LONDON STUMPS

01 September 2014 Architectural Association, London Unit 7 investigated two of London’s failed towers in response to the AA Summer School theme of Unbuilt London. These partially constructed towers acted as a point of departure to consider the dreams and ambitions of architects and engineers. To consider failure, not only in a structural sense, but also what can be learned from wildly ambitious projects and how they can influence and engender new ideas. The Watkins Tower, a 19th century utopian vision for the periphery of London was abandoned at only 1/8th of its intended height. The Pinnacle, in the heart of London has been halted with only its core in place standing at a mere 7 storeys. These structures, or stumps as they are affectionately known acted as Unit 7’s sites for the 3 week programme. The two stumps were constructed at the relatively large scale of 1.100 through models that were designed to imbue an understanding and sensitivity to the processes of making and joining. With the models in place the students then considered possibilities of reinhabiting and growing the structures. These were explored as tectonic experiments and also with a programme that would embrace a future vision for London and inhabit the void left by the “unbuilt”.

For more information: Summer School 2014 - The Unbuilt Summer School 2014 Unit 7 Brief Unit 7 students: Gustavo Branco Nosralla, Eunsung Cho, Giuseppe Della Torca, Maria Freimann, Alice Fenwick, Isabel Jaureguizar, Juhan Kangilaski, Natasha Kaur Grewal, Carlotta Guiu Morros, Sudhanshu Mittal, Raunak Rekhi, Caspar Schols, Yee Sang Wong, Weichen Zhang Unit 7 wishes to thank William Fausset, Valentina Galmozzi, David Grandorge, David Heathcote, Mattias Kunz, Peter Murray, Karthikeyan Ramamoorthy, Alex Reddihough, Ben Ward and Richard Youel for their generous contribution in lectures and advice helping developing the work of the unit.