We last spoke to Will Hunter, Director of the London School of Architecture (LSA) back in August of last year for a One-to-One podcast, focusing on the school’s ambition to break the mould and strike out as a new model for architectural education. Now into the spring term of its inaugural year, I caught up with Hunter at one of the many locations the school uses as a base: the achingly fashionable co-working space Second Home, just off Brick Lane in East London.

I took the opportunity to ask Hunter for an update on how he, and the LSA, view the state of the profession.

Is contemporary architecture practice forging a new identity for itself through nomadic collaboration? What part does education play in this mix?

We need to be more generalist. The idea of “profession” is now much more about personal destiny and purpose than label.We’re a new model for teaching that didn’t necessarily rely on a building, a sort of dispersed urban model and kind of co-working, so we didn’t have disciplinary boundaries. Students are collaborating a lot more, they’re forming together around projects which is a great way of working.

How about the kind of workspaces that architects are now beginning to use? Are collaboration, budget and space needs leading to a new meld of disciplines cohabiting?

[Will nods towards the café of Second Home] This space is a highly designed version of what Katy Marks did with Impact Hub back in 2002, the concept is more or less the same. I like the idea of the “citizen” and the idea of civic space. Architecture is more than just about delivering buildings that are just for the need of the client.

What about "the profession" and the need for specialism and identity in society?

We need to be more generalist. The idea of “profession” is now much more about personal destiny and purpose than label. We’ve got to connect with lots of disciplines, you can’t be specialist in all things, you have to understand lots of different inputs but reconcile them in a way. I think the main thing is connecting with other disciplines and people and ideas. We’re not autonomous, architecture is the nexus of all the different disciplines.

What about the relationship between practice and study that marks a strong identity for LSA, with students spending three days a week in practice, gaining practical experience as well as contemporary theoretical discourse in “think tanks” in venues spread across the city?

The students are feeding off each other massively. We’ve been given an office by Soho Estates, they want to support creative young people in Soho. There are probably some advantages for them in bringing people into the area; they want Soho to be alive and people working in the area.There is a fundamental ethical conversation going on, there is a thread that ties it together now, quite a big thread – humanities.

What kind of students are attracted to the course?

It’s about being open minded. Some students that we didn’t take last year had a very strong idea about “this is what architecture is”, or just very specific view and couldn’t engage with new ideas. We couldn’t engage with that so they didn’t make it.

What kind of issues or themes are the students and practices working on at LSA? How is sustainability, for instance, being addressed?

Sustainability is not just a technical issue but of how the world is at a point of epochal change and how architecture has a fundamental part to play in that. There are new rituals that we must engage with. There is a fundamental ethical conversation going on, there is a thread that ties it together now, quite a big thread – humanities.

Moving Forward

Having reached their target of £2,500,000 funding through student fees and investment from the associate practices involved in the school, the LSA is now looking for further core funding in order to offer living cost bursaries and the further course validation accreditation, something that Hunter is confident they’ll achieve. “We are of the moment,” Hunter says in summary, “I think people are ready for something new and I do think being new really helps.”