As Hardly Found: Art and Tropical Architecture
As Hardly Found: Art and Tropical Architecture
7 October 2025
Time
6.30 PM
Location
AA Front Members' Room and Bar, First Floor, 36 Bedford Square
Join us for an event in the Front Members' Room to celebrate the launch of a new AA publication, As Hardly Found: Art and Tropical Architecture.
As Hardly Found: Art and Tropical Architecture centres artists and artworks that have so far been overlooked by histories of ‘tropical architecture’. In this collection of essays, historians, artists and archivists address works of art connected to epicentres of teaching and practice within the movement – focusing on the Department of Tropical Architecture at the Architectural Association and its collaborators – which emerged in the mid-20th century alongside anticolonial struggles that dismantled the British Empire.
Here, authors use creative, critical and speculative methods to inhabit the gaps in archives of tropical architecture, highlighting artworks in Nigeria, Ghana, India, Indonesia, Singapore, Costa Rica, Cuba and the UK. Their contributions trace connections within a network of relations between art and architecture; one which recentres the rich and diverse forms of environmental knowledge, social values and material cultures contributed by artists working in these contexts.
We are delighted to welcome the editor, Albert Brenchat-Aguilar, and the team from AA Publications, who will give a short introduction to the book. Refreshments will be provided, and copies of the book will be available to purchase at £30.00.
Please get in touch to let us know of any access requirements that you might have and how we can best accommodate these by emailing publicprogramme@aaschool.ac.uk.
Please note that there is no step-free access to the first floor, where this event will take place.