The great schools of architecture have been around since time immemorial, or at least that's how it can often feel. In London, a city particularly dense with institutions of this calibre, this is perhaps felt more acutely. How, then, do you develop an entirely new school in this tightly packed environment which has the potency and capacity to compete? Will Hunter, former executive editor of the London-based Architectural Review, began a process to do just this with an article in 2012. Following this, he set up the ARFA—Alternative Routes For Architecture—in order to explore different models for architectural education, calling upon professionals and academics to contribute to a series of informal discussions.
“When the tuition fees in the UK escalated to around £9000 per year in 2013, it got me thinking about different models for architectural education,” Hunter recalls. The casual meetings held around this time gradually become more serious until, “at a certain point, we decided to test them: to make a school.” The project gathered momentum from that point on and now, two years later, the London School of Architecture(LSA) are preparing to take in their first ‘trailblazing cohort’ of postgraduate students.
Design by Hall McKnight. Image Courtesy of Arendon Development Company
The Czech Republic-based Arendon Development Company has selected seven British practices and three Czech practices to work together on Oaks Prague, a new €400 million, 220-home "residential and lifestyle development" 20 kilometres South-East of Prague within the commune of Popivičky.
Selected through a competition organized by Malcolm Reading Consultants, the ten practices will join the team of Edward Durell Stone Jr and Associates, who masterplanned the development to include a golf club, hotel and spa at its centre, and John Thompson & Partners, who developed a pattern book and style guide for Oaks Prague.
Read on after the break for the full list of selected architects
Adjaye Associates. Image Courtesy of A Dolls' House
Inspired by the dolls’ house that Edwin Lutyens designed for The British Empire Exhibition in 1922, twenty British practices are each designing a contemporary dolls’ house in aid of the disabled childrens’ charity KIDS. Each version will sit on a 750mm square plinth to be auctioned at Bonham's on the 11th November and contains one feature which would make life easier for a disabled child. Among the participating practices is Zaha Hadid Architects and Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners. FAT will also be working with Turner Prize recipient Grayson Perry CBE, and Studio Egret West with artist Andrew Logan.
Inspired by the dolls' house that Edwin Lutyens designed for The British Empire Exhibition in 1922, twenty British practices are each designing a contemporary dolls' house in aid of the disabled childrens' charity KIDS. Each version will sit on a 750mm square plinth to be exhibited during this year's London Design Festival (14th - 21st September, 2013) before being auctioned. Each design must contain "a unique feature to make life easier for a child who is disabled."
UP Projects and The Architecture Foundation has announced Duggan Morris Architects as winner of the Open Architecture Challenge to design the next phase of the acclaimed Floating Cinema project. This project has been commissioned by the Legacy List with corporate partner Bloomberg as part of the Bloomberg East series of artist-led programs to animate the waterways in East London working in partnership with the Canal and River Trust.
The Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) has announced the 2012 shortlist for the UK’s pre-eminent private housing design award, the Manser Medal. These five houses, chosen from winners of RIBA Awards and RIBA regional awards, are competing for the UK’s “best new house”.
The 2012 Manser Medal shortlist includes:
The Dune House in Thorpeness, Suffolk / Jarmund Vigsnaes Architects & Mole Architects
Private house in Gloucestershire / Found Associates
Private house in East Sussex / Duggan Morris Architects
Two Passive Solar Gain Houses, Porthadown, Cornwall / Simon Conder Associates
Maison L, Ile de France / Christian Pottgiesser – Architecture Possibles
The winner will be announced at the RIBA Stirling Prize dinner October 13, 2012 in Manchester. This year’s judges include Michael Manser CBE, architect; Lady Jill Ritblat; and Tony Chapman, Hon FRIBA, RIBA Head of Awards.