ADS9: Wild

The idea of “nature” is not a neutral, objective category in architecture. It is not a space, nor is it something we encounter directly. It is a perception that has been carefully constructed over time by language and cultural context.

Land is not nature. Land has never been natural. Land is not an empty space. It is not a postcard picturesque state of innocence. This confusion has hindered our ability to relate architecture to the world now. Land is a space of constant transformations. Land is disrupted and denaturalised. Land is loaded and charged with history and generational understanding. There is an empowerment to be rediscovered in this knowledge of land and how it shapes the way we inhabit space.

In 2025/26, ADS9 will investigate land and the possibility of a wild architecture. What does it mean to reject a natural ideal that seeks to return to the land as pure, beautiful, harmonious, and unspoiled? What does it mean to reject conventional perceptions of nature? Can we imagine an architecture without “nature”: a wild architecture?

ADS9 has a deep commitment to creating architecture that is imbued with an urgent beauty. Space is our medium to express, embody, and enable knowledge, ideas, and life. Spatial experimentation is at the forefront of the studio’s methodology.

Our projects begin by searching for forms of land as context. ADS9 asks students to select a scale of land to investigate, whether looking close-up at land and its material composition or expanding out to a territorial scale. Each student will be asked to develop a comprehensive study of land which covers forms of living, (hi)stories, meanings, processes, politics, and economies. This search and research will be compiled into a dossier to understand how these forces are embodied within land and architecture.

In parallel, students will individually experiment with the architectonics of how architecture touches the ground through a series of experimental prototypes that can re-examine the relationship between architecture and land, and, by extension, the relationship between humans and something greater than the sum of us all.

ADS9 experiments with prototypes and large-scale drawings. We use a highly iterative process which critically questions design. The design project will focus on a 5,000m2 building. For Year 1 students, the spatial experimentation will be accompanied by technical investigation. In ADS9, Year 2 students have always pursued deeply personal subjects and obsessions in their work. Year 2 students will develop their own personal critical framework and design methodology to achieve a high level of architectural resolution.

ADS9 studio teaching takes place on Tuesdays. Three to four seminar sessions take place on Thursday each term.

For Live Project, Year 1 students will work with A347, founded by RCA graduates Luke Deering and Joni Lettmann. It will be a multi-day drawing and sculpture workshop in their studio on Beck Road. The Live Project’s intention is to further look into their ongoing study of contextual understandings as collections of abstract impression, rather than singular perception. How can we spatialise a collective experience of space? Individual student’s outputs will be combined into one sculptural object as a singular abstraction of a context.

In 2025/26 ADS9 will travel to Sri Lanka.

John Ng has been an Associate Lecturer at the RCA since 2017. He studied architecture at the University of Bath and the Architectural Association, where he has taught since 2011. He founded ELSEWHERE and practises architecture in London. His work has been shortlisted for, and has won, a number of international competitions.

Michela Falcone is an architect and educator with international experience, having worked with Shigeru Ban and Zaha Hadid Architects. She teaches at the AA and Buckinghamshire University, with research on spatial complexity and contemporary practice. Cofounder of Falcone Cavaliere, her projects have been exhibited internationally, including at the Venice Biennale.

James Kwang-Ho Chung is an Associate Lecturer at the RCA, a Diploma unit master at the AA and a programme head of the AA Visiting School Seoul. He has taught extensively in numerous design studios and has given lectures at various academic institutions in Korea and the UK.