The Inevitability of Mannerism
The Inevitability of Mannerism
30 January 2026
Time
10.00 AM
Location
AA Lecture Hall, 36 Bedford Square
Most words we use bear meanings they acquired over time; we cannot invent a new language every time we speak. We need old words to communicate new ideas. This applies to all forms of communication, including visual. Today, a new image-making technology, Generative AI, is stunning the world--and unsettling design professionals--by making new stuff that is always and entirely derived from old stuff. Generative AI is not a spaceship; it is a time machine.
Designers know that all they create derives to some extent from precedents they draw from; but they differ in the strategies they follow to acknowledge, or hide, the precedents to which they refer. In the past, European artists developed sophisticated strategies to conceptualise the way we refer to traditions we cannot avoid, but we do not endorse. They called that Mannerism. Today's mannerists, regardless of technologies, critique the language they use, using the only language they know.
Schedule
10am – Welcome: Ingrid Schroder, AA Director
10.15am – Introduction: Mario Carpo and Francisco González de Canales
10.30am – Session 1: The long history of contemporary mannerism: from Robert Venturi to Peter Eisenman, chaired by Mario Carpo and Francisco González de Canales
Andrew Leach, Queensland University of Technology: Mannerism and Maniera in Contemporary Architecture
Lina Malfona, University of Pisa: The Mannerist Phase in Architecture
Peter Eisenman, Eisenman Architects: Mannerism Is Not a Style: it is an Architecture
Roundtable and Q&A moderated by Marina Lathouri, Programme Director, AA History and Critical Thinking
Lunch break
1.30pm – Session 2: Mannerism Today, Part 1: Mannerism and the Building Practice, chaired by Francisco González de Canales
Oliver Lutjens, Lütjens Padmanabhan Architekt*innen, Geometry, Order, and Mannerism
Claudia Lynch, Lynch Architects: Mannerism as Creative Imagination and Critical Mimesis,
Kersten Geers, OFFICE Kersten Geers David Van Severen: The Difficult Double
Roundtable and Q&A moderated by Rosy Head, AA Chair of History and Theory
Break
4pm – Session 3: Mannerism Today, Part 2: AI Mannerisms, chaired by Mario Carpo
Mark Foster Gage, Mark Foster Gage Architects, Yale School of Architecture: In Matters of Importance, Style is Everything
Matias del Campo, SPAN, Technical University of Vienna: Classical // Anti // Classical. Training on Tradition, Outputting Estrangement: The Inevitability of Mannerism
Amin Taha, Groupwork, Royal College of Art: Giulio Romano and Ove Arup, the Tectonic and Surreal
Roundtable and Q&A moderated by Theodore Spyropoulos, Programme Director, AADRL
Access
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.