AA Colour – Knowledge and Practice

The AA is the only architecture school in UK where there is a practical, structured course on colour. There is a long and fascinating history of colour-inspired projects at the AA. During this symposium, we will hear about various colourful works hidden in the AA archive, and consider colour as another layer of space: an important element in designer’s toolbox. We will hear about the microstructures of pigments as well as how colour has lit different façade installations. We will consider how colour works in architecture and urbanism, and will discuss many different approaches to using colour in the past, present and future. Colour is omnipresent – let’s knowingly enjoy it!

Speakers include: Edward Bottoms, Fiona McLachlan, Ruth Siddall, Johanna Grawunder, Nigel Coates, Fenella Collingridge, Vasundhara Sellamuthu, Liza Fior, Farouk Agoro and Adam Nathaniel Furman.

There will also be a display of Politics of Colour projects installed in the South Jury Room next to the Lecture Hall. Alongside the symposium, visit Felix Barr's “Archipelago of Tidal Residues”, Charlotte Birrell's “A Colour Intervention in Suburbia” and Luca Luporini's “An Enquiry into the Interaction of Colour, Light and Materials”.

Schedule

10.00 - Introduction; Colour in Architecture by Antoni Malinowski

10.30 - AA in Colour by Edward Bottoms

11.00 - Painting is Thinking by Fiona McLachlan

11.35 - Ochre and Landscape by Ruth Siddall

12.05 - The Changing Light by Johanna Grawunder

12.30 - Roundtable discussion

1pm – Lunch

2.00 – Presentations on Colour as Practice by Vasundhara Sellamuthu, Fenella Collingridge, Nigel Coates, Liza Fior, Farouk Agoro, Adam Nathaniel Furman

4.00 - Coffee break

4.30 – Roundtable discussion

6.00 – Drinks reception

This symposium is organised by Antoni Malinowski.

Image: Montage of photos of Antoni Malinowski's installation at the AA Front Members Room in 2001, taken by Sue Barr

Speaker bios:

Antoni Malinowski is an artist investigating the dynamic relationship that exists between pictorial and architectural spaces. Malinowski has collaborated with several eminent architects on permanent large-scale interventions in architecture. These include the foyer ceiling paintings at the new Everyman Theatre, Liverpool designed by Haworth Tompkins – this won the 2014 Stirling Prize. Antoni Malinowki’s paintings have been exhibited internationally and are in many private and public collections including Tate, London.

In 2002 Antoni Malinowski has established Materiality of Colour course at the Architectural Association, London where he has been researching with his students the dynamics of colour/space interactions. The Politics of Colour course continues and further develops this research.

In 2012 Antoni Malinowski initiated the Saturated Space AA research cluster devoted to colour / space thinking www.saturatedspace.org

Edward Bottoms is the AA’s Head of Archives and a tutor within the History and Theory Studies and Professional Practice programmes. He has also taught courses in architecture and archival science at Southeast University, Nanjing. Current interests and publications include work on archival theory and the histories of architectural education and publishing. He was a co-convener of the 2020 Architectures/Archives conference, in collaboration with SAHGB and RIBA, and was a partner in the recent AHRC funded international Architectural Models Network, hosted by the V&A.

Fiona McLachlan is Professor of Architectural Practice at the University of Edinburgh and is an architect and educator. She teaches architectural design, colour design for architecture and professional practice. She is the author of Architectural Colour in the Professional Palette, (2012), which was stimulated by the work of her own architectural practice–E & F McLachlan Architects– over a thirty-year period, co-author of Colour Strategies in Architecture, (2015) and author of the recently published book, Colour beyond the surface: Art in Architecture (2022).


Ruth Siddall is a geologist who works on stone and related materials in cultural heritage.


Johanna Grawunder is a designer/artist who works on a broad range of projects including large-scale public lighting and color installations, architectural interventions, exhibition design, and private bespoke commissions. Trained as an architect, her work incorporates architectural principles with high technology light research. As a partner at Sottsass Associati Milan (1985-2001), she co-designed with Ettore Sottsass, many of the firm’s architecture projects. In 2001 she opened her own design studio in San Francisco and Milan. Her work is included in the permanent collections of LACMA, SFMOMA, Fine Arts Museum Houston, the Art Institute of Chicago, High Museum Atlanta, and MAD in Paris.

Nigel Coates is a British designer and educator who trained at the Architectural Association 1972-4. Both as an academic and practitioner, he has always questioned the meaning and legibility of architecture, consolidating his approach as narrative. From 1978-88 he ran Unit 10 in the AA Diploma School, and in 1983 instigated the NATØ radical architecture group. In 1984 he formed Branson Coates Architecture with Doug Branson. Completed projects include Noah’s Ark, The Wall and the Art Silo in Japan, and the Geffrye Museum, the Hubs in Sheffield, Powerhouse::uk, and the Body Zone in the UK. In 1995 he became Professor of Architecture at the Royal College of Art, teaching until 2011 when he received the Annie Spink award for architectural education. He is a founder of the London School of Architecture which opened in 2015. Throughout his career he has undertaken polemical projects shown in museums and galleries. These include ArkAlbion, 1984, and Ecstacity, 1992, both at the AA; Mixtacity, 2007, at Tate Modern; Hypnerotosphere, 2008, at the Venice Architecture Biennale; and Picaresque, 2012, at the Triennale Design Museum, Milan. He is also a prolific furniture designer collaborating with leading Italian brands including Fornasetti, GTV and Poltronova.

Fenella Collingridge was a painter before studying architecture at the AA. She worked with Peter Salter on Walmer Yard for many years as the associate designer. She has taught architecture at the RCA, AA, UEL, Bartlett School and Cardiff University. Fenella and Peter were invited to exhibit at the Venice Biennale in 2018. Each year Fenella runs a colour workshop on the foundation course at the AA with Antoni Malinowski, and she continues to make small building projects.

Vasundhara Sellamuthu is a London based Indian artist. Drawing on visual hierarchies and vernacular design, her practice considers themes of cross-cultural translation and authorship. Her recent body of paintings cite colourful architecture without architects in the Indian subcontinent and their echoes to Memphis design and colour field painting. Vasundhara graduated with an MA Fine Art from City & Guilds of London Art School in 2021, holds a BA History of Art from Goldsmiths' (2013) and studied at the Architectural Association between 2009-2011.

Liza Fior is one of the founding members of muf architecture/art set up "defiantly and explicitly" to counter what the founding members, Katherine Clarke and Juliet Bidgood, along with Liza saw as mainstream practice. muf work on public commissions, starting with public realm, streetscapes open spaces and buildings. muf enlarge the definition of client to include the expertise of those who live and work in a place.

muf have collaborated on large-scale regeneration schemes and have trod a difficult line between working with commercial developers and keeping true to their methods. Here muf's subtle subversions and persuasive powers have allowed them to cajole developers and council officials alike into providing much more than they had bargained for. muf are the only UK winners for the European Prize for Public Space for Barking Town Square and were shortlisted for the same award in 2022 for Ruskin Square, Croydon, they authored the British pavilion in Venice and were co-founders of We are Here Venice which continues to thrive. Liza is also a Professor of Architecture and Spatial Practise at UAL.

Farouk Agoro is a Nigerian-Jamaican artist and architect based in Brixton. Drawing on his architectural training and relationship with music, he creates striking paintings with bold colours and abstracted markings. These paintings document and facilitate Farouk’s ongoing inquiries into space, place and time; feeling, belonging and journeying. The markings, primarily executed in energetic strokes of acrylic paint, initially emerged from early exercises in repetitive mark-making motivated by the artist’s need to create time and space for rumination and feeling. Later, inspired by Yoruba scarification and its significance as a way of finding home.

Adam Nathaniel Furman is a British artist and designer of Argentine and Japanese heritage based in London. Trained in architecture, Adam's atelier works in spatial design and art of all scales from video and prints to large public artworks, architecturally integrated ornament, as well as products, furniture, interiors, publishing and academia.

Please get in touch to let us know of any access requirements that you have. If you are unable to attend physically but would like to join the event remotely please email publicprogramme@aaschool.ac.uk