The primary aim of History and Theory Studies (HTS) is to develop students who are independent, critical and inventive. The course considers many aspects of architectural culture and discourse that are not directly addressed in design work. The programmes aims to provide not only an understanding of key topics but to also take a view on cultural and political questions that involve architecture such as ecology, housing and widespread inequality – issues with which it is imperative that architectural intelligence intervenes. In parallel questions that stem from within architecture itself are explored: the nature of contemporary practice, the possible career routes for trained architects and the responses of the profession to particular social issues and questions of public taste. These areas of focus form a critical component of the discourse at the AA and its translation of cultural issues into architecture.

The programme reflects the structure of the Intermediate Programme, with the First Year course based on a series of lectures delivered to the entire cohort of students. These are supported by a series of smaller seminars in which the content from the lectures and the complementary bibliographic readings are discussed and debated, ultimately forming the basis for the analytical research and writing that students are required to develop in the form of an essay submission.

Revolutions and Orthodoxies:
A Survey of Architecture and Urban History
Tutors: Ingrid Schroder, Rosy Head, Christopher Pierce, Nicholas Simcik-Arese
This lecture series tells the long story of how we have come to use buildings, cities and landscapes as ways of sharing ideas, myths and values, and of evoking or undermining power. Its programme of fourteen lectures spans timescales and geographies, each connecting a place, a period in history and a body of theory with specific architectural examples. We will address subjects spanning the globe, reaching backward and forward through time to demonstrate the interconnected qualities of architectural thought from the first settlements in what is now Turkey to contexts in Asia, Latin America and Africa. Simultaneously, these sessions will introduce the largely European ‘canon’ of architects, buildings, ideas and movements while challenging its orthodoxy. The course provides a review of how expansive social visions have been articulated in architecture, and how these ideas were communicated, diluted and redrafted across centuries and continents – enabling us, in turn, to frame our own position in response to our global environment.