ADDENDUM

09 June 2015 London, United Kingdom & Tokyo, Japan The following video was made by the students of Intermediate 10 to define what the term addendum means to them. In response to this video, we asked Inter 10 Unit Master Valentin Bontjes van Beek to write a short introduction, which is followed by excerpts from their extended brief that delineates the parameters of their investigations this year. Half-way through the year and as a contribution to the AA Open Week the students produced a collective video which responded to the unit agenda and represented a first stocktake of their ongoing investigation into the term 'addendum' in architecture. Contrary to the norm, where a singular project typically represents a unit, the students decided for a pluralistic approach in the form of a measured self-portrait of the entire unit, revealing their endeavours as a collective. The video was produced without supervision and partly against my recommendations, which only underlined their ability to take ownership of their work, to maintain a necessary distrust of their teachers and preserve the solidarity of their own combined effort and affiliation.

- Valentin Bontjes van Beek

Excerpts from the brief: "The dictionary tells us that an addendum has its origins in the seemingly straightforward phrase ‘that which is to be added.’ Today it simply conveys the idea of a supplement - a shot of Vitamin C, Prozac or Viagra that somehow enables the whole to perform better than it once could." "The unit will research the notion of addendum in the broadest possible sense, practical as much as conceptual (that is, things as much as ideas; material technique and wild fantasy)." "The architectural addendum takes into account what is. as a way to influence and foresee what is to become." "Like a tropical spider smuggled into a pack of Waitrose bananas, the collision of something alien, unsuspected, public, scene-changing or even dangerous, against something that is everyday, accepted, organic and possibly even vulnerable, will introduce its own sense of friction, which in turn reminds us of our own mortality." "The expression of ideas makes us human. The expression of ideas about the city makes us citizens. The expression of proposed additions to a city puts us in the realm of architecture.” For more information: Intermediate 10 Unit Brief Intermediate 10 on AA Conversations - Part One: Plus One Intermediate 10 on AA Conversations - Part Two: A New Frontier Inter 10 in 2014–15 is: Janos Bergab-sawicz, Caroline Bongartz, Daria Gavrilova, Veronika Janovcova, Adi Krainer, Kyung Kuk Kang (Steve), Hye Rim Lee, Buster Rönngren, Timothy O’Hare, Arefeh Sanaei, Tommaso Sordon and Jiahui Yuan