i support Farshid

Non architect - I don't think insulting any of the other candidates is particularly helpful at this stage. And whether or not you support Farshid is a bit moot now. We look to the future and it's Brett. If you're a student or staff member and you have thoughts about how you want the school to progress, that's interesting; what you've said thus far isn't.

57.4% of the vote, with a turnout of 84.5% is a clear mandate for Brett. If anything this is a very good outcome for the AA.

mouse: why yeah?
because i think that what brett is interested in as far as architectural enquiry goes is central to the development of Architecture in the future, the integration between Architecture and different forms of technology and science, both as research methods and as final products...it will be useful to have an institution like the AA having some sort of focus on these themes, to develop and test them further.

sorry, i will dwell on this further, but at the moment there is brum&bass being pushed in my ears and i can't think straight...kill...kill...kill...

"the integration between Architecture and different forms of technology and science"

Richard,

What a novel idea. Sounds almost a bit like Leonardo da Vinci.

Could you clarify please.

in sense, yes, it does.
drl work focuses on this integration, which has been done before, but i think the hierarchy in the drl case is different. previously technology was taken up by Architecture, and drowned in it, menaning that the technology itselkf did not inform the building, but simply became part of it.

Think of automatic sliding doors. they where direct consequence of a technical innovation (infrared movement sensors), yet they did not change the way buildings, or the buildings' programs are designed.

One of the issues Steele is concerned with is the embedding of these technologies in the building structure/program, that actually open new possibilities for the way we make buildings, reversing the hierarchy of dependency that has crippled this relationship throughout the 20th century, mainly because of modernism's snobbish attitude toward other fields of research (artistic or scientific)

i am not saying that this is the way foward, just that it's a very interesting option that needs to be explored further, and that an institution like the AA is the right place to do it.

this is the right place to post . . .
some stats from the AA site:

AA Chair Result

The Search Committee is pleased to announce the results of the Election for AA Chair. For the first time in its history, 84.5% of the electorate have participated.

Brett Steele has been elected as the new Chair, having achieved 57.4% of the votes.
Number of voting papers distributed: 654
Number of votes cast in total: 553 (84.56%)
Number of votes found to be invalid (blank/spoilt): 4 (0.73%)
Thus, total number of valid votes to be counted: 549 (83.94%)
Number of votes cast at the polling station: 394 (71.77%)
Number of votes cast over the telephone: 159

The Search Committee would like to thank the entire Community for its active participation.
AA Search Committee

PRESS RELEASE
ISSUED BY THE CHAIRMAN OF THE AA’S SEARCH COMMITTEE




The Architectural Association is delighted to announce the result of the ballot for the selection of its new chief executive. The AA School Community, comprising the students, staff and Board of Trustees (the Council) of the AA, has elected Brett Steele, from a short-list of three candidates, by a majority vote of 57.4%. The ballot, which was undertaken by the Electoral Reform Services, attracted an unprecedented 85% of the electorate to the polls.

Brett Steele will now be invited to take responsibility for the running of the AA over the next five years. A former student and tutor at the Architectural Association, he has led, as Director of the AA Design Research Lab, a highly successful MArch graduate design programme at the AA. His past experiences include being a Visiting Professor at the Harvard Graduate School of Design and the Berlage Institute, and project architect at Zaha Hadid Architects. Brett Steele is also a current partner in desArchLab, as well as author of more than fifty recent articles on contemporary architectural practice, theory and research, published worldwide.

This ballot is the culmination of a process that started in June 2004, when the search for a new Chair of the AA was initiated. It has been an important time for the AA, and an occasion for everyone to be heard, not only regarding the position of Chair but also the future direction of the organisation. The process has been organised by an elected Search Committee, who has consulted widely with the School.

Early in this academic year the Education Symposium highlighted the many critical issues for the School, including the School’s management and educational structure, as well as content, infrastructure and financing. Much of this was covered by the ‘Red Book’, or Guidelines for the Appointment of Chair at the AA. In order to continue involving the School Community, the Search Committee then published the ‘Orange Book’, or Candidates for Chair of the AA, which comprises a selection of set questions to which each Candidate has responded, together with individual Candidate statements. Each Candidate gave a public presentation and held individual days of dialogue with the School.

The AA is proud to have the benefit of an active and participative democracy which has, in a clear and positive manner, made its own decision on its future chief executive. It is a recognition of the independence of the School that this tradition of self determination remains in place and flourishing.

Roger Zogolovitch – Chair of the Search Committee – 25th May 2005

AA chair promises changes
03 June 2005


Brett Steele: I’m no ‘safe’ candidate

By Charlie Gates

The new chairman of the Architectural Association set out his vision for a once in a generation change at the world’s leading architecture school this week.

Brett Steele was elected last week, beating Foreign Office Architects partner Farshid Moussavi and Sheffield University architecture head Jeremy Till in the vote by AA students and staff.

Speaking to the press for the first time since his election, Steele rejected the student perception he was the “safe” candidate and outlined his plans to encourage greater collaboration in the school through the creation of new “research clusters”.

The clusters will bring together students from any year and any teaching unit to research a particular topic during the academic year through a series of lectures, open seminars and workshops. Steele said he hoped the clusters would allow students to work together and to get a better idea of what was happening in the rest of the AA outside of their research unit.

But he reaffirmed his commitment to the controversial unit system, which was criticised by former AA tutor Kevin Rhowbotham last year for creating personal “fiefdoms”. Steele insisted that the system “will remain at the core of the AA”.

He continued: “I want to evolve a new model for the school. It will still allow students and staff to research in their units but will recognise it will be done alongside other people in this school. Given the nature of the closed walls and the Georgian architecture at the AA, it is often very hard for people to find out what is happening in the rest of the school.

“I believe deeply in the unit system, but I found the early years of the system in the 1970s much more interesting because it was much more flexible. This will make the work of the unit system that much smarter.”

Steele also underlined his commitment to ensuring the AA retained its focus on the experimental and academic aspects of architecture. “We will not let the expectations and demands of the office shape the pedagogy of the school,” he said. “We need to create people that challenge the expectations of offices.”

Reacting to students branding him the “safe” candidate because he was already at the school, he said: “I don’t agree at all, and I didn’t appreciate it. There isn’t anything safe about me leading one part of the school and then stepping up and taking it all on.”

Steele replaces previous AA chairman Mohsen Mostafavi, who resigned in April last year after the students voted against extending his eight-year tenure for another five-year term. The resignation triggered a year-long search for a new candidate.

Steele will begin his five-year term at the beginning of August.

Ah, at least someone did touch the point "next generation" if tylerdurden means it FUTURE. there is no need for a star, famous, and or a person did study in GSD. the AA folks have been intelligent to pick Brett among other interesting people such as Farshid, i believe. Brett has the capacity to bring the AA into the AA of 70s and higher, to my eyes and minds. i'd bet with anyone on this point. he will direct the 70s-AA to the FutureAA he called AA21. there is need for tutors that have capacities to walk with same entusiasm and wants to reach to the AA21.