AARCHITECTURE ISSUE 31
PROTOCOL
NEWS FROM THE ARCHITECTURAL ASSOCIATION
AArchitecture 31
Protocol [proh-tuh-kawl, -kol, -kohl noun, the system of rules and acceptable behaviour used at official ceremonies and occasions Protocol serves as the apparatus of the event, the framework of a space and the rules of a system. It might also be termed as the characterisation that is placed onto the blank canvas. In Greek, the term ‘protocol’ was used to refer to the first sheet of a volume, on which contents and errata were written and in this sense, it seems that the protocol becomes the methodical tapestry that defines the canvas.
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Consequently, AArchitecture Issue 31 uses the napkin/handkerchief/tissue/cloth/hankie/ serviette/towelette as this canvas and as a metaphor for protocol. To begin, three historic instances were chosen to explore what is meant by protocol and how protocols come to exist and evolve. As users of the napkin/etc., we apply different terms, forms and integrations onto it. The napkin is not the same as the handkerchief, nor is it the same as the towelette, though they often share the same appearance. The chosen incidents of the napkin/etc. are: 1. The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie, Luis BuĂąuel, 1972 In this film, the dinner serves as the central ritual of the middle class. However, when soldiers break into the home and come to execute a man, he
avoids death by hiding under a table. That is, until he gives himself away by reaching up for a slice of ham. Meanwhile, we see that despite the shock of the event, the characters have still placed all their napkins/ etc. back on the table. This seems to allude towards a surreal and absurd translation of etiquette. 2. The Weeping Woman, Pablo Picasso, 1937 ‘Dora, for me, was always a weeping woman... And it’s important, because women are suffering machines’, Pablo Picasso In this painting, we see an abstracted woman appearing to blow her nose onto a handkerchief. This seems to suggest that when the napkin/etc. becomes a ‘handkerchief’, it becomes a void in which to comfort one’s self and place sincerity. Such that, in this case Picasso has used the handkerchief as a transparent layer whose outline’s mark the bodily components to the ‘suffering machine’. 3. For Sale: Baby Shoes, Never Worn, Ernest Hemingway Legend has it that during a lunch with friends, Ernest Hemingway bet the table $10 each that he could write an entire story with only six words. Once the table had paid, Hemingway wrote ‘For sale: baby shoes, never worn’ on a serviette. In doing this, Hemingway created a narrative that goes beyond the written word, on something as disposable as a paper napkin/etc.
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These articles suggest that the napkin/etc. can fluctuate between symbol and device and can mutate per its given protocol. The canvas can also transform according to the protocol set and the protocol is termed by the condition and context. The canvas is the ultimate example of a blank piece or a plane of emptiness; one which waits to be filled with an attribution. The protocol can be understood as a set of conventions that become ritual to a community or system, and therefore might fluctuate as these conventions evolve. In early human settlements, an agreed definition of the term ‘convention’ is that which serves as an alternative to trust; where the trust would be the first rule required to be part of a group. The definition follows that it is only when the stranger proves that he knows the agreed conventions, that he can be accepted. However, due to the continuous growth in number and complexity of such groups, the purity of this anthropological model has become challenged. Thus, it seems the ‘I know you and you know me’ notion has become primitive and redundant. In other words, ‘convention’, or more specifically protocol, exists on the level of a collective plan or imagined agreement. It is a fiction which must be believed in before it can be acted upon. If we apply this to the napkin/etc., we understand that we as a receptive organism firstly imagine, then inflict and recognise that which becomes custom and is then imposed on the canvas: each time we see the familiar folds on the cloth at the
dinner table we are reminded of where we are and what we should do with the cloth. This pattern of etiquette can also be applied to how we act in particular spaces and how we carry out procedures. Therefore, the importance lies in the contextual events – it is the medium through which the canvas gains its value. It is not necessarily about the object, rather the protocol set around it. In this case, the nature of the object is exemplified as being tangible, but the object is not to be exclusively understood as a physical one. The medium transmits the value of the object’s function, both practically and conceptually. The medium informs the object and the medium is the protocol. The articles analyse their mediums to locate their own protocol, through modes of capturing movements in between decisions or by placing situations within their larger systems. The collection of submissions become a protocol for the term protocol itself; one that questions the legitimisation of structure. Is the nature of protocol a fixed framework that embodies control? Or should it be a fluid network that constantly reinvents itself? Does this mean we decide how to form the protocol? Does each decision we make reinstate or reform the system? After all, the napkin/etc. is just a piece of fabric. If one were to invent a convention for this world; how would one transform the blank? Sensy Mania, Emily Priest AArchitecture Editors
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AARCHITECTURE ISSUE 31
PROTOCOL
NEWS FROM THE ARCHITECTURAL ASSOCIATION
Contents
New From AA Publications & Bedford Press ...... 70 AA Bookshop’s Recommended Reading ................ 74 AA News ........................................................................ 79 AA Notices .................................................................... 87 Issue 32: SILENCE ..................................................... 89
Protocol
Three Possible Uses for a Napkin.................................8 For Composing a Still Life Around a Tablecloth..................................................................... 12 An Incomplete Guide to Folding a Napkin for a Formal Dinner Party........................ 22 Disagreed Upon............................................................ 28 5 Second Protocol..........................................................32 Search Criteria.............................................................. 36 Gargling Firecrackers in Day-Glo Green................ 42 A Basic Guide in Attending Royal Receptions for the Gentleman Unversed in the Intricacies and Subtleties of Diplomacy............45 AA’s Note........................................................................ 50 Protocols Around a Fire...............................................52 Notes on Mobility, Nomadism and Architectural Education...............................................58 No Gratuities Allowed................................................. 64 Faggot in the Computer Lab....................................... 66 *******
THREE POSSIBLE USES FOR A NAPKIN — Sofia Pia Belenky
In 2014, MIT conducted a detailed experiment into the volume and trajectory of the average sneeze. This experiment resulted in a Muybridge-esque series of photographs revealing enormous force and velocity of an otherwise everyday experience. From this Sofia Pia Belenky (Intermediate 5 Student) looks at three different scenarios which could set in motion the protocol for needing a tissue.
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Sneeze Study, MIT, 2014
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Spilt milk
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Tears
Still life with A Lobster, Fruit and Blue and White ‘Kraak’ Dishes (detail), Jan Davidsz. de Heem, 1643
FOR COMPOSING A STILL LIFE AROUND A TABLECLOTH — Nick Adams
17th-century Dutch paintings were perhaps the birth of modern #foodie-obsessed Instagram photos. Split along three categories these paintings represent three different kinds of meals from the ‘ontbijtjes’, breakfast paintings, to the ‘banketjestukken’ small banquets and finally the ‘pronkstilleven’, a term that stems from the Dutch word for ostentatious. Here, USA based artist Nick Adams explores the protocol for the serviette in each.
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These eleven still lives by de Heem are aimed at documenting a protocol for display in 17th-century Dutch painting when the abundance of new material from the East Indies spice trade was at its peak. Here we see the particular role of the tablecloth as the element that manages to tie and pull objects together, functioning as a spatial device for linking otherwise separate elements. The tablecloth becomes a stage upon which a series of actions can unfold.
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Nature Morte de Banquet, Jan Davidsz. de Heem, 1645 Still Life with a Monkey, Jan Davidsz. de Heem, 1650
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Banquet Still Life, Adriaen van Utrecht, 1644 Still Life with Oysters and Grapes, Jan Davidsz. de Heem, 1653
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Still Life with a Nautilus Cup, Gerrit Willemsz. Heda, 1645
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Fruits and Dinner Service on Table, Jan Davidsz. de Heem, 1640
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Sumptuous Still Life with Fruit, Pie and Goblets, Jan Davidsz. de Heem, 1651 Still Life with Lemons, Pomegranates and Grapes on a Table, Jan Davidsz. de Heem, 1654
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A Table of Desserts, Jan Davidsz. de Heem, 1640 A Lesson from Jan Davidsz. de Heem (detail), oil on canvas, Alan Carroll 2010
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AN INCOMPLETE GUIDE TO FOLDING A NAPKIN FOR A FORMAL DINNER PARTY — Charles Shade
Understanding the formal dinner table as a projective site, Charles Shade, a Paris based writer, explains the etiquette and protocol for how to properly construct a napkin.
Napkin used: 10cm × 10cm 10gsm cold pressed, white paper napkin. No dinner party is complete without proper napkin arrangement, everyone should know a few folds to make your table more beautiful.
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1. ‘The Bird of Paradise’ a. Fold the napkin in half b. And in half once again so you have a square c. Fold the open ends away from you d. Turn upside down keeping open ends infront of you e. Put in the wings f. Turn over g. Tuck open wings under h. Fold in half i. Pull open ends towards you j. You have a beautiful bird of paradise 2. ‘The Fan’ a. Fold in half b. Fold like an accordion over and over c. And over again d. Leave about 8cm e. Fold in half f. Tuck the open side into the folded side g. And it stands up nicely! There you go!
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Bird of Paradise
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The Fan
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The Crown
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Fancy Pouch
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DISAGREED UPON — Sensy Mania, Igor Gola
[This is a fragment of the original essay Disagreed upon] Sensy Mania and Igor Gola are Intermediate Students in Units 10 and 13
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This paper is a construct; it is a way to perceive what is taken for granted as fiction, in a form which allows for its devaluation. The devaluation present here is not a term to be understood for its traditional connotation of derogation; rather it could and, within the context of this paper, should be considered as an operation, which enables the intangible to become tangible. Devaluation occurs when the nature of something not to be questioned is questioned. The devaluation within this paper is understood as a construct – one of the possible many. It is not the truthfulness of the said construct, which is crucial, but rather its ability to translate the unquestionable into a contraption with which to engage. Here, rather than considering the implications of the discussed devaluation, the focus is going to be shifted to one way in which this devolution could occur. This paper does not imply that it is the only way that an understanding of the believedin-fiction could be linguistically translated into accessibility. However it simply states that an existence of any way at all provides an opportunity for engagement to be present. This binary condition of engagement – presence and absence – is essential and is the core reason of this essay. The paper creates a construct based on the new defined terms fiction, convention, agreed upon, conviction and doubt. Fiction is colloquially understood as a term encapsulating primarily narratives of various forms. Whether it is films, novels or theatre, narratives such as these are
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clearly understood as disconnected from the real world. The vague and overused term ‘real world’ is not going to be taken for (colloquially understood) granted. If one were to describe an object most certainly real, for example a physical tree, a medium through which that description would occur (that being language here), the description would be implied as fictional. The description in itself is, in fact, not a physical tree – it is merely a representation of one. This disconnection could make this linguistic portrayal be seen as completely separate from the physical. As such it is an abstraction; it becomes a fiction. Following the understanding of convention and agreed upon as being fictions which are believed in, while conviction and doubt, as being ways of validating the system or challenging it, the construct is one in which a multitude of elements could be investigated through. Assuming it has provided an understanding of fiction, with an assumption made that the only elements not included under the wide umbrella of the term are the actual – physical, it enables for concepts to be tested through it, understood and perhaps seen in a way far different than that of the everyday. Following the line of thought in the original version of the paper, which does not exist here, it is rather clear to see how one of the elements of fiction that could be investigated is most certainly architecture. The most painfully obvious ways in which architectural design is impacted by the ever-so-present in this essay (perhaps painfully so)
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agreed upon are zoning codes; height regulations, roof shapes, programmes allowed. To move slightly into less obvious ones, one could consider mass office spaces, barely designed by a human. It is worth arguing that the majority of the design decisions were made not by a designer, but by the agreed upon of the capitalist mentality, the costcutting, efficiency-increasing clump of conventions, which holds more design influence than any human ever will. It has been stated that the influence of designer is significantly subsidised from that which would have been intuitively thought of. The design done by a human is still not beyond the reach of influence of the agreed upon. A human in itself is most certainly influenced by the agreed upon. The scope of that influence has been investigated in fair detail in the original paper – by investigating the rather rare occurrence of individual convention, by exploring the relationship an individual has to the public. It has been shown that, the little last bit of individual within an individual comes down to the experiences, which somehow resisted the turning into collective conventions. The construct, defined by the key terms earlier defined, is to be understood as a medium through which we can enable concepts to be analysed. In this construct, ‘protocol’ is part of the agreed upon.
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44:32:15:00 – 44:32:16:00 44:32:17:00 – 44:32:18:00
5 SECOND PROTOCOL — Helene Humbert
Tracking a 5-second clip from the film, Coffee and Cigarettes by Jim Jarmusch, this piece looks at the protocol for an everyday social interaction over a cup of coffee. Each second is broken down into its constituent frames, one overlaid on top of the next in order to confuse the linear reading of time present in typical protocols. The idea is to understand the exchange as a series of potential actions. Finally all 5 seconds are layered on top of one another to create the final image. Helene Humbert is a poet based in Marseille
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44:32:18:00 – 44:32:19:00 44:32:19:00 – 44:32:20:00
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44:32:20:00 – 44:32:21:00 44:32:15:00 – 44:32:21:00
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SEARCH CRITERIA — Nuria Marti
Working backwards, this brief image essay is an attempt at recreating the search criteria, or protocol, that may have been used by the editors to find an image. Nuria Marti attempts to find the same exact image file used for the submission poster by cycling through all of the filter options on google. Marti’s essay addresses the everyday, and often much more frequent, protocol used for finding information on the internet and how automated filtering systems impact that. Nuria Marti is an architect working in Mexico City
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Applications > chrome > file > open > file > new window > search > picasso + woman + crying > images > tools > size > icon > larger than > 4 MP > colour > yellow black and white full colour > type > face photo
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GARGLING FIRECRACKERS IN DAY-GLO GREEN — Jack Hardy
And now, to weary the legs and lungs, I invite you to meter your mind, and like a nodding dog on the back of a flapping goose: nod, flap, stop, breathe, and… Jack Hardy is an AA Diploma 7 Student
...of all the bits and pieces and bubbles and bobs and sillys and fiddles of prose, The spots and pops and ennols and weenols and seconds and thirds and furlows, The starts and parts and hubris and few and fauna and flora and less, The marches and lines and couplets and mimes and delicate pairs and mess.
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Of all the mighty and more, and scribbles and scrawls, no end or intent, or debate; Have blots, are swallowed, are pumped, become rolled, they are loud they are now they abate; Of the folded, hiccupped, banger and croak: a great thing is lying in sun, Of ideas: not matter, and greener and rounder, of belches and bellies and bums; Of leaps and then some, last line still to come, the middles which won’t a or b, To land on hi-hats, ring-clap, clutch-that; forget-me-not riddles and glee, The face of the crowd, mad dogs and smoke clouds, and upside down font at the source, Again and again and again and again and so on and so on and so forth;
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To the steps and the stops, drumsticks and pops, riddle-clap, easy-hip, bumpy thump, From rapping in thunder to rolling up colour on the back of some other we jump, Whether I’m at the front and that means the back, Ouroboros, a year and a day, To the point of delight, fire, laser and flight; Floperoo. Success. Disarray
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A BASIC GUIDE IN ATTENDING ROYAL RECEPTIONS FOR THE GENTLEMAN UNVERSED IN THE INTRICACIES AND SUBTLETIES OF DIPLOMACY — Dara Nerweyi
Though the text addresses a diplomat, it is meant to give insight to non diplomacy-oriented readers of the nuances and somewhat bizarre traditions when it comes to attending royal receptions and greeting the Queen. Dara Nerweyi is an Intermediate 4 Student
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The diplomatic world is wrought with protocol. It can be somewhat intimidating traversing the minefield that is etiquette when hosting receptions, attending ascots, or serving dinners. Here insight will be provided as to the proper protocol when invited to join a reception at Buckingham Palace.
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Before continuing, the following terms must be made clear: – Protocol are the unwritten rules regarding behaviour. These must be followed and cannot be deviated from. – Etiquette is the polite and appropriate behaviour when addressing others. It is highly recommended to follow these guidelines so as to maintain proper form. – Form and proper form are what you will have when the previous two categories are satisfied. Form involves appearing respectable and properly representing your appropriate country. 1. Attire It is protocol to dress respectably for a royal reception. If you do not have extravagant, native attire at hand, it is protocol to wear a suit for men and a dress and headpiece for women. It is a black tie event, and the dress code for men is black. The suit itself must be composed of nine (9) individual pieces or more. This article of clothing is the second most difficult to assemble in the Western world, surpassed only by the deep sea diving suit. Wearing a deep sea diving suit to
2. Awaiting the Queen One must take their place in the queue while awaiting the approach of the Queen. One mustn’t sit unless medically required. A doctor’s note is not needed under protocol, as most bystanders would understand if one gives a convincing excuse. Damage in the quadriceps and patellar tendons
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a royal reception is poor form, however isn’t prohibited by protocol if it can be considered the formal attire of your native land. The suit can only be collected from one organisation: the Moss Brothers, and is assembled as follows: once all the appropriate undergarments are applied, you begin by pulling up the trousers, tucking in one’s shirt and putting on one’s socks (which must be colour-coded, the colour being black). The next step is to address the vest. The vest is made up of two distinct parts, each being more complicated to wear than the other. Once the parts are joined and resemble to an appropriate degree a vest – at least from the front, using however many safety pins needed (this number being less than one dozen (12)) – one then adds the coat and shoes. The hat is the final addition, but mustn’t be confused with the ascot hat. The suit hat is to be a light black, while an ascot hat is a darker shade of charcoal. The dress code for women prohibits the dress from ending 7.4 metric centimetres above the lower thighs. As for the headpiece, it must resemble to a tolerable degree an exotic orchid or erupting fruit. Anything deviating from this would be poor form.
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are adequate reason to sit in the stools provided directly behind the representatives. This would have little effect on one’s form. It is expected of one to wait for at least fifty (50) minutes before receiving their chance to shake hands with the Queen. While the Queen makes her way through the line of representatives, it is good etiquette to start small talk with those directly next to you. The representatives are organised by the relevance of their respective countries, so it is good form to assess one’s adjacent representatives in order to gain a better understanding of one’s position in the queue. For example, if standing directly next to Lithuania, it would be poor form to begin discussions about your respective roles in British politics. Once the Queen makes it to you, it is protocol to address her Majesty as ‘your Majesty’ and to bow one’s head, with one’s hat removed in the process. Women’s headpieces needn’t be removed, as this intricate process would take the duration of the Queen’s stop and would be bad etiquette. The Queen is short in stature and it would be against protocol and against etiquette to squat as one greets her. It is commonplace to chat for roughly twoand-a-half (2.5) minutes before the Queen moves to the next group of representatives. Once she reaches the end of the queue, one may move on to the dinner.
3. Dinner The dinner is where the representatives get to ‘mingle’. If one were to notice that two representatives of the same country, in their attempt to avoid renting from the Moss Brothers, are wearing incongruent national attires, it is against etiquette to draw attention to this. It is, however, completely acceptable to sensibly gossip to those nearby about the issue, and has no poor effect on one’s form. It is acceptable, if not expected, to scoff at the quality of the meal. Once finished with one’s dinner, one must leave any dishes and utensils used on the nearest flat surface. It would be poor form to return the dishes to the staff. Protocol
Thus concludes the abridged course to protocol at royal receptions. On one final note, it is important to acknowledge that the protocol is only the basic guideline. Representatives are expected to exceed the standards set by the protocol through exceptional demonstrations of form.
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Caption
AA’S NOTE — Raluca Grada
Symbols offer continuity to the reality they represent, while this reality regularly transits phases. AA refers to such an abstract identity and throughout each transition the new phases tend to be judged against this abstract consensus with a massive blackout represented by all previous experiences. Ideals require attention and notes on suicide are ‘symptoms of a deliberate exhibitionism’ as Simon Critchley refers to them in his recent book, Notes on Suicide. Raluca Grada is an Alumna of the AA Graduate School
PROTOCOLS AROUND A FIRE — Joy Lai
This collection of books captures fire from different perspectives and its inherent ritual behind its flame. Each book explores fire through their various applications. 1. matchbox logbook 2. gallery of birthdays 3. campfire: A how to guide 4. gradients through scorching. There is a specific way each book fits into the box. This relates to the ritual of lighting a fire. Some pieces like the matchbook logbook and gradient through scorching have extra pages for additional information to be filled in. Joy Lai is an Intermediate 4 Student
Contexts of fire. Can fire be seen as: a. A practical tool for survival b. An Art piece c. An aid to uncover the unseen d. All of the above
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The flame requires a stringent set of protocols surrounding its use. In whatever context, fire follows a set of rules. Fire is not something to be feared, it is scaleless and siteless but most definitely not mindless. These are baseline rules that relate to fire at any time: Rule no. 01 Treat fire as your friend and you will not get hurt. Rule no. 02 Always have a body of water near your vicinity. Because as quickly as fire can become your friend, it can become your enemy equally as fast. Rule no. 03 Fire has uses stretching beyond the practical tool, use them. 1 box, 4 books, many many rituals
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NOTES ON MOBILITY, NOMADISM AND ARCHITECTURAL EDUCATION QUESTIONING THE PROTOCOL — Ștefan Popa
In the height of coming changes to the AA Constitution and last term’s vote, Ștefan Popa (AA Graduate School, PhD candidate) outlines the conditions concerning the current state of the AA’s academic status and the effects this might have on its students. Questioning the idea of membership, position and location versus global dissolve in an academic structure.
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The members of the Architectural Association are asked to vote on a set of constitutional issues which will ease the process of achieving degree awarding powers. Students from outside the EU and the UK will thus be able to claim certain benefits including the right to stay and work for one year in the UK after completing their degree. This process is portrayed as a desirable alternative, but the reality is that it is a condition with which the future of the Architectural Association is menaced by its very geographical position. By finding itself in the capital of a country that is set to leave the European Union, the predicament is that European citizens, students and workers find themselves under scrutiny with no continuation guarantees offered. Moreover, during the last discussion with Michael Weinstock in the Sustainable Environmental Design studio, it has been highlighted that very few students of British nationality enrol in MA programmes. Since the vast majority of students are from the outside of the UK, and the future of the AA is questioned in the UK, why not change the protocol? Is the Architectural Association a British school, characterised mainly by its relation with the dynamic city it is based in? It is highly possible that if Brexit materialises and the AA fails to obtain degree-awarding powers, the number of students would decrease dramatically in the next few years. What happens then? What can an architectural education centre like the AA do in order to continue to deliver the level of
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education which makes it a model for many similar organisations all over the world? I would like to argue here that a way out of this quandary would be a continuation of the adaptation process started through the vote that is currently taking place. For on this occasion the AA seeks to respond by internally adapting its functional diagram to the requirements of the time by adapting its internal protocol. What is argued here is that, instead or apart from seeking the alignment of the AA protocol with the external conditions, what can be pursued is an attempt to rethink the spatial organisation of the institution. After all, the object of our work is spatial relations. The proposal is an exercise of imagination drafting an attempt to rethink the physical place of this unique model of teaching architecture. Let us just for a moment put the location in Bedford Square under scrutiny. Is Bedford Square still the place for the AA to be in the context of the changes to come in the near future at a national, local and academic level? The question is how to understand what represents the core of this institution. Does the spirit of the Architectural Association lie within the structure of its organisation and the teaching model? Or is it the school’s connection to the city of London? My two-year-long relation to the AA points me towards the first option. What is unique to the AA is the dynamism favoured by a spatial compression of its setting. It is the model proposed here that distinguishes this school of architecture from other similar institutions.
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It can be argued that the relation to the city of London has an immaterial contribution induced by stability and the deeply inscribed idea that the AA has a British origin. But isn’t the discussion about thinking outside of the box, challenging the status quo and proposing solutions to a shifting context? In this case there is no reason why the model cannot be exported to other locations, where the conditions are more favourable. The aim here isn’t to propose a list of possible alternatives. This should be the task of a specially designated committee. What is discussed here are the reasons why such an alternative is worth exploring. A precedent has been established: the visiting school embraced by so many institutions. All of a sudden, the idea of transposing the AA to another place no longer seems too far-fetched. What needs to be reproduced, though carefully, in order to maintain the spirit of the AA is the intimate character of the spatial configuration, as I believe this is key to the uniqueness of this institution. The reduced size of the Bedford site draws bodies and minds together increasing its functionality as a knowledge production centre through an accelerated exchange of information. Furthermore, the students (undergraduate) rarely go out of the studio and when they do it is in order to fly somewhere like Vietnam or North Korea in the interest of their studio work. Many complain that the AA student, especially the undergrads, are indoctrinated in their studio work with little time or interest to engage with
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the subject of their study by means of unmediated experience of their urban vicinity. I would now like to offer three directions in which this decentralisation process can point. The AA could become an integrated part of international airports all over the world. A network of enclaves of international transport hubs. Given the students do not engage materially with the environment surrounding their schools and remain in a sphere of suppositions on the conditions of these environments, it makes sense to disengage the institution from the urban context. It would then enable the students to engage in world-wide explorations and diagnosis. Or, as a colleague was suggesting, it is probably feasible to have an airplane constantly flying around the world picking and delivering students and researchers and deploying them in their areas of interest. Or why not a spaceship. Think of the NASA appropriation of an old plane and its transformation to incorporate a telescope. Why not do the same with a school of architecture. The idea of creating a nomad school. Mobility is increasingly characterising the academic environment. Starting from the middle ages scholars would travel from place to place. The more down-to-earth proposal would nevertheless consist in the design of a system envisaging the Association as an enclave of existing schools of architecture. A permanent office. This is not unprecedented. The short-lived Bauhaus as split in various branches in Germany
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(Ulm), United States (Chicago) and India. In the age of internet, what is the role of the physical location for an architectural academic institution? Could the AA model propagate beyond the specific conditions of the British academic environment in a way that would ensure a permanent material relation to similar institutions of architecture? However futuristic these proposals may seem, the idea of decentralising the AA and even relocating it does not seem absurd. The on-going voting campaign represents an attempt to empower the AA to manage its own future in an increasing volatile administrative and economic context. If we are to march in this direction, the question should be pushed further in the direction of achieving increased mobility and flexibility. A multitude of tools are available to us in a global set of economic, social and cultural conditions. The unique teaching method at the AA is menaced by its links with the past in the form of a local bond to its birthplace. If we are to adapt, let us envisage a broader spectrum of possibilities of doing so. I believe in the months to come the issue of the location of the AA should be seriously discussed by its members. The AA is structured by membership and goes beyond the walls of the London location. Let us project this further out and seek for the best conditions in which the concept of the AA can develop with less restrictions and more ambitions. For it is the ambition of this school to shape the future of architecture.
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NO GRATUITIES ALLOWED — Ed Bottoms, AA Archives
As recently as the late 1950s, the AA still had separate entrances and dining rooms for students and members and there existed a ‘Staff & Servants Christmas Fund’ which encouraged donations for the AA’s needy employees. Roll back a further 60 years, to 1891 and etiquette between the served and the servers was rather different – ‘No Gratuities Allowed: Protocol for AA Common Room behaviour, c1891. AA Archives’. collectionsblog.aaschool.ac.uk
FAGGOT IN THE ********** COMPUTER LAB — Stefan Jovanović
Stefan Jovanović is a current 5th year student in Diploma 7 at the AA, operating with moving drawings and gestural scores for bodies and interactive motion-based systems. He is part of the Sadler’s Wells Summer University and works as a freelance director and dramaturge in collaboration with choreographers, dance-artists and filmmakers. His current research, thesis exploration and working production is called Radical Togetherness. His writing exposes the attention needed to withhold a communal system without prejudice and the significance of language in academia.
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This text arises out of an urgency to address the manner in which we treat one another in stressful academic and work environments. I experienced a disappointing exchange today at an institution I have been part of for the last seven years. The end of second term marks a stressful period for all of our architecture students, caught amidst the pressure of presentations and deadlines. I sat down to work at a computer in one of the labs, a computer that was inactive for an hour. The previous user, another student, returns after two hours of having been elsewhere and brusquely tells me to get off, since he was there in the morning. I question his logic given no note was left and the computer was logged out. He pauses for a moment, and then blurts out: ‘Listen, just get off the computer faggot!’ My friend and I gave him two words of advice, soft perhaps in retrospect; to watch his mouth and remove the word faggot from his vocabulary; it won’t get him very far in life. He apologised and said that he was having a hard day… Whether he knew who I was or not, my background, or sexuality, is irrelevant for this short story. To think that it is ok to use the word faggot to win an argument or insult a stranger is simply not cool; in fact it’s just unacceptable. When you are part of a rigorous, higher educational institution, constantly dealing with the ethics of your own work and design – think carefully about how you
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address other human beings that surround you. In her email on March 15th, Belinda Flaherty wrote that at the AA we have the ability to freely and openly communicate with each other. I echo this as I reflect on our community’s strongest and most valued quality, as students, staff and family. This open communication is a result of over a century’s building of a beautiful diverse group of people and of a nurtured acceptance and love.
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Words are powerful tools and can bear heavy consequences; they can be the thin line between generosity and violence, despair and compassion. We are living in a very heightened period of time, where both through the everyday and through social media we encounter the horrendous distribution of license to abuse others. It is too easy to stay silent, to brush off the small commentaries, to foster the birth of collective traumas. Each and every one of us has the duty to speak up and to use the voices that we have, and to be vigilant. Protocol is an interesting term in relation to human behaviour, to what is normative, to what is accepted. I question what protocol looks like, feels like, when we enter the domain of ethics. To my dear colleague, under immense stress that day, I say, if you don’t know the context of the terminology and lexicon you decide to incorporate into your jargon; especially an offensive and sad one like this, now is your time to learn. Certain words describe minorities, and if you consciously
abuse them verbally, you are entering into a very dangerous terrain in relationship to identity. Identity discrimination is a big no, and there just isn’t any excuse to argue otherwise. And one last thing... be kind.
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NEW FROM AA PUBLICATIONS
Originally founded as a means of examining influential contemporary projects and opening up ideas to debate, today AA Publications is one of the world’s leading architectural publishers. Our editorial programme includes titles by architects, artists, AA tutors and students. Each year, the AA’s own Print Studio – made up of a team of architectural editors and graphic designers – works to produce eight to ten titles, plus two issues of AA Files, the school’s journal of record. www.aaschool.ac.uk/publications
This book is the first to document the remarkable history of the International Institute of Design (IID), an independent school of architecture founded and directed by Alvin Boyarsky from 1970–72, and highlights a pivotal episode in the career of Boyarsky, best known for his subsequent role as chairman of the AA (1971–90). In Progress details this shortlived experiment through a trove of previously unpublished material, and reveals how three informal architectural
gatherings, held over three successive summers, can be seen to have established not only a network of architects and discourses, but a new model for architectural education.
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In Progress: The IID Summer Sessions
Edited by Irene Sunwoo Co-published with the Graham Foundation 272 pp, 297 × 215 mm Extensive colour and b&w illustrations, paperback 978-1-907896-45-3 £25
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Architecture Words 12: Stones Against Diamonds Lina Bo Bardi
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Lina Bo Bardi (1914 – 1992) was a prolific architect, designer and thinker, whose work, absorbing her native Italy and then after 1946 her adopted homeland, Brazil, spans across architecture, furniture, stage and costume design, urban planning, curatorial work, teaching and writing. This collection of essays is the first-ever English anthology of her writings. An acute critic and a creative thinker, Bo Bardi
proposes a series of new parameters for design thinking and practice. Presented collectively, her texts present a wealth of inspirational thoughts articulated in a refreshingly simple, straightforward fashion. Second printing Introduction by Silvana Rubino 132 pp, 180 × 110 mm Extensive b&w illustrations, paperback 978-1-907896-20-0 £15
AA Files 74 features essays on by Dietrich Neumann solving the mystery of Mies van der Rohe’s enigmatic concrete office building project, Davide Spina uncovering a drive-in cinema in Rome, William Firebrace discovering the city of Koenigsberg/Kaliningrad, Claire Zimmerman on factory architect Albert Kahn, and two conversations, the first with the English local authority architect Kate Macintosh, the second with American architect and academic Peter Eisenman.
Available June 2017 c200 pp, 240 × 290 mm Extensive colour and b&w illustrations, paperback Available June 2017 £25
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AA Files 74
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AA BOOKSHOP’S RECOMMENDED READING FOR VALUE
The AA Bookshop is one of London’s leading specialist architecture bookshops. Order the following titles online, where a selection of new books, special offers and some backlist titles are available. www.aabookshop.net
The concept of urban protocol names a strategy for understanding the condition of Athens today. Urban protocols are meant to introduce legal temporary occupancies within the abandoned city centre, controlled by a municipal authority. The purpose of an urban protocol is to establish cluster-like micro legislative constructions with communal functions. Urban protocols are formed as systems of rules. Using video game terminology, we may say that the urban protocols are play-tested in the city, performed and improved
via the internet. The system of rules they represent could be transformed and easily re-established.
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Archipelago of Protocols
By Aristide Antonas 224 pp, 210 x 150 mm Paperback £35
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SUB-PLAN How far does planning control what we build? And what can we build without planning? SUB-PLAN investigates the moment when architecture appears to slip into insignificance – when it doesn’t even need a planning application. Are the implications of minor development more significant than planners imagine?
Produced by visiting tutors and students at the Architectural Association Summer School. Tutors: David Knight, Finn Wiliams, Europa, with Ulf Hackauf, Jonathan Turney and Anders Stockman. 136 pp, 230 x 150 mm Paperback £11
‘It’s legal, but is it legitimate?’ and ‘It’s legitimate, but is it legal?’ These are questions rarely discussed in public concerning architecture and urban design. Yet architects have to deal with rules and regulations, and architecture is to a large extent defined by them. So the question is: how to deal with the law? Throughout the pages of this issue, ‘Volume’ explored different strategies for dealing with legal problems, whether that be through a direct fight or indirect action, through avoiding, subverting or changing the law. Because in
the end, law is too important to be left to lawyers.
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Volume #38: The Shape of Law
144 pp, 270 x 200 mm Paperback £17.50
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How to Write a Thesis ‘By the time Umberto Eco published his best-selling novel The Name of the Rose, he was one of Italy’s most celebrated intellectuals, a distinguished academic and the author of influential works on semiotics. Some years before that, in 1977, Eco published a little book for his students, How to Write a Thesis, in which he offered useful advice on all the steps involved in researching and writing a thesis – from choosing a topic to organising a work schedule to writing the final draft. Now in its twenty-third edition in Italy and translated into seventeen languages, How
to Write a Thesis has become a classic. Remarkably, this is its first, long overdue publication in English. Eco’s approach is anything but dry and academic. He not only offers practical advice but also considers larger questions about the value of the thesis-writing exercise.’ By Umberto Eco 256 pp, 306 x 203 mm Paperback £13.95
AA News Careers & Prizes
Professor Christine Hawley, a former AA Tutor and Alumna and current AA Council Member, has won RIBA’s £10,000 Annie Spink Award, a biennial prize which recognises individuals who have made a significant contribution to the ‘advancement of architectural education’ in schools of architecture. Christine Hawley
Former AA student, Leila Meroue (AADipl 2012), has founded Let’s Build My School, a charity which aims to construct schools and extra classrooms in remote villages in developing countries using locally-sourced and, where possible, recycled materials such as tyres and sandbags. Working alongside the local community, the charity’s first project is to build two additional classrooms in Thies, Senegal, at Bassirou Mbacké High School. Construction will start in May 2017 and there will be a number of cultural events in London in order to raise funds for the project. To help support Let’s Build My School please visit www.letsbuildmyschool.org Diploma 7 Unit Master John Walters won the Southbank Centre’s Hayward Touring programme’s 2017 Hayward Curatorial Open – its yearly call for proposals for an exhibition of contemporary art aiming to nurture new and diverse curatorial talent and expand the parameters of the contemporary curatorial landscape. Walters was selected from an open submission of 125 proposals for his proposal
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AA Baylight Scholar Asif Khan (AADipl 2007) in partnership with Stanton Williams – led by AA Alumnus and former Council Member Alan Stanton (AADipl(Hons) 1967) and AA Member Paul Williams – received £180 million from the City of London Corporation and London Mayor’s office for their new Museum of London design. Relocating from London Wall, the new venue will be constructed on the site of the Smithfield General Market, with the intention of doubling the annual number of museum visitors to two million with 9500 square metres of gallery space. Earlier projects by Khan, who also teaches at the Royal College of Art, include the Coca-Cola Beatbox pavilion in the London 2012 Olympic Park and the West Beach cafe at Littlehampton in Sussex (2008). www.architectsjournal.co.uk
completed her AA Diploma in 1975 and later taught at the AA from 1979 to 1987. www.architectsjournal.co.uk
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Shonky: The Aesthetics of Awkwardness, a group exhibition that will bring together international artists and architects to explore the nature of visual awkwardness. Shonky will open at the MAC, Belfast on 20 October 2017 before touring to Dundee Contemporary Arts and the Bury Art Museum & Sculpture Centre.
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Tommy Hui (AADipl 2014) was runner-up in the ‘Tree of Light’ competition, organised by RIBA HK CELEBRATE! 2016, a contest that explored the potential of lighting and illumination design. AA graduate and Visiting Tutor Kate Darby (AADipl 1997) and partner David Connor have been announced as winners of the 2017 AJ Small Projects Award for their preservation and conversion of a listed 300-year-old ruined cottage into Croft Lodge Studio. The judging panel also highly commended The Layered Gallery by Gianni Botsford Architects, led by AA Alumnus and former tutor Gianni Botsford (AADipl 1996), and the Asylum House Project by AA graduate Richa Mukhia (AADipl(Hons) 2006) and partner John O’Shea (m.os architects) which also went on to win the 2017 AJ Small
Projects People’s Choice Award. The AA’s Intermediate Unit 8 tutors Francisco Gonzalez de Canales and Nuria Alvarez Lombardero’s project, Perea Borobio House, was also shortlisted in the competition which received over 200 entries. www.architectsjournal.co.uk AA Alumna Amanda Levete (AADipl 1982) appeared on BBC Radio 4’s Desert Island Discs discussing her architectural career since graduating from the AA and recent projects undertaken by her practice AL_A, including the highly anticipated expansion of the V&A Museum in London. www.bbc.co.uk/radio
Exhibitions & Events
February2017/CatherineYass.aspx
Diorama, an exhibition of work by the 2016 Stirling Prize winners, former AA Councillor, Lecturer and Alumnus Peter St John (AADipl(Hons) 1984) and his partner Adam Caruso was shown at Betts Project from 19 January to 25 February 2017. The exhibition presented a selection of models for competitions as well as the model of their Stirling Prize winning project, the Newport Street Gallery. www.bettsproject.com/caruso-stjohn-diorama/
AA Alumnus Lawrence Lek (AADipl 2008), recipient of the 2017 Jerwood/FVU Award, is premiering a newly commissioned film, Geomancer, as part of an exhibition that accompanies the awards at the Jerwood Space in London. The exhibition runs from 22 March to 14 May 2017. www.fvu.co.uk/projects/geomancer
AA Tutors Mark Campbell and Francesca Hughes participated in a panel discussion as part of a unique evening showcasing the latest film work of artist Catherine Yass, Aeolian Piano, at the RIBA. Aeolian Piano is one of a series of 8 works commissioned to document the departure of the BBC from its iconic site in west London which is now under redevelopment. www.architecture.com/WhatsOn/
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AA PhD candidates Georgios Eftaxiopoulos and Álvaro Velasco Pérez curated the exhibition Towards Ithaca: An Architecture of Asylum at the UNAV School of Architecture, Navarra, Spain. The exhibition ran from 20 January to 20 February 2017.
Public works, a critical design practice whose founders include AA Alumni and former Tutors Andreas Lang (AADipl 1999), Kathrin Böhm, Torange Khonsari (AADipl 1998) and Sandra Denicke-Polcher (AADipl 1998), hosted The Art of Being Civic, a two-day symposium at Tate Modern from 6-7 April 2017 as part of their on-going collaboration with AA Alumnus and Council Member Professor Robert Mull (AADipl 1983) and his initiative Global Practice Programme. www.publicworksgroup.net
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Obituaries
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It is with great sadness to report the passing of AA Past President, Alumnus and Tutor Leonard Manasseh who died on 5 March 2017, aged 100. Leonard began studying at the Architectural Association in 1935 and later became an influential teacher and practicing architect. Reflection on Leonard as friend, tutor and architect, by Peter Ahrends, will follow in AArchitecture 32.
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We are sad to announce the passing of AA Alumnus and Honorary Member Richard Burton (AADipl(Hons) 1956) at the age of 83 on 29 January 2017. Richard was instrumental in setting up the Architectural Association’s woodland campus, Hooke Park, in 2002 and then advising on its development. He studied at the AA from 1951-56, and went on to co-found Ahrends, Burton and Koralek (ABK) with Peter Ahrends and Paul Koralek, fellow students who he met at the AA. Richard began his career working for London County Council and Powell & Moya, going on to design The Princess Margaret Hospital in Swindon and extensions to Brasenose College in Oxford, before founding AKB in 1961. The work of ABK exemplified the optimism of the post-war era,
and Richard’s key projects included the Berkeley Library in Trinity College, Dublin, as well as the House of Trees built for the Makepeace School (now used as the Refectory building at Hooke Park). He pioneered energy efficient projects and forefronted the design of the British Embassy in Moscow, completed in 2000. Richard believed in the power of architecture transforming people’s lives and enriching society. For him, architecture was a real form of art. He was involved with a RIBA Energy initiative in the 70s and worked with hospitals attempting to create buildings which would benefit patients in recovery, often using the nature around the buildings to enhance his designs. Swindon Hospital is an example of this unique holistic design, and which became an international model for environmentally friendly buildings for healthcare. Richard was a Fellow of the Royal Society of Architects, an Associate of the Royal Institute of British Architects, and was made an Honorary Member of the AA in 2011. Richard is survived by his wife Mireille along with their daughter and three sons. In recent years, Mireille and Richard opened to the public on Open House weekends their house in Kentish Town, which
he had designed and built using materials recycled or left-over from other constructions, and Richard enjoyed the considerable interest this generated amongst neighbours, students and other visitors. A book launch and exhibition dedicated to the house were held at the AA in 2015.
Roderick Ham (AADipl 1952), who was born in September 1925, passed away at the beginning of this year at the age of 91. Rod was principally known for his work on theatres, often working with the architect George Finch, in particular the designs for Derby Playhouse, the New Wolsey Theatre in Ipswich and the Thorndike Theatre in Leatherhead. He served in the British army during WWII as a Second Lieutenant. Habib Fida Ali (AADipl 1962), one of Pakistan’s most distinguished architects, sadly passed away on 7 January 2017. Habib’s work included the design and construction of a number of important buildings as well as with the conservation and renovation of Mohatta Palace in Karachi. He received a lifetime achievement award
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One of our most illustrious Alumni, Inette Austin-Smith, co-founder of the international practice Austin-Smith Lord, very sadly passed away on 11 January 2017. Inge Lotte Edith Austin-Smith (nee Griessmann) was born in Germany on 23 January 1924 and by 1944, while Inette was in her second year at the AA, the school recorded a demographic of more female students than male for the first time in its history, she being part of the 50-strong female population. Whilst at the AA, she received Mentions for her boathouse and library designs in 1943, and further Mentions for her landscape, texture and heating studies in 1944. Her fifth year project ‘Flats, West Norwood’, with S.E. Mullins, was awarded a Pass with Distinction. After leaving the AA she worked for Middlesex County Council on schools and then for Norman & Dawbarn, in charge of the housing estate for paraplegics in Watford. In January 1948 she married John Michael Austin-Smith (1918-
1999) who she had met in the fifth year at the AA. She remained a Member of the AA and a trustee at the Cornwall Architectural Trust for the rest of her life. Inette donated her entire 5 years of AA work (1942-48) and that of her husband’s (AA 1936-47, AA President 1961-2) to the AA Archives in 2011 and she recorded an extensive set of oral histories for the AAXX100 project, which she was a patron of.
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from the Institute of Architects in Pakistan. In 1956 Habib was the first Pakistani student to be admitted to the AA. He graduated in 1962 and became an Associate of the Royal Institute of British Architects (ARIBA).
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We are saddened to announce the passing away of Lady Susan Lasdun. Susan was the widow of the eminent British architect Sir Denys Lasdun, who studied at the AA and later served as a member of the AA Council. She had studied at Camberwell Art School, and went on to write and work on the interiors of some of Sir Denys’ buildings. After Denys died in 2001, Susan continued to have a relationship with the AA, becoming an Honorary Member in 2002, and frequently attending lectures, especially when researching her several books which included Making Victorians, The English Park and Victorians at Home. She is survived by two sons and a daughter. AA Alumnus Martyn Haxworth passed away on 26 September 2016. Christopher Woodward remembers him in the following memoir: The seventy new arrivals to the first year at the AA in 1957 were accommodated on the first floor of the Morwell Street block. In a simulacrum of an architect’s office, on either side
of a central corridor were rows of trestle tables, each supporting a double-elephant size drawing board and hardwood t-square. Drawing was clearly going to be important. Students were placed in alphabetical order, starting at the door, running to the end of the room, then returning on the other side, to the door. Those with names early in the alphabet (MH) found themselves across the corridor from those later (‘CW’), and from this accident what were to become life-long friendships sparked and matured. The new students were a mixed bunch; some younger and straight from school, others, like Martyn, had done their National Service or had just taken up their studies again after the end of the world war in 1945. As we worked through the first year curriculum, drawing exercises led to a first attempt at design, a changing pavilion for a swimming pool. We were taught how to set up 2- and 3-point perspectives (magic!). When asked to illustrate our projects, many of us produced thin pen drawings and carefully coloured these in with water colour. Martyn’s experience at school with a charismatic art teacher came in handy: his perspectives were sketchy, scratchy, and coloured with broad strokes of gouache. In the second to fourth years (no ‘gap year’ then) we
who stopped to chat with Martyn and asked what a brick wanted to be (but at that time he probably asked everyone that). Having been head-hunted during the final term, on the day after this ended, MH and CW and others started work for the team that Colin Buchanan was leading to prepare the report that became ‘Traffic in Towns’ for the Minister of Transport. We became civil servants, signed the Official Secrets Act, and studied the effect of constrained and un-constrained traffic growth on access to London’s Fitzrovia. The press misread this as a plan to cover London in 16-lane motorways, something our studies on the fourth year had clearly equipped us for. The report changed little: soon after its publication, in 1963, the minister, Ernest Marples lost his job, as did we. From 1965, Martyn worked for Associated Architects and Consultants, Bill Allen (former Principal of the AA School) with Peter Rich and Birkin Haward, the three making a team designing and building a large housing scheme at Harlow New Town. In 1965 he set up a practice with George Kasabov (AA 1954–59) and together they developed, designed and built a row of spacious three-storey houses on a site overlooking Highgate Cemetery. The
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worked through the curriculum devised by James Gowan, John Killick and Peter Smithson: design studies of each successive year of the three were based on the village, town and city. At the beginning of the fifth, final, year Martyn returned, newly married to Jenny. In the search for a Diploma project, conversations in the holiday had also led MH, CW and Jim Hodges to consider doing a group project together, and they hit on ‘working up’ a characteristic housing area of the recentlypublished Master Plan prepared by the LCC in 1961 for a new town at Hook in Hampshire. Group work, though treated suspiciously by the school because it made marking individual students a problem, was quite fashionable, and the result, assessed by a panel including Oliver Cox and Alison Smithson, was wellreceived. The group was tutored throughout by Alan Colquhoun who, while saying little, impressed on us the importance of thinking very hard: he left us with one of what became the most memorable of his aphorisms: ‘I think you’ll find I’m right’. Cedric Price occasionally dropped by and Year Master Robert Maxwell provided pastoral care. Glamourous visitors to the studio included Louis Kahn
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Haxworth family established themselves at the end of the terrace, finding themselves sharing a garden wall with Leonard Manasseh. The partnership with Kasabov lasted until 1970 when Martyn set up a new practice with JCW Hodges (‘Jim’, one of the Hook Housing trio) who had left the Central Electricity Board, his sponsors for his AA studies. Jim brought several CEGB jobs with him, and the practice was also supported by rapid surveys for NHS hospitals. In 1974 the practice was secure and large enough to allow the partners to buy and develop a small freehold plot in West Smithfield in the City of London. They developed this, their office housing the practice’s staff of about ten. They were joined in 1980 by Penelope Martin-Jones who arrived from Ahrends, Burton and Koralek (AA). Clients continued to be the CEGB and NHS until the practice was dissolved in 1987 when the Haxworths moved to their last family home in Charlbury in Oxfordshire, while Martyn continued to practise on his own from West Smithfield until 2004 when he worked from home. In 2014 he became too ill to continue working. At his death in 2016 he had just completed a small ‘gatehouse’ – a two-room studio that he was never able to use.
Martyn had kept all his student work and meticulously catalogued it, together with the typed briefs to which we worked, and the reports of reviews that Year Masters made. I last saw him on a visit to Charlbury in 2014 to discuss who might be interested in housing this portfolio. He agreed that the AA would be its most suitable home where it now joins the 10,000 other drawings in the AA Archives.
Notices Search Committee Election Results
The results of the vote to approve the changes to the AA’s Articles of Association and By-Laws are now known. The Members voted strongly in favour of the changes (over 94
Projects Review 2017 The culmination of the year’s work at the Architectural Association showcasing student work from across the school from Foundation to PhD, will open on Friday 23 June at 6.30pm.
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A search committee has recently been established comprising eight elected members from across the School (3 academics, 3 students and 2 administrative staff) plus three nominees selected by Council. The first meeting will be taking place soon and their role is to do the field work in relation to finding and proposing the next Director who will take over from Brett Steele who steps down at the end of July. The names of the committee members are set out below. The search committee will eventually recommend candidates to Council who will make the final decision as to who is appointed. Academic members: Shin Egashira, Ryan Dillon and Mark Campbell. Administrative members: Edward Bottoms and Manijeh Verghese. Student members: Joshua Harskamp, Sofia Krimizi and Moad Musbahi. Council nominees are Sadie Morgan, John Worthington and Julia Black.
per cent approved them). The new constitution of the Association is now approved and is ‘live’. Key changes include the inclusion in the statutes of the Director and the School Community for the first time, and the ability to appoint trustees to the board from outside the membership, bringing a diverse range of skills and disciplines and the inclusion of the Director in their number for the first time.
Upcoming Exhibition Everything Architecture OFFICE Kersten Geers David Van Severen 29 April to 27 May 2017 AA Gallery Everything Architecture was first exhibited in the antechambers of the BOZAR Centre for Fine Arts in Brussels and afterwards at the Arc en Rêve Centre d’Architecture in Bordeaux, before travelling here to the AA.
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The point of departure for the exhibition is the idea that every one of the productions of OFFICE can be considered a project in itself. Models, drawings and perspectives populate the gallery as individual objects, together with works of art which are related to the spirit and language of OFFICE. In this field of objects, sculptures are considered as companions en route to architectural production; paintings and photographs enforce or break the different perspectives and search for dialogue.
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Members’ Screenings The Forgotten Space by Allan Sekula & Noël Burch Thursday 25 May 2017, 7pm AA Cinema The Forgotten Space follows container cargo aboard ships, barges, trains and trucks, listening to workers, engineers, planners, politicians and those marginalised by the global transport system. We visit displaced farmers and villagers in Holland and Belgium, underpaid truck drivers in Los Angeles, seafarers aboard mega-ships shuttling between Asia and Europe and factory workers in China, whose low wages are the fragile key to the whole puzzle. And in Bilbao, we
discover the most sophisticated expression of the belief that the maritime economy, and the sea itself, are somehow obsolete. My Architect by Nathaniel Kahn Thursday 29 June 2017, 7pm AA Cinema Director Nathaniel Kahn barely knew his father, but many throughout the world did. He was renowned architect Louis Kahn, who designed noteworthy buildings in California, Texas and even Bangladesh. Nathaniel explores his father’s past, interviewing architects such as Frank O. Gehry, as well as members of the multiple families started by the philandering Louis. What emerges is a portrait of a brilliant but unreliable man whose creations, which are featured prominently in the film, still astound. Only open to AA Students and Members.
ISSUE 32 SILENCE
mode of being
When ‘noise’ is assumed to be Z, silence is the forbearance from noise intentional When ‘noise’ is assumed to be X, silence is the oblivion of noise unintentional When ‘noise’ is assumed to be Y, silence is the absence of noise, stillness undefined In case of ‘noise’ = Z, ‘I think I will do nothing for a long time but listen And accrue what I hear into myself... and let sounds contribute towards me’ – Leaves of Grass, Walt Whitman
Please submit your interpretation, essay, drawing, image by Friday 30 June 2017 to aarchitecture@aaschool.ac.uk
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AArchitecture 31 / Term 3, 2016–17 www.aaschool.ac.uk © 2017 All rights reserved Published by the Architectural Association 36 Bedford Square, London WC1B 3ES Please send your news items for the next issue to news@aaschool.ac.uk Student Editorial Team: Hunter Doyle Sensy Mania Emily Priest Newsbrief and Obituaries: Guy Norton
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Editorial Board: Alex Lorente, Membership Brett Steele, AA School Director Design: Boris Meister Cover image: The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie, Luis Buñuel, 1972 AA Photography: Valerie Bennett and Sue Barr Printed by Blackmore, England Architectural Association (Inc) Registered Charity No 311083 Company limited by guarantee Registered in England No 171402 Registered office as above
CONTRIBUTORS Sofia Pia Belenky Nick Adams Charles Shade Sensy Mania Igor Gola Helene Humbert Nuria Marti Jack Hardy Dara Nerweyi Raluca Grada Joy Lai Ștefan Popa Ed Bottoms Stefan Jovanović
EDITORS Hunter Doyle Sensy Mania Emily Priest
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