AA City Cultures Research Cluster: ‘Contemporary positions on the city’
Submission deadline: 20 April

In recent years architects are more than ever involved in the design and building of new cities. Although this continuing urban growth has prompted elaborate arguments on economic policies, new organisational models, environmental strategies and sustainable development patterns, there seems to be a lack of reflection on the fundamental question of the city as a composite environment and political space.

If the troubled progress of over-planned urbanisation has been repetitively argued, debates about the future of the cities have a tendency to mythologise a transformation (post-industrial, electronic, eco-city, sustainable, parametric city, etc.) that in reality is far less complete or apparent than might be imagined. Seen in this way, the built city, as a set of infrastructures and services, not unlike the vision of the city as a set of objects in space, is only one aspect of the complex entity called a city. The terminology arises partly out of an attempt to name conditions that are novel, have assumed novel forms, or have become visible because of the unsettlement of older realities. But the processes which produce a city are very diverse and change in time. Furthermore, while several ‘new cities’ emerge around the world old cities and spaces also remain. It may even be that a single category is no longer adequate to characterise and assimilate the diversity of settlements, conditions and design investigations.

Many of the emerging urban formations and forms of urbanity are partially or completely novel institutional orders or systems of relations. What is it, then, that we are trying to name with the term city? ‘The Greek polis (both a community and a sense of community),’ Hannah Arendt wrote 50 years ago, ‘will continue to exist at the bottom of our political existence – that is at the bottom of the sea – as long as we use the word ‘politics’’. However, new processes of economic and cultural activity and new processes of identity formation may engender different notions of community and citizenship. Would that mean that the emerging spaces are also spaces for a new politics, one going beyond the politics of culture and identity, though at least partly likely to be embedded in it?

Constructing the object of study in this type of effort often means operating at the intersection of multiple disciplinary forms of knowledge and techniques for research. However, the question of the ways in which architectural design can formulate a judgment about these theoretical and methodological challenges is more relevant than ever. The objective here is to approach the question of the city through a diversity of design practices and organisational forms seeking to interrogate typical representations of the ‘living in community’ and experiment with laws and procedures of urban formation which are distinct from the regulations of urbanism. Is it possible to proceed through a critical body of architectural references, existing or to be constituted, in order to rethink urban space against a background of a recent political philosophy that has questioned the communal? Though current design research often resembles an investigation into biological system analysis and genetic mechanisms, is it possible that the various regimes of the architectural project might still engage conceptions of space, conflicts of appropriation and norms of use nearing the juridical delimitation of the public and private domains?

Every time brings specific conditions to the manner in which the claims on the city are made; this call for ‘positions’ aims to assemble contemporary thoughts and types of architectural research. ‘Contemporary Positions on the City’ seek to develop new conceptual frameworks to redefine what historically has been constructed and institutionalised as the city. Papers of 1000 words maximum are to be submitted by 20 April. A selection of ‘positions’ will be compiled into a publication later this year. This will form the basis for an international conference to take place at the Architectural Association in spring 2010.
Download full details here

Contact marina.lathouri@aaschool.ac.uk

The AA Bookshop will remain open until 8.00 on Wednesday 18 March for the Frank Barkow lecture.

Normal opening hours are 10.00 to 6.30 Monday to Friday and 11.00 to 5.00 on Saturdays.

Proposals are sought by any ‘self-organised‘ group to fit the following template: 18 months’ duration; £5000 budget; 1/2 day salary support for one or two persons; two public events (such as symposia or competitions) to be conducted within the 18 months, in the spring and autumn terms. The outcome of the proposed cluster should be specified. Cluster teams may be initiated by and may include students as well as tutors. They should propose to do something new that the AA is not doing. Proposals are due by the beginning of next term, Monday 20 April; please send to academic@aaschool.ac.uk

All proposals will be publicly circulated so that anyone can send in comments. The proposals will be considered by a panel, which will include Brett Steele and Michael Weinstock, as well as the curators of the previous clusters. The panel will meet in late April. Announcements of the new cluster will be made at the beginning of May.

The AA Summer Pavilion 2009 final selection Jury will be held in the AA Lecture Theatre on Friday 27 February at 2.00.
The choice is between three exciting schemes and the competition this year is extremely tough so the decision will be all the more difficult to make and important to determine.

Please RSVP to Charles Walker on charles.walker@zaha-hadid.com so doughnuts and coffee can be ordered in appropriate quantities.

Following last year’s twisting concrete theme (currently showing in the Front Members’ Room), this year’s Maeda Workshop will continue its experimentation with glass-fibre-reinforced concrete (GR C).
The challenge this year will be the speculative design and construction of a prototype habitable structure component. Two workshop sessions at Hooke Park will be led by the same 2008 team, with technical support provided by a resident structural engineer.

Session one (design phase, prototype models):
Five-days in the final week of the Easter holiday
Session two (construction phase):
Ten-days in the second half of July
Those interested in taking part in either or both sessions should contact Sandra Sanna at global@aaschool.ac.uk or call 020 7887 4014

The deadline for applications is Friday 27 February 2009
Accommodation at Hooke Park and basic expenses will be covered by the AA

Foundation £13,578
Undergraduate
First to fifth years of study £15,273
Graduate
MA/MSc (12 months) £17,571
MArch (16 months) £23,453
(September 2009 to January 2011)
MPhil/PhD £15,747
Building Conservation £5,139
Visiting Student Programme £7,500
(15 weeks January to May 2010)
Summer School 2010 £1,450
D-Lab 2010 £1,750

Appointments can be booked with Belinda at belinda@aaschool.ac.uk
Third Year Design Projects
Third Year students can organise weekly tutorials with TS staff on Thursday afternoons.

Fifth Year Design Theses
Fifth Year students can organise weekly tutorials with TS staff:
Mondays from 2.00 with Toni Kotnik;
Tuesdays from 3.30 with John Noel;
Wednesdays from 3.30 with Martin Hageman;
Thursdays from 3.30 with Wolf Mangelsdorf.
Fifth Year students who wish to see Mike Weinstock can email Mike directly at mweinstock@aaschool.ac.uk

The AA Library is delighted to announce that it has been granted Associate Membership in JISC (Joint Information Systems Committee). JISC's aim is to provide leadership in using IT in educational and research environments. As Associate Members, we will be able to purchase relevant online electronic resources at affordable prices.

Our first goal is to acquire access to JSTOR and DigiMap. JSTOR provides digital back files of 770 leading academic journals across the humanities, social sciences and sciences. Material is full-text searchable and includes images. DigiMap provides digital maps from the Ordnance Survey. Depending on permissions from the resource holders and costs, we would like to look at adding additional indexing and electronic resources in the future.

The Library will keep staff and students informed on the status of these acquisitions.

No Such Thing as a Quiet Hammer
DIN
The noisy neighbours and the noise musicians
UPROAR
The producers, the protesters and the polluters
CLAMOUR
The instigators and the investigators
TUMULT
Extracts from interviews with noise pollution officers from Dundee City Council’s Environmental Health Department are combined with found sounds, songs, field recordings and other voices to create this experimental live radio piece. Part audio collage, part documentary, this is an unorthodox investigation into attitudes towards extraneous noise and noise pollution, performed and produced by Barry Burns and Mark Vernon.


Download poster here

Last week:
Trance Mission by Dean Magraw
Acoustic improvisational track over minor blues chord progression. Contributed by Sarah Ho, AA student.
Thinking About a New World
A conversation with Paffard Keatinge-Clay (AA Dip 1949), recorded prior to his AA lecture in November 2008 on the occasion of the 'Le Corbusier at the AA' symposium and exhibition.
Thanks to Paffard Keatinge-Clay and to Ed Bottoms (AA Archives). This is the first in a series of oral history interviews planned by the AA Archives, documenting the AA in the 1940s and 1950s.

AAIRmail Radio Postcard

Field Recordings Volume 2: A Catastrophic Silence
On sale at the AA Bookshop and the AA Photo Library, 36/37 Bedford Square, London, and online at www.aair.fm/releases.

Contribute your own radio show for broadcast – visit ‘contribute’ at aair.fm

 The final presentation of AA Landscape Urbanism will take place
at the AA on 10 October, showcasing the latest development of the Prototypical Urbanities brief on the Pearl River Delta.

www.urbanwaterconference.be

Spring Term Monday 12 January (11 weeks) to Friday 27 March
Spring vacation, Saturday 28 March to Sunday 26 April
AA Premises closed, Saturday 4 April to Sunday 19 April (incl)
Public  Holidays:
Good Friday Friday 10 April
Easter Bank Holiday)* Monday 13 April

Summer Term Monday 27 April to Friday 3 July
Public Holidays:
May Day Bank Holiday Monday 4 May
Spring Bank Holiday Monday 25 May

2008/09 AA Projects Review Friday 3 July
AA Premises closed, Saturday 22 August to Monday 31 August (incl)

Calendar for the Academic Year 2009/10
Introduction Week Monday 21 September to Friday 25 September
Autumn Term (12 weeks) Monday 28 September to Friday 18 December
AA Premises closed, Saturday 19 December to Sunday 3 January (incl)
Spring Term (10 weeks) Monday 11 January to Friday 19 March
AA Premises closed, Saturday 27 March to Sunday 11 April (incl)
Summer Term (10 weeks) Monday 19 April to Friday 25 June
Projects Review Friday 25 June
AA Premises closed, Saturday 21 August to Monday 30 August (incl)

Open Week will take place from Monday 5 to Friday 9 November. All classes in HTS, TS, MS, Future Practice/Part 2 and Professional Practice/Part 1 are suspended to accommodate the Open Week and Cluster events. The normal timetable will resume in Week 7.

This weekend session will include an introduction to the skills and principles involved in the traditional timber construction methods associated with Shikinen-sengu, the ceremonial system of reconstruction and renewal of the Grand Shrine of Ise in Mie prefecture, Japan, which takes place every 20 years. It is next due to happen in 2013.

Miyama Toryo is the master carpenter of the shrine, which is the national centre for all Shinto shrines. Toryo has been in charge of the reconstruction of the shrines for the last three cycles. He will be accompanied by Sinnyo Kawai, director of the public sector of the Ise Shrine and Haruo Nakano, the official photographer of the shrine. They will be demonstrating techniques during the weekend using Toryo’s own tools.

The Workshop is open to a maximum of 12 people.

For further details please contact Shin Egashira or Simone Sagi on simone@aaschool.ac.uk
Cost: £15, not including transport.
This event is made possible through the support of the Daiwa Anglo-Japanese Foundation.

ISIC cards can be picked up from the Registrar’s Office. Please bring a passport-size photograph. All full-time registered students have paid for an ISIC via their AA Student Forum membership fee. ISICs entitle you to discounts worldwide including travel, galleries, cinemas and photo-processing.
See isiccard.com

The Library will close early on Thursday 18 October at 5.00 for an AA event.