AA Inter 3

Image: Maya Laitinen AA INTER3

New year, amazing new possibilities!

We are very excited to kick off the NEW academic year very soon at the AA School. Inter 3 Brief ‘The New Forest and Its Digital Creatures’ brings the best of the unit thematic and design opportunities. It is definitely a brief  that invite students to think and respond with creative and fantastic architectural drawings and models. We are very happy to have Nathan Su joining the unit too. Welcome! It is our 12th year teaching at the AA school and with solid experience and incredible motivation we look forward to a great new year ahead!

For more on the INTER 3 brief please click here

For more information about us please check our social network on Instagram and beyond:

@najadeostos

@inferstudio

Image: Erik Hoffmann, AA INTER 3

Image: Basmah Kaki, AA INTER3 

Image: Nathan Su, AA INTER 3

Image: Christopher Kokarev AA INTER 3

Here comes this year’s extended brief, more detail soon at the introductions. Looking forward to meeting you!

See you tomorrow at 10.15am.

Hi All,

Hope you enjoyed the workshop on Saturday and had some fun playing with arduino & co!

Now, following some research on arduino and choice of 3 arduino based projects, we will re-shape and further develop the initial ideas of mythical lands in the form of physical models / performing prototypes and finally as short film. Thereby we will advance the design and constrain the narrative (= getting even more specific!).

prototype by Raphael Fogel

Here in a bit more detail what the next weeks will involve:

City‐building 
strategy 
games 
like 
Sim‐City, 
Banished 
and 
to 
some
 extent 
modes 
in 
Minecraft 
include 
a
 system 
of 
constraints 
and 
algorithms 
that
 relate 
actions 
and 
direct
 and 
indirect 
consequences 
to 
the 
simulation 
growth of 
the 
model
 game/land/city. 
Analogically 
we
 will 
constraint 
our
 narratives 
utilising
 textual 
storytelling 
and
 physical 
modelling 
to 
explore 
how 
design 
can 
play 
a 
role 
in 
the 
evolution 
of 
our 
land 
idea.

New 
skills 
such 
as 
Arduino 
and 
interactive 
design 
will 
be 
added 
to 
the 
palette 
in 
order 
to 
enable 
you 
to 
design 
in different 
ways.
 Arduino 
is 
a 
microprocessor 
developed 
to 
ease 
the 
interaction 
between 
objects, 
also 
known 
as 
physical 
computing. 
You 
will 
incorporate 
the 
potential
 of
 Arduino 
and 
physical
 computing
 in 
your 
designs 
furthering the 
creation 
of a 
new 
land 
type.

In 
summary 
you 
will:
– incorporate 
the 
element 
of 
time 
and
 evolution 
in 
the 
proposed 
design 
study 
of 
land;
– learn 
and 
apply Arduino 
to 
explore 
time 
and 
land 
interaction 
opportunities;
– develop 
a
 story 
board 
and 
script 
for 
a 
one 
minute 
film;
– produce 
a one 
minute 
film 
for 
the 
end 
of 
term 
crit
 and 
set 
up 
an 
installation 
with 
the 
constructed
 models 
and
props.

Crit 
Date: Tuesday, 8 December 2015

Image: Apocalypse Now film by Francis Ford Coppola

Scavengers in Promised Lands

Architecture is not just about buildings. If architecture is about the environment we build, what is architecture when that same environment changes rapidly? For generations we have understood the world we live in through stories, myths and tales. From sacred to profane ones, none has been more powerful than the story about ends. From biblical revelation to mythological accounts of burning skies and punishing floods, nothing has been more impactful than the myth of the apocalypse. The word ‘apocalypse’ derived from ancient Greek and means uncovering, disclosure of knowledge. The end, announced by many apocalyptic tales, brings forth destruction of cities and livestock but also of land being the provider of sustenance to many communities.

We will investigate the myth of ends, from a mythical and environmental point of view. How is land understood and used when confronted with endings? Are beginnings generated from those same destructive processes? Can we learn from ancient and contemporary myths to deal with secular problems and climatic consequences?

To download the extended brief please click AA Inter 3_extented brief_15-16_small

Here is the link to the more detailed and structured brief of Term 1 for your information. We hope you enjoy it and if you have any questions or need further clarification we can talk about it tomorrow.

The Sandman’s many incarnations; by Neil Gaiman, illustrated by J.H. Williams III

IMAGE: Maya Laitinen, The Lung of Phnom Penh

We are thrilled to introduce the 2014/15 AA Inter3 brief. We hope to see you all tomorrow at the introduction at the lecture hall,10:00am (first slot!).

STRANGE LAND MIRAGE

‘Cities, like dreams, are made of desires and fears, even if the thread of their discourse is secret, their rules are absurd, their perspectives deceitful, and everything conceals something else.’ • Italo Calvino, Invisible Cities

From the far corners of the earth to the undisputed urban miasma of today’s metropolis, the value of land goes beyond metric figures, dimensions and price; it is the blood meridian of mankind. Whole societies have built their traditions, symbols, identities and myths upon the expansion of blazing desert landscapes, soaked lush forest valleys or convoluted rusted cities, and this is where Intermediate 3 begins: promised land, cursed land, wonderland and no man’s land – all these territories will form our horizon as we gaze into the future of our own planetary condition.

We will start our investigation by understanding actual values of land based on real situations and questioning what makes land temporary, permanent or mythological. Rooted in sci-fi perspectives and imaginary environments, we will picture tomorrow-land and its dwellers. Utilising narrative and fictional techniques we allow this future to germinate from the seed of the present land, creating new radical ecologies for not only the future of the built environment, but for our own selves. Concepts of digital technology, massive terraforming, inorganic growth and elemental metamorphosing will enter and collide with the imaginative mind of the creator. Through design research we will then reimagine the values for land and generate alternative uses enabled by modern technologies, ancient myths and, most importantly, by people and their pressing stories.

As a design unit, Intermediate 3 develops critical, theoretical and technological projects via models, prototypes and drawings – large drawings. In a series of workshops students will learn how to utilise fiction alongside line and render drawings as a tool to explore, experiment and create new and imaginative ways of producing architecture.

For downloading the extended brief please click here

Things that Never Were 

‘When it comes, the culture of the Now will not oppose the present world as an invading army opposes its enemy, but rather as a new day overtakes the old – in the natural course of things, when the old world is tired and asleep and dreaming of this dawn.’ – Lebbeus Woods

Eleonore Audi – Myth of the Trash Macau

This year Intermediate 3 embarks on ‘Things that Never Were’ – an investigation of the creation and mediation of myths. Within architecture, tales and stories serve as bearers of symbolism and function, helping to simplify complex system environments for wider community access. Some stories evolve into histories, others become conspiracies, and some merely serve as fleeting moments. Over time various perceptions of environmental events have spawned multiple, disparate and antagonistic narratives among activists, terrorists and conservatives who struggle to find a place within mainstream media. Intermediate 3 will explore alternative settings based on existing environmental claims to learn about the roles technology and infrastructures play in cities and landscapes.

How do we construct and mediate a reality through stories and architecture? The unit will explore this question through physical model-making and drawings of alternate constructs. We will craft and tinker with large-scale models using numerous approaches – from digital scanning to hand crafting. And our drawings will serve as maps and renderings of our newly generated environments.

Intermediate 3 will voyage through strange places and unfamiliar truths in a ragged premiere of possible alternate futures, or ‘Things that Never Were’. We will read, think and, most importantly, discuss through design. We will reference environmental past and present scenarios and imagine fictional and functional variations. Through these investigations we will address the relevance and role of imagination in the age of sustainability evangelism and media relativism.

Extended Brief