The Next Big Thing

Another gift: Diploma 14's Louise Underhill is featured in Wallpaper's yearly guide to the best design graduates! Louise's project was a radical rethinking of the London terrace. She substituted the party wall with a modular system of concrete panels; this system creates a series of enfilades which can accommodate unorthodox family arrangements. The result is a space which is monumental in scale, rejecting the standard bourgeois room for a set of 5x5x5 halls that can host smaller scale, room-like impermanent structures in between furniture and architecture. 

Louise's thesis is particularly representative of the research Diploma 14 has been developing in the last few years. We have been working on the relationship between housing typology and forms of life - a theme that is well expressed in Louise's work which uses a tectonic invention to address what is ultimately a problem of subjectivity. This is why it is such a joy to see her project featured in a commercial magazine: it feels like many years of discussion, and the collective intelligence of a few generations of Dip 14, are going out there in the world and making their appearance even in mainstream media (which, as we know, is 'almost alright').

In the last years we have focused on the scale of the dwelling; this year, we hope to try to link this kind of typological experimentation with a stronger large-scale strategy. So, watch this space, as we are indeed always looking forward to the next big thing.

The Nomos of the Earth - End-of-Term Crit

Join us on Tuesday, December 15, for a day of discussions on the architecture of the territory at the Architectural Association, 32 Bedford Square, Second Floor, Back Room (10.30 - 13 / 14-17.30). Diploma 14 and guest critics Martino Tattara (Dogma), Francisco Sanin (Syracuse University), Francesco Marullo (Behemoth) and Tom Weaver (AA Files) will discuss the work produced during term 1. Each student has studied a specific territory, portraying it through both geographic and interpretative maps. From Seoul to Bucharest to Shiraz, we have found plenty of exciting grounds for a future project. In particular, the production of a set of 'analogical maps' like the one above has been a new adventure for the unit. 

The Grand Domestic Revolution at AA

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.

Introducing TYPE studio at AA

Black Square will play host for the TYPE studio lecture on December 7 at the Architectural Association; co-founder Sam Nelson is a long-time friend of ours, as he graduated from AADiploma 14 (honours) in 2012, with a thesis tutored by Square's author Pier Vittorio Aureli and founder Maria S. Giudici.

Sam founded TYPE with Tom Powell,  Ognjen Ristic and Matt Cooper. At the AA they will present a candid snapshot of their work as a young office, reflecting on their experience of the multiple, changing and often contradictory aspects of architecture in practice.

Their lecture will be part of the "What's next" series organized by Manijeh Verghese. The series returns after the successful run of last year, during which it not only provided an opportunity to discuss the different ways in which young architects construct their own career, but was also a perfect occasion to talk about where architectural practice at large is going, and what architecture means in the contemporary condition.

It is often said that the jump between school and real world is even harder for those who have been good students. Especially in the field of architecture, negotiating the constraints of materiality, economy, and feasibility, can be very disheartening. Moreover, in school all projects are rhythmed by terms, while in reality things sometimes simmer for three, five, ten years - or need to get done in two weeks. And there's the whole 'l'enfer, c'est les autres' chapter: coworkers, clients, engineers, you name it - in school, you never have to compromise that much.

But the story of TYPE is an encouragement: Sam's student projects were beautiful and thought-provoking, and so is the work he produces with his partners today. They will tell us all about the challenges they had to face, and what lies ahead, at the AA on December 7: don't miss it.

http://www.aaschool.ac.uk/VIDEO/lecture.php?ID=3271

RADICAL SETTLEMENTS: DIP 14 AT AA

The 2015-16 brief for the Architectural Association's Diploma Unit 14 is now online. The Unit is led by Pier Vittorio Aureli, author of our The Marriage of Reason and Squalor, and Square's own head Maria S. Giudici.  This year the unit will broaden their horizon: while the final project will be resolved at the scale of architecture, the students are challenged to rethink landscape, infrastructure and logistics as part of their "radical settlements". Beyond the dichotomy between form and function, morphology and typology, come take part in an experiment on new forms of political imagination that can start from the design of a bed - and end up in a 100x100 km analogical map of a territory. Check out the pdf brief on their website www.diploma14.com.