The Architectural Association in the Postwar Years
By Patrick Zamarian
£55.00
Publication Date: 30th October 2020
The first archive-based study of the most important British school of architecture, the Architectural Association
Offers unique insight into the formative period of leading national and international architects including Edward Cullinan, Dixon + Jones, Nicholas Grimshaw and Richard Rogers
Published to coincide with the centenary of the RIBA's full recognition of the AA school
In the period following the Second World War, the Architectural Association (AA) became the only British school of architecture of truly global renown. It was one of only two schools in the world which fully embraced and promoted the pedagogical ideals put forward by CIAM (Congrès Internationaux d’Architecture Moderne) — the other being Walter Gropius’s Harvard Graduate School of Design — and emerged as an admired example for architectural education in other countries. Many of the most famous British architects and critics of the past 60 years attended the AA, including Ahrends, Burton + Koral... Read More
The first archive-based study of the most important British school of architecture, the Architectural Association
Offers unique insight into the formative period of leading national and international architects including Edward Cullinan, Dixon + Jones, Nicholas Grimshaw and Richard Rogers
Published to coincide with the centenary of the RIBA's full recognition of the AA school
In the period following the Second World War, the Architectural Association (AA) became the only British school of architecture of truly global renown. It was one of only two schools in the world which fully embraced and promoted the pedagogical ideals put forward by CIAM (Congrès Internationaux d’Architecture Moderne) — the other being Walter Gropius’s Harvard Graduate School of Design — and emerged as an admired example for architectural education in other countries. Many of the most famous British architects and critics of the past 60 years attended the AA, including Ahrends, Burton + Koral... Read More
In the period following the Second World War, the Architectural Association (AA) became the only British school of architecture of truly global renown. It was one of only two schools in the world which fully embraced and promoted the pedagogical ideals put forward by CIAM (Congrès Internationaux d’Architecture Moderne) — the other being Walter Gropius’s Harvard Graduate School of Design — and emerged as an admired example for architectural education in other countries. Many of the most famous British architects and critics of the past 60 years attended the AA, including Ahrends, Burton + Koralek, Alan Colquhoun and John Miller, Jeremy Dixon and Edward Jones, Frank Duffy, Eldred Evans, Kenneth Frampton, Bill Howell, John Killick, Robert Maguire, Cedric Price, Graeme Shankland and Oliver Cox, Quinlan Terry, John Voelcker, and almost a dozen recipients of the RIBA Gold Medal, viz. Neave Brown, Peter Cook, Edward Cullinan, Philip Dowson, Nicholas Grimshaw, Michael and Patricia Hopkins, Powell + Moya, Richard Rogers, and Joseph Rykvert.
The book traces the history of the school from the end of the war until the mid-1960s, when it surrendered its position as the pacemaker in British architectural education in order to safeguard its institutional independence. Alvin Boyarsky, who became chairman in 1971, remodelled the AA as a postmodern, ‘internationalist’ school and detached it from its modernist, British origins. In keeping with this (and partly as a result of it), there has been no research into the AA’s postwar history, which remains dominated by myths and half-truths. The book replaces these myths with an in-depth account of what really happened.
Details
Pages: 208
Publisher: Lund Humphries Publishers Ltd
Series: Architectural History of the British Isles
Publication Date: 30th October 2020
Trim Size: 19 x 25 cm
Illustration Note: b&w photographs printed in colour
ISBN: 9781848224063
Reviews
'The book constitutes a sound and always readable institutional history of the post-war AA and will serve as a reference point for some considerable time to come' – Architectural History
Author Bio
Patrick Zamarian is a Lecturer in Architecture at the University of Liverpool, where he was awarded a PhD for his thesis on The AA School of Architecture in the Postwar Period (1945-1965). He also holds master degrees in architecture and in the history and theory of architecture, both awarded by ETH Zurich.
Table of Contents
Prologue: A Brief history of the Architectural Association; Chapter 1. After the War (1945-1949); Chapter 2. Architecture as Collaborative Practice (1949-1951); Chapter 3. Chuzzlewit's Heirs: The Postwar Student Body (1945-1951); Chapter 4. Michael Pattrick's Troubles with the Students (1951-1956); Chapter 5. The AA School under Michael Pattrick (1951-1961); Chapter 6. In Search of a New Policy (1951-1961); Chapter 7. William Allen and the 'Art/Science Tension' (1961-1965); Epilogue: Beyond the Sixties
In the period following the Second World War, the Architectural Association (AA) became the only British school of architecture of truly global renown. It was one of only two schools in the world which fully embraced and promoted the pedagogical ideals put forward by CIAM (Congrès Internationaux d’Architecture Moderne) — the other being Walter Gropius’s Harvard Graduate School of Design — and emerged as an admired example for architectural education in other countries. Many of the most famous British architects and critics of the past 60 years attended the AA, including Ahrends, Burton + Koralek, Alan Colquhoun and John Miller, Jeremy Dixon and Edward Jones, Frank Duffy, Eldred Evans, Kenneth Frampton, Bill Howell, John Killick, Robert Maguire, Cedric Price, Graeme Shankland and Oliver Cox, Quinlan Terry, John Voelcker, and almost a dozen recipients of the RIBA Gold Medal, viz. Neave Brown, Peter Cook, Edward Cullinan, Philip Dowson, Nicholas Grimshaw, Michael and Patricia Hopkins, Powell + Moya, Richard Rogers, and Joseph Rykvert.
The book traces the history of the school from the end of the war until the mid-1960s, when it surrendered its position as the pacemaker in British architectural education in order to safeguard its institutional independence. Alvin Boyarsky, who became chairman in 1971, remodelled the AA as a postmodern, ‘internationalist’ school and detached it from its modernist, British origins. In keeping with this (and partly as a result of it), there has been no research into the AA’s postwar history, which remains dominated by myths and half-truths. The book replaces these myths with an in-depth account of what really happened.
Pages: 208
Publisher: Lund Humphries Publishers Ltd
Series: Architectural History of the British Isles
Publication Date: 30th October 2020
Trim Size: 19 x 25 cm
Illustrations Note: b&w photographs printed in colour
ISBN: 9781848224063
'The book constitutes a sound and always readable institutional history of the post-war AA and will serve as a reference point for some considerable time to come' – Architectural History
Patrick Zamarian is a Lecturer in Architecture at the University of Liverpool, where he was awarded a PhD for his thesis on The AA School of Architecture in the Postwar Period (1945-1965). He also holds master degrees in architecture and in the history and theory of architecture, both awarded by ETH Zurich.
Prologue: A Brief history of the Architectural Association; Chapter 1. After the War (1945-1949); Chapter 2. Architecture as Collaborative Practice (1949-1951); Chapter 3. Chuzzlewit's Heirs: The Postwar Student Body (1945-1951); Chapter 4. Michael Pattrick's Troubles with the Students (1951-1956); Chapter 5. The AA School under Michael Pattrick (1951-1961); Chapter 6. In Search of a New Policy (1951-1961); Chapter 7. William Allen and the 'Art/Science Tension' (1961-1965); Epilogue: Beyond the Sixties