FOUNDATION
FOUNDATION DIRECTOR Saskia Lewis
The Foundation course offers a one-year introduction to an art- and designbased education. It allows students to develop their conceptual ideas through experimenting with a wide range of media and a variety of creative disciplines from fine art to architecture. Students are taught in an intimate studio-based environment and work on both individual and group projects. Drawing on a number of pedagogical practices, experienced tutors and visiting practitioners, the Foundation offers a unique cross-disciplinary education within the context of an architectural school.
UNDERGRADUATE
STUDIO STAFF Matthew Butcher Takako Hasegawa Flora McLean
Trust that little voice in your head that says, ‘Wouldn’t it be interesting if?’ And then do it. – Duane Michals Set Your Sights: Inspired by the installations of Robert Morris, the imagined film characters of Cindy Sherman’s Film Still series and the curious garments of Hussein Chalayan, this year we will explore scale, site, materiality, scenario and identity. The Foundation cohort will feature as both makers and players in this process. Get Set: Projects range in scale from a hand-held object to a journey through the city. Bespoke workshops will provide students with the appropriate skills to develop their individual projects. The first two terms follow a fictionalised autobiographical figure within the city through its relationships to self-image, clothing, personal possession, memory, atmosphere and context. Students will make and represent their work using photography, drawing, painting, model-making, casting, mapping, material studies, form, structure, pattern-cutting, costume, sewing, weaving, textiles, carpentry, performance, lighting and filmmaking. After developing skills in observational, visual and verbal representation, they will then spend the final term concentrating on a self-generated project, which will complete the portfolio describing their creative journey over the year. Go: A series of field trips will allow students to broaden their understanding of context and culture, including tours of London and Paris, gallery visits and residential periods in Hooke Park. Lectures in history and theory and talks from visiting artists will stimulate dialogue within the Studio, defining a context behind student work. Throughout the year students will be encouraged to identify and develop their own intellectual ambitions and expand the boundaries of their experience and personal development.
FOUNDATION DIRECTOR Saskia Lewis has taught at the AA since 2001. She practised in New York, Paris and London and has taught at many London schools of art and architecture. She is co-author and photographer of Architectural Voices: Listening to Old
Buildings published in October 2007 by Wiley.
School, Chelsea College of Art and Nottingham.
STUDIO STAFF Matthew Butcher is an architect based in London, a founding member of the design collective Post Works and editor of architectural magazine P.E.A.R. He has taught at The Bartlett
Takako Hasegawa was born in Tokyo and educated at the AA. Working on the periphery of architecture, art and performance. She also teaches at Chelsea College of Art and Design.
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Flora McLean is the head designer at the House of Flora specialising in avant-garde headwear. She has collaborated with many successful labels including Blumarine, Bruce Oldfield and Riccardo Tisci at Givenchy Haute Couture. She also teaches at the Royal College of Art.
Andra Miruna Mazilu – Headpiece constructed to examine parts of the body that normally remain hidden from view
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