The AA Archives
The Architectural Association Archives, located at the rear of no. 32 Bedford Square, consist of several thousand architectural drawings, student projects, paintings and works on paper, together with over 520 cubic feet of textual documents. The Archives serve to document the educational and administrative history of the AA and preserve examples of the Association’s material culture and graphic output.
Formal cataloguing of the AA Archives were instigated in 2010 and this year sees the launch of the Archive’s online catalogue, which contains descriptions of the AA’s core governance and administrative records, alongside an initial sample of holdings of historic student portfolios, graphic materials, models, etc. Further descriptions will be added on a daily basis, as cataloguing progresses.
As the Archives cataloguing project is still in its infancy it is advised that if material cannot be located on the catalogue, queries should be made to the Archivist:edward@aaschool.ac.uk
Term-time Opening Hours
Monday to Friday, 10.30–17.30
Recent Additions to the AA Archives
Otto Koenigsberger Archive Peter Wilson AA Diploma Project, 1973–74 AA Honours Students, 2011–12 AA Prize Winning Students, 2011–12 Phil Hudson Record of AA Carnival, 1978 Richard Hughes AA student work 1947–52 Quinlan Terry AA student work, 1957–60 Professor Malcolm Higgs AA student work, 1956–60 Graham Modlen AA student work, 1979 Charles Richard Pink AA Excursions sketchbooks, 1880s Irénée Scalbert AA student work, 1976–82 Jack Radcliffe Report on AA tour of Scandinavia, c1935 Inette Austin–Smith AA student work, 1942–47 Michael Austin–Smith AA student work, 1935–47 Ian Baker AA student work, 1941–42Policies
Archive Reader Admissions
Document Handling Guidelines
AA Archives Acquisition Policy
For all enquiries, please contact AA Archivist, Edward Bottoms at edward@aaschool.ac.uk or call on 020 7887 4049.
Online Articles / Resources
Edward Bottoms, ‘The Malaren Queen’, AA Files 60, 2010. [Article looking at work by the Swedish artist, Einar Forseth, held in the AA Archives] Online Access for AA members, log in required.
Video of introductory lecture on the History of the AA History of the AA given to the Twentieth Century Society and Archives For London, February 2010.
Download mp3 version of AAIR Radio interview with Paffard Keatinge-Clay [Recalling work with Le Corbusier, Sigfied Gideon and Frank Lloyd Wright]
Scrap Marshall, ‘A Bigger or Smaller Picture’, AArchitecture, Issue 7.[Article examinig drawings by the Smithsons in the AA Archives].
‘Burlington's Copy of I Quattro Libre’, AArchitecture, Issue 7.
Edward Bottoms, ‘The Royal Architectural Museum in the Light of New Documentary Evidence’, Jnl of History of Collections, 19:1, 2007. [AA’s Relationship with the 19th-century Cast Museum].
‘If Crime Doesn’t Pay: The Architects' Revolutionary Council’, AArchitecture, Issue 5 [AA Archive's collection of ARC posters].
‘Corb At The AA’. AArchitecture, Issue 4 [Corbusier’s 1947 Lecture at the AA ].
The Purple Patch To SexyMachinery: 100 Years of AA Student Journals, AArchitecture, Issue 1.
List of Architectural Association Presidents, 1847– 2008
Professor Walter Bloom and Edward Bottoms: ‘The Banister Fletcher Medallion’. Conference paper at the XIV International Numismatics Conference, Glasgow, September 2009.[AA’s Architectural Medal Collection]
For all enquiries please contact AA Archivist, Edward Bottoms
edward@aaschool.ac.uk
Tel: 020 7887 4049
