Today at 6.30 in the First Year Studio three recent graduates of AA Diploma 14 will present their thesis projects. Diploma 14 is run by Pier Vittorio Aureli and Maria S. Giudici and for the past few years the unit has been developing a research on housing. If you are in London, drop by to see the work of Jesper Henriksson (co-founder of Hesselbrand), Luis Ortega Govela (member of the AYR collective) and Antonis R. Papamichael (architect at Chipperfield and author of the project pictured above, Alcoves, runner-up at the 2014 GAGA Awards). Jesper, Luis and Antonis will talk about their own perspective on the unit's agenda, and on the challenges of rethinking radical housing solutions for the contemporary city. Luis' thesis dissects the myth of the domestic garage as the locus of entrepreneurship; Antonis' prototype forecasts the end of the rigid individual room and challenges the nuclear family apartment; and Jesper's projects reimagine new technical and formal solutions for the single dweller, an ubiquitous subject that is still largely ignored by typological representation. The work of these three young architects shows us how it is still possible to design spaces of living that do not conform to a standardized formula. In fact, each of the projects, rather than proposing a solution, asks us fundamental questions about the way we live today - our ability to share or be alone, our need to handle work and private life, our aspirations and discontents. Don't miss it.
