– Anne Femmer, Adam Khan and Florian Summa

The following account by Anne Femmer, Adam Khan, and Florian Summa—three of the architects who led the Architecture Foundation 2024 Summer School—offers a reflection of the Summer School, which ran between 11–15 September 2024 at the newly completed St Pancras Campus, a mixed-use development in Central London designed by Caruso St John.

All photographs of the models were taken by the participants at the Summer School.

The great thing about a summer school is that it’s so short. Just a few days for an entire project. No time to hesitate. Better to get started quickly. Straight to the model. Everyone at once. Everyone around the same model. Even though we don’t know each other. Even though we know so little about the site.

We don’t have any idea of what the end result will be. Instead, we agreed on a process. The only rule: we’ll start with all building elements simultaneously—roofs, facades, staircases, floor plans, sections, gutters, drainage, ditches, and so on. It’s the opposite starting point to conventional master planning but has the same goal in mind.

All ideas are built directly into the physical model and quickly sketched on folded cardboard and paper. We don’t do separate drawings or sketches. Everything is centralised and immediate, all in the same place. We draw straight onto the model—how forbidden!

Wobbly lines with a felt-tip pen, sketching freehand a facade between two buildings. The pen hits the facade at a slightly unfavourable angle. It doesn’t matter. Everything that makes it into the model is taken seriously, even if it wasn’t meant to be.

Every hour, we gather and discuss what we have in front of us. We discover our discoveries. We try to describe as little as possible. We speak directly with scissors, cutters, and tape. It helps us stay grounded.

It takes some courage to trim down a neighbouring facade without much reflection. But it’s true: it looks better this way. Authorship is important, but the authors are constantly changing. Just a moment ago, someone left their mark on the stepped volume of the terrace house, and they’re now drawing a facade on the opposite building.

Pieces of tape hold everything together in a fragile balance. Black marker scribbled on the tape shows a certain acceptance of what’s already there. At least for the moment.

Soon, we begin photographing what we like. From above, from street level, and from inside. Our smartphones fit everywhere, unlike our professional full-frame cameras. Never mind the shallow depth of field. We print the photos immediately and take pleasure in having captured our discoveries.

Meanwhile, the large scissors descend once again into the model, slicing off half of the big tower.

This piece will never be finished. Thankfully.

Anne Femmer and Florian Summa are the founding directors of Leipzig-based practice SUMMACUMFEMMER and guest professors at the University of the Arts in Berlin. Adam Khan is the founder of Adam Khan Architects (AKA).

Workshop Participants: Aaron Green, Ajay Gurung, Alexander Whitwell, Alexei Sandmann, Alfie Gee, Alvaro Matias, Amy Bass, Andrew Fifield, Emma Mowat, Caro Halford, Jack Oaten.

There were two other groups with different attendees led by Ahmed Belkhodja (fala), Annalie Riches (Mikhail Riches), Astrid Smitham & Nick Lobo-Brennan (Apparata), Dirk Bovenbouw (Bovenbouw).