‘The old story is a story of measurement. And the New Story is to bring measurement and meaning together. You cannot measure meaning.’
– Satish Kumar

Term 1 of the Foundation Programme focuses on observation, conversation and developing key skills. We will begin by developing portraits of ‘mother Earth’, our hometown and ourselves, and will discuss our agency and responsibilities in relation to our local community in response to the climate crisis, preparing us for full engagement with the AA’s school-wide conversations during Climate Matters Week. This exercise will allow us to examine the nuance between context and content.

We will visit sites in London and Rome to examine and survey urban conditions, which will inform drawings and models as well as photographic essays and cartographic exercises that capture these sites’ formal, material and atmospheric qualities. In parallel with studio practice, students will begin to collect contextual references and apply critical thinking to their own self-initiated research. Tutorials and workshops will introduce techniques and encourage translations from observation to material interpretation, and we will discuss our work through regular individual tutorials, group presentations and juries.

Term 2 focuses on work that clarifies students’ own individual areas of  interest. Each student will develop a short experimental film, followed by an examination of the corporeal body and a series of small architectural proposals in response to that study. These projects will evolve through processes of survey, ‘thinking through making’ and experimentation.

In Term 3, students will work together as a group to build a structure at 1:1 scale, and will each compile and design a final portfolio of work created during the academic year for assessment. The design and build of the Foundation Projects Review exhibition design-and-build marks the end of Term 3 and the academic year.