The Zaha Hadid Foundation joined Drawing Matter’s existing partnerships with Kingston School of Art, University of the West of England and Hauser & Wirth Somerset to sponsor 10 places for its 2023 Architectural Summer School in Somerset, UK. Founded in 2016, the fully-funded programme invites many of the leading thinkers in architecture education today to offer promising A-Level students from a diverse range of backgrounds an unrivaled insight into the architectural profession.
The 2023 course welcomed a cohort of 45 students. The ZHF team were invited to attend on its last day, gaining invaluable insight through student-led tours. Conversations included new aspirations, the challenges and rewards of team building exercises and the process behind their metres-long illustrations of the surrounding towns. In the darkroom, they proudly demonstrated a series of B&W photographs taken in response to architectural photographer Hélène Binet, which many felt particularly inspired by as a new concept.
The students presented their transformative final projects at the Radić Pavilion at Hauser & Wirth Somerset, describing the impact of the mentoring they had received in producing work that seeks to better the future of architecture. Notably, the tight-knit network of peers and professionals created was formidable and the students’ confidence with social skills was evident, with many joining an alumni group to share their prospects of a foreseeable future of meeting again as architecture school students.
Professor Clancy and Niall Hobhouse, the Director of Drawing Matter and a trustee of the Drawing Matter Trust, said: ‘We are very impressed by the vision the Zaha Hadid Foundation has of how it can contribute to the education of young architects. This year their support made it possible for us to offer places at the Architectural Summer School to more students from many different backgrounds. Drawing Matter, Kingston University – and the students themselves – are very grateful’.
To download a press release please click here, and for more information, please contact comms@zhfoundation.com.
