
Picnic – all new students HTS/TS/PP/FP hand-in week HTS/TS submission hand-in week
Week 1: 28 September Progress reviews (all years) 19 April
10am Diploma Unit Intros Week 2: 18 January 1st Year Progress Reviews
29 September All Complementary Studies 20–21 April
10am Intermediate Unit Intros courses commence 4th Year Previews
30 September 22 January Week 2: 27–28 May
Graduate School Intros Graduate School Open Day Inter Previews for 3rd Year/Part 1
2 October Week 3 Week 3: 4–5 May
Complementary Studies Intros Media Studies courses commence Diploma Previews for 5th Year
Week 2 Week 4 Week 4
All Complementary Studies Combined tutorials for Option 2: TS3/TS5 interim juries
courses commence Intermediate and Diploma units Week 5
Week 4: 19 October 5 February Inter/Dip Final Jury Week
1pm Foundation/First Year student 1st Year Progress Reviews Week 6
meeting Week 6 Option 2: TS3/TS5 final hand-in
20 October Open Jury 24 March
1pm 2nd/3rd Year student meeting Week 7 Part III Oral Exam
Week 5: 26 October Option 1: TS3/TS5 interim juries Week 8: 7 June
1pm 4th/5th Year student meeting Week 8: 1 March Foundation end of year reviews
27 October External examiners MArch: 2nd Year end of year reviews
1pm Grad School student meeting SED, EmTech, DRL 8–9 June
Week 6: Open Week Week 9 4th Year end of year reviews
All undergrad classes suspended Option 1: TS3/TS5 final 10 June
for the week for S.H.O.W submission week TS3/TS5 High Pass Jury
6 November Week 10: 26 March 10–11 June
External examiners MA/MSc: End of Spring Term 1st Year end of year reviews
H+T, HU, LU, EmTech and SED Week 9: 14–15 June
Week 8: 16 November Intermediate (Part 1) final check
Part III oral exam 16–17 June
Week 11: 11 December Diploma Committee
Christmas Party 18 June
Week 12: 18 December 2pm Dip Hons presentations
End of Autumn Term Week 10: 22 June
AA Intermediate examination
(RIBA/ARB Part 1)
23 June
AA Final examination
(RIBA/ARB Part 2)
25 June
3pm graduation awards ceremony
6.30pm opening Projects Review
End of Academic Year
PREFACE notes
UNIT
and
Unit Staff Pont, Lap Heng Fung,
Valentin Bontjes van Beek, Madoka Furuhashi, Max
David Greene, Samantha Hacke, Lyn Hayek, Yu Won
Hardingham, Nick Puckett Kang, Karl Karam, Ja Kyung
Nathalie Rozencwajg, Kim, Taeho Kim,
Martina Schäfer Conrad Koslowsky, Saif
Lassas, Stephen Marshall,
Students Harpreet Marway, Eulalia
Eugenia Andersson, Faraz Moran, Francisco de Borja
Anoushahpour, Uliana Muguiro, Elisha Nathoo,
Apatina, Teeba Arain, Nora Nilsen, Aine O’Dwyer,
Costantino Balbo Bertone Alex Osei-Bonsu, Jessica
di Sambuy, Frederik Bo Pappalardo, Octave Perrault,
Bojesen, Stefano Branca, Ryan Phanphensophon,
Maria-Panagiota Brewster, Perrine Planché, Kristina
Shu Susan Chai, Jin Chang, Pokrovskaya, Costantino
Hwui Zhi Cheng, Yeuh-Shen Rivetti, Elina Safarova,
Chua, James Kwang-Ho Kayvan Sarvi, Rebecca
Chung, Hussam Dakkak, Spencer, William Stanley,
Artemis Doupa, Gary Du Camille Steyaert, Anna
194 aaschool.ac.uK
Ström, Luke Shixin Tan,
Stefania Triantafyllou,
Kassymkhan Ulykbanov
Digital Workshop
Jeroen van Ameijde, Monia
De Marchi, Claude Ballini,
Christopher Robeller, Adrian
Tung, Michal Ciomek,
Fredrik Hellberg, Kim Diego
Azevedo
Video Workshop
William Firebrace, Nic
Clear, Dana Behrman, Joel
Newman, Jesse Sabatier,
Takanao Todo, Ina Kapitola,
Colin Ashton, Rojia Abadeh,
Jesse Randzio, Students
of Oxford Brookes (Joel
Chappell , Mike Halliwell,
Simon Houlden, Marina
Illum, Eva Seljan, Justus van
der Hoven)
Fashion Workshop
Flora McLean, Janice Turner
Thames Hotel Lectures
Dr John Bold, Fergus
Henderson, Holger Kehne,
Brett Steele
Thank you to all our visiting
critics