These pages document a project undertaken at the AA during the last year 2000-2001 - the photographic depiction of four public spaces in London: the Whitechapel Art Gallery, Riverside Studios, the Almeida Theatre, and the Lux Cinema Bar. Following on from the premise outlined in the initial unit statement, the photographs were intended to document these spaces in terms of their everyday occupation as public spaces. At the Riverside and at the Almeida the focus of description was the foyer space. At the Whitechapel some students chose to work within the main galleries, others documented the entrance hall. The single image of the Lux Bar describes this space and it's relationship to the street beyond. 

At the outset of the project we discussed together the work of the German photographer Thomas Struth, in particular one image published in the book  "Strangers and Friends" (Stanze di Raffaello II Rome 1990. p16). This image shows a crowd of visitors in the main Salon of the Stanze. A few faces are discernable but the general sense is of a large mass of people, structured according to particular family groups or groups of friends. We were drawn to Richard Sennett's writing which accompanies the images. In his essay "Recovery" he talks about the nature of urbanity with reference to the public, human relationships which are described in Struth's work. Quotations from Sennett's essay are included on the following pages.

Each student was asked as a conclusion of this study, to produce a single, large format image. These were exhibited on the main staircase at the Architectural Association in November of 2000. Links on this and following pages lead to full screen versions of each image.