ARCHITECTURE

The Architectural Association School of Architecture

The Architectural Association School of Architecture was founded in 1847 by a group of students who wished to be furnished with a rigorous architectural education. In 1906 the Royal Institute of British Architects acknowledged the quality of the institution's teaching by granting its graduates an exemption from its own professional exam. Eleven years later the Association acquired its premises on the western side of Bedford Square.

In British higher education the School has a unique status. The institution lies outside the university funding system. Its teaching staff, many of whom have been students there, has included: Will Alsop (1947-2018), Nigel Coates, Zaha Hadid (1950-2016), Rem Koolhaas, Daniel Libeskind, Cedric Price (1934-2003), and Peter Smithson (1923-2003). Those who have graduated from it have included: David Chipperfield, Piers Gough, Sir Nicholas Grimshaw, Sir Michael Hopkins, and Sir Philip Powell (1921-1903).

Location: 36 Bedford Square, WC1B 3ES (blue, purple)

See Also: UNIVERSITIES

Website: www.aaschool.ac.uk

The Architecture Foundation

The Architecture Foundation promotes architecture through the exhibitions, debates, and competitions that it organises. The body was set up in 1991 and has charitable status.

Location: 136-148 Tooley Street, SE1 2TU

Website: www.architecturefoundation.org.uk

The London Festival of Architecture

The London Festival of Architecture is a biennial festival of architecture, the events of which include a Jelly Banquet. Architectural practices submit works in the form of jellies. When these are judged, their degree of wobble is one of the factors that is taken into consideration. Subsequently, they are eaten.¹

Location: The Building Centre, 26 Store Street, WC1E 7BT (purple, yellow)

Website: www.londonfestivalofarchitecture.org

¹. The jellies, not the judges.

The Prince's Foundation for The Built Environment

The Prince's Foundation for The Built Environment seeks to promote traditional values with regard to building, planning, and design.

In 1984 the Prince of Wales's carbuncle comments killed off the Ahrends Burton & Koralek design for a proposed extension to The National Gallery. Eight years later the heir to the throne set up The Prince of Wales's Institute of Architecture on a charitable basis. This evolved into being the Foundation.

Location: 19-22 Charlotte Road, Shoreditch, EC2A 3SG (orange, pink)

Website: https://princes-foundation.org

The Royal Institute of British Architects

The Royal Institute of British Architects is the principal corporate body for the architectural profession in Britain. The organisation was founded in 1834 as the Institute of British Architects in London. Three years later it was granted a royal charter. The Institute's annual Royal Gold Medal was first awarded in 1848. In 1892 the organisation sloughed the in London from its name. In 1996 it launched the Stirling Prize.

The Institute possesses a notable architectural library.

Location: 66 Portland Place, W1B 1AD (blue, red)

See Also: ARTISTS ORGANISATIONS The Royal Academy of Arts; LIBRARIES

Website: www.architecture.com

R.I.B.A. Stirling Prize

Website: www.architecture.com/awards-and-competitions-landing-page/awards/riba-stirling-prize

The Serpentine Temporary Pavilions

Each summer The Serpentine Gallery commissions the construction of a temporary pavilion by a leading international architect. At the end of the exhibition, the pavilion is sold and usually reassembled elsewhere.

Vanity Fair magazine had helped the Serpentine Gallery to host a number of gala dinners. The profits from these had enabled the latter to pay for its own refurbishment. Following the project's completion the publication informed the body that it would no longer be continuing the arrangement.

The Gallery invited Zaha Hadid to design a pavilion just so long as its construction costs were not larger than those of the gala dinners marquees. The Royal Parks Agency guarded its control over structures within the royal parks very closely. In 2000 the body granted the Gallery a three-day licence to erect the temporary pavilion. The events that the structure hosted included a gala dinner. This was attended by Chris Smith, who was then the Secretary of State for the Environment. He overruled the parks authority and allowed the pavilion to stand for a longer period. With this precedent established, the Gallery proved to be able to negotiate with the parks body for a licence that has enabled it each year to erect a temporary structure that has been designed by one of the world s leading architects.

The 2022 Pavilion was designed by Theaster Gates, a ceramicist.

The choice of architect is made curatorially.

Location: Kensington Gardens, W2 3XA (orange, pink)

Website: www.serpentinegalleries.org/whats-on/serpentine-pavilion-2022-black-chapel-by-theaster-gates

Unbuilt London

David Backhouse 2024