João Bravo da Costa

The Architectural Association (AA) School of Architecture and the Instituto de Empresa (IE) Business School teamed up for an experiment in innovative education. This weekend, a delegation from the AA — including director Brett Steele and tutors João Bravo da Costa, Anne Save de Beaurecueil, Ricardo de Ostos, and Peter Ferreto — conducted an interdisciplinary module, one of the innovations in IE’s new MBA curriculum.

The module consisted of a 6-hour workshop during which MBA students were given architectural design tasks. These tasks served to introduce the business students to the thought and work processes involved in contemporary experimental architecture and were aimed at stimulating innovative ideas, creativity, and teamwork.

The workshops (each of which was led by an AA tutor with the assistance of IE staff and attended by students working in teams) were preceded by an introduction — opened by IE School of Architecture dean Javier Quintana and completed by each of the AA staff, who presented recent investigations of work space design. The importance of how places of work are designed was the guiding theme of the workshop.

The cooperation between the IE and the AA is the result of a common interest in innovation and disruptive learning. By bringing business and design activities closer together, this initiative aimed at developing skills in communication, leadership, critical thinking, and creativity.

The DRL Ten pavilion was once again under the spotlight today at the Architectural Association (AA), on the occasion of a roundtable discussion. The event brought together the project team to share their experiences designing, engineering, fabricating, and building the pavilion.

It was remarked early on that this was the first time that representatives of all the task teams came together around the same table — a sign of the vicissitudes imposed on this initiative by budget struggles, a tight deadline, and a dependence on voluntary work by participants with other obligations. The pavilion was an initiative of the tutors of the Design Research Laboratory, a graduate program within the AA, and counted on the support and commitment of a large group of people.

AA director Brett Steele opened the session explaining the significance of this built experiment and learning experience for the AA school and the DRL in particular. DRL tutor and project coordinator Yusuke Obuchi then gave background information, first about the competition that led to the chosen design, then about the construction process and some of the complications it brought about. Pavilion designer Alan Dempsey followed with a commentary of the design development — particularly the time constraint which limited the refinement of the design. Head engineer Hanif Kara of Adams Kara Taylor placed the pavilion at the focus of his plea to bring architectural education and construction education together. He was followed by Reuben Brambleby and Jugatx Ansotegui (both AKT engineers), who gave accounts of the calculations, testing, and detailing carried out to develop the design. Wolfgang Rieder, owner of the company that manufactured the primary building material (fibreC) presented some of their recent work and current capabilities; he also manifested his enthusiasm for new initiatives such as the DRL Ten Pavilion. Next, site manager Joao Bravo da Costa spoke about the construction process, voicing over a time-lapse video recording that condenses the 5-week site activity into a 6-minute clip. He emphasized the challenges faced by the construction team (essentially a group of students turned building contractor team). This commentary was completed by Max, a current DRL student who took part in the construction.

DRL tutors and pavilion initiators Patrik Schumacher, Theo Spyropoulos, and Tom Verebes added some thoughts and remarks to the discussion, which centered on the role that initiatives like the DRL Ten Pavilion can have in architectural education.

The DRL Ten Pavilion was designed by DRL alumni Alan Dempsey and Alvin Huang, who won a competition initiated by the DRL tutors. It was built by students under the direction of tutor Yusuke Obuchi, with materials donated by Rieder of Austria, and expert support by Adams Kara Taylor engineers, who also contributed financially. Further donations were made by Zaha Hadid Architects, Icon magazine, and others. Philips provided lighting and Reza Nobakht offered surveying services.

The official opening of the AADRL Ten pavilion took place today at the architectural Association. The front members’ room was crowded beyond capacity for a toast to the completion of the built project and a viewing of the DRL Ten exhibition.

Speeches by AA school director Brett Steele and project leader Yusuke Obuchi thanked all parties involved in the project and emphasized the importance of this achievement in the curriculum of the DRL. It is the first time that the graduate program of the AA completes a built project. All the work on-site was carried out by students and tutors. Nevertheless, the pavilion was made possible only with the co-sponsorship and contribution of many parties (see project page for full information).

The DRL Ten exhibition, on display until April, documents a decade of architectural design and research within the studio, as well as work by DRL graduates and tutors.

The first meeting of the site team took place today. It is an exciting moment, and we’re looking with anticipation to completing the challenge of building something quite complicated (though fairly small) without a contractor. Meaning that all the site management and logistics, as well as labor, will be the responsibility of DRL staff and students.

A blog will report the progress of the building over the coming weeks.