AA Communications Studio

Seeding Change: Visionary Timber Architecture at Hooke Park, 1981–2001   Edited by Kate Davies and Anna Lisa Reynolds   Paperback 167 x 230mm 168pp   Hooke Park in west Dorset is a home to a nexus of progressive approaches to forestry, architecture, engineering and education. This woodland campus, now operated by the AA, was established by John Makepeace and the Parnham Trust in the early 1980s as an educational project to test the use of local roundwood in building, which resulted three pioneering timber buildings. This book draws on a rich archive of photographs, drawings and documents to tell the stories of these structures, tracing the evolution of their material-led and research-driven approach to design, grounded in a living landscape.    Designed to complement the ethos of Hooke Park itself, the book’s production reflects a conscious commitment to sustainability and material economy. The format was chosen to minimise paper waste, with dimensions optimised to work efficiently within standard sheet sizes - a quiet nod to the resource-conscious thinking that defines the campus. Printed on recycled stock, the pages carry a warm off-white tone, while the monospace typeface forms a visual connection to the photographs, drawings and typed correspondence that constitute the Hooke Park archive at the heart of Seeding Change. Against this restrained, archival palette, the binding makes a bold counterpoint: the bright tape spine binding introduces a flash of contemporary colour, referencing the experimental and forward-looking culture of the AA’s woodland campus.   AA Publications, 2025   Design: Caspar Bailey Proofreader: Charlotte Jones, Anna Lisa Reynolds Print: Empress @caspar_design @annalisareynolds @empress.london

The Word for World: The Maps of Ursula K Le Guin   Edited by So Mayer and Sarah Shin When Ursula K Le Guin started writing a new story, she would begin by drawing a map. The Word for World presents a selection of these images by the celebrated author, bringing them together with poems, stories, interviews, recipes and essays from a variety of contributors to consider how her imaginary worlds enable us to re-envision our own.   Co-published by Spiral House (an imprint of Silver Press) and AA Publications to coincide with an exhibition of Ursula K Le Guin’s maps at the Architectural Association, London.   Paperback 148 x 210mm 160pp   Design: Caspar Bailey Production editing: Max Zarzycki Print: Calverts @sarah_shin_ @caspar_design @lilliambleak @spiralhouseeditions @calverts_london

Visual identity for The Word for World, an exhibition on display at the @aaschool The identity uses type layered over image to visually interpret Le Guin’s exploration of language, mapping, and perception. The bold, flowing typography is both readable and organic, appearing to float above or grow through faint, line-drawn imagery beneath it - echoing Le Guin’s notion that words and worlds are interwoven systems rather than separate entities.   Curators: Sarah Shin and Harriet Jennings Assistant Curator: Molly Evans Exhibition Design: Standard Deviation (Sammy Lee, Mark Lowe and Sarah Shin, with Federico Campagna, MJ Harding and Rain Wu) Graphic Design: Caspar Bailey Copyediting: Anna Lisa Reynolds Cyanotypes: Elena Andreea Teleaga Sign Writing: Louis Musk Exhibition Installation: Install Archive and AA Facilities Audio Visual: AA Audio-Visual Department @caspar_design @annalisareynolds @lilliambleak @harrietgjennings @sarah_shin_

As Hardly Found: Art and Tropical Architecture Edited by Albert Brenchat-Aguilar Paperback 270 x 300 168pp As Hardly Found: Art and Tropical Architecture centres artists and artworks that have so far been overlooked by histories of ‘tropical architecture’. In this collection of essays, historians, artists and archivists address works of art connected to epicentres of teaching and practice within the movement – focusing on the Department of Tropical Architecture at the Architectural Association and its collaborators – which emerged in the mid-20th century alongside anticolonial struggles that dismantled the British Empire. AA Publications, 2025 Design: Andrew Reid Communications Studio Editors: Anna Lisa Reynolds, Max Zarzycki Proofreader: Charlotte Jones, Emily Priest Print: Graphius @albertbrenchat @graphiusgroup @annalisareynolds @lilliambleak @_emilypriest @andrewreiiiiid #aapublications

AA Files 81 Edited by Maria Shéhérazade Giudici and Rory James Sherlock Paperback 245 x 297 112pp AA Publications, 2025 Design: Andrew Reid Proofreader: Charlotte Jones Print: Pureprint AA Files 81 features contributions by Ahmed Belkhodja (amblk_), Anna Font (@afontvac ), Anooradha Iyer Siddiqi (@iyersiddiqi ), Boris Hamzeian (@boris_hamzeian ), George Jepson, Huma Gupta, Giaime Meloni (@giaimemeloni ) and Sabrina Puddu, Maria Paez Gonzalez (@maria_paez_gonzalez ), Octave Perrault (@octaveperrault ), Olivia Neves Marra, Sony Devabhaktuni (@sonydevabhaktuni ). This issue explores a range of ways to frame the idea of spatial intelligence – from the evolution of digital techniques in design education to a radical questioning of the parameters through which we assess environmental sustainability. @pureprintgroup @rorysherlock @blacksquare.eu @andrewreiiiiid

Book launch for Reyner Banham: A Set of Actual Tracks Edited by Ludovico Centis   On Tuesday 4 March we were delighted to host the launch of our new anthology of texts by Reyner Banham at the Architectural Association. Including an introduction by the editor, Ludovico Centis, and catered with pineapple sundaes in reference to Reyner Banham Loves Los Angeles (1972), the event was a well-earned celebration of contributors’ brilliant work and of Banham’s enduring legacy.    @theempire_eu @caspar_design @lilliambleak

Exhibition guide and identity design for Distillation of Architecture: 家具 – an exhibition celebrating more than 30 years of collaboration between Maeda and the AA, co-curated by Shin Egashira, Ingrid Schroder and Soji Maeda. Bringing together architects and makers from Japan, this exhibition reconsiders the concept of furniture in relation to architecture, through a process of ‘distillation’ – the refinement of ideas, materials and processes. Four architects have each been paired with a maker and asked to rethink a piece of furniture or domestic structure. The resulting works demonstrate how living spaces can be transformed through architectural and material thinking.  Exhibition Realisation: Shin Egashira, Harriet Jennings, Molly Evans Translation: Aoi Phillips, Megumi Yamashita Design Teams: Schemata Architects with Ikuya Sagara, Studio mnm with Kittaka Brothers & Corp, Bansyo, Ishikawa Seisakusho and Imatoku Kogei, Suzuko Yamada with Yuki Murakami and Tsubame Architects with Hidakuma Studio. The guide is covered in Takeo Pachica, a Japanese synthetic paper whose surface feels like a soft fabric and will turn translucent when hot stamped. Copies of the guide can be found in the AA Gallery until the exhibition closes on Friday 7 March 2025. 96pp, 105 x 145mm Design: Andrew Reid Editor: Anna Lisa Reynolds

Concerning ... Land Edited by Ingrid Schroder Paperback 110 x 140mm 48pp AA Publications, 2024 Design: Andrew Reid Communications Studio Editor: Emily Priest Proofreader: Charlotte Jones Print: Pureprint This publication is the first of a series that provides space to contend with fundamental professional and academic concerns in architecture. The essays included in this issue explore what it means to belong to land, to claim it, to be landed, or to maintain land through stewardship and responsibility. The authors span scales and interpretations from the earthbound (Silvana Taher), to the mythical (Charlotte Birrell), the legal (Georgia Hablützel) and the infrastructural (Tadeáš Říha). @silvanataher #charlottebirrell @georgiasophia @tadeas.riha @_emilypriest @andrewreiiiiid

Design identity for Ripple Ripple Rippling - An exhibition by Jingru Cyan Cheng, Chen Zhan and Mengfan Wang.   Design Identity: AA Communications Studio Exhibition Realisation: AA Public Programme Curated by: Jingru Cyan Cheng, Chen Zhan and Mengfan Wang (For full list of credits, please visit aaschool.ac.uk)   This multisensory exhibition tells situated stories of the entangled flows of people and land around an ordinary village in China. Curated visual, sonic and bodily encounters surface hidden changes in Chinese rural homes and village landscapes that enable the floating labour force who sustain the country’s urbanisation. The exhibition also reveals how the transformative process of this work has unfolded over a decade, and reflects on its evolving methods and media of communication, which interweave architecture, anthropology, filmmaking and performance.   The design approach embraces the diverse range of content on display in the exhibition. The predominant use of a sans serif typeface, combined with white space and a strong sense of grid, forms a framing device, allowing the vibrant photography and colour to take centre-stage in shaping the identity. A striking pink hue, referencing the colourful garments worn by villagers, adds a vivid touch, while atmospheric photographs create a dynamic contrast between moments of stillness and movement, enriching the visual narrative.

AA Files 80 Edited by Maria Shéhérazade Giudici and Rory James Sherlock Paperback 245 x 297 96pp AA Publications, 2024 Design: Andrew Reid Proofreaders: Charlotte Jones, Max Zarzycki Print: Pureprint AA Files 80 features eleven contributions that put forward different approaches to architectural research. The publication seeks to unearth past moments of architectural agency to demonstrate that even in times of social and environmental crisis, new spatial imaginaries are possible. Contributions include essays from Emanuele Coccia (@unicamens ), Irina Davidovici (@idavidovici ), Rebecca Crabtree, Violette de la Selle and Wes Hiatt (@whiatt ), Sofia Singler, Charles Rice (@drmdrmdrmdr ), Platon Issaias (@platon.issaias ), Moad Musbahi (@rubicon_m ), Hilary Sample (@mmmosarchitects ), Raafat Majzoub (@raafatmajzoub ) and an interview with renowned archaeologist Linda Manzanilla. AA Files 80 has been designed and produced in-house by the Communications Studio at the AA, and its revised style and editorial structure is redolent of the precision, focus and intent that the journal has historically embodied. While the essays are not explicitly linked by any given theme, there are implicit connections between each that are suggested by their composition as a unified form. Subtle nods to former incarnations will no doubt be discernible to enduring readers, but these serve only as the waypoints of an altogether new graphic and editorial approach that connects the future of the journal to its prodigious past. @pureprintgroup @andrewreiiiiid @lilliambleak @rorysherlock @blacksquare.eu

A Set of Actual Tracks Edited by Ludovico Centis   232pp, 140 x 190 mm, paperback 2024   Edited by Ludovico Centis Design: Caspar Bailey AA Publications editors: Ryan Dillon, Max Zarzycki Proofreaders: Charlotte Jones, Anna Lisa Reynolds   This book brings a contemporary critical lens to the work of Reyner Banham, one of the most prescient architectural and design critics of the 20th century. Thirteen of the acerbic historian’s essays and book chapters have been selected by contributors, ranging from classics such as ‘The Great Gizmo’ to lesser-known texts such as ‘The Wall’, an intimate confession he penned in hospital shortly before his death. Each is accompanied by a contemporary response that contextualises Banham’s writing, drawing out reflections on what the critic’s work means today. @theempire_eu @caspar_design @lilliambleak @annalisareynolds

Pandemic Objects AA Publications and V&A 360 pp, 150 x 215 mm, paperback 2024   Edited by Brendan Cormier Design: Caspar Bailey AA Publications editors: Ryan Dillon, Kristina Rapacki, Max Zarzycki   During the Covid-19 pandemic, a host of everyday objects suddenly became charged with new urgency. Toilet paper became a symbol of public panic, convention centres became hospitals, parks became contested public commodities. Initiated by curator Brendan Cormier in early April 2020, Pandemic Objects was first an editorial project on the Victoria and Albert Museum blog, a way to capture and ‘collect’ these shifts in use and meaning. Four years on, the blog has been edited and curated into a book in a fruitful collaboration between the V&A and AA Publications. The resulting publication is considered an object in itself, a tangible archive of this extraordinary time and a way to recall and connect with the seismic shifts and subtle lessons of the pandemic.