Archinect - News

AA School of Architecture students construct timber 'Tree and Truss' structure using robotic fabrication

2024-10-29T12:19:00-04:00

A new student-led project from the Architectural Association School of Architecture (AA) that combines robotic fabrication processes with new software applications has been shared with Archinect as part of the school's Design + Make 2022-24 cohort.

Image: courtesy Design + Make course Architectural Association/Photographer Rafael Ferres Echavarren

The 'Tree and Truss' project is a mass timber structure made from locally sourced materials and designed to support the columns and trusses of a new lecture hall standing in Hooke Park on the school's Woodland Campus.

Image: courtesy Design + Make course Architectural Association/Photographer Rafael Ferres Echavarren

Together, the students say: "The project explores a hybrid structure that seamlessly transitions from natural geometry to engineered timber and regards the tree as column and the truss as beam as the fundamental points of departure. We design through making and aim to work with the material behavior of timber."

Image: courtesy ...

Cambridge's Ingrid Schroder is named the next director of the Architectural Association

2022-05-19T12:32:00-04:00

London’s Architectural Association (AA) has named a new leader in its search to replace ousted former director Eva Franch i Gilabert.

Dr. Ingrid Schroder is the new head of the AA beating out Berkeley CED professor emerita Jill Stoner, Clancy Moore director Andrew Clancy, and two other shortlisted candidates to helm the 175-year-old institution. Schroder will remain in her current role as director of the University of Cambridge’s M.Phil in Architecture and Urban Design (MAUD) program until officially stepping into the AA post in late August.

Schroder comes to the position with over 20 years of experience teaching at Cambridge. She held several titles (Supervisor, Lecturer, Studio Master, Professional Practice Coordinator, Academic Exchange Coordinator, and Research Group Coordinator) outside of the MAUD program, which she helped establish in 2012, and has spent time at several other academic institutions, including the ETH Zurich, Chinese University of Hong Kong, Royal College of Ar...

The AA announces five shortlisted candidates to replace ousted former director Eva Franch i Gilabert

2022-03-29T18:34:00-04:00

The search to replace ousted Architectural Association director Eva Franch i Gilabert has made some progress after the organization named its official list of shortlisted candidates on Monday.

The Architects’ Journal is reporting that five names are being taken into consideration by the AA, which has been without a leader since the sacking of Franch following a close series of no-confidence votes in July of 2020.

Among the names are current AA faculty like Mark Morris and joint candidates John Palmesino and Ann-Sofi Rönnskog; the University of Cambridge’s Ingrid Schroder, Clancy Moore director Andrew Clancy, and Berkeley CED’s Jill Stoner.

The candidates are now subject to a vote that will produce an “advisory” set to be presented to the AA’s steering committee before a final name is announced in May. The winner will step into the role at the onset of the next academic year and serve a five-year term.

Previously on Archinect: Architectural Association has fired Eva Franch i Gilaber...

July 2020 saw leadership troubles at the AA, exposed corruption with PPP stimulus monies, highlighted struggles for new architecture graduates and Revit blowback

2020-12-24T13:15:00-05:00

By the start of July most of the world was more than three months into the COVID-19 pandemic, far surpassing the original hopes that we would have had it contained enough to return back to schools and workplaces. New architecture graduates were a couple of months into a job search at a time when most firms couldn't even think of hiring new staff. Summer travels plans were abandoned or drastically altered in an attempt to slow the spread of the virus, while many were throwing caution to the wind to regain their freedom. Little did we all know, we were still in the infancy of the pandemic. In the world of architecture, these were the stories that dominated the month of July...

Wa-Di Housing, a tribal transit-oriented development. Looking north towards Colorado Peak (left) and Tetilla Peak (right). Photo Credit: AOS Architects

This Land is Your Land, This Land is My Land—COVID-19’s Impact on Indian Country

For July 4th this year we opted to publish an op-ed by Joseph Kunkel, a citizen o...

Architectural Association has fired Eva Franch i Gilabert

2020-07-13T13:28:00-04:00

The Architectural Association (AA) in London has announced that it has terminated the employment of its Director Eva Franch i Gilabert due to Gilabert's "failure to develop and implement a strategy and maintain the confidence of the AA School Community which were specific failures of performance against clear objectives outlined in the original contract of employment."

Previously on Archinect: "AA leadership row is getting messy."Image courtesy of the Architectural Association.

The dismissal comes after weeks of speculation over Franch's future due to a recent "no confidence" vote that has taken place within the AA community in opposition to Franch's five year plan for the school. In addition, allegations of workplace hostility have been made against Gilabert.

Previously on Archinect:"The Architectural Association in London faces leadership crisis." Photo courtesy of Wikimedia Commons user Kaihsu Tai.

Last week, a pair of open letters were published online that commented on the leade...

AA leadership row is getting messy

2020-07-08T14:24:00-04:00

In the week since news broke over the leadership crisis taking place at the Architectural Association in London over the direction of the school under Eva Franch i Gilabert, dueling open letters have been circulated within the architecture community commenting on the episode.

"A power-grab fueled by less-than-progressive emotions"

First, a letter began to circulate early this week offering support for Gilabert from elite members of the global architectural community.

The letter, signed by at least 187 high-profile academics, designers, and architects who sit outside the AA community, is accessible here and explains that "every new administration, particularly those very few who have only recently come to be led by women or people of color, deserves patience and support as the inevitable realignments unfold. This need is made all the more urgent during a pandemic and a time of reckoning with social inequity." The text goes on to cite sexism and the stresses of the pandemic as pote...

The Architectural Association in London faces leadership crisis

2020-07-02T15:21:00-04:00

The Architectural Association (AA) in London finds itself in crisis this week as students, staff, and leadership express a lack of support for a proposed strategic plan crafted for the institution’s future by AA Director Eva Franch i Gilabert.

Further, as The Architect’s Journal reports, 52% of the nearly 900 people surveyed at the AA indicated that they did not have confidence in Gilabert’s leadership moving forward. The same poll found over 80% disagreement within the “school community” over the 2020-25 strategic plan Gilabert has crafted for the institution. The nature of the disagreements over the plan are unclear, though The Architect’s Journal shared an anonymous letter it received last year detailing concerns that the school “will favor ‘theory’ over ‘design,’ to the detriment of both, as well as some types of architectural thinking over others” under Gilabert’s leadership.

In a welcome address published in late 2019, Gilabert espoused a vision of openness coupled with resp...

Architectural Association in London can now award master's and bachelor's degrees

2019-10-11T15:15:00-04:00

The Architectural Association (AA) in London has been granted the power to award bachelor's and master's degrees for the first time in its history.

Despite boasting a formidable roster of globe-trotting alumni, including Zaha Hadid, Rem Koolhaas, Florence Knoll Bassett, Richard Rogers, and others, the institution has never been fully accredited. The school's academic offerings have been validated by the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) and the Architects Registration Board, Dezeen reports, but until now, was unable to officially award degrees. That has changed as of October 1, 2019.

The change took over six years to come into being and takes effect as the new AA director Eva Franch i Gilabert begins to leave her mark on the 172-year-old institution, England's oldest independent school of architecture.

Eva Franch i Gilabert. Image © Daniel Hambury/@stellapicsltd

According to a press release issued by the AA, the school's new Taught Degree Awarding Powers (TDAP) will all...

Oxford Dictionary of National Biography grows to include early women architects

2019-07-23T18:44:00-04:00

The lives and work of England's first practicing women architects are being highlighted in a new update to the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography in Britain (DNB), the country's standard reference of notable figures from British history.

Crafted by Dr. Elizabeth Darling, reader in architectural history at Oxford Brookes University, the new entries signify part of an effort by DNB to mark the centenary of the Sex Disqualification (Removal) Act of 1919 that allowed women in Britain to serve in certain branches of the government.

Although women were not legally barred from practicing architecture at the time, they did face significant cultural barriers to entering the profession due to long-held apprentice-oriented training practices that were prevalent into the 20th century, according to DNB. Women architects existed prior to 1919, but only in small numbers. When architectural education began to take place within schools of architecture, according to DNB, women were able to und...

'The question is not how we can educate architects but how can we make world citizens'

2019-04-23T17:16:00-04:00

“Yeah,” she says “the first woman director, I know, I know. But if we keep talking about it, this will never become natural [...] Gilabert is visible and audible in a way that previous directors of this chaotic little architecture school with an outsized global influence have not generally been. Mostly quiet men, they have managed the school through a repeat loop of terminal-looking financial, academic and intellectual crises, yet it has somehow survived.

After taking on the position as the new director of the Architectural Association in London back in March 2018 the exuberant and relentless architect, educator, and director recently shared her plans in an interview with the Financial Times.

Traditionally the AA School has been rooted in radical design as it continues to foster discourse and critical thinking towards the evolving pedagogy of architecture. The school's long list of notable alumni only adds to its rich history and direction as an institution. With Eva Franch i Gilabert leading the charge her tidal wave of ideas, opinions, and stimulating thoughts towards what the future of architectural education will look like is quite inspiring. A fan of bureaucracy and procedures she has dedicated much attention to creating a study of understanding the "internal business practices of architectural practices." Eccentric in her thoughts yet precise in her execution Gilabert does not shy from blending her disciplinary interests of ar...

Apply now for 2018 AA Istanbul Visiting School - Robotic Mediations!

2018-05-31T08:00:00-04:00

This post is brought to you by AA Istanbul Visiting School.

AA ISTANBUL VISITING SCHOOL – ROBOTIC MEDIATIONS Monday June 25 – Friday 6 July 6, 2018

AA Istanbul Visiting School, in collaboration with Istanbul Bilgi University, is a unique learning and making experience. The program continues to build on its expertise on generative design methodologies and large- scale prototyping techniques from previous years, while bringing together a range of experts from internationally acclaimed academic institutions and practices, Architectural Association, Zaha Hadid Architects, among others.

AA Istanbul Visiting School investigates the inherent associations between form, material, and structure through the rigorous implementation of innovative design and fabrication techniques. Computational methods for design, analysis, and fabrication are coupled with physical experimentation, fostering ‘learning-by- experimentation’ in an active collaborative studio environment. Throughout the design and ...

Apply now for 2018 AA Istanbul Visiting School - Robotic Mediations!

2018-04-12T12:13:00-04:00

This post is brought to you by AA Istanbul Visiting School.

AA ISTANBUL VISITING SCHOOL – ROBOTIC MEDIATIONS
Monday June 25 – Friday 6 July 6, 2018

Eva Franch i Gilabert has been announced as the new Director of the Architectural Association

2018-03-05T14:16:00-05:00

After winning 67% of the vote by the AA School Community (comprised by students, academic and admin staff, and members of Council), Eva Franch i Gilabert has been selected to be the new Director of the Architectural Association in London. Final contractual negotiations still need to be made and a formal announcement of the appointment will come later this month.

Franch, who beat out two other short-listed candidates for the title, comes from the Storefront for Art & Architecture in New York, where she served as Chief Curator and Executive Director. She has taught at Columbia University GSAPP, the IUAV University of Venice, SUNY Buffalo, and Rice University School of Architecture. She has been running her own solo practice, Office of Architectural Affairs, since 2004 and has represented the U.S. at the Venice Architecture Biennale.

The AA has been without permanent leadership since the departure of their former director Brett Steele in 2016. Since, the school has undergone a period ...

Three candidates shortlisted in AA School of Architecture's search for its new director

2018-02-15T18:55:00-05:00

The last few months have been full of uncertainty for the prestigious AA School of Architecture, which currently does not have a permanent director (Samantha Hardingham has been interim director since Brett Steele left the position in 2016). In the school's ongoing search for a new leader, they recently revealed a shortlist of three finalist candidates. They are:

Pippo Ciorra, Senior Curator of MAXXI Architettura in Rome, architect, critic, and professor
Eva Franch i Gilabert, Chief Curator & Executive Director of Storefront for Art & Architecture in New York, architect, curator, and educator
Robert Mull, Head of Architecture and Design at the University of Brighton, architect, educator, urbanist, and activist

After receiving 73 responses to their call for applications, the AA selected 26 candidates for their initial list, which was then narrowed down to 15 candidates for the first round of interviews. The first round of interviews included individuals from Australia, North and South A...

Deadline to apply for AA Athens Visiting School is approaching!

2017-05-22T03:00:00-04:00

This post is brought to you by AA Athens Visiting School.

AA Athens Visiting Schools will be hosting their workshop, Symmetry Sentience, from June 12th through the 22nd and the deadline is approaching—you have until May 29th to submit your online application form and fees!

Our world has been enriched by numerous interactive means that connect us across the different continents. These amplifications take place through various media that in turn estrange people from their surroundings. Our built environment continues to evolve, into an interconnected hyperspace where architecture can be fluid, flexible and vivid. In 2017, AA Athens Visiting School, will address architectural themes involving active engagement and participatory design through prototypes that are characterized by action.

Deadline to apply for AA Istanbul Visiting School is approaching

2017-05-22T03:00:00-04:00

This post is brought to you by AA Istanbul Visiting School.

ROBOTIC MEDIATIONS
Wednesday, June 28th-Friday, July 7th, 2017

AA Istanbul Visiting School, in collaboration with Istanbul Bilgi University, is a unique learning and making experience. The program continues to build on its expertise on generative design methodologies and large-scale prototyping techniques from previous years, while bringing together a range of experts from internationally acclaimed academic institutions and practices, Architectural Association, Zaha Hadid Architects, among others.

AA Istanbul Visiting School will investigate the inherent associations between form, material, and structure through the rigorous implementation of innovative design and fabrication techniques. Computational methods for design, analysis, and fabrication will be coupled with physical experimentation, fostering ‘learning-by-experimentation’ in an active collaborative studio environment. Throughout the design and fabrication processes, ...

Apply now for the AA Athens Visiting School: Symmetry Sentience workshop

2017-04-11T06:00:00-04:00

This post is brought to you by AA Athens Visiting School.

Symmetry Sentience
Monday 12 - Thursday 22 June 2017

Action-designed structures enabled by technology today, begin to timidly move beyond the utopian proposals of the 20th century’s manifestos and hold a place in the world of realized designs. The AA Athens Visiting School incorporates in the design process, materials and scientific devices as vital parts of the end-creations. The research aims at bringing closer the ...

Apply now for the AA Istanbul Visiting School: Robotic Mediations workshop

2017-04-11T04:00:00-04:00

This post is brought to you by AA Istanbul Visiting School.

Robotic Mediations
Wednesday 28 June – Friday 7 July 2017

AA Istanbul Visiting School, in collaboration with Istanbul Bilgi University, is a unique learning and making experience. The programme continues to build on its expertise on generative design methodologies and large-scale prototyping techniques from previous years, while bringing together a range of experts from internationally acclaimed academic institutions and practices, Architectural Association, Zaha Hadid Architects, among others.

Brett Steele, current director of the AA, appointed Dean of the UCLA School of Arts and Architecture

2016-12-14T12:44:00-05:00

Brett Steele, current director of the Architectural Association of Architecture (AA) will soon be heading to sunnier shores. Scott Waugh, Executive Vice Chancellor and Provost of the University of California School of Arts and Architecture (UCLA), has just announced that Steele has been appointed dean. In that role, Steel will oversee the school’s program in architecture, as well as its programs in urban design, visual arts, design, media arts, world arts and cultures, and dance. Moreover, he will be in charge of the school’s two prominent museums, the Fowler and the Hammer.

“Chancellor [Gene] Block and I are confident that Brett will provide outstanding leadership as dean of the UCLA School of the Arts and Architecture,” said Waugh in a press statement.

Steele has served as the chief executive and academic leader of the AA since 2005. He will start his new job at UCLA in August of next year, succeeding interim dean David Roussève. While at the AA, Steele launched a visiting school in...

Students explore structural concrete strategies in “Weave.X”, from AA Summer DLAB: ORANGE

2016-11-29T13:52:00-05:00

Twenty-one participants from 11 countries got to hone their skills in computational design and research during the AA Summer DLAB: ORANGE workshop at AA's London campus this past July. Building upon the last two Summer DLAB cycles, students worked side by side in researching and developing innovative architectural strategies to construct 3-D interwoven concrete structures. With guidance from AA Summer DLAB tutors and collaborators, students also applied techniques related to geometry rationalization, material behavior, and robotic fabrication.

The three-week program culminated with the creation of a full-scale, working prototype installation called “Weave.X”, which now stands on display in the midst of Hooke Park.

Keep reading for more about the fabrication process behind Weave.X.

“Initial computational form-finding techniques explore the generation of a network of interwoven elements via a bundling algorithm developed in Grasshopper. The algorithm enables the user to locally different...

Only a few days left to sign up for AA Chania Visiting School Progressions, 4-14 October 2016

2016-09-05T03:00:00-04:00

This post is brought to you by AA Greece Visiting School.

AA Chania Progressions::
4 October – 14 October 2016

In 2016, the AA Chania Visiting School will continue to pursue its design agenda concentrating on the bigger picture of the Chania city’s characteristics. The city of Chania is the second largest city of Crete. Chania can be divided in two parts: the old town and the modern city which is the larger one. The Visiting School will revisit the way by which the built environment has been put together and will explore design possibilities which can be applied in order to improve connectivity and functionality in the city. Interactive design coupled with generative form-finding techniques towards the fabrication and assembly of a 1-to-1 scale prototype will be investigated.

AA Greece Visiting School :: Chania 2016 : Teaser I from AI on Vimeo.

Each year a series of software tutorial sessions takes place in order to allow participants develop their basic skills on controlling models par...

Sign up now for AA Chania Visiting School Progressions, 4-14 October 2016

2016-08-10T12:32:00-04:00

This post is brought to you by AA Greece Visiting School.

AA Chania Progressions::
4 October – 14 October 2016

Each year a series of software tutorial sessions takes place in order to allow participants develop their basic skills on controlling models parametrically and on producing interactive presentations. These session...

Students go above the double-curve in “InFlux”, from AA Summer DLAB::RED

2016-07-27T18:49:00-04:00

Contrasting against the greenery of Hooke Park is “InFlux”, a brick-red wall prototype that 18 students and their tutors assembled for the AA School of Architecture's Summer DLAB::RED 2015 program. Taking place from July 27 to August 8, the RED-themed agenda explored the phenomenal process of decay in nature.

InFlux builds upon the material behavior research that began in 2014, with further investigations that connect geometry, material, and structure. During the first two weeks, students investigated the fabrication and construction of double-curved complex geometries in applying generative design techniques and robotic milling strategies. Students then applied their skills in constructing the 1:1 working prototype during the last seven days of the program. Since then, InFlux has become a permanent installation at Hooke Park.

Also be on the lookout for more from 2016 Summer DLAB::ORANGE, which just started earlier this week.

Keep reading for more about InFlux's fabrication process:

Ph...

Is psychedelia the new black in student architectural work?

2016-07-14T15:22:00-04:00

Architects might be known for wearing black, as if in permanent mourning for the lives they once had, and for spending months searching for the perfect shade of grey. But judging by this year’s student shows, that monochromatic hegemony is under threat: the next generation appears to be plotting a psychedelic revolution.

Incorporating influences drawn from popular media and gaming, architecture is increasingly reflecting the multi-faceted world in which we live, at least if you take a look at this new UK-based student work. Students from The Bartlett at the University College London, The Royal College of Art, and the Architectural Association have created unusually vibrant and occasionally pop-culture referential drawings:

In the mood for more trippy-ness? Here's a sampling:

REMINDER: The 2016 AA Summer DLAB: ORANGE application deadline is July 11!

2016-06-29T15:11:00-04:00

This post is brought to you by AA Summer DLAB 2016.

Summer DLAB experiments with the integration of algorithmic / generative design methodologies and large scale digital fabrication tools. Continuing its color based agenda, Summer DLAB immerses in ‘orange’ for its 2016 cycle, as a starting point to investigate principles of natural formation processes and interpret them as innovative architectonic spaces. These concepts are carefully interwoven with spatial, performance-based, and structural criteria in order to create full-scale working prototypes.

The three-week long programme is formulated as a two-phase process. During the two-week initial phase, participants benefit from the unique atmosphere and facilities of AA’s London home. The second phase, lasting for a week, shifts to AA Hooke Park and revolves around the fabrication and assembly of a full-scale architectural intervention realized by the use of robotic fabrication techniques in AA’s Hooke Park premises.

Prominent Features ...

AA Summer DLAB 2016: ORANGE

2016-05-31T14:02:00-04:00

This post is brought to you by AA Summer DLAB 2016.

Prominent Features ...

Editor's Picks #446

2016-05-23T09:19:00-04:00

Robert Urquhart spoke with curators Jack Self, Shumi Bose and Finn Williams, previewing their British Pavilion for the 2016 Venice Biennale.

As they explained;

"We’re interested in the influence of bureaucratic apparatus like the Terms & Conditions of Airbnb, the semantics of a mortgage, or the lifespan of product warranties, on the design of the home. But rather than seeing these as constraints, we want to show these as fields where architecture can expand its agency."

Plus, Julia Ingalls h ad a chance to visit Snøhetta's expanded SFMOMA. Her conclusion, that it "elegantly achieves its stated goals of being accessible and welcoming to all, if not necessarily being a stunning piece of architecture in its own right." LiMX liked what he read "Good review, not the boring contrarianism I've read elsewhere."

News
In late April the Vanna Venturi House, was sold after more than nine months on the open market. In response quondam…, Orhan Ayyüce and others, explored whether a building as "volumi...

Apply now for the AA Visiting School Greece: Thessaloniki Revelations workshop

2015-09-01T19:10:00-04:00

The AA Visiting School Greece program is getting ready for their Thessaloniki "Revelations" session, starting October 30 through November 9 at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki. The collaborative workshop will investigate the urban fabric of the historic city of Thessaloniki through a series of multi-parameter morphological operations and the use of digital fabrication tools.

All architecture and design students and professionals worldwide are invited to sign up. Be sure to apply by October 15.

The workshop will challenge participants to rethink the way Thessaloniki's city environment has affected its population based on shifting needs, as well as to visualize these urban shifts in a hyper-specific contextualized construction model. Students' design proposals will focus largely on innovative urban interventions informed by the existing city conditions of Thessaloniki.

During the design research phase, students will work in teams as they explore digital fabrication methods thro...

REMINDER: The 2015 AA Summer DLAB :: RED application deadline is July 20!

2015-07-14T17:25:00-04:00

There's still time to apply for the AA School of Architecture 2015 Summer DLAB :: RED workshop. Starting July 27 through August 14, the summer program emphasizes the integration of algorithmic / generative design methodologies and large scale digital fabrication tools. Student participants get to explore natural formation processes and interpret them as innovative architectonic spaces.

Continuing its yearly color-based agenda with RED, the 2015 Summer DLAB will investigate the phenomenon of decay in nature.

The program is open to all current architecture and design students. The application deadline is July 20. (Application form below)

By investigating the process of decay across various scales in natural organisms, DLAB participants will formulate rules of generating decomposition as their design research area. These rules will then evolve into design strategies for the creation and fabrication of a large-scale prototype. The design and fabrication process will be informed by the use ...

AA Summer DLAB :: RED is now accepting applications until July 20

2015-05-15T13:03:00-04:00

Summer DLAB from London's AA School of Architecture is gearing up for its 2015 cycle. Starting July 27 through August 14, the summer workshop emphasizes the integration of algorithmic / generative design methodologies and large scale digital fabrication tools. Student participants get to explore natural formation processes and interpret them as innovative architectonic spaces.

Continuing its yearly color-based agenda with RED, the 2015 Summer DLAB will investigate the process of decay in nature.

The program is open to all current architecture and design students. The application deadline is July 20. (Application form below)

More details below: