AA Members’ gallery tour and dolls' house workshop

This creative and fun day invites AA students, members and their families to join families from Care4Calais in the building of a giant dolls' house in the AA entrance, whilst exploring ideas of care and work.

In the same way as the exhibition currently on show in the AA Gallery uses a doll’s house by architect MJ Long as a portal through which to consider questions around forms of practice and the gendering of spaces and objects in architecture, this Saturday workshop invites participants of all ages and backgrounds to explore the nature of care whilst working, and the idea of home in a changing world, through the joint construction of a doll’s house. The Giant Dolls’ House brings together individuals' dreams and ideas that traditional dolls’ houses embody, by linking them with ramps and ropes and ladders.

The installation shows that all people are equally idiosyncratic, creating a space for dialogue.

The workshop will be led by architect Catja de Haas and exhibition curator Elena Palacios Carral, and has been organised in collaboration with the refugee charity Care4Calais.

Catja’s research and practice have focused on the use of imagination and miniature to explore ideas of home, sustainability and community participation, and as a medium to bring about change. Elena teaches at various universities and co-founded the design and research practice Forms of Living. Her research has explored the studiofication of the home, with current projects based on the life and work of the architects MJ Long and Ruth Rivera Marin.

Schedule:

10:30 Registration and coffee

10:45 Gallery tour with Elena Palacios Carral

11:00 Introduction to Doll’s House workshop by Catja de Haas

11:30 Doll’s House rooms built individually or in groups

13:00 Lunch (sandwiches provided)

13:30 Assembly of Doll’s House as individual rooms are completed, followed by discussion on ideas explored through the Doll’s House rooms

15:00 End of the workshop

All welcome. Please reserve a place in advance. Children must be accompanied by an adult at all times. Refreshments and a light lunch will be provided for participants.

Please get in touch to let us know of any access requirements that you might have and how we can best accommodate these at publicprogramme@aaschool.ac.uk

This event is part of the Portraits of Practice event series that accompanies the exhibition on show in the AA Gallery titled Portraits of a Practice: The Life and Work of MJ Long. The series takes the themes and topics explored within the exhibition as its starting point to discuss the gendering of spaces and objects within architecture and its related disciplines.

Image © Giant Dolls' House Project