Architecture and Education Series organised by Mark Cousins Adrian Forty Concrete and Culture Monday 30 January, 6.00 Lecture Hall Almost three tons of concrete are produced every year for each man, woman and child on the planet. It is now second only to water in terms of human consumption. Yet how has the astonishing take-up of this new medium within little over a century been accommodated into our mental universe? While it has transformed the lives of many people, in Western countries it has been widely vilified, blamed for making everywhere look the same, and for erasing nature. Architects and engineers, although they have primary responsibility for ‘interpreting’ concrete, are not the only people to employ the medium, and many other occupations – politicians, artists, writers, filmmakers, churchmen – have made use of concrete for purposes of their own. The results are often contentious, and draw attention to some of the contradictions in how we think about our physical surroundings. Adrian Forty is Professor of Architectural History at the Bartlett School of Architecture, UCL. His book Words and Buildings, a Vocabulary of Modern Architecture (2000) will be reissued by Thames and Hudson in early 2012, and his new book Concrete and Culture is forthcoming from Reaktion in April. Co-authored publications include The Art of Forgetting (1999) and Brazil’s Modern Architecture (2004). He is currently President of the European Architectural History Network. Article 25 Student Chapter/ AA Community Cluster Series Tyin Tegnestue An Architecture that Follows Necessity Tuesday 31 January, 6.00 Lecture Hall Real-life, fundamental problems demand an approach to architecture where everything serves a purpose – an architecture that follows necessity. That is the belief of the young Norwegian architecture office Tyin Tegnestue, who will present a selection of their work in poor and underdeveloped areas of Thailand, Haiti, Sumatra and Uganda. By actively involving the local population in both the design and building of their projects, the office is able to establish a framework for mutual exchange of knowledge and skills. All materials used in their projects are collected close to the sites or purchased from local merchants, and architecture students from around the world are involved.
Tyin Tegnestue Architects was established in 2008. Currently run by recent graduates Andreas G Gjertsen and Yashar Hanstad, it has its headquarters in Trondheim. The AA Community Cluster is a newly formed group that acts as a forum for people engaging with socially and environmentally responsible design. One of its facets is the AA’s Article 25 Student Chapter, which aims to raise awareness – through lectures, workshops and events – about the role the built environment can play in international development and disaster relief. See www.article-25.org and community.aaschool.ac.uk Exhibition-related lecture hosted by Brett Steele Groundlab/Plasma Studio Wednesday 1 February 6.00 Lecture Hall To coincide with the Critical Territories exhibition currently showing in the AA Gallery, members of the practices Groundlab and Plasma Studio will discuss with Brett Steele their transdisciplinary approach to projects of all scales. Landscape Urbanism Guest Lecture Richard Ingersoll Thursday 2 February 1.00 New Soft Room Currently based at Syracuse University in Florence, where he teaches sixteenthcentury Italian architecture and Italian urbanism, Richard Ingersoll was formerly Associate Professor at Rice University and Visiting Professor at ETH Zurich, Università di Ferrara and UNav Pamplona. He was editor of Design Book Review and art director for the film Esther. Recent books include Sprawltown and Global Architecture 1900-2000, vol I. His articles appear regularly in Arquitectura Viva, Il Giornale di Architettura, Harvard Design Magazine, Architecture and Bauwelt. Evening Lecture Brian Hatton The Subject of the Open Plan Thursday 2 February 6.00 Lecture Hall In the early twentieth century the ‘open plan’ became a key site in modernist architecture. Its most extreme versions, without rooms or doors, seemed to symbolise a radical and unprecedented freedom. Moreover, in recent projects for continuous surfaces and folds, the ‘open’ has extended into topologies of section and time. Yet the question of who might be the subject of such ‘scapes’ has seldom been asked. That enquiry leads back to the eighteenth century and the romantic inception of ‘wandering’ as an image of freedom.
But it also leads on to Constant’s dystopic paintings of his open-plan New Babylon, to disoriented subjects in Antonioni’s films, and to the indefinite repetitions of Rodney Graham’s loops in narrative time. Brian Hatton is a lecturer at Liverpool John Moores University, and has taught over many years at the AA. He is London correspondent for Lotus, and was 2009 Mellon Research Fellow at the Canadian Centre for Architecture. Friday Lecture Series Mark Cousins The Poetics of Cliché Friday 3 February, 5.00 Lecture Hall This term Mark Cousins’ Friday evening lectures deal with the fact that commonplaces nonetheless frequently exercise a powerful attraction – it will attempt to account for this by reference to the Imaginary. The series continues on 2, 9 March. Artist Talks Series organised by Parveen Adams Monika Sosnowska Friday 3 February, 6.30 Lecture Hall Monika Sosnowska’s work is couched in architectural terms. It involves modifying pre-existing and purpose-built architectural forms, often with reference to the failed utopia of the people’s Poland as in 1:1, installed in the Polish pavilion at the Venice Biennale in 2007. She frequently builds one space in another as an intervention in and comment on it; the spectator moving through the space experiences the dislocation – both spectator and space being neither inside nor outside the original structure. Sosnowska’s work has been exhibited across Europe and worldwide, for more than a decade. Among numerous publications of her work, the most recent coverage is in a collection on contemporary Polish art edited in 2011 by Ernst van Alphen. She lives and works in Warsaw.
Exhibitions are open to Saturday 11 February, Monday to Friday 10.00– 7.00, Saturday 10.00–5.00 Critical Territories Groundlab and Plasma Studio AA Gallery Critical Territories presents the work of practices, Groundlab and Plasma Studio, which share a transdisciplinary approach and operate at multiple scales, from product and building design to landscape and masterplanning. The installation – a site-specific grid arrangement of light boxes covered with technical drawings – has been conceived to immerse visitors in the
systemic approach of the practices and their preoccupation with grids, ground and context. Among the projects on show are the Xian International Horticultural Expo and the Longgang Masterplan. H·O·R·T·U·S ecoLogicStudio Front Members’ Room H·O·R·T·U·S (Hydro Organisms Responsive to Urban Stimuli) engages with notions of renewable energy and urban agriculture through a new gardening prototype. Over a four-week growing period, flows of energy (light radiation), matter (biomass, carbon dioxide) and information (images, tweets, stats) are triggered to induce multiple mechanisms of self-regulation and evolve novel forms of self-organisation. H·O·R·T·U·S proposes an experimental hands-on engagement with these notions, illustrating their potential application to masterplanning regional landscapes and retrofitting industrial and rural architectural types, as exemplified in the project ‘Regional Algae Farm’ developed by ecoLogicStudio for Österlen on Sweden’s Baltic coast. ARTitectural Production Curated by Friedrich Gräfling AA Bar The title ARTitecture evokes the close connections between fine art and architecture from the medieval period till today. In this exhibition three artists – Jorinde Voigt, Anne Hardy and Hynek Martinec – will offer their perspectives on the links between the disciplines, opening up a broader discussion that asks: Where are the contact points between architecture and art today? How do they compete or profit from their close relationship? Roundtable discussion at the AA on Wednesday 8 February. Sponsored and supported by Czech Centre London and Kleine Wundertüte. Public Piracy: Augmentation for Civic Misuse Diploma Unit 1 Back Members’ Room Set within the context of Diploma 1’s unit agenda – developing prototypes for the information revolution – this twoweek exhibition offers a first glimpse into the operations of the unit and its explorations into the lost public space of the City of London, an area that epitomises the tension between the scarcity of the real and the abundance of the virtual. The exhibition showcases a series of treacherous, surprising, critical and transformative devices all prompted by our technologically augmented perception of today’s reality. Among
these, the show articulates positions towards our post-web 2.0 culture, and proposes tactics and strategies for reclaiming civic space through the amalgamation and augmentation of mere physicality via our digital avatars. As a consequence, a kind of architecture is introduced in the in-between of data highways, sensorial accumulations, social web applications, CCTV, data archives, Skype and web platforms on the one hand, and within the actuality of public spaces, cultural institutions, ecclesiastical spaces, banks and civic structures on the other.
Advance Notice: Term 2 Open Week Term 2 Open Week will take place in Week 5: Monday 6 to Friday 10 February. Students are reminded that Complementary Studies courses will be suspended during that week to allow for participation in Open Week activities. Schedule: 10.00 daily, Physical Computing, AA Digital Prototyping / Lab Workshop with Denis Vlieghe and Shankara Kothapuram 10.00 daily, Move or Die, Digital Animation Open Workshop delivered by Oliviu Lugojan-Ghenciu Monday 6 February 6.00 Doreen Bernath, Curves in Design and Pictures, fourth lecture in the Architecture and Education Series organised by Mark Cousins Tuesday 7 February 11.00 Research Cluster Launch Event Paradise Lost, Mark Campbell 2.00 Research Cluster Launch Event Saturated Space / Antoni Malinowski, Adam Furman, Fenella Collingridge 6.00 Roundtable Discussion: Project Japan with Rem Koolhaas, Hans Ulrich Obrist, Brett Steele and Shumon Basar Wednesday 8 February 1.00 AA Community Cluster Open Discussion 6.00 Roundtable Discussion: ARTitectural Production with Jorinde Voigt, Anne Hardy and Hynek Martinec, moderated by Lavinia Neff Thursday 9 February 10.00 Concluding event, Urbanism and the Informal City Research Cluster organised by Jorge Fiori, Elena Pascolo and Alex Warnock-Smith with Alfredo Brillembourg, Jose Castillo, Teddy Cruz and Jorge Jauregui Friday 10 February all day Open Jury Cross-School jury of ‘work in progress’. A full schedule of Open Week events will be published in next week’s Events List.
TS3 and TS5 Notices TS Staff and Tutorial Schedule Third Year (tutorials held on Thursday afternoons): Wolfgang Frese Clive Fussell Duncan Macaulay Fernando Perez Manja Van de Worp Fifth Year (tutorials held throughout the week): Javier Castañon (Mondays and Thursdays) Kenny Fraser (Friday mornings) Mehran Gharleghi (Wednesdays) Martin Hagemann (Fridays) David Illingworth (Tuesday afternoons/evenings) John Noel (Wednesdays) Additionally, Third and Fifth Year students can book to see Giles Bruce (Environmental/Monday afternoons) and Christina Doumpioti (Materials/Thursday afternoons) for specific queries. All bookings can be made through the new online tutorial booking system but please see Belinda with any questions or queries. Term 2 and Term 3 Key Dates Option 1 Interim Juries: Monday 13 to Friday 17 February Option 1 Final Submission: Monday 5 March Option 2 Interim Juries: Monday 5 to Friday 9 March Option 2 Final Submission: Monday 23 April TS3 and TS5 High Pass Panel: Thursday 3 May TS3 and TS5 High Pass Exhibition: Friday 4 May AA Bookshop Notices Temporary Closure The AA Bookshop reopened on Monday 23 January in its new location at 32 Bedford Square back. Members’ Discount on January Titles Members receive a 20 per cent discount on the month’s featured titles and up to 50 per cent discount on selected offers. Order the January selection of new titles online at www.aabookshop.net To join, go to www.aaschool.ac.uk/ membership/join/subscriptions.php Contact the Bookshop at bookshop@aabookshop.net or call 020 7887 4041.
10.30 Sustainable Environmental Design (SED) Refurbishing the City Part II Programme Staff SED Studio
2.00 Landscape Urbanism Critical Territories Doug Spencer New Soft Room 2.00 Projective Cities Theories of the Contemporary City Sam Jacoby and Chris Lee 32 GFB
2.00 AAIS 33 FFB 6.00 Evening Lecture Adrian Forty Concrete and Culture Lecture Hall
10.00 HTS First Year History of Architecture – a critical outline Species of Spaces: a critical comparison between Byzantine, Islamic and Chinese Architecture Pier Vittorio Aureli with Mollie Claypool, Emma Jones, Alison Moffett and Zaynab Dena Ziari 36 SFB (Please note: seminars also take place in North and South Jury Rooms) 10.00 Architecture & Urbanism (DRL) Material Behaviour Programme staff Lecture Hall 10.30 SED Research Paper 2 and Dissertations Programme staff 33 FFF 11.00 History & Critical Thinking The Post-Eurocentric City John Palmesino 32 FFF 1.00 Architecture & Urbanism (DRL) Design as Research II Programme staff Lecture Hall 1.30 SED Renewable Energy Technologies Alan Harries 36 SFB
6.00 Exhibition-related lecture Groundlab/Plasma Studio Lecture Hall
10.00 HTS Second Year Architectures – their pasts and cultures Political Identity and Architecture Mark Cousins with Ryan Dillon, Ross Adams, Daniel Ayat and Roberta Maraccio 32 SFB (Please note: seminars also take place in 32 FFF and FFB and 33 FFB) 10.00 HTS Third Year Architectural Coupling (+) Collage City v. Learning from Las Vegas Mollie Claypool and Ryan Dillon with Ivonne Santoyo Orozco, Shumi Bose, Orit Goldstein-Mayer and Emanouil Stavrakakis 36 SFB (Please note: seminars also take place in North and South Jury Rooms) 10.00 TS First Year First Applications – Environmental Group Giles Bruce (Ingrid/Valentin groups) 33 FFF
10.00 Building Conservation/Year 1 Structural Movements 3&4 Clive Richardson 33 FFF 2.00 Building Visit Ed Morton 10.00 Building Conservation/Year 2 Visit to St Paul’s Cathedral 11.50 Work of a Conservator Cathy Littlejohn 33 FFB 2.00 Visit Early Gothic Interiors Megan Aldrich 10.00 H&U MArch Jury Presentation of dissertation projects Studio 2 1.00 History & Critical Thinking Debates: The City, Politics and Spaces Marina Lathouri, John Palmesino and Visiting Speaker Adam Broomberg (film maker/photographer) New Soft Room 2.00 AAIS 32 SFB 2.00 Landscape Urbanism Machining Landscapes Tom Smith 32 FFB 2.30 PhD Seminar Mark Cousins South Jury Room
10.00 TS First Year First Applications – Materials Group Christina Doumpioti (Alex/Sarah groups) 37 FFF
5.00 Friday Lecture Series Mark Cousins The Poetics of Cliché Lecture Hall
10.00 TS First Year First Applications – Structures Group Marissa Kretsch (Monia/Alex groups) 38 FFF
6.30 Artist Talks Series Monika Sosnowska Lecture Hall
2.00 History & Critical Thinking Contemporary forms of architecture and agency Douglas Spencer 32 FFF
1.00 LU Guest Lecture Richard Ingersoll New Soft Room
4.00 SED Lessons from Practice: Recent Projects Richard Hawkes 36 SFB
2.00 TS Second Year Term 2 Option Materials Glass Carolina Bartram 36 SFB
6.00 Evening Lecture Tyin Tegnestue An Architecture that Follows Necessity Lecture Hall
6.00 Evening Lecture Brian Hatton The Subject of the Open Plan Lecture Hall
3.00 Housing & Urbanism Larry Barth Critical Urbanism H&U Studio 3.30 TS Second Year Term 2 Option Environmental Design in Practice Here comes the Sun – it’s all right Giles Bruce 36 SFB
AA Members can access a black and white and/or larger print version of Events List by going to the AA website at aaschool.ac.uk. For the audio infoline, please call 020 7887 4111. Events List online: http://www.aaschool.ac.uk/eventslist Email: eventslist@aaschool.ac.uk Published by the Architectural Association, 36 Bedford Square, London WC1B 3ES T 020 7887 4000 F 020 7414 0782. Edited by the Print Studio. Note on the type: Mercury typeface designed by Radim Peško, radimpesko.com. Printed by APG/ Blue Printing. Architectural Association (Inc.), Registered Charity No. 311083. Company Limited by Guarantee. Registered in England No. 171402. Registered Office as above.