Foundation

The AA Foundation course is a one-year introduction to an art- and design-based education. It allows students to develop their conceptual ideas through experimenting with a wide range of media and creative disciplines. Students are taught in a studio-based environment and work on both individual and group projects. Drawing on a number of pedagogical practices, tutors and visiting practitioners, the Foundation offers a cross-disciplinary education within the context of an architectural school.

What’s the Point?

Using notions of territory as reference we will navigate scales, sites, materials, scenarios and identities as the datum for the creative process. By identifying the lost domains in precedents such as Stephen Gill’s photography, the assemblages of Arthur Bispo do Rosário and the strategies of Mel Bochner the course cohort will develop work with personal, cultural and contextual resonance.

What Line are You In?

Projects will range in scale from the hand-held to the reported and mapped, with bespoke workshops providing students with the skills to develop their individual projects. Students will use photography, drawing, painting, model-making, casting, mapping, form, structure, millinery, sewing, weaving, textiles, carpentry, performance, lighting and film-making. After developing skills in observational, visual and verbal representation, students will use their initial work as research to develop a final project that will culminate in a portfolio outlining their personal reflection on a creative journey over the year.

Tilt the Plane – Find your Terrain – Claim your Domain

A series of field trips will allow students to broaden their understanding of culture and context. These will include a trip to Rome, tours of London, gallery visits and residential periods in Hooke Park. Lectures in history and theory and discussions with visiting artists will stimulate dialogue within the studio. Throughout the year, students will concoct their own intellectual ambitions and play with the boundaries of their experience and personal development.

Unit Staff

Saskia Lewis has taught at the AA since 2001. She has practised in New York, Paris and London and taught at many London schools of art and architecture. She is co-author and photographer of Architectural Voices: Listening to Old Buildings (Wiley, 2007).

Takako Hasegawa was born in Tokyo, educated at the AA and works on the periphery of architecture, art and performance. She also teaches at Chelsea College of Art and Design.

Umberto Bellardi Ricci has a degree in Social Anthropology and a Master’s in International Politics from the School of Oriental and African Studies. He received his Diploma from the AA in 2011, and has worked at London architectural practices such as Ron Arad Associates, Boyarsky Murphy and Stanton Williams Architects.

Taneli Mansikkamäki worked in the fields of music, media art and new media before relocating from Helsinki to London. He graduated from the AA and after working for Future Systems, Amanda Levete Architects and Cecil Balmond, amongst others, he is currently directing the studio Mansikkamäki+JOY.