
Posts tagged with "Architectural Association (AA)":


Architectural Association revives AA Files, prepares to hand out degrees
A year after protests rocked the architecture world over the Architectural Association’s (AA) decision to render a portion of its staff “redundant” and possibly shutter its venerated AA Files, the London school is preparing to publish its next issue of the journal. For the first time in the school’s 150-year history, the institution is also gearing up to award its own degrees.
In early 2018, the private school, under the administration of interim director Samantha Hardingham, moved to mark 16 jobs as redundant, in part due to what it cited as a massive increase in rent and the cost of renovating the school’s headquarters in Bedford Square. With five of the eight AA Files staff members cut, editor Tom Weaver resigned in protest and put the journal’s future in doubt.
It appears that hiring former Storefront for Art and Architecture director Eva Franch i Gilabert to lead the school has turned around their formerly precipitous financial situation. As the Architect’s Journal reports, Franch has pegged the school’s finances as “back on track” following a loss of $1 million in 2017.
Franch also confirmed that the next issue of the AA Files would be published sometime later this year under the direction of the journal’s new editor and AA instructor, Maria Shéhérazade Giudici.
The institution has also filed an application with the Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education, the U.K. agency responsible for maintaining the standards of higher education, for the right to award its own degrees. Pending an approval by the agency’s advisory committee on May 9, and then validation by the agency’s leading council, the AA would become a degree-granting institution for the first time in its history. While the school currently awards diplomas, they don’t carry the same legal certification as a recognized architectural degree.

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That's it! Mark Cousins' last Friday Lecture

Architectural Association selects Eva Franch i Gilabert to be next director
Dear AA School Community,
We are writing as the AA Search Committee to announce the results of the AA Director election:
1,077 ballots were issued by MiVoice to the AA School Community. 876 votes were cast by the AA School Community, representing a turnout of 81.3% for the election, the highest number of cast votes and one of the highest percentile levels of participation in the last 30 years.
The candidates received:
Eva Franch I Gilabert - 587 votes cast / 67% of the vote
Pippo Ciorra - 154 votes cast / 17.6% of the vote
Robert Mull - 135 votes cast / 15.4% of the vote
We wish to congratulate Eva on her election and receiving the highest majority in a contested election since 1990. We also wish to sincerely thank Pippo and Robert for their candidacy and presentation of their ideas on the AA and the role of the director.
We have advised the AA Council of the election results and requested they proceed with the formal appointment of Eva Franch i Gilabert as the new Director of the AA School of Architecture.

Here's what the AA's shortlisted director candidates envision for the school (and the field)

Architectural Association announces three candidates for its director shortlist

Remembering Neave Brown, a champion of smart public housing

Architectural Association fires nine staff members

Architects protest AA publication staff cuts
