The Architectural Association in London faces leadership crisis

2020-07-02T15:21:00-04:00

The Architectural Association (AA) in London finds itself in crisis this week as students, staff, and leadership express a lack of support for a proposed strategic plan crafted for the institution’s future by AA Director Eva Franch i Gilabert.

Further, as The Architect’s Journal reports, 52% of the nearly 900 people surveyed at the AA indicated that they did not have confidence in Gilabert’s leadership moving forward. The same poll found over 80% disagreement within the “school community” over the 2020-25 strategic plan Gilabert has crafted for the institution. The nature of the disagreements over the plan are unclear, though The Architect’s Journal shared an anonymous letter it received last year detailing concerns that the school “will favor ‘theory’ over ‘design,’ to the detriment of both, as well as some types of architectural thinking over others” under Gilabert’s leadership.

In a welcome address published in late 2019, Gilabert espoused a vision of openness coupled with resp...

Solving Problems for Real World, Using Design

2013-12-30T13:57:00-05:00

While the projects had wildly different end products, they both had a similar starting point: focusing on how to ease people’s lives. And that is a central lesson at the school, which is pushing students to rethink the boundaries for many industries. At the heart of the school’s courses is developing what David Kelley, one of the school’s founders, calls an empathy muscle.

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The Architectural Association in London faces leadership crisis

Solving Problems for Real World, Using Design