REFORMATTING AARCHITECTURE

11 June 2018 Architectural Association, London Most of the AA community are likely to be already aware of this little magazine, not to mention all of the past students who have been part of its creation. But for those who aren’t, AArchitecture is published every term at the AA School, three times per academic year. It is a completely free publication, by students for students and publishes authors inside and outside of the AA School. The student editorial team work with the Print Studio at the AA and in this sense, it’s quite incredible that this publication completely relies on academic transference between contributors and student-editors, between student-editors and graphic designers and between inside and outside of the school; ultimately providing an open and decentralised platform for publishing, both written and visual, for everyone. AArchitecture started in 2007, making it about 11 years old. During this time, the magazine has capacitated several formats and Issue 33 called for a revision of such formats, whereby the physical composition of the magazine was reconsidered, just as much as its graphic edge. The publication started as a similar size to the latest format and then moved towards a ‘pocket-sized’ format between issues 26-32, as well as transferring from glossy coated paper to a much more every-day newsprint. The new format binds both of these, in such a way that returning to the original size brought a certain freedom to articles. What was perhaps even more gratifying to discuss with Boris Meister, Jan Blessing (graphic designers at the Print Studio at the time) and Sarah Handelman, was the ways in which we might restructure the magazine typographically. The inside is much more flexible, the format tends to glitch and reinvent itself from one article to the next, never taking itself too seriously and never compromising the article received. In a similar vein and so that no page is wasted, the cover is totally navigational. The front cover hosts the start of the editorial and the back cover is the table of contents, so that you’re really already reading before you’ve picked it up. The real premise of its reformatting was to loosen up what was already an apparatus for the huge variety of submissions AArchitecture receives, without losing its fidelity of being a small but ultimately powerful publication. Submit for issue 35 on ‘Compromise’ by sending your articles and ideas to aarchitecture@aaschool.ac.uk by Sunday 1 July 2018 For more information: AArchitecture Online