AA School Writing Prizes 2020/21

Each year, the AA comes together to celebrate excellence in writing across the Experimental and Diploma Programmes. We believe that the written word is a vital tool for all budding architects, and nowhere is this made more apparent than through the presentation and discussion of the exemplary works which are presented annually at the AA Writing Prize and Dennis Sharp Prize juries.

This year, the juries will be held online on Wednesday 5 May, with essays from the Experimental School presented in the morning and essays and thesis submissions from the Diploma School presented in the afternoon. During the event, shortlisted students will each present a five-minute synopsis of their work, which will then be discussed with a panel of critics from across the school. The shortlisted works can be viewed here.

The event invites everyone to join us for what promises to be a day of thought-provoking discussions on architectural writing.

AA Writing Prize, First, Second and Third Year: 10am – 1pm

First Year

Charlotte Birell: Cottage at Watery Lane. Merton Park, London
Izu Campbell-Lange: Observing dialectics through the communal prayer mat of the Umayyad Mosque
Michal Chudner: The Language of the Square: Twice invented Place Vendome
Jaxon Kelly: Breakthrough

Second Year

Satvi Kumar: To London, From Mumbai
Chengxuan Li: Towards an Archival Inter-panopticon: Rereading Metropolis
Qi Zhu: The White, the Deer and the Plain

Third Year

Shanna Sim Ler Chung: Colonisation of the Domestic Space by Technology
Paul Lucian Cristian: The Flagship 2.0
Ferial Massoud: Cartographic Permanence – a time-based reading of the Nile and its representations
Tareq Shakhshir: Home, House, and Land: The Cage House

AA Dennis Sharp Prize, Diploma School: 2pm – 5pm

Diploma

Maite Garcia-Lascurain: A Painted Desert in the City
Neophytos Christou: Dialogues between culture, film, sound and space through ‘The Infinite Mix: Contemporary Sound and Image’ at the Store X
Esther Brizard: The Home as a Machine
Bryan Ho: Closet Door, Underground Carriage, Pride Barricade
Amy Glover: The Failure of the Fens
Karl Herdersch: The Rustic Tradition
Paul Vecsei: Local studio Linz – Politics as “Mood-picture”
Tamir Aharoni: Which Villa Savoy are you Today?
Theo Sykes: Vibrant
Shaha Maria Raphael: Beirut, 4^th of August 2020
Richard Aina: A Culture of Craft: West Africa UNObjectifies
Yixia Xu: The Search for Unrealised Balance: The Convenience Store and a Critique of Everyday Life