Agendas
2011 – STORIES FROM THE CITY
“Fiction reveals truth that reality obscures.” Ralph Waldo Emerson As construction remains stagnant following the global-economic-meltdown, fabrication of an entirely other kind – one of stories – is implanting itself firmly within our architectural culture and tools of production. Architecture … Continue reading
2010 TENDER IS THE NIGHT
The three week full-time AA Summer Architecture School offers an exciting approach to architectural design for anyone interested in exploring architecture as a profession or as an extended field of research.The AA Summer Architecture School presents a challenging programme of … Continue reading
2009 MINICITY
Is the age of bigness over as the world scales back its architectural and urban ambitions? After years of what seemed like incessant growth taking place from Bahrain to Bangalore, a radical slowdown sets a new pace of activity. This … Continue reading
2008 LONDON EVER AFTER
Look out. Life is imitating art. What was once the domain of the disaster movie is fast becoming the real-life plot of our collective futures. From The Day After Tomorrow (eco-Armageddon) to I Am Legend (man-made viral pandemic); cities have … Continue reading
2007 LIVE IT UP!
At the start of the 21st century, dreams of tall living are again the height of fashion. But this time around, it’s not the West leading the new wave, but the Middle and Far East. From Dubai to Shanghai, super-skyscrapers … Continue reading
2006 RECIPES FOR A FAST-FORWARD FUTURE
We may live in the present, but we dream of the future. Even though we know it’s a time elastically located ahead of us, The Future is also a place that is constantly re-drawn and re-imagined. Though nothing may date … Continue reading
2005 QUICKSPACE / SLOWTIME
At the dawn of the Industrial Revolution, mechanization firmly took control. The world was forever changed, and with it, our experience of space and of time altered irrevocably. Manual labour was too slow: so, let it die! Machines emancipated man, … Continue reading
2004 SHINY and NEW
Looking back on the history of the future, two tendencies stand out the most. We were either hurtling forwards to worse times, in 1984 or Blade Runner, where the sun would never shine and we’d choke on the toxic air. … Continue reading
2002 SUBLIME OBJECTS IN MOTION
The design studios will explore the Sublime Object In Motion as a supple body that effects and is affected by change. Using London as an experimental laboratory of effects, participants will investigate relationships and strategies; speeds and resistances; abstractions and … Continue reading
2012 APRÈS CITY
“The after-party’s always better than the main event” As the Olympic Games draw to a close next Autumn 2012, London will be struggling with the question of what to do when the party’s over? Do we all just pick up … Continue reading
2013 WATERWORLD
You can’t trust water: Even a straight stick turns crooked in it. – W.C. Fields London has a wacky relationship with water. It turns its back on the very river that runs through it. It has just survived one of … Continue reading
2014 UNBUILT LONDON
The further backward you can look, the further forward you can see. – Winston Churchill From Cedric Price’s Fun Palace, to Winston Churchill’s War Room, and the hundreds of spaces, buildings, and years in between and since, London is characterised by … Continue reading
2015 ECCENTRICITY
Monday 6 – Friday 24 July 2015 Like many global cities, London is defined by its unchanging institutions and familiar, iconic imagery. The 2015 AA Summer School will challenge the ordinary and ask participants to design and re-describe London as … Continue reading
2016 LONDON-TIME
Monday 4 – Friday 22 July In the summer of 2016, when you land at one of London’s airports, most of you will change your watches while still on the runway to London-time, GMT 0:00. But what is London; beyond … Continue reading
2017 NOW!
What is architecture NOW, today? What is contemporary? We architects spend so much of our critical and intellectual efforts looking either to the past or the future, we often have little left to reflect on what architecture is now, and … Continue reading
Bits, Bytes, Fragments in 2018
Bits, Bytes, Fragments, Scraps, Shards and Moments. I guess I’m just hopelessly fascinated by the realities that you can assemble out of connected fragments. – Junot Diaz It’s like this puzzle. You spend ages putting things together – things … Continue reading