ARCHITECTURAL ASSOCIATION SCHOOL OF ARCHITECTURE TAUGHT POSTGRADUATE AND PHD PROGRAMMES PROSPECTUS 2021-22
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Architectural Association School of Architecture Taught Postgraduate and PhD Programmes Prospectus 2021–22
Contents 10 Introduction 14 Taught Postgraduate Programmes Introduction 16 Taught Postgraduate Programme Briefs 66 PhD Programme Introduction 68 PhD Programme Brief 74 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
AAIS Phase 1 Project: A scene from the interactive videogame Memory Loop, part of the AAIS 2021 Origin event series. Luyao Luo, Breather, MPhil in Architecture and Urban Design (Projective Cities), 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 Taught Postgraduate Programmes 15
The AA offers nine full-time Taught Postgraduate programmes – advanced
courses of study for students with prior academic and professional expe-
rience. The degrees offered include an MA/MSc (12 months), MArch (16
months), MFA and MPhil (18 months) for a range of topics:
Architecture and Urbanism (DRL) Housing and Urbanism
MArch MA/MArch
Architecture and Urbanism (DRL) interrogates Housing and Urbanism addresses the complexities
the broader relationships of architecture by of urban transformation through design learning
considering the futures of living, work and and investigation, focusing on the politics and
Taught
culture through advanced methods in design, practicalities that are shaping today’s cities.
computation and manufacturing.
Landscape Urbanism
Design and Make MSc/MArch
MSc/MArch Landscape Urbanism investigates the role that
Design and Make explores design at the point of designers can play when confronted with policies
Postgraduate
physical production, demonstrating a vision for and regulations that are currently rethinking
architectural education in which making is central landscapes and territories across the globe.
to the act of design itself.
Spatial Performance and Design (AAIS)
Emergent Technologies and Design MA/MFA
Programmes
MSc/MArch Spatial Performance and Design (AAIS) engages
Emergent Technologies and Design investigates with alternative methods of collaboration
new synergies of architecture and ecology between multiple creative professions.
through the critical intersection of computa-
tional design and fabrication. Sustainable Environmental Design
MSc/MArch
History and Critical Thinking in Sustainable Environmental Design engages with
Architecture real-life projects aiming to improve the environ-
MA ment in cities and develop environmentally
History and Critical Thinking in Architecture is a sustainable architectures.
platform for engagement with the contemporary
through critical analysis of history and the poli- Taught MPhil in Architecture and Urban Design
tics of historiography. (Projective Cities)
The Taught MPhil in Architecture and Urban Design
(Projective Cities) examines multi-scalar ques-
tions arising at the intersection of architecture,
urban design and planning.
16 MArch 17
Architecture And Urbanism (DRL)
The Design Research Laboratory (DRL) is a Programme Structure
16-month, post-professional design research Four terms of study are divided into two phases.
programme that leads to a Master of Architecture Phase 1, a three-term academic year beginning
and Urbanism (MArch) degree. Our world-re- each autumn, introduces design techniques and
nowned lab has been at the forefront of design topics through a combination of team-based
experimentation for the past 20 years, pioneering studio work, workshops and seminar courses.
advanced methods in design, computation and In Phase 2, which begins the following
manufacturing, and is based on an evolving frame- autumn, teams develop their Phase 1 work into a
work of three-year research cycles that comprehensive design thesis project. At the end
interrogate architecture and urbanism from the of January, these projects are presented to a panel
city-scale to the nano-scale. Led by innovators in of distinguished visiting critics. In the past, these
the fields of architecture, design and engineering, have included Alisa Andrasek, Caroline Bos, Mark
the DRL pursues an interdisciplinary approach to Cousins, Hernán Díaz Alonso, John Frazer, Zaha
design that extends beyond architecture, Hadid, Michael Hansmeyer, Jeff Kipnis, Ariane
fostering collaboration with companies such as Koek, Rem Koolhaas, Marta Malé-Alemany, Wolf
Ferrari, Festo, AKTII, Reider and Odico Robotics. Prix, Ali Rahim, David Ruy, Marcelo Spina, Ben Van
The lab remains a space of co-operation and curi- Berkel and Tom Wiscombe, among many others.
osity and seeks to develop the next generation of
architects who will actively engage with and influ-
ence the field. Distinguished graduates have gone
on to found offices, lead advanced research
groups and teach at schools worldwide.
PROGR AMME HE AD PROGR AMME COORDINATOR
Theodore Spyropoulos Alexandra Vougia
FOUNDER COURSE TUTORS SEISMOS
Patrik Schumacher Pierandrea Angius, Apostolos Despotidis, Ariadna Lopez, Studio Theodore Spyropoulos
Mostafa El-Sayed, Evangelia Magnisali, Klaus Platzgummer Tutors: Mostafa El-Sayed, Apostolos Despotidis
COURSE MASTER Team: Razvan Voda, Jaeho Park, Huizhong Li, Xiaonan Liu
Shajay Bhooshan TECHNICAL TUTORS Digital and physical prototypes were designed and made during the process, targeting a minimal and compact structure that can
David Greene Danae Polyviou, Albert Taylor-Williamson, Edoardo Tibuzzi move, transform and aggregate with the minimum use of materials and energy.
18 PHASE 1 Title Core Seminars Title Behaviour: Examining the Proto- 19
Design as Research, Term 1 Systemic, Term 2
Design Research Agenda: Tutor Theodore Spyropoulos Tutors Theodore Spyropoulos
Social Ecologies
Pursuing design as a form of research raises a This seminar course follows a behaviour-based
Our current agenda, Social Ecologies, explores series of questions that relate to larger techno- agenda to engage with experimental forms of
expanded relationships of architecture by logical, economic and cultural contexts. The material and computational practice. Through an
considering the future of living, work and culture. seminar will explore ways of associating design examination of cybernetic and systemic thinking
The aim of the research is to diversify the field with forms of research and the implications of in relation to seminal forms of prototyping and
of possibilities through exploiting behaviour as using this methodology in architectural and experimentation, students will look at experi-
a conceptual tool in order to synthesise the design practice. An overview of computational ments that have been conducted since the early
digital world with the material world. Advanced approaches to architectural design and processes 1950s as maverick machines, architectures and
computational development is utilised in the will complement the seminar, and weekly read- ideologies. Team-based presentations will examine
pursuit of architectural systems that are adap- ings on software technologies and design systems these methods and outputs as case studies for
tive, generative and behavioural. Using the latest will survey computational work in art, music, studio experimentation.
in advanced printing, making and computing new media, science and other aspects of
tools, the lab is developing pioneering work that contemporary architectural discourses. Groups
challenges the design orthodoxies of today. of students will make weekly presentations Title Software Platforms: Maya, Rhino,
Architecture that is mobile, transformative, kinetic related to the readings and provide analyses of 3D Studio, Processing, Arduino, Unity,
and robotic forms part of the AADRL agenda, with selected projects. Scripting, Term 1–2
the aim of expanding the discipline and pushing Tutors DRL staff
the limits of design within the larger cultural and
technological realm. Title Constructed Histories: Technocentric These workshops introduce a number of digital
History of Design, Term 2 tools and software systems to give students a
Tutor Shajay Bhooshan grounding in the skills required to construct and
Title Design Workshops control parametric models and interactive pres-
Simulating the Real, Term 1 This seminar traces synoptic histories of the built entations. Building upon these, subsequent
Tutors Shajay Bhooshan, Apostolos Despotidis, environment as a consequence of the liberating sessions will cover advanced scripting, program-
Mostafa El-Sayed, Evangelia Magnisali power of geometric abstraction, in order to ming and dynamic modelling techniques.
understand such histories as additive manufacture
Three design workshop modules are devised to in bricks and stone, influenced by and recipro-
emphasise computational and material proto- cally shaping mathematics of graphic statics and Title Synthesis: Project Submission, Writing
typing as both an analytical methodology and the stereotomy. and Research Documentation, Term 1–2
prime mode of design production and representa- Tutors Alexandra Vougia, Klaus Platzgummer
tion. Each five-week module focuses on a specific
set of methods and an intended design output Title Phase 1 Prototyping Workshop: In weekly sessions, students will review the basics
to introduce students to a range of concepts and Responsive Systems, Term 2 of writing and research related to course submis-
techniques that can be further developed in Tutor Apostolos Despotidis sions. Presentations will cover the resources
the year-long Phase 1 and Phase 2 studio projects. available to students, the preparation of thesis
This workshop introduces students to prototyping abstracts, writing styles and issues related to essays,
and physical computing. Students will learn to papers and project booklets.
use the Arduino platform, while exploring various
fabrication processes to give shape to their ideas.
In Phase 2, these techniques will serve as essential
skills during prototype development.20 PHASE 2 Title Prototyping Workshop: Adaptive Pierandrea Angius holds a PhD in Building Technology from the
Polytecnico of Milan and a MArch in Architecture and Urbanism
Evangelia Magnisali is an architectural engineer, researcher and
educator. She studied at National Technical University in
21
Systems and Structures, Term 1
(DRL) from the AA. A former Associate at Zaha Hadid Athens and is currently working as a Research Associate at the
Design Research Agenda: Tutors Theodore Spyropoulos, Patrik Architects, he currently works for Ferrari. He has taught at the University of Westminster.
Social Ecologies Schumacher, Shajay Bhooshan, University of Pennsylvania and at the AA on the DRL
programme for more than a decade. Klaus Platzgummer holds a master’s degree in Architecture from
Pierandrea Angius, Mostafa El-Sayed the ETH Zürich and an MA in History and Critical Thinking in
Bhooshan Research Group and Apostolos Despotidis Shajay Bhooshan is an MPhil candidate at the University of Bath Architecture from the AA. He is a Teaching and Research
Gamification / Robotic Fabrication / and a research fellow at ETH Zürich. He is a Senior Associate at Associate at the Department of Architectural Theory, TU Berlin.
Zaha Hadid Architects in London, and heads the research
Mass-Customised Design This five-week workshop, at the midpoint of activities of the practice’s Computation and Design (co de) group. Patrik Schumacher is an architect and architectural theorist
The studio explores robotic fabrication while Phase 2, addresses a detailed aspect of the promoting parametricism. He studied philosophy and
enabling mass-customisation strategies that can spatial, structural, material and environmental Apostolos Despotidis is a registered architect in UK and Greece, architecture in Bonn, Stuttgart and London, and holds a PhD in
and is currently an Associate Partner at Foster + Partners; he cultural science from Klagenfurt University. He is a partner at
compete with contemporary co-living models systems of each team’s thesis project. The work- has been a tutor at the AA since 2013. He holds an MArch in Zaha Hadid Architects.
in highly productive cities. The promise of shop emphasises modelling techniques that can Architecture and Urbanism (DRL) from the AA and an architecture
and engineering degree from the Aristotle University of Theodore Spyropoulos is director of the experimental art,
mass-customisation integrated with new models feed back into the testing and development of
Thessaloniki. architecture and design practice Minimaforms and resident
of housing now allows for the generation of a larger-scale proposals. artist at Somerset House. He has previously chaired the AA
vibrant community fabric. Mostafa El-Sayed is the cofounder of Automata Technologies Graduate School, is Professor of Architecture at the
and previously worked as a member of the Computation and Staedelschule in Frankfurt and visiting Research Fellow at MIT’s
Design (co de) at Zaha Hadid Architects. He is a graduate of the Center for Advanced Visual Studies. He is the author of
Schumacher Research Group Architecture and Urbanism (DRL) programme at the AA, and of Adaptive Ecologies: Correlated Systems of Living, Enabling and
Cyber-Urban Incubator / Tectonism the American University of Sharjah. the forthcoming publication Behaviors.
The space of social communication after Covid-19 David Greene, born in Nottingham, England in 1937, had a usual Alexandra Vougia studied architecture in Thessaloniki, Greece
should be designed simultaneously as both real English provincial suburban upbringing before moving to and at Columbia University (GSAPP). She holds a PhD from the
and virtual navigation and communication realms; London to begin a nervous, nomadic and twitchy career; from AA, has worked as an architect in New York and Athens and is a
big buildings for developers, to t-shirts for Paul Smith, to founding member of Fatura Collaborative. She has taught at
as cyber-urban spaces, seamlessly integrating conceptual speculation for Archigram, which he founded with the AA since 2012.
physically immediate and digitally mediated Peter Cook. Currently Greene is, perhaps, Provost of the
communicative interactions, constituting a new Invisible University. Albert Williamson-Taylor is an active member of the steering
committee for the Council for Tall Buildings and is the
augmented mixed reality. The matrix is coming. cofounder of design-led structural engineering firm AKT II.
Spyropoulos Research Group
Elemental / Water / Earth / Fire / Air
The studio challenges the fixed and finite ortho-
doxies of building design for a latent and unknown
world. Within the contemporary condition, new
conceptual terrains emerge that raise questions
of agency and intelligence within a deep ecology
of our environment. The studio examines the
elemental phenomena as technology. Can we
control the clouds? Can we grow our homes? An
architecture of constructed atmosphere as energy.22 MArch, MSc 23
Design and Make
Design and Make is based at the AA’s satellite Programme Structure
campus at Hooke Park, a rich context which Both programmes (MArch and MSc) are structured
serves as an immersive laboratory for architec- around a series of hands-on studio projects of
tural research. Students live on site, within the increasing scale and sophistication, leading to the
forest, inhabiting a unique environment in which production of small-scale and bespoke architec-
landscape, studio, workshop, forestry and full- tural fabrication (MArch) or full-size architectural
scale fabrication are interwoven. The landscape, prototypes (MSc). These studios are complemented
being both material library and site, is critical to by seminar courses and workshops, and by lectures
the design process and our experimental and events at Hooke Park and Bedford Square.
constructs are nested carefully into the tissue of The MArch and MSc courses share taught
the working forest environment at Hooke Park. components in the first two terms, after which
Design through making is the focus here in the programme bifurcates, with the MSc students
our woodland studio. The research we conduct completing their project and dissertations for
demonstrates a vision for architectural education submission in September. The MArch students
in which making (and remaking) is central to the also submit their thesis in September, and
act of design itself. The large-scale fabrication continue with project construction until January.
facilities on site provide a unique testing ground, MArch students use full-scale fabrication at
where we devote time to speculative research Hooke Park as a vehicle for design-led research.
through the design of experimental prototypes Individual research interests are developed
and highly crafted full-scale architecture. within the framework of a group design project,
We materialise architecture through curi- and thereafter pursued independently by each
osity, craft and creativity. Speculative design student to underpin the work of their thesis.
attitudes drive the work, and our twin catalysts MSc students focus on technology and mate-
for the imagination are physical engagement with rial properties through the innovative application
the site and the alchemy of the act of making. of timber in architecture, which is developed and
We thrive on the unexpected revelations brought tested through full-scale prototypes using
about by each. diverse fabrication technologies and strategies.
Our toolbox contains a diverse array of The teaching team consists of architects,
resources that facilitate design and fabrication. designers, theorists, engineers and construction
We use a hands-on approach, guided by an experts, who provide technical guidance and
in-depth material understanding and a respect for creative mentoring for the projects. Visiting
tacit knowledge. At the same time, technologies specialists spanning art, science and technology
and fabrication methods – such as 3D scanning, augment the studio teaching. The team works
advanced modelling, robotic and CNC production side-by-side with students to develop knowledge
– are deployed to augment traditional craft and and expertise collaboratively, resulting in 1:1
material knowledge, with the aim of striking an prototypes and architectural built works.
agile balance between the computational and the
physical. This is a delicate blend which creates
fertile conditions for innovative projects to thrive.
Our forest laboratory is a space of intense investi-
gation, a wild-wood of creativity and a home for
architectural adventurers.
PROGR AMME HE ADS STUDIO TUTORS
Kate Davies Will Gowland DISSERTATION TUTOR
Emmanuel Vercruysse Frederik Petersen Simon Withers Bird’s eye view from the Big Shed: Robotically sculpted skeleton frames for Wakeford Library. Photograph by Veda Barath.24 Design Studio, Term 1 Built Projects, Term 2 Kate Davies is cofounder of nomadic design studio Unknown
Fields and the Liquid Factory collective. Her work explores the
25
The Term 1 studio centres on the development In Term 2 we place the emphasis on making,
complexities of contemporary landscape, from extraction and
of a strong conceptual design framework, allowing sufficient time for rigorous testing, manufacturing to remote territories and ancestral homelands.
providing the foundation for the year’s investiga- prototyping and experimentation and encour- She is Head of Communication and Media Studies at the AA and
has run MArch units at the Bartlett School of Architecture.
tions. In parallel, studio projects are structured aging risk-taking, trial and failure. The principle
as workshop-based exercises in which key skills of iterative design is fundamental to the Design Will Gowland is an architect, designer and educator. Having
are deployed and developed. Taught classes and and Make ethos. Designs are developed through graduated from the AA on the prestigious Baylight Scholarship,
he is cofounder of the architecture practice Built Works.
workshops establish proficiency in skills, tools prototyping, mock-ups and physical testing in
and processes. This covers analogue fabrication collaboration with engineering consultants and Frederik Petersen is a Danish architect, photographer, artist
techniques, iterative design strategies, digital specialist builders. and educator. He is founding editor of Entreentre – On
Architecture and Image and completed his PhD dissertation
manufacturing and applied techniques for Realising Representation. He has exhibited in architecture, art
analysing prototypes. For MArch students, the collective built project and design contexts, and has taught architecture studios and
workshops at universities in Scandinavia and the UK.
consists of the design, prototyping and construc-
Students are encouraged to develop design tion of a small-scale architectural built work at Emmanuel Vercruysse is a designer and educator whose work
approaches driven by consideration of landscape Hooke Park. For MSc students, the built projects investigates the peculiar interrelationships between the made
and the drawn. He is involved in collaborative practices and
and material. Design development is approached comprise processes of individual research,
research groups including Liquid Factory, Sixteen*Makers and
as an iterative process of designing and making, experimentation and prototyping that leads to RAVEN, and was previously Director of the MArch Design for
gradually introducing students to the various a full-scale, experimental prototype designed to Manufacture programme at the Bartlett School of Architecture.
processes at play within large-scale fabrication test innovative and critical positions within the Simon Withers has a background in architecture, fashion and
and allowing for speculative testing of design field of timber applications. electronics. He is a Unit Master and Thesis Tutor at the Bartlett
concepts, methodologies and fabrication tech- School of Architecture and the University of Greenwich.
niques that will inform their final built works.
Thesis/Dissertation
The Thesis (MArch) and Dissertation (MSc) provide
Seminar Courses, Term 1–2 a framework to develop an intellectual position
Seminar Courses are delivered in weekly sessions through the construction of critical arguments
and focus on the cultural theory of making as and investigations. These endeavours provide the
design; material science; traditional craft; land and fundamental research that will inform, support
landscape; and advanced fabrication technologies. and instruct the built projects. The range of
Together, they provide the theoretical framework research topics within students’ written work
for the project work and the intellectual founda- can encompass individual interests in material
tion for the written Thesis or Dissertation. behaviour, bespoke fabrication technologies and
workflows, alternative forms of design practice
or personal fascinations within the cultural land-
scape of architecture.26 MArch/MSc 27
Emergent Technologies and Design
The Emergent Technologies and Design (EmTech) The programme has two distinct phases: the
programme is open to graduates in architecture Studio and the Dissertation, which are both
and engineering who wish to develop skills and aligned with and supported by the research of
pursue knowledge in architectural design science the programme team and the advanced expertise
situated in new production paradigms. our alumni and research colleagues in practice
We continue to investigate new synergies of and industry.
architecture and ecology through the critical Design research is central to the agendas
intersection of computational design and of Emergent Technologies and Design. The
advanced fabrication. Our focus is on exploring programme proceeds from the fundamental
experiential, social and cultural potentials of new premise of a shared understanding between
material and spatial configurations for architec- staff, students, researchers and collaborators
tural, urban and ecological design solutions across the world that nature and artifice are
situated in the dynamic contexts of emerging strongly coupled; that the cultural production
biomes. The programme is designed to stimulate of artefacts and systems exist as part of the envi-
critical thinking through experience of research- ronment of other active systems; and that they
driven design projects that are developed in an are subject to change. We also share an under-
intellectually rigorous and creative studio envi- standing that causality of change is complex and
ronment. Our projects are pursued by multiple multi-scalar, that the dynamics of change are
iterations through hypothesis, material and perturbed and accelerated by human activities;
computational experimentation, advanced fabri- we share a concern for the consequences of
cation including robotics, and evaluation; those changes to society and the natural world.
reflected upon in verbal presentations and group
discussions; and documented in analytical and
scientifically-structured papers.
FOUNDING DIRECTOR
Michael Weinstock STUDIO TUTORS
Abhinav Chaudhary
PROGR AMME HE AD STUDIO MASTER Eleana Polychronaki George Junior Merheb, Pouyan Mohammadi, Naoki Tachikawa, Amal Taryam, Design I: Digital
Elif Erdine Milad Showkatbakhsh Lorenzo Santelli and Material Fabrication – Robotic Winding, EmTech, 2021.28 PHASE 1 Natural Systems and Biomimetics workflow techniques, and to analyse and fully PHASE 2 29
The course aims to develop an understanding of fabricate material systems that are situated
The Studio how biology can be a model for material, within the programme’s Design and Build The Dissertation
The Studio comprises workshops, seminars, mechanical, spatial and computational systems. research agenda. The Dissertation Research Studio extends the
electives and design projects that are led by An introduction to the ways in which organisms acquisition of research competencies through
EmTech staff and our associated researchers, have evolved through form, materials and struc- Design 2: Ecological Urban Design extensive collaborative dialogue with the
and offers a creative and intellectually rigorous tures in response to varied functions and This project focuses on creating new design exper- programme’s research community of active
sequence of study that builds knowledge and environments is followed by an account of engi- iments and system logics for ecologically sensitive post-doctorate researchers and PhD candidates.
skill. It provides an intensive engagement in neering, logical and organisational design settlements with urban tissues in extreme climates There are two main fields of Design Research in
design science and introduces our students to principles that have been abstracted from nature and ecological contexts. Designs are developed for which we are active: Dynamic Material Systems
the wider community of design researchers in in current research projects for industry and a land-water entity that act as both a place of with Advanced Fabrication (including robotic
London practices. It concludes with guiding material science. A study is made of a natural production and human inhabitation. Situated in an techniques) and Ecological Urban Design in emer-
students through the formation of a detailed system (general form, anatomy, energy flows, ecologically sensitive context, design solutions are gent biomes. Students integrate explorations of
proposal for an original architectural inquiry, to geometry, organisation, hierarchies and behav- expected to integrate multi-scalar infrastructures the theoretical discourses, relevant sciences and
be pursued in the Dissertation. iour), along with an exploration of interrelations and networks with patterns and clusters of dense case studies of ‘state of the art’ projects in the
and an abstraction of design principles. or distributed inhabitable blocks, and associated domain of their chosen topic, and set out the
productive landscapes that have their own intri- methods and protocols for the development
WORKSHOPS AND SEMINARS Emergence and Evolutionary Computation cate networks. of their Design Proposal. The development and
Evolutionary algorithms have been used exten- conclusion of the final proposal is pursued
Induction – The Boot Camp sively in recent years to mimic the principles of through iterative design cycles.
This two-week workshop presents a comprehen- evolutionary science, as a means to solve ELECTIVES
sive introduction to the core skills and techniques common real-world problems through search
in algorithmic thinking, geometry, digital design and optimisation procedures of single or multiple Design Science and Ecological Systems Design and Build
and fabrication. It is centred on the development objectives. Ranging from the fields of economics The scientific method is an evolving set of proce- Design and Build is our ‘extracurricular’ collabo-
of associative geometric models and the relations to politics and music to architecture, evolu- dures based on systematic observations and rative student project, and is an essential part of
between digital morphogenesis and material real- tionary algorithms have proven to be an efficient measurements; the formulation of ideas the methodology and culture of the Emergent
isation. The Induction Studio concludes with problem-solving technique, resulting in multiple (hypotheses) and predictions from those obser- Technologies and Design programme. The project
fabricated and digitally modelled material systems trade-off solutions for issues that possess a vations that are then tested by experiment; the runs throughout the year, alongside both Studio
that resolve problems of parametric control, variety of ‘fitness criteria’ (objectives) in conflict subsequent modification of the hypotheses; and and the Dissertation, providing opportunities to
material behaviour, structural integrity, precise with one another. The aim of the seminar is to further experimentation. These are developed design and deliver a built project with real mate-
dimensional control and spatial organisation. introduce the concepts of multi-objective opti- until there is no distance between the hypoth- rial, structural, fabrication and assembly
misation, as well as to develop an understanding esis, prediction and observed results of the constraints. The experience gained through the
Design and Technology of their application in design practices. experiment. The aim of the course is to introduce project enhances the design, computational and
This seminar builds on the techniques and methods scientific inquiry into design and design research. analytical skills students have acquired in Studio,
explored in Boot Camp to develop proposals with and develops crucial transferrable skills that are
advanced computational design, analysis and fabri- DESIGN PROJECTS History of Robotic Fabrication in applicable to professional practice. Our Design
cation strategies. It aims to engage analytical tools Architecture and Design and Build projects have been published interna-
as methods for generative design and explores a Design 1: Digital and Material Fabrication This course presents the development of industrial tionally in the architectural press and have
variety of computational workflows, concen- This project explores physical and digital compu- robotics in architecture and design, covering the received industry awards.
trating on experimentation, analysis, evaluation tational techniques to develop architectural history and current state of the field, with implica-
and decision-making processes. A range of compu- qualities of different material systems adapted tions for future development. Seminars will
tational form-finding and analysis methods are for specific climatic contexts. Digital models chronicle the early beginnings of robotics and the
introduced, alongside of C# programming and investigate possibilities in response to various myths that surround them, with a special emphasis
advanced digital fabrication techniques. environmental parameters, while physical models on automata, and the treatment of robots in
explore the integration of material behaviour and science fiction, movies and culture in general.
robotic fabrication processes. The purpose of The course then elaborates on the employment
Design 1 is to design and develop computational of robotics in architecture and engineering.30 Abhinav Chaudhary is an architect and musician from New
Delhi, India, and is currently employed as a Computational
Lorenzo Santelli is a charted architect and structural engineer.
Since he graduated from the Emergent Technologies and
Design specialist at PLP Architecture in London. His work Design programme in 2015, he has been part of Eckersley
focuses on developing augmented and virtual reality and O’Callaghan’s Structural Glass Team, Digital Design Group and
geometry optimisation tools for use across various scales of Glass Technology Group.
building design and construction.
Milad Showkatbakhsh is an architect and researcher
Elif Erdine is an architect and researcher. Her PhD thesis focused specialising in design technology. His doctoral thesis,
on the integration of tower subsystems through generative ‘Homeostatic Urban Morphologies’, examines the application
design methodologies informed by biomimetic analogies. Since of biological principles of intelligence in architecture and urban
2010 she has been teaching and co-ordinating various AA Visiting design through computational processes. He is codirector of
School programmes. Her research interest lies in the integration AAVS Istanbul and cofounder of Wallacei, an AI-powered
of computational design, geometry rationalisation, material optimization engine for Grasshopper 3D.
behaviour and robotic fabrication techniques.
Michael Weinstock is an architect, researcher and AA alumnus
Eleana Polychronaki is an architect and computational designer. who has taught at the school since 1989. His research interest
She holds a Diploma in Architecture and Engineering from the lies in exploring the convergence of the natural sciences with
National Technical University in Athens and an MSc in Emergent architecture. His extensive body of published work includes
Technologies and Design from the AA. She is currently The Architecture of Emergence: The Evolution of Form in
employed as a Computational Design Specialist at Grimshaw. Nature and Civilisation and Emergent Technologies and Design
– Towards a Biological Paradigm for Architecture.32 MA 33
History and Critical Thinking in Architecture
The MA History and Critical Thinking (HCT) environment; to develop a historical and critical
programme offers a unique postgraduate plat- understanding of the contemporary and open
form for theoretical and critical reflection on new possibilities for thought and inquiry; and to
contemporaneity through systematic enquiry investigate technologies of research, production
into history. The programme’s ambition is to and distribution of knowledge in relation to prac-
connect current debates and projects with a tices and public cultures in architecture, and in
wider milieu, and to interpret the contemporary the context of current and emerging social and
from a historical, critical and cross-disciplinary geopolitical pressures.
point of view. Graduates of the programme gain well-de-
The concern with history involves a reconfig- veloped historical and theoretical understanding
uration of the way the architectural and the of conceptual and practical issues in architec-
complex politics of time interconnect. At stake ture, allowing them to pursue doctoral studies,
within the actual writing of history is a political to reorient their professional development into
engagement with the philosophical, social, mate- other fields such as museum and gallery work or
rial and environmental exigencies of the present. journalism, or to become involved in research
While theoretical reflection on the historical and teaching in the field of architecture.
provides resources for the analysis of contempo-
rary architectural thinking, specific histories Programme Structure
remain valid sites of investigation. Courses within The programme takes place over 12 months, with six
the programme reconsider histories of the disci- courses to be taken during Terms 1 and 2, after which
pline, conventions of representation and norms students will then attend a Thesis Research Seminar
of use, reflect on the current state and chal- and produce a written thesis in Terms 3 and 4.
lenges of architectural historiography and Seminars, workshops, reading and writing
recount the links between the practices of archi- sessions and open debates offer a range of
tecture and history writing. approaches to expanding and reinterpreting disci-
Writing is a common concern throughout the plinary knowledge within a broad historical, political
programme, and is considered as a transforma- and cultural arena. Collaborations with design
tive, demonstrative and cognitive process. units, participation in juries and architectural trips
Different modes of writing are explored along- throughout the year enable students to engage
side a consideration of drawings, photographs, with design speculation and specific projects.
film and literature, in analysis of the connections Other courses outside of HCT can also
between the textual, the visual and the graphic. contribute to the submission requirements for
The aim is to explore, adopt and adapt elements the programme (these must be approved by the
of these disciplines and practices in one’s own Programme Head). HCT also provides research
writing, while preserving one’s own voice. facilities and supervision (with the assistance of
The programme’s ambition is three-fold: to specialist advisers) to research degree candidates
provide a set of resources to examine architec- registered under the AA’s joint PhD programme,
tural histories and the ways in which social, a cross-disciplinary initiative supported by all the
political, economic and institutional structures Taught Postgraduate programmes.
shape particular accounts of the built
COURSE TUTORS
PROGR AMME HE AD Tim Benton, William Orr, VISITING TUTOR
Marina Lathouri John Palmesino, Georgios Tsagdis Fabrizio Gallanti MA HCT students and staff at Alvar Aalto’s National Pensions Institute in Helsinki during a programme trip, 2016–17.34 TERM 1 Title Writing Objects and Non-Objects Title Climate Peace Title Critical Writing Workshop 35
Tutor Georgios Tsagdis Tutor John Palmesino Tutors Marina Lathouri with guest critics
Title Histories of Modernity:
Questioning the Canon This course queries the object, and how the The rise of the new climatic regime and the magni- The workshop, which is the starting point for the
Tutor Marina Lathouri world becomes objective, by examining how this tude of the techno-sphere baffle architecture; Thesis Research Seminar, is composed of two
notion is recast in the 20th and 21st century, from within, it appears as the result of multiple elements: the first is a series of analytical read-
This seminar series examines the construction of retracing the horizon of enquiry and opening projects, designs, actions and processes of ings, conceived as references, both for the
the histories of modern architecture and the city. a space of unprecedented creativity. In a series humans, within the remit of control and capacity conceptual framework within which they are
Formal considerations, social ideals and economic of close readings, the course engages directly to act. This seminar investigates specific conditions developed and for the literary and stylistic quali-
constraints, ideologies and political upheavals, with primary texts; Martin Heidegger’s ‘tools’, wherein this inversion of agency affects narratives ties. The second is a series of short writing
material technologies and cultural impositions Walter Benjamin’s ‘works of art’, Jacques Derrida’s of modernisation and the appreciation for the exercises, edited and formatted with the inten-
are considered. The course interrogates an iden- ‘traces’, Gilles Deleuze’s ‘becomings’, Michel deep interconnectivity between architectural tion of creating a small collection of publications.
tifiably modernist vocabulary and discourse that Serres’ ‘quasi-objects’, Bruno Latour’s ‘networks’, development, rapid urbanisation and the human
was carefully crafted and transmitted to express Timothy Morton’s ‘hyperobjects’ and Jane impact on the Earth System.
specific conceptual and visual organisations of Bennett’s ‘thing-power’ are the provisional foci TERM 4
the spatial and the social, but which was disman- around which this space articulates itself, the
tled in the years immediately prior to 1968. foci from which our writing of non-objects begins. Title HCT Debates In Term 4, students are asked to develop and
Tutors HCT Staff with guest speakers finalise the 15,000-word thesis independently.
During the summer term, formal presentations
Title Historical Evidence and Representation: TERM 2 The HCT Debates are a venue for exchange of to internal and external critics, together with
Architecture Photography ideas and arguments. Guest speakers are invited individual tutorials, provide the students with
Tutor Tim Benton Title Architecture Knowledge and Cultures to attend, providing multiple voices to make support and guidance to refine their writing and
Tutor Marina Lathouri possible the process of thinking in common, ideas. The presentation of the completed thesis
The aim of the course is to deepen students’ which is by definition a pedagogical practice to HCT staff and guests, as well as new students
understanding of the role of photography in The course begins with a close examination of different from the seminar or the lecture. These to the programme, provides a formal conclusion
representing and shaping the development of early architectural writings and how they describe sessions are open to the School Community. to – and celebration of – the work of the year.
architecture. Discussions will address genres the object of architecture and the city, tracing
from amateur snapshots by well-known architects the historical formation of disciplinary knowl-
to the work of professional architectural edge. Particular attention is paid to the search TERM 3
photographers and ‘art’ photographers such as for origins, language and the notion of the project
László Moholy-Nagy and Lucien Hervé; compari- in the 18th century; an investigation into the Title Thesis Research Seminar
sons with film; the replacement of woodcuts establishment of the first schools of architecture Tutors Marina Lathouri with guest critics
and watercolour renderings by photographs in and architectural historiography in the 19th
architectural journals; ‘New Photography’ and century; and shifting interpretations of space The Thesis is the largest and most significant
architecture in the 1920s; and post-war American and history, critical theories, changing scales and component of students’ work within the overall
photographers on the West coast. modes of operation. The course highlights the MA structure. The choice of topic, the organisa-
historical terms necessary to understand the tion of research and the development of the
agency, technologies and formats of architecture. central argument are all addressed within this
seminar. Within each individual research project,
emphasis is placed both on critical method and
historical analysis. Within this process a set of
resources and questions regarding the ‘produc-
tion’ of history are solidified and shared amongst
the group of students. This common knowledge
and collection of references allows students to
define and test their individual ideas, methodol-
ogies and ambitions.36 Tim Benton is Professor of Art History (Emeritus) at the Open
University, England and has served as Visiting Professor in the
Will Orr is a British-Canadian theorist and historian based in
London. In 2019 he completed a PhD at the AA, where he now
Department of Art History and Archaeology at Columbia teaches. With an emphasis on political economy, his research
University, and at the Bard Graduate Center. He has co-curated examines the interplay between political and architectural
several major exhibitions including Art and Power (Hayward theory from the 1960s to the present.
Gallery), Art Deco 1910–1939 (V&A), and Modernism: Designing
a New World 1918–1939 (V&A). Recent publications include The John Palmesino is an architect and urbanist and founder of
Rhetoric of Modernism: Le Corbusier as Lecturer (Basel, 2009) Territorial Agency, an independent organisation that combines
and LC Foto: Le Corbusier: Secret Photographer. research and action for sustainable spatial transformations.
Recent projects include Oceans in Transformation, the
Fabrizio Gallanti has wide-ranging and international experience Museum of Oil with Greenpeace and Anthropocene
in architectural design, education, publication and exhibitions. Observatory with HKW Haus der Kulturen der Welt. He
He was the Associate Director at the Canadian Centre of co-leads DIP4 at the AA, and previously led the research of ETH
Architecture in Montreal and the first recipient of the Mellon Studio Basel, Jan Van Eyck Academie Maastricht. He is a
Senior Fellow at Princeton University School of Architecture founding member of multiplicity, an international research
for the research project ‘Las Ciudades del Boom: Economic network based in Milan.
growth, urban life and architecture in the Latin American city,
1989–2014.’ He is presently the director of Arc en Rêve – Georgios Tsagdis teaches at the AA, Leiden University and the
Centre d’Architecture in Bordeaux. Erasmus University Rotterdam. His interdisciplinary work
draws on 20th-century, contemporary and Ancient Greek
Marina Lathouri studied architecture and philosophy of art and philosophy. His essays have appeared in various book
aesthetics. She lectures at the University of Cambridge and has collections and international journals including Parallax,
been Visiting Professor at the Universidad de Navarra (Spain) Philosophy Today and Studia Phaenomenologica. His editorials
and the Universidad Católica in Santiago (Chile). Her current include special issues for Azimuth, the International Journal of
interests lie in the conjunction of historiography and Philosophical Studies and a forthcoming collected volume on
modernity, architecture and writing, the city and political Derrida’s Politics of Friendship.
philosophy. She co-authored Intimate Metropolis: Urban
Subjects in the Modern and City Cultures: Contemporary
Positions on the City and has published numerous articles.38 MA/MArch 39
Housing and Urbanism
Housing and Urbanism (HU) focuses on the key histories. The final term is devoted entirely to the
issues driving urban transformation, and the role development and completion of the individual
of architecture in enacting critical change. Each design thesis.
year, the programme addresses the most pressing Each year, HU focuses on a set of research
issues confronting cities, which form the starting themes which organise the programme’s work-
points for our studio, lecture courses and shops and international collaborations. This year,
student research. While design learning and we will be investigating the foundations of urban
investigation form the core of our programme, resilience in the face of global uncertainties.
a complementary aim of this work is to deepen The Covid-19 pandemic has accelerated many
students’ grasp of the politics and practicalities pre-existing patterns of change in our cities:
shaping the cities of today. Our primary interest our cultures of work and residential life are
is in specific projects that are strong enough to shifting; our expectations of health services are
initiate or further the positive transformation of changing; and our mobility patterns and shopping
urban areas. The programme works across habits are similarly evolving. Taken together,
multiple scales, from detailed plans of contem- the pandemic has furthered calls for a new urban
porary housing to the mobility infrastructure of localism as a critical response to the failures of
the regional metropolis. While many courses in centrally-planned government policies. We will
urbanism grasp the broad overview of cities and be examining the new forms of leadership,
regions, HU investigates the way design reasoning responsibility and innovation that may emerge
enables actors and decision-makers to take from the current situation of uncertainty, and
essential next steps in effecting change. the role that architects and urbanists might play
Offered as a 12-month MA or a 16-month in encouraging a high level of ambition among our
MArch, the programme’s curriculum centres on political actors and civic leaders. We will be
design-led research that leads to an individual working with a range of international universities
thesis. A collaborative Design Workshop forms and cities to compare and assess situated urban
the central element of the coursework, and responses across the globe. Above all, we will
during the first three terms, lectures and semi- aim to define the projects that encourage future
nars inform students’ design work and broaden resilience in our cities around the world.
their scholarly understanding of urban trends and
Top Bottom
Yasmina Aslakhanova, Aisana Baimakhanova, Continuity, Xueli Jiang, The Learning City, HU MArch thesis. A new Learning
PROGR AMME HE ADS STAFF Variation and Urban Grain, HU Design Workshop collage. Centre for the Burgess Park area in South London becomes the
Lawrence Barth Dominic Papa, Elena Pascolo, Irénée Scalbert, Anna Shapiro, Approaches to dimension, morphology and the prospect of starting point for a reconceived urban morphology and
Jorge Fiori Giorgio Talocci, Francesco Zuddas urban transformation. residential typology.You can also read
