The upcoming AA Gallery exhibition As Hardly Found, in the Art of Tropical Architecture, which will take place in 2023, has been awarded an Elephant Trust grant. The exhibition will coincide with the 70th anniversary of the Conference of Tropical Architecture in 1953 that initiated the AA's Department of Tropical Studies (DTS) — now the Development Planning Unit at UCL.

The exhibition will explore four ad-hoc curatorial strategies to rethink the DTS's aesthetics that have shaped a particularly Western perception of the Global South at the AA. The exhibition will feature co-existing ecological aesthetics across London, Kumasi and Lagos, among others, and a wide range of artists from the Global South.

The AA will rely mostly on private collections for the exhibition, which will remain free and open to the public in the AA Gallery at Bedford Square, London. This will also an opportunity to engage architects in the histories of art that shaped the architectural discipline.