The Last Summer Before Something Happens

Degree shows contain a heady mix.  A years work, distilled. Proud parents quietly despairing. Tutors with ambitions leaking all over the place. Long queues for the bar (the RCA needs to do some speculative research into the logistics of serving drinks).

I visited shows at CSM, the Cass, the AA and the RCA. The work shown was in general intimidatingly good. The trends from the past few years are still in evidence – some half baked speculation, some brilliant ideas, some painful earnestness, some dizzying drawings and a kind of domesticated pop-aesthetic, part of the post-FAT lineage. It also seems that architecture schools are managing to contain an ever divergent range of approaches. Two units that contained some really intelligent work: Home Economics (run by James Assemble and Paloma Assemble) and Forever, for Everyone (run by Johnny Pugh and Geoff Shearcroft of AOC).

This summer feels something like the last summer before something happens, for all of us. Wondering around a densely humid student show thinking about the future only amplified that feeling.