Architectural Association School of Architecture Diploma Programme Prospectus 2021-22
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Architectural Association School of Architecture Diploma Programme Prospectus 2021–22
Contents 10 Introduction 14 Diploma Programme Introduction 16 Unit Briefs 56 Core Studies and Electives 84 Timetable 86 How to Apply
4 “My entire understanding of physical space has been transformed! 5
Three-dimensional Euclidean geometry has been torn up, thrown in the
air and snogged to death! My grasp of the universal constants of physical
reality has been changed forever.”
– Doctor Who, ‘The Husbands of River Song’ by Steven Moffat, 2015
As we return to premises after many months away, we find the Architectural
Association Mary Celeste-like; some forgotten things found where we left
them in March 2020. Reference to the mysterious abandoned ship has
been commonplace amongst those that have visited Bedford Square in
the meantime. The discovery of the merchant brigantine Mary Celeste off
the Azores in 1872 was the subject of dramatic newspaper descriptions:
‘Every sail was set, the tiller was lashed fast, not a rope was out of place.
The fire was burning in the galley. The dinner was standing untasted and
scarcely cold… the log written up to the hour of her discovery.’ The Mary
Welcome
Celeste has become a shorthand metaphor to describe the eerie feeling
associated with discovering an empty place, seeming hastily vacated and
replete with signs of occupation.
In the months leading up to our long-anticipated homecoming, a
space audit was commissioned to help in planning for 2021–22. This report
covered, in minute detail, the remarkable density of our occupation and
the many-layered uses we have wedged into a line of eight Georgian
terraced houses. From Foundation to PhD, the AA School houses a dozen
distinct academic programmes, not counting the one in Hooke Park. The
shared spaces that support these – the Bar, Library, shops, labs, Archives,
as well as bookable rooms – are packed in together cheek-by-jowl.
Standing in the square, one would never guess the hive of activity that
the AA embraces or how much diversity of teaching and learning, ideas
and work lingers behind those brown brick walls. This quality, not to
mention the sci-fi-tinged phrase ‘space audit’, brings to mind another
sort of ship: a spaceship. The TARDIS (Time And Relative Dimension In
Space), Doctor Who’s time-travelling machine, is famously ‘bigger on the
inside’. Thanks to its ‘chameleon circuit’, the vast ship appears, on the
outside, as a police callbox.
6 The TARDIS travels by time vortex, allowing the Doctor and their 7
companions to be here, there and everywhere; to go back in time (March
2020, perhaps), flit forward to today, even journey to the future. This,
and not the Mary Celeste, is the ship that the AA means to be. Importantly,
the TARDIS is more than a vessel carrying individuals; it is a bioship with
its own intelligence. The fifth Doctor in the series asserts: “The TARDIS
is more than a machine, it’s like a person; it needs coaxing, persuading,
encouraging.” The ninth Doctor claims, “It’s not just any old power
source, it’s the TARDIS, the best ship in the universe. This ship is alive,
you’ve opened its soul.” The TARDIS can redesign and heal itself using its
Architectural Reconfiguration System. It can also translate all languages.
Architects might appreciate the fact that the AA’s spatial arrangement
influences its intellectual life. Units partly evolved out of the rooms that
contained them. Happenstance meetings on the stairwell have led to
lasting relationships. Something in the gallery or someone on the terrace
can change your brain. The proximity of one programme to another has
prompted intriguing collaborations. After so long apart, proximity and
collaboration are what we all crave. This academic year will be like no
other, and the spaces we occupy and the people we interact with shall
be appreciated as never before. Sammy’s coffee will taste like the best
coffee ever made.
Last year, we all kept the ship sailing through rough seas. This year, we
look to fairer weather and taking the AA to a whole other dimension.
Mark Morris,
Head of Teaching and Learning
8 9
Chan Kai Qing Audrey, The Promise of the Golden Arches, DIP12, 2021. Zhixin Echo Huang, Form Follows Malfunction of Abandoned Buildings Through Porous Prototyping, DIP3, 2021.
10 The Architectural Association (AA) is the oldest independent school of 11
architecture in the UK. The school was founded in 1847 as a student-cen-
tred collective that aspired to radically transform architectural education.
The outcome of this is an environment that encourages students to spec-
ulate without limitations, to take risks with confidence and to cultivate
individual, radical research agendas that will shape the future of the
architectural discipline. We are a school that is constantly on the move,
progressively redefining the nature of architecture both in academia and
in practice worldwide. As a participatory democracy, this endeavour
relies on the students to continuously contribute to the identity of the
school and to critically engage with the broader cultural discourse in
London and beyond.
Today, the school comprises over 900 full-time students, approxi-
mately 7,500 members, 250 tutors and 125 administrative staff from
across the globe. It occupies eight Georgian houses in the centre of
Introduction
London, as well as a 350-acre woodland site at Hooke Park in Dorset, and
an ever-expanding number of digital spaces. Quite unlike any other insti-
tution operating today, the school offers a broad range of flexible,
self-directed programmes, courses and curricula that empower students
and staff to challenge the accepted methods within contemporary archi-
tectural education and professional practice.
Prospective students are now able to apply for the Foundation Course
(AA Foundation Award in Architecture), the Experimental Programme
(years one–three of the five-year course in architecture) leading to the
award of BA(Hons) (ARB/RIBA Part 1), the Diploma Programme (years four
and five of the five-year course in architecture) leading to the award of
MArch, the AA Diploma (ARB/RIBA Part 2), and nine Taught Postgraduate
Programmes leading to MA, MSc, PG MArch, MFA and MPhil awards, as
well as the PhD Programme.
Additionally, applications are taken throughout the year for two RIBA
Part 3 courses and a range of Visiting Schools that take place around the
world, as well as the Summer School, which operates each July. With the
establishment of the AA Residence in 2019, research is also possible
outside of the diverse array of academic programmes that the institution
12 offers. The collection of courses, programmes and initiatives aim to
achieve a plurality of topics and agendas, allowing students from different
backgrounds with varied interests and ambitions to find their own indi-
vidual and unique path through the school.
The AA curriculum is enhanced by the Public Programme, which
focuses on the unique opportunities and challenges of the present
through a series of lectures, exhibitions, studio visits, symposia and book
launches, and by the Communications Studio, a media, publishing and
graphic design studio. This year’s events, which welcome all staff and
students as well as the general public, will include lectures on New Models
that disrupt existing structural inequalities and socio-economic and
political forces, a pavilion on the corner of Bedford Square using recycled
timber and a memorial symposium to celebrate the career and legacy of
Mark Cousins. Dedicated to disseminating and communicating architec-
tural writing and digital content, the AA engages with a number of
editorial and academic publishing initiatives, including: new publications
and series in book and ebook formats; AA Files, the school’s journal of
record; the student-led AArchitecture pamphlet; and AirAA, a podcast
and media platform launching during the 2021–22 academic year.
Collectively, the courses, programmes, public events and publica-
tions exist alongside spontaneous discussions, unexpected encounters
and vibrant exchanges that take place throughout the academic year.
This confluence of activity keeps the AA in a constant flux of transfor-
mation that does not allow the status quo a moment to ingrain itself into
the walls, floors, stairwells and digital worlds of the school or the
projects, ideas and ambitions of the students. The AA invites anyone to
join our school as an active participant in this perpetual motion of archi-
tectural thought, design and dialogue in which the word convention
does not exist.
14 Diploma Programme 15
The two-year Diploma Programme MArch and AA Diploma (ARB/RIBA Part
2) introduces successful AA students from the Experimental Programme, as
well as eligible new students to the school, to the study of advanced
research, developed design practices and speculative thinking. Long
acknowledged as a global innovator in architectural education, the AA
Diploma Programme has, throughout its history, fostered some of the most
innovative, challenging and progressive thinking in architecture. Highly
plural in nature, the range of year-long studio units, each of which is led by
different tutors, offers students a broad spectrum of learning opportuni-
ties that are driven by a diverse set of agendas and specialisms.
In pursuing projects that are intimately developed within the studio
environment over the course of a full academic year, each student is
Diploma afforded the chance to not only improve their technical proficiency, but
also to deeply engage with a critical agenda and the broader societal
issues with which architecture intersects. Lively, informed debate
Programme
permeates life in the Diploma Programme, inspiring students to hone
research skills and develop design proposals into high-quality portfolios.
This process allows for students to not only find their voices as archi-
tects, but also a means of articulating ideas that they can carry with them
into their professional careers.
16 Diploma 1 17
I would prefer not to
‘Imagine my surprise, nay, my consternation, when without moving
from his privacy, Bartleby, in a singular mild, firm voice, replied,
“I would prefer not to.”’
– Herman Melville, Bartleby the Scrivener
Bartleby, Herman Melville’s enigmatic fictional played out as Arendt might have hoped, but the
character, repeatedly uses the phrase “I would accelerating development of artificial intelli-
prefer not to” as a form of passive resistance to gence systems suggests the possibility of
mundane bureaucratic life, much to the frustra- significant shifts in the established patterns
tion of his co-workers. His mild-mannered of what work is done, and who does what. The
defiance questions the meaning of what we do, Covid-19 pandemic has also given us pause to
what is important to us and our agency as individ- re-evaluate some of these questions.
uals. The story raises issues of alienation in the Against this background, DIP1 will critique
world of work – Bartleby might initially be seen both redundant and potential future modes of
as a rebellious idealist, but it becomes apparent production and the way architecture responds
that his refusals are indicative of a deeper nihil- to them. There is much within our profession
istic estrangement from the modern world. that we should ‘prefer not to’ do and actively
Although written in the 19th century, this search resist, such as over-consumption, waste and
for meaning in our labour is still relevant today. inequity. Working with the toolkit of the archi-
For political philosopher Hannah Arendt, tect, and with renewed emphasis on model-making
meaning can be found in the ‘vita activa’ (active and architectonics, students will be invited to
life), which she divided into three distinct parts: develop critical architectural theses in search of
labour (survival), work (human artifice) and the vita activa.
action (shared political life). This perspective is
an attempt to shift the focus of our working lives
away from drudgery and repetition towards a
Miraj Ahmed is an artist and architect who has taught at the AA
more creative existence. Until now, this has not
since 2000. He is also an Associate Lecturer at Camberwell
College of Art and was a Design Fellow at Cambridge University
from 2006–14.
TUTORS Martin Jameson is a partner at Serie Architects. He has an AA
Miraj Ahmed Diploma (Hons), a BA in Philosophy and Politics from Oxford
Martin Jameson University and an MBA from IMD, Switzerland. Wall Street, New York City, 1915. Photograph by Paul Strand.
18 Diploma 2 19
The Course of Empire
DIP2 will focus on the condition of the diaspora significance for their project that resonates with
and its contingent dualities, characters and them and their own personal histories.
cultures. We are interested in examining, chal- We will explore these conditions at the
lenging and shifting architectural critiques and macro-scale – through reference to the city and
narratives towards a more inclusive, holistic ecological, cultural, political and social sensibili-
understanding of inhabitation and, as a conse- ties – as well as at the micro-scale, with a
quence, of the built environment. Investigation particular interest in the domestic and the inte-
of the concept of the ‘other’ versus the ‘self’ will rior. We value a broad range of references and
form the critical basis for our agenda; this will be encourage students to look beyond the current
related to questions around the inhabitation of canon consisting of purely archival material, and
space and place in the UK’s diaspora communities, to draw from sources such as oral histories which
with a primary focus on the domestic condition. may otherwise be excluded from architectural
Students will begin with an investigation of a research. We are interested in the urban condi-
particular diasporic locale and its condition within tion and its relationship to wider systems of
the UK. These studies will be ethnographic, ecology and climate, as seen through the lens of
anthropological and architectural in nature, the diaspora, the ‘self’, the ‘other’ and ultimately
exploring a broad range of research techniques to the domestic condition.
uncover histories that have previously fallen
outside the boundaries of architectural critique
and research. Students will consider the indige- Nana Biamah-Ofosu is an architect, researcher and writer.
nous history of the diaspora and their translated She is a cofounder of Studio NYALI, a design research
partnership interested in the intersection of cultural identities
realities, questioning what it means to be ‘British’,
and architecture. She has exhibited her work internationally
‘Brit-ish’ or ‘British-’. These sites will be self-se- and contributes to the architectural press worldwide. Nana
lected through discussions and seminars, previously taught DIP6 at the AA with Guillermo Lopez and
Jack Self.
encouraging each student to identify an area of
Bushra Mohamed is an architect, researcher and a cofounder
of Studio NYALI. She has exhibited internationally as part of
the ECC’s Time Space Existence exhibition in Venice and the
TUTORS Forum da Malagueira exhibition by the Drawing Matter Trust
Nana Biamah-Ofosu in Évora. She previously taught DIP19 at the AA with David Image from Entitled, a short film directed by Adeyemi Michael, produced by Fiona Lamptey,
Bushra Mohamed Kohn from 2019–21. with photography by Adama Jalloh, 2018.20 Diploma 3 21
The Tenet of Ecology
“I don’t believe that technology is some sort of ‘technofix’ that will fix all
the technology that got us here in the first place… You can’t tackle some-
thing of this scale and this scope, moving this fast, with just science.”
– Kristine McDivitt Tompkins, environmental activist and former CEO
of Patagonia, in an interview with Ingolf Baur, 2020
Since the first Earth Day on 22 April 1970, the global This year, the unit will contemplate how we
population has experienced gradually-intensi- might live with the responsibility to reconstruct
fying grief and anxiety relating to ecological and our environment and ecosystems beyond any
environmental issues. However, the planet has political abstraction. We are excited by the possi-
offered us some illusive glimpses of a potential bility of incorporating collaborative intelligence,
new living environment during the pandemic infrastructural thinking and shared environmental
lockdowns: energy demands halved, greenhouse technologies into procedural design within archi-
gas emissions and human activity reduced and, tecture and urban development. We believe
all of a sudden, we witnessed wonderous events that the challenge of architecture is no longer
such as the return of dolphins to the Venetian an anthropocentric one, but instead a conscious
canals. Together, these glimpses highlight a act to construct and balance the dichotomy of
potential opportunity for architecture, cities and development and ecological regeneration, espe-
humankind to collaborate with the planet and cially in urban areas.
create new hope.
We are facing ‘a code red for humanity’,
according to the Intergovernmental Panel on
Climate Change (IPCC). There is an urgency for
architecture to not only make positive contribu-
tions to buy time, but also for us to actively forge
new ecosystems that will enable us to adapt and
come to terms with our changing planet. There
Jonas Lundberg and Andrew Yau are members of Urban Future
is no proven path to follow; we have to learn as Organization (UFO), an international architectural practice
we go. This urgency forms the motivation for the and design research collaborative. UFO has won a number
of international competitions and exhibited its work globally.
architecture of DIP3.
Currently, they are working on micro- to macro-scale
architectural and urban projects in Europe, the Middle East
and Southeast Asia.
TUTORS
Jonas Lundberg Kayu Chan is a recent AA graduate and has taught digitisation
Andrew Yau design at the AA Summer School. He is currently engaged in
with Kayu Chan material-oriented architectural projects at ACME. Yee Fei Tan, Heat: The Element of Bonding – Social Condensers in Bangalore, DIP3, 2020–21.22 Diploma 4 23
Climate Peace:
Planetary Imaginaries
The challenge is known: its magnitude, power and separation between humans and nature, between
intensity are images in front of all. Unlike its inert matter and life, between images and objects,
predecessors, it won’t be aimed at expansion, environment and subjects; in other words, they
progress or unencumbered technology. The chal- transform the architecture embedded in the
lenge is, however, yet to be fully understood. formation of modernity.
Climate chaos implies a new space to imagine; a Remote sensing, artificial intelligence,
new space to be human. Assembly precedes, and acoustic soundings, radio interference,
refuses to be thought after individualisation. It multi-spectral sensors, models and metadata
evades beginnings and ends, before and after. analysis – all indicate a nexus between imaginal
1
‘Living matter evades decay to equilibrium’: it technologies and the production of contempo-
constantly exchanges, does, shapes, moves, rary space, through material and conceptual
forms and plans. transformation of the atmosphere, the
Climate Peace is an ongoing platform where biosphere, lands and oceans. We shape a new
we probe the potential of contemporaneity. space where the close proximity between moni-
Architecture is both the method and the object toring, assessment, surveying, measuring,
of our work. We sense the intricate structures of management and improvement of the assembly
dependency and amplification that mark the lines and supply lines, the spectres of constant
emergence of the technosphere – the rise of the improvement, total movement and access of
Anthropocene – with projects and constructive logistical capitalism, are mobilised to generate
practices. We envision changes in the relations spaces of cohabitation, in constant negotiation,
between material spaces and polities. We develop open on all sides.
new modes of thinking and operating in the muta-
tions of contemporary inhabited spaces, beyond 1 Erwin Schrödinger, What is Life? The Physical Aspect of the
Living Cell, 1944
what was called the city and its hinterlands.
Contemporary planetary images produce
boundaries; they articulate inclusion and exclu-
sion. The project argues that the question of
images lies at the centre of colonial modernity John Palmesino and Ann-Sofi Rönnskog are architects and
urbanists. They have established Territorial Agency, an
and most crucially, at the pivot of contemporary independent organisation that combines architecture,
practices of logistical capitalism. Images trans- research and advocacy to address the complex transformations
of the Anthropocene epoch. They have been awarded the
form and shift the terms of distinction and
STARTS Prize, the Grand prize of the European Commission
honouring Innovation in Technology, Industry and Society
stimulated by the Arts. Recent projects include Oceans in
Transformation, in collaboration with TBA21–Academy;
TUTORS Sensible Zone; the Museum of Oil with Greenpeace;
John Palmesino Anthropocene Observatory with HKW Haus der Kulturen der
Ann-Sofi Rönnskog Welt; and Plan the Planet, an open seminar at the AA. Territorial Agency, Oceans in Transformation, multi-temporal refractions of the mid-Atlantic.24 Diploma 5 25
Public Porous Placed!
Exploring Openness through Boundaries
DIP5 will focus on publicness, porosity and place from the hypothesis that porosity is a link and a
as starting points for architectural projects that method to establish and contest different bound-
respond to urgent issues of public interest, in aries. By drawing, modelling, referencing and
order to generate site-specific impact. The prototyping, the unit will test the agency of archi-
projects will be based on research into diverse tecture as a means of increasing democratic
notions of publicness in the respective physical, participation, contributing to climate justice and
historical and environmental contexts of places promoting inclusivity in public spaces such as
chosen by each individual student. culture, landscape, housing and infrastructure. We
Public space is essential for democratic will demonstrate how architects can engage with
society. It does not imply ‘limitless’ space; rather, activism in order to materialise the claim for public
boundaries outline public space. Simultaneously, space within a specific place, to generate architec-
porosity is defined here by the characteristics of tural projects that are: Public Porous Placed!
boundaries between a site and a built object –
between the exterior and interior and also within
the built structure itself. DIP5 will explore how
porosity relates to the politics of architecture, Gabu Heindl is an architect, urban planner, educator and activist.
She is Professor of Urban Design at Nuremberg Institute of
considering how we might create porous inter-
Technology, and has taught at Sheffield University, the Academy
ventions and what spatial effects these might of Fine Arts Vienna, TU Delft and TU Graz. She completed her
generate in relation to social and environmental PhD at the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna, and holds a
Postgraduate Master’s in Architecture and Urbanism from
questions. We will ask: How can we draw bound-
Princeton University. Her practice, GABU Heindl Architektur,
aries that are inclusive rather than exclusive? How focuses on the politics of public space and urban renewal,
can we create well-tempered environments with co-operative housing, and urban and climate justice. She is
co-editor of Building Critique: Architecture and its Discontent,
porous boundaries without damaging the Earth’s and author of Stadtkonflikte. Radikale Demokratie in Architektur
climate? How might we redesign the built envi- und Stadtplanung.
ronment to stimulate the senses and broaden our
Boštjan Vuga is an architectural practitioner, researcher and
generosity and imagination? educator. He studied at the Faculty of Architecture in Ljubljana
DIP5 interrogates connections between and at the AA. In 1996, he founded the SADAR+VUGA
spatial and socio-political categories, drawing architectural office with Jurij Sadar, which focuses on open,
integrated and innovative architectural design and urban
planning. He is an appointed associate professor for
architecture at the Faculty of Architecture in Ljubljana, and
has taught at the Berlage Institute, the IAAC, TU Berlin,
TUTORS Müenster School of Architecture, the Confluence Institute,
Gabu Heindl TU Graz and Politecnico di Milano. He is editor of Edu.arh:
Bostjan Vuga Practices in Architectural Education. Zhi Bin Cheah, De-Fenced Vertical Habitat, DIP5, 2021.26 Diploma 6 27
Visibility
Imagine: an endless journey in space and in time, In our search, we will skirt the edges of new
across divisions between cultures and places, media, immersion, illusion and ideation to
offering simultaneous glimpses of terrains, arte- experiment with new ways of relating the visual
facts and scenes that make up the infinite and the visionary. Throughout the year, we will
labyrinth of alternative pasts and futures, looped interrogate and tweak our methods and tools –
between the origin and the terminus… from precedent revisions to filmic narratives,
How do we empower such fragile visions that and from prototypal avalanches to distilled
infiltrate our imagination? How do we mix memo- briefs and propositions. Our work will bridge
ries and dreams, knowledge and experience? different levels and scales to fuel potent theo-
Can we enhance the prisms that distort our reali- retical and practical results. They will all insist
ties, to project the inner workings of our minds? on architectural thinking – resisting escape into
DIP6 will devote this year to the exploration computation or forensics, mixed realities or
of architecture’s ‘visibility’; its complex interplay digital craft. If our final projects are not only
between stories and objects, concepts and images. relevant and accomplished but also authentic,
Our agenda aligns with many experimental prac- moving and easily accessible, they will mark a
tices that already alert us to machinic by-products, reduction in the outdated contextualism, polit-
entropic archives and displaced sites common ical justification and opaque representation of
to our collective condition. Within this endeavour, the past.
we will have the opportunity to rethink both
the quest for the new and the process of historical
re-enactment from a deliberately ex-temporal
position. We must reconsider how we approach
context, time and agency. We will start with a set
of curious cultural conundrums, converting them
into specifically architectural ideas and worlds – Maria Fedorchenko has taught at the AA since 2010, leading
both Experimental Programme and Diploma Programme units,
immanently known, but yet to be seen. in addition to having been involved with History and Theory
Studies programme, Housing and Urbanism programme and the
AA Visiting School. Previously, she has taught at UC Berkeley,
UCLA and the California College of the Arts. She is a cofounder
of the collective Plakat Platform for architectural provocations
TUTOR and a codirector of Fedorchenko Studio. She is also a founding
Maria Fedorchenko partner, with Gleb Sheykin, of Karta Architecture Ltd. Zekun Qin, Moscow Labyrinth, from the unit archive, 2020–21.28 Diploma 7 29
Fluid Territories: On Rights and Spaces
From the invention of perspective to the advent all integral elements of this existential and plane-
of satellite imagery, various techniques of meas- tary violence. In fact, ‘defined’ space is a result
urement and surveying have reduced three- of complex power relations: beginning with the
dimensional ecological space to economic parcellation of land; assigning these parcels to
parameters, whose assets are calculated solely individuals or groups; and regulating the commu-
based on ideas of productivity and exclusivity. nication between them. These rights are never
Historically, this has led to the emergence of distributed equally. The spatial protagonists of
various forms of social and spatial contracts and, this historical process are walls and enclosures,
of course, of what we know today as ‘property’. enforced by laws: of property, of trade rights
Such processes of possession, dispossession and maritime space, of monopolies, of reproduc-
and subjectification have manipulated and medi- tive rights and of multiple physical, bodily and
ated forms of association: among individuals, mental exclusions.
communities and collectives; between forces, In DIP7 we investigate architectural proposi-
space and subjects; and between human and tions that react to such territorial conditions
non-human agents. – frames that capture, forces that trigger, lines
In his A Discourse on Inequality, Jean-Jacques that appropriate and lenses that make visible
Rousseau makes it clear that ‘the cultivation of the conflicts between space, the territory and
the earth necessarily brought about its distribu- its subjects.
tion; and property, once recognised, gave rise
to the first rules of justice; … a new kind of right:
that is to say, the right of property, which is
different from the right deducible from the law
of nature.’ Hence, in Western modernity, human- Hamed Khosravi is an architect, researcher and educator. He
made law (ius positum) was introduced in the studied architecture in Tehran, holds a Postgraduate Master’s
degree in Urbanism from TU Delft and IUAV and gained his PhD
most violent way. Racialised and gendered forms from ‘The City as a Project’ programme at the Berlage Institute
of slave labour, contemporary forms of coloni- and TU Delft. He currently teaches in the Projective Cities
programme at the AA.
ality, dispossession and resource extraction are
Platon Issaias studied architecture in Thessaloniki, Greece and
holds an MSc from Columbia University (GSAAP) and a PhD
from ‘The City as a Project’ programme at the Berlage Institute
TUTORS and TU Delft. He is the Programme Head of the Projective A busy stacking room in the opium factory at Patna, India. Lithograph after WS Sherwill, c 1850.
Platon Issaias Cities programme at the AA and practices with the research Wellcome Collection. Slave workers stacking opium balls in the warehouse operated by the
Hamed Khosravi and design collective Fatura Collaborative. British East India Company in Patna, Bengal before shipping to China.30 Diploma 8 31
Eureka! initiative
‘We use our imagination not to escape the world but to connect with it.’
– Iris Murdoch, The Sovereignty of Good, 1970
Eureka! speaks directly to that moment in antiq- Each student will examine two complemen-
uity when the philosopher Archimedes noticed tary case studies: a myth(ology) and a text to
that his body mass affected the level of water in a clarify their theoretical and architectural posi-
vessel. DIP8 students are dispatched on an tions. The unit will focus on creative writing and
Archimedean mission to define the mass and the critical thinking as essential mission components.
vessel – a hunt for Eureka. In other words, the Alongside the analytical and conceptual develop-
unit asks what creative processes cause personal ment of the projects, emphasis will be placed on
‘mass’ to affect the architectural surrounds that the plastic and the visual. Eureka’s young architects
we occupy. will engage in the discourses of accuracy, beauty,
To begin, our discourse will assert the legiti- effort, gentleness, mythology, seduction and
macy of multiple views from the architectural other non-measurable aspects of our work that
collective – not only abstract ideas, but also are essential to fresh, meaningful architecture.
aesthetic and pragmatic design through a tectonic DIP8 operates as a research group and a
language, a catalyst for individual projects that think-tank for the development of interfaces
remain affixed to the concept of the shared between the academy and other fields and terri-
architectural sum. Participants will illustrate tories; ours is a pluralistic agenda of generosity,
‘A Self-Portrait as a Young Architect’ through a optimism and sharing.
series of intense short exercises that in various
media – models, maps, sketches, installation, film,
sound – with participants highlighting both their
own unique positions and the academic tools they
David McAlmont is a performative art historian and has been a
have sourced. This exploration will function as a
member of the AAIS faculty since 2009. He is currently working
theoretical conduit for crafting mythological with photographer Robert Taylor and Professor Richard Sandell
automata, bringing far-fetched ancient mythology of Leicester University on the AHRC-funded project Permissible
Beauty, which reconciles Black queer performance with
into the rational present.
national heritage beauty conventions.
Hila Shemer is a Tel Aviv- and London-based architect, writer
and researcher focusing on the relation between language
TUTORS and space. She graduated with distinction from the AAIS
David McAlmont programme and holds a BArch from Bezalel Academy of Arts
Hila Shemer and Design, Jerusalem. Sigalit Landau, still from DeadSee, 2005. Courtesy the artist.32 Diploma 9 33
No Money, No Cry
Money is unequally distributed. There has never Our ambition is twofold. Firstly, we will study
been as much money in the world as there is and critically position ourselves in relation to
today, yet most of us don’t see it in any shape or existing funding strategies and their territorial
form. But it’s out there, somewhere, in various impact. Secondly, we will design uncompromising
shapes and many forms. architectural proposals that correspond to acces-
Architecture is intrinsically linked to issues sible and feasible financing mechanisms. By
of funding; sometimes for the best, often for the directly addressing the question of funding, our
worst. Whether for private or public ends, money proposals will adapt, transform and relocate
inevitably remains the fuel for the creation of themselves to articulate territorial units that are
architectures around the world – and too often, rapidly accessible, equally distributed and capable
the lack of funding puts an end to projects of of resisting destructive forces. Through creative
great quality. funding strategies and revamped institutional
This year, DIP9 will continue to diagnose the support, we will unlock the means to deliver
current condition of the built environment and much-needed transformations of our built envi-
reveal its latent crises, with a specific focus on ronments, our territories and our politics.
those of funding. Advocating for territorial trans-
formations and institutional adjustments, the
unit will propose strategies of collective respon-
sibility towards our environment, consider
ecological restoration as a catalyst for profound Stefan Laxness is an architectural researcher, media artist and
former project leader at Forensic Architecture. He is a cofounder
spatial and political change, and weave together of Pantopia.xyz, an educational platform for spatial thinkers.
spatial conditions through the dissemination of His creative practice explores the consequences and
opportunities brought about by the climate crisis in relation
civic infrastructures.
to the built environment.
Antoine Vaxelaire is an architect, educator and creative advisor.
He graduated from the AA in 2013 and has worked in architecture
TUTORS studios in London, Brussels, Zurich, Tokyo and Mexico City.
Stefan Laxness He is the cofounder and creative director of APPIA, a virtual
Antoine Vaxelaire production studio based in Geneva, Switzerland. Philip Gharios, In the Name of Resilience – Crises, Care and Civic Infrastructures in Beirut, DIP9, AA Dipl (Hons), 2021.34 Diploma 10 35
Readjusting the Random
How do divisions – social, cultural, physical, Can we readjust the random?
political, religious or imponderable – influ-
ence the makeup of space? We will tackle this question in two different ways:
first, we will devise an abstract method of
To answer this, we will focus on a random territory representation for the identified urban, archi-
centred on a division chosen by you, and then tectural and live variables that make up the reality
interlink the corresponding spatial and situa- of the city’s spatial experience; second, we will
tional scales. The intention is to look at the city, immerse ourselves in and record the salient situa-
the space of the city, in an arbitrary manner tions and interactions. This dual approach will
that avoids the interpretation of a site as an inde- enable us to juggle between the abstract and the
pendent delineated area and minimises the real, and to experiment more freely with our
chances of getting bogged down in topicality. spatial interventions. By readjusting this duality,
Although easily identifiable areas of the city seem we will transform the chosen random area into
obvious, their delineation is never simple. We propositional speculations for London.
will set out to learn from the city rather than
to impose on it. Are divisions bad? Probably not,
but it depends on how they affect their
surroundings physically and socially. In fact,
without the delineation of divisions there would
be no architectural space. Formalised divisions
such as the Peace Walls in Belfast are clear
demarcations of multifaceted differences, but
any area of London will have multiple and subtler
Carlos Villanueva Brandt (AA Dip, ARB) has been Diploma 10
divisions, which we will aim to unravel. We will Unit Master since 1986 and was awarded the RIBA President’s
also work with the contrasting idea of engagement Silver Medal Tutor Prize in 2000. He has also taught in the AA
and use the concept of spatial associations to Graduate School, the Royal College of Art, Central Saint
Martins and is currently a Visiting Professor at Tokyo University
reassess the relationship that exists between of the Arts. He is a founder member of the group NATØ
physical structures and situations, and to articulate (Narrative Architecture Today), which, through its magazines
and exhibitions, set out to challenge the role played by
the reciprocal nature of division and engagement.
architecture in everyday culture. His prize-winning practice
has designed projects in locations ranging from London to
Khartoum and built projects in the UK, Greece and Japan. His
multifaceted work has been published widely and exhibited
internationally and he has written numerous texts and essays
TUTOR including his book London +10, in which he outlines his
Carlos Villanueva Brandt concept of Direct Urbanism. Zhaoxi Tian, The Kings Cross Wall, Taking Down the Wall, DIP10, 2021.36 Diploma 11 37
The Landscape of Excess and Void
During the last 12 months in the city of London Un-Housing: The unit invites students to
300,000 items were misplaced and kept at the construct design briefs that will challenge the
Transport for London Lost Property Office, notion of housing in the city by transforming this
34,428 of which were umbrellas; 1,430 affordable into an understanding of ‘city as house’. The lack
rental properties were demolished with no of plurality in the living spaces found in urban
consideration for their replacement; 1,200 dogs centres should not be confused with the
were rescued from its streets; thousands of shortage of housing, and new forms for the living
archaeological objects and cultural artefacts have and the dead, for objects and non-humans, and
been relocated to storage units along the city’s for the afterimage or living memory of architec-
outskirts; and six million tonnes of earth were ture are urgently needed.
removed to make way for new developments. Toy and Atlas: Our designs intend to reflect
DIP11 will allow migrating objects, the influx the world’s strangeness. In the words of André
of people, non-humans, forgotten pieces of Breton, we search for ‘the superior reality of
history, cosmographical images, maps, manu- certain forms of previously neglected associa-
scripts and contemporary images from tions, in the disinterested play of thought’.
newspapers and magazines to guide us through Therefore, in place of the architectural model,
an unseen London and its Landscape of Excess we will make objects as toys: vehicles of play that
and Void. Working with Aby Warburg’s aim to make small things look bigger, fast items
Mnemosyne Atlas we will question how different seem slow and familiar items appear unknown.
meanings are often comprised through the
shifting of themes and styles that exist between
different times and places, which will further our
interest in an Archaeology of the Present Time.
We explore this through the unit’s collage meth- Shin Egashira is an architect, artist, educator and PhD
odology of addition and subtraction that candidate. He worked in Tokyo, Beijing and New York before
coming to London where he has lived for the past 30 years.
investigates how certain urban processes, driven
From 1990 he has taught at the AA and has run a unit since
by unwritten rules, allow for freedom within a 1996. His artwork has been exhibited internationally, with the
given framework and produce a variety of effects most recent solo show at Betts Projects in 2019. He has been
an artist in residence at Camden Arts Centre and Bennington
and unexpected possibilities.
College. He has taught many workshops around the world,
always looking for a way to teach, learn and practice design
that would be impossible to achieve in a professional practice
or a university setting. He has run the Koshirakura Landscape
Workshop in Niigata and the AA Maeda Workshop in Tokyo,
TUTOR London and Hooke Park. He is also a visiting professor at A soft toy boar’s head, a carved wooden mask, a nun doll and a prosthetic leg are among the items at the Transport for London Lost
Shin Egashira Tokyo University of Fine Arts. Property Office in central London, 1 February 2016. Photograph by Dominic Lipinski/Alamy Stock Photo.38 Diploma 12 39
Unnatural Selection:
Reorienting the Relationship between Nature and Culture
‘In the concert of knowledge, every note counts. We need to amplify
the unheard harmonies and listen to the subdued songs of the planet.’
– Kocku von Stuckrad
At a time when intelligence exists somewhere in practices. By rejecting anthropocentric and colo-
the space between humans and machines; where nial narratives, we will use architecture to
the weather is designed as much as experienced; challenge established power structures and design
when refugees compete as a non-nation at the more vibrant, wild and diverse new worlds.
Olympics; and where our concept of kin is deter- The unit will continue to develop individual
mined by a complex entanglement of relationships forms of strategic architectural practice. We will
rather than genetics, our systems of classification disrupt existing contexts through 1:1 interven-
seem woefully outdated and unable to reflect the tions in order to create impactful, spatial
complexity of the world around us. proposals. By focusing on an urgent agenda and
In response to this, DIP12 will reorient rela- expressing ideas through the use of diverse
tionships between nature and culture by media and modes of operation, architecture will
challenging our assumptions about them. We will be transformed into an agent that questions
ask: What are our social and technical relationships existing classifications of race, gender, species,
to the natural world? What are the systems that landscapes and love. By centring the voices that
distinguish mountains, social groups, legal rights too often go unheard today, we will build more
or even our bodies as discrete entities? What are resilient architectures for tomorrow.
the spatial implications of these definitions? And,
crucially, what alternative perspectives might we
use to reimagine and design alternative futures?
We will begin by investigating the origins of
everyday objects and how they inform our policies,
cities and landscapes. We will analyse the conflicts
these objects generate in nature and society, Inigo Minns works with architecture, performance and curation
reorienting our relationship to them in order to to create designed experiences supported by critical practice.
He is external examiner on the Curating Contemporary Design
bring about new and more inclusive cultural
in Kingston University and has taught in the UK and abroad.
Manijeh Verghese operates across disciplines and scales to create
platforms for architecture to be understood, experienced and
TUTORS transformed. She is Head of Public Engagement at the AA,
Inigo Minns co-curator of the British Pavilion at the 17th Venice Architecture Jumanah Bawazir, HAQ – Project 73: An alternative Palestinian narrative that reframes the identity of the diasporic community
Manijeh Verghese Biennale and an external examiner at the University of Cambridge. through their collective memories, DIP12, AA Dipl (Hons), 2021.40 Diploma 13 41
Material Subjects
This year, DIP13 will use the lens of material poli- Using a decolonial methodology, we will
tics to explore how architecture and the built trace racialised and gendered cartographies of
environment are implicated in the perpetuation dispossession, enclosure, extraction, produc-
of extractive practices and colonialism. tion, logistics and environmental degradation.
Last year, the unit focused on overt sites of Our skills as architects will be developed in order
state power; now, we will turn our investigation to quantify and qualify material processes and
towards material extraction and its subsequent the power relations behind them. We will decon-
systems of supply, design, processing, construc- struct material life cycles and devise new units of
tion and disposal as apparatuses of the colonial measurement, alternative institutions and infra-
paradigm. Travelling through construction sites, structures of resistance. Our projects will expose
supply chains and assembly lines from the subter- and hold to account existing extractive practices,
ranean to the atmospheric, we will consider and will learn from queer and feminist theory to
materials not as inert matter but as continuous propose alternative social ecologies that chal-
with the landscapes they originate from and the lenge patriarchal logics and monocultures. The
people that produce them. unit will be a launchpad from which to under-
Extractive mega-projects are central to stand sites of power, control and resistance by
maintaining racial capitalism in the global South, bringing spatial, legal, economic and political
destroying geographies through the disposses- modes of indigenous erasure to light.
sion and enslavement of its indigenous people.
The unit will understand racism and colonialism
as material phenomena that imprint on our
bodies and shape our subjectivities. We will
examine the violence of reducing, constraining
and converting life into commodities and
systems, and ask how materials mediate relation-
ships between states and their citizens. How do
Merve Anil is an architect, researcher and educator. She
these relationships change through extraction? graduated from the AA and has worked at architecture
How does land become commodity and human practices in London and Istanbul, and as a researcher whilst at
OMA in Rotterdam. She is currently a Public Practice Associate
become labour?
and works between design and policy in the public sector.
George Massoud is an architect, activist, educator and cultural
worker. He co-directs Studio Abroad and Material Cultures,
TUTORS both design and research practices based in London. He is also
Merve Anil founding member of POA, a community platform for
George Massoud reimagining value systems through a queer and feminist lens. MATERIALISM AK-47 and bullet by DRIFT. Photographer: Ronald Smits.42 Diploma 14 43
A Kind of Loving:
Rethinking the Architecture of Social Housing
In the last 50 years, housing has ceased to be Today, the need to build social housing is
defined by its use value and has become exclu- more pressing than ever; the challenge is, there-
sively ruled by its exchange value. If the former fore, to rethink it as a platform for forms of
lies in the capacity to satisfy needs, then the domestic commoning and collective ownership.
latter exists in the potential to generate profit. This requires a specific architectural project to
Since the decline of the welfare state and the rise reconceptualise large-scale design and its resolu-
of Neoliberalism, housing has therefore become tion as urban and architectural form. DIP14 asks
one of the most profitable commodities; yet this students to critically revisit the history of social
situation is not simply a consequence of real housing and propose new models for the present
estate greed. The ‘housing crisis’ is, in fact, the condition. The studio will therefore focus on the
product of a class warfare waged by capitalists nexus between policymaking, construction
against the working class, with the support of systems and typological organisation of domestic
state policies such as the privatisation of housing space. Our goal is to put forward scenarios in
stock and incentives for homeownership. This which housing will once again be defined by its
process of commodification has been paralleled use value, as we consider what kind of architec-
by an attack on the architecture of social tural form we might imagine for a city freed from
housing, portrayed by most critics as the ‘failure the hegemony of exchange value.
of modernism’. Large-scale complexes all over
the world have become synonymous with aliena-
tion and social stigma, a reputation that has
encouraged both their downgrading and conse-
quent privatisation. If there was a problem with
social housing in its original form, it was not its
scale but rather its typological organisation,
which was tailored to the nuclear heteronorma- Pier Vittorio Aureli is an architect and educator. He is the
cofounder of Dogma, an architectural practice based in
tive family.
Brussels, and the author of many essays and books. He is
the Director of the PhD Programme of the AA.
Maria Shéhérazade Giudici is the editor of AA Files. She leads
TUTORS the History and Theory course at the School of Architecture
Pier Vittorio Aureli of the Royal College of Art and is the founder of research
Maria Shéhérazade Giudici platform Black Square. Jongwon Na, Living Room: A proposal for alternative APT Housing in South Korea, DIP14, 2017.44 Diploma 15 45
99 Homes
The home is such a singular thing: it contains astonishing variation and has
changed dramatically over time, yet when accumulated and set in place, it
persists. Through multiplication and repetition, dwelling shapes the lasting
and distinctive character of its surroundings. Dip15 will situate 99 homes
within broader material landscapes that form the setting for contemporary
debates on future ways of life. By colliding systems, storytelling and condi-
tions beyond the sphere of the domestic, the home becomes something
more than itself.
1. The Home – Question the home as a stable 8. Variations – Challenge every assumption:
taxonomy of parts, creating alternative asso- turn situations upside down, harness contra-
ciations and contemporary archetypes. dictions, displace elements, distort speeds
2. Big Picture, Little Picture – Unfold the home: and scales.
re-imagine a retreat as a resource. 9. A Way of Life – Appropriate, diversify and
3. The Rules of the Game – Multiply, divide, encourage inhabitants to meet.
navigate and punctuate: generate new rule 10. Cut, Paste, Narrate – Repeat, but with much,
sets with which to stretch, stitch and shape much less. Imagine archipelagos extending
the everyday into something distinctly over time, snap it all back and tell a short story.
unfamiliar.
4. Storytelling – Inhabit proposals as synthetic
compressions and animated sequences.
5. Longevity – Consider today as a tiny part of
a long continuum, both social and environ-
mental. Ground 99 homes across a dot, cluster
or landscape.
6. Powers of Ten – Translate a single design
principle at 10 scales, from molecule to
territory. Lawrence Barth has consulted internationally on urban
strategy for cities, architects and landscape architects; and
7. Picasso on Vacation – Question the steady has led planning and design projects. He has lectured and
state environment and think of the home as published in urbanism, politics and sociology as part of his
co-leadership of the AA Housing and Urbanism Programme.
a multiplicity of microclimates.
Lucy Styles is an architect and partner at SANAA. During her
time at the practice she has completed the Serpentine
Pavilion, the Louvre-Lens museum, Fayolle social housing and
TUTORS La Samaritaine, among other projects. She has also recently
Lawrence Barth started her own design studio and is exploring domesticity
Lucy Styles along different lines. A bathroom by Saul Steinberg, early 1950s. Photograph: Robert DOISNEAU/GAMMA RAPHO.46 Diploma 17 47
Latent Territories: From the Ground Up
The research of DIP17 focuses on two main We will speculate, design and develop
considerations: developing architectural form sophi‑sticated but affordable spatial and
for its capacity to engage the body; and critically constructive strategies with a social aim, and
rethinking the politics of how architecture is which of these attempts to engender antagonistic
produced. agency. The projects will be at the scale of a
This year, we will reflect on the implications cultural project and ambiguously situated at the
of material production and manufacturing intersection between architecture, landscape and
processes in architecture, in relation to the ques- art. Through research on key architectural prece-
tion of technique. Our ambition is to unravel the dents and a deep understanding of contemporary
associated social conditions, cultural constructs and historical manufacturing techniques, projects
and related political contexts, and to reveal their will respond to a series of historical, socio
pervasive role in every design and construction economic and environmental issues and discuss
methodology. We will begin by discussing singular their forms of transformative capacity, demo-
stories from selected sites of material production cratic accessibility and collaborative agency.
through film, photography and textual historical The unit will experiment with fabrication
research, attempting to identify universal social techniques, material testing, drawing and anima-
and environmental issues. We will approach the tion, mixing the use of both digital and analogue
question of technique less as an object in and of media as a way of developing students’ own curi-
itself, but rather as an activity wherein context, osity, imagination and voice in architecture.
knowledge and decision-making meet to bring
artefacts into existence. This implicates not only
the personal and the individual but also groups
and their institutional forms. We will seek to Dora Sweijd and Theo Sarantoglou Lalis are the founders of
LASSA Architects, an international architecture studio with
resist separations between intellectual and manual offices in London and Brussels. LASSA operates at the
labour, and react against realms that separate intersection between the fields of art, architecture and
landscape. Their research focuses on the relationship between
theory and knowledge from practice.
architectural form and the activation of the body as well as the
democratisation of architecture through the development of
new constructive strategies involving self-assembly. LASSA won
international awards for their Villa Ypsilon. They have taught
TUTORS studios at Harvard University (GSD), Columbia University
Theo Sarantoglou Lalis (GSAAP), Chalmers University of Technology and Luleå University
Dora Sweijd of Technology. Shaha Raphael, Common Ground, DIP17, AA Dipl (Hons), 2021.48 Diploma 18 49
Debris
What are the potentialities of understanding Students will document and analyse the
architecture as a system that orchestrates flows demolition and the mechanics that led to this
of materials and resources? How can architects status. They will explore the most efficient and
design for this broader system and take responsi- accurate methods of inventorying the materials
bility for shepherding materials before, during yielded by the building, and may seek to connect
and after their temporary agglomeration as a contractors with salvagers in real life. They may
building? What are the psychological conditions put forward new futures for the building’s mate-
that orchestrate our relationship with the rials, propose new RIBA protocols for demolition,
current building stock? or suggest new laws to avoid it altogether.
This year, DIP18 focuses on demolition. The unit will be supported throughout the
Students will select a site – ideally within London year by the expertise of Rotor, a co-operative
– that is languishing in obsolescence, slated for design practice based in Brussels, which investi-
demolition or with destruction already in gates the organisation of the material environment.
progress, and will work backwards or forwards DIP18 aims to plant seeds for students’ future
from there. Questioning the origins and implica- careers by building professional relationships
tions of their sites’ situations, students will and developing concrete expertise and obsessions.
consider: What were the unique set of circum- The unit calls for a fluency with a pre-existing
stances that led to the decision to demolish? system and the imagination to rethink it.
What is next for the entity that occupied or
owned the building and for the site? What would
happen, by default, to the materials of the
former building – and what could we make happen?
Can we deviate from the building’s destiny? Can
demolition be abandoned in favour of dismantling?
Could reuse or occupation of the building Aude-Line Duliere is an architect. She holds an MArch from
Harvard University (GSD), worked at David Chipperfield
happen as-is?
Architects and has been part of the development team at Rotor
in Brussels. She is the recipient of the 2018 Wheelwright Prize.
TUTORS James Westcott is an editor, most recently of the books
Aude-Line Duliere Countryside: A Report, Elements of Architecture and Project
James Westcott Japan by Rem Koolhaas/AMO. He is also the author of When 19th-century operational townhouses being demolished to give space for the extension of a regional parliament in Belgium.
with Rotor Marina Abramovic Dies: A Biography. Photograph by Aude-Line Duliere.You can also read
