The First Year Studio is an open environment within the heart of the AA where students can learn to explore and debate notions of architecture through a series of design projects and workshops. A constantly shifting organisation of tutors, students and projects exposes students to a wide range of views and approaches.

A series of projects in the first term immersed students in diverse architectural ideas. The morning after a short introductory project, Sink and Swim, the entire studio boarded the Princess Pocahontas and sailed from Embankment Pier to the mouth of the Thames, where we stayed at All-Hallows-on-Sea holiday park to develop site-specific installations. 

In the next project students were asked to form groups to explore notions of scale – 1:10, 1:100 or 1:1000 – via an oil transfer pump, an inflatable crow and a water pistol. Halfway through, they joined students from the Intermediate School in a week-long workshop to develop aspects of their projects through digital fabrication methods of CNC and laser-cutting. 

In the Wash-n-Draw project, each student was asked to investigate their washing machine through a series of measured drawings. The point was to find methods for accurately measuring and drawing both physical and ephemeral information about the machine.

The second term began with the challenge of making two-minute videos about invisible lines on the Woolwich Ferry, Greenwich Meridian or the Boat Race finishing line. These lines also marked the site boundaries for the longer design project for the year: the Thames Hotel. The studio divided into three groups, each using a different starting point for the design: lobby, corridor or room. Though they began from different places, they all shared a common goal: to develop a hotel with 100 rooms on/in/in sight of the Thames.

In the final term the studio asked students to examine a specific aspect of their hotel through different means/topics including: carpet, collective drawings, facades, robotics and openings.

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