2011 - 2012: Year 1

Directors: Frosso Pimenides and Patrick Weber

Tutors: Margaret Bursa, Johan Hybschman, Lucy Leonard, Brian O'Reilly, Nikolas Travasaro, Tim Barwell, Sara Shafiei

The main intention of the first year at the Bartlett is to explore 'ways of seeing' - understanding and interpreting objects/events/places and learning to look beyond the visible into the unseen and 'absurd' qualities of things and places. In this way, a place can also be seen as something with its own identity, which each student can personally interpret. The importance of 'character' and 'personality' is emphasised throughout the design process whether it concerns analysis, site interpretation or architectural vision. A number of recording techniques are used as a way of clarifying the subject rather than as purely graphic representation. Through being aware of the possibilities and limitations of various techniques, each student is learning to express and then develop critically and appropriately, through their own intuition, an idea for an architectural proposition.

In the first year architecture is explored individually through cultivating ideas, exploring imagination and nurturing curiosity. Students explore, describe and communicate their ideas through a range of two- and three- dimensional techniques. The aim is to be serious, passionate and ruthlessly experimental - always pushing the boundaries of possible realities.

Being open and naïve in their working method, students are encouraged to take risks - not being afraid of making mistakes is forming the basis of the approach as they often form the basis of a new idea, a different way to see the world around them. It is the path to new possible architectures.

Students start their year with an initial set of projects centring on each students passage to London and the adjustments made in their personal life during this transitional period. This is followed by a collective group installation set in Sir John Soane's Country House Pitshanger Manor in Ealing. After that students embark on a one-week study trip to a mayor European city, exploring the social and cultural topography. These projects form the basis for each student's personal building project set in London.