Continuity and Innovation

Today’s growing emphasis upon adaptive reuse has widened the range of projects which base themselves on retention and redesign of the existing, and this has brought a new vitality and critical reflection into architectural education and learning. The trend has drawn together two important architectural themes – the study of structure and materials, and the investigation of changing ways of life – and connected them to a third: a heightened design ambition in the aesthetics and resolution of continuities in our built environment.

The symposium brings together a group of leading architects to present projects demonstrating these themes, with the intention of stimulating discussion around their lessons for education, practice, and policy. At the heart of these dramatic shifts in architectural reasoning is less an insistence upon preservation, but a rapidly evolving search for innovation in material culture.

Schedule and speakers:

10:45 Doors open

11:00 Symposium welcome and introduction by Lawrence Barth, AA Housing and Urbanism.

Theme 1 Patterns of Living: The dynamics of inhabitation, collaboration, and material culture: the innovations inside continuity

11:15 Stephen Taylor, Stephen Taylor Architects

11:45 Stephen Bates, Sergison Bates Architects

12:15 Simon Henley, Henley Halebrown Architects

12:45 Panel discussion - Irenee Scalbert (AA) Anne Fehrenbach (Stanton Williams) and Speakers will focus on how projects and approach impact teaching practice

—Lunch—

14:30 Tim Collett, University of Nottingham

Theme 2 Structure and Material: Close observation, material investigation, and the built environment: the continuities inside innovation.

15:00 Rod Heyes, Caruso St. John Architects

15:30 Julian Lewis, East

16:00 Annalie Riches, Mikhail | Riches

16:30 Panel Discussion and Conclusion - Katharina Borsi (Univ of Nottingham) Lawrence Barth (AA) and Speakers will focus on how projects and approach impact teaching practice

17:30 Drinks reception in the Front Members' Room

Please get in touch to let us know of any access requirements that you might have and how we can best accommodate these. If you are unable to attend physically but would like to participate in the event remotely please email publicprogramme@aaschool.ac.uk.

Image: Royal Belge, Brussels, Rene Stapels and Pierre Dufau, Caruso St John Architects, Bovenbouw Architectuur, DDS+architects. 1970 - present. C onstruction photos 2022 courtesy of Ben Wells/Caruso St John Architects