Practice / Pedagogy

We are pleased to announce that Arch/tectures Arch/ves, an international symposium organised by the SAHGB in partnership with the AA Archives and RIBA Collections, has now been re-scheduled. It will take the form of a series of four virtual symposia, held between July and October, exploring the connections between architecture and archives. The relationship between the two provides a primary interface between architectural history and practice but has been little explored by either discipline. In the sessions we will ask who is represented (and who is not) in architectural archives, what the role of these repositories is for practice and pedagogy, who they serve, and what their future looks like in the age of BIM and Post-Occupancy Evaluation.

Session 1, 17^th July: Concealment/Representation

Session 2: 14^th Aug: Practice/Pedagogy

Session 3: 18th Sept: Audience/Use

Session 4: 23^rd Oct: Plenary

This session delves into the symbiotic relationship between practice and pedagogy that lies at the heart of the architectural archive. Bringing together a distinguished panel of historians, archivists (from a range of settings, including contemporary architectural offices), designers and educators, we will question what the terms of ‘practice’ and ‘pedagogy’ signify within each field, analysing how they operate and relate to each other.

Case studies and theoretical papers will address a broad array of topics, aiming to highlight areas of convergence, and perhaps of tension, between the disciplines. In an attempt to forge broad connections, discussions will range from speculative questions around methodologies used for archival appraisal, arrangement and description, to examples of ways in which teaching can ‘re-animate’ the archive, to studies of the very practical issues surrounding archival capture in the digital environment of the modern architectural office.

Programme

14:00 Welcome and Introductory Remarks
Edward Bottoms, Eleanor Gawne, and Lexi Frost (AA Archives)

14:10 The Epistemology of CI/SFB: Categorising Architectural Knowledge in 1960s Britain
Adam Sharr (Newcastle University)

14:30 From the Architecture of the Report to the Archive: Containers, Continents and Categories
Albert Brenchat-Aguilar (Birkbeck, University of London)

14:50 Curating the DEGW Archive as a Living Archive/The ‘Living Archive’ in Action
Hiral Patel (Cardiff University) and Stuart Green (University of Reading)

15:10 Appraise|Erase: Archival Practice and the Shaping of Architectural History
Aymee Thorn Clark (Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners)

15:30 An Architect in the Archives: EW Godwin
Richard W. Hayes (Independent Scholar)

15:50 Discussion/Break

16:05 An Architectural Magazine’s Afterlife
Stephen Parnell (Newcastle University)

16:25 In Search of Value: Mining the Later Twentieth Century Collections at the Irish Architectural Archive
Colum O’Riordan (Irish Architectural Archive) and Ellen Rowley (University College Dublin)

16:45 Drawing on the Archive: Architectural Education and Archival Practice
Edward Bottoms and Eleanor Gawne (Architectural Association)

17:05 Teach (with) Architectural Archives, challenge the Canons of Architectural History
Volker Welter (University of California, Santa Barbara)

17:25 The AJ Davis Archive at the Metropolitan Museum of Art: Ideas for Revitalizing the Study of Early Victorian Architecture in the United States
Horatio Joyce (Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York)

17:45 Discussion

18:00 Close

To register for free tickets to either/all sessions, please visit:

https://www.sahgb.org.uk/whats-on/symposium1-y8ddz

Session 3: 18th Sept: Audience/Use

Session 4: 23^rd Oct: Plenary

Image Credit: Media Studies teaching in the AA Archives