Projects Review at the Architecture Association gives an overview of the work created in the UK’s oldest private school of architecture. This year is no different, as the AA exhibits the inner workings of intensely focused programmes, collaborations, multi-disciplinary projects, workshops and fieldwork – activities that supplement a culture and legacy of experimentation.

The AA is driven by a cooperative responsibility to pursue cultural knowledge – an engagement that is best shown in the work on display this year, with projects and portfolios targeting specific speculations, critiquing issues of today, seeking alternatives and pushing the boundaries of visionary architecture.

The vastness of Projects Review – represented as projections, simulations, urbanism studies, new modes of media and critical theories – stems from the dozens of units and programmes that make up the AA. The plurality that lies within these myriad projects speaks of an individual within a collective culture and a personal claim to space within the wider architectural environment, revealing the power of architectural ideas.

Director, 2018

Just like the projects of the students and units, the AA itself is a work in progress. Today our home on Bedford Square is bigger and more connected than it has ever been, and with plans to improve workshops and devote more space to studios, we continue to thrive as an environment in constant flux, embracing the changes of each unique academic year and cohort. ‘Work in progress’ is also the driving principle of our Hooke Park campus, in Dorset, where students, staff and tutors not only test the latest building technologies but also use them to build state-of-the-art facilities directly on-site. And for the students who jet off to any one of the AA’s global Visiting Schools, the work and ideas they create with local communities can leave lasting impressions. Architecture, after all, has always been about more than a final outcome. In reflecting on the work that goes into both the projects presented here, online at pr2018.aaschool.ac.uk and in the 2018 Projects Review exhibition, we continue to challenge our own perception and understanding of our discipline and profession – what it can inspire within a school, and what it brings about in ourselves.

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