Neil Spiller – författare

American architect Lebbeus Woods (1940–2012) remains a quiet hero not only among his colleagues, but also for architectural students intrigued by the ideas and fluent beauty of his powerful graphic verve, as well as of his writing. His projects from the mid-1980s until the end of his life have been widely published. However, this AD, in collaboration with the Estate of Lebbeus Woods, explores the earlier period beginning in the late 1960s when Woodswas honing his draughtsmanship and theoretical positions while experimenting with a variety of themes and different modes of expression.When he burst onto the international architectural scene with a solo exhibition and accompanying catalogue (Lebbeus Woods: Origins) at the Architectural Association, London, in 1985, some wondered how anyone could emerge so fully formed, from nowhere. Working against the logic of ‘nowhere’, this issue charts his early trajectory through the largely unpublished drawings and texts, linking them with what came after. Aiming to generate new scholarship, its roster of international interdisciplinary critics and commentators offer a new understanding of Woods’s work and of his formative years, also shining a light on how we might think about the ‘early work’ of any architect’s career.Contributors: Joseph Becker, Aaron Betsky, Peter Cook, Mark Dorrian, Riet Eeckhout, Kevin Erickson, Joerg Gleiter, Sharon Irish, Eliyahu Keller, Lawrence Rinder, Ashley Simone, Ben Sweeting.

California has historically provided a fertile breeding ground for radical modes of architectural thinking, practice and building, which from the 1920s onwards was sparked by the presence of eminent émigré architects. It was also central to the birth of ‘cool’ mid-century Modernism – all in parallel with the intense concentration of design and experimentation in the film, aerospace and tech industries. This AD issue explores the influential formal tropes generated in the nexus between Los Angeles and the Bay Area, as well as the thriving theoretical preoccupations that have brought California's architects global attention. Between Hollywood and the Silicon Valley, this unique context has nurtured and become the platform for those who not only build buildings around the world, but have also founded and directed schools and educated emergent generations of architects.Contributors: Frances Anderton, Jasmine Benyamin, Blaine Brownell, Courtney Coffman, Heather Flood and Aaron Gensler, David Freeland and Brennan Buck, Craig Hodgetts, Max Kuo, Eva Menuhin, Nicole Meyer, Jill Stoner, and Grace Mitchell Tada.Featured architects: Atelier Manferdini, Ball-Nogues Studio, Faulders Studio, FreelandBuck, Hood Design Studio, Oyler Wu Collaborative, Preliminary Research Office, Stereobot, and Synthesis Design + Architecture.

The link between architecture and art and the sublimity it can create has a history that stretches back millennia. From cave paintings to the stained glass and saintly icons in churches and cathedrals, to the geometric and calligraphic treatments of mosques and contemporary artists channelling architecture and vice versa, and so much else. This AD is about the contemporary interactions between living artists and architects, and the artistic practices, such as poetry and abstractions, that architects adopt to develop ideas for their projects. The issue features artists, architects, curators, musicians, poets and designer craftspeople, illustrating the current rich mix of architectonic constructions, interventions and set pieces that range from musical performance to exhibition designs, glass works and digital 3D scanning. It lays out the wide spectrum and beauty of these sublime correspondences, with contributions from architects about their own artistic practices, and creative works viewed through the eyes of architectural commentators. An explosion of colour, form and creative tactics for making multifaceted work that above all is architectural, it offers a cornucopia of possibilities.Contributors: Peter Baldwin, Kathy Battista, Nic Clear, Mathew Emmett, Paul Finch, Paul Greenhalgh, Hamed Khosravi, Eva Menuhin, Felix Robbins, and Simon Withers.Featured architects and artists: a-project, Captivate, Brian Clarke, Andy Goldsworthy, Barbara Hepworth, Danny Lane, Ben Johnson, Brendan Neiland, Ian Ritchie, and Zoe Zenghelis.

Studying architecture is hugely exciting and rewarding. It entails developing design skills, problem-solving abilities and tapping into creativity, as well as acquiring cultural, technical and professional knowledge. This book is the go-to guide for students throughout their architectural education. It introduces architecture students to all they need to know to get on an architecture course, thrive at school and be prepared for the realities of becoming a practising architect. Split into three main sections – Part I (BA or BSC in Architecture), Part II (Masters or Diploma) and Part III (Advanced Diploma in Professional Practice) – it offers direction on all aspects of an architectural education. These range from initial tutorials, the first crit and essay-writing through to the development of final project and thesis work. Covering all bases, it is a comprehensive guide for astudent’s passage from university preparation through to undergraduate and graduate study and out into the profession. It features RIBA UK architecture schools and those validated overseas, as well as a short, final chapter on architectural education elsewhere in the world.

This Architectural Design Journal focuses on how architectural skills are deployed in entertainment to communicate design and form the backdrops for stories to play out. It includes articles on installations, exhibition designs, entertainment architecture, narrative projects, speculations on future human identities, video gaming, and memorial tombs - an international plethora of staged examples of how architectural thinking can bring vitality to situations not usually perceived to be within the realms of traditional practice. The issue engages with popular culture, fictions, art, performance, technology, and architectural history and theory. Exploring the full spectrum of spatial propositions that architects can bring to staging events, the work featured is theatrical and exuberant, and the product of many collaborative architectural voices including curators, artists, performers, digital intelligences, fabricators, and writers.

Architects have designed some of the most iconic items of furniture. This Architectural Design Journal features ingenious architect-protagonists of this genre, and explores the recent history and chronology of architectural involvement in the discipline.Furniture augments architect-designed environments, contributing to the holistic ambience of a space and displaying in microcosm architects’ preoccupations with material palettes, haptic sensitivities and structural invention. It can take the form of props for commercial purposes including business meetings and offices, for spaces susceptible to the weather, or for convivial, domestic settings. Whatever the programmatic imperative, architects have contributed in the most aesthetic ways. This issue honours some of the best.