“We’re in pursuit of architecture. We discuss it boldly, we draw it as well as we can and we 
exhibit it.” 
—Alvin Boyarsky [1]
 
This exhibition—held in partnership with The Cooper Union Library—presents the first seven of fourteen AA Folios, a publication series produced by the Architectural Association in London from 1983 to 1991. Under the leadership of Alvin Boyarsky, who served as the school’s Chairman from 1971–1990, the AA produced an astonishing array of exhibitions and publications reflecting its experimental approach to architecture and design pedagogy. More than three decades after its final issue, the Folio series remains among the best known and most influential of the school’s projects, providing a platform for the work of now-iconic figures including Peter Cook, Peter Eisenman, Zaha Hadid, Daniel Libeskind, Bernard Tschumi, and Eduardo Paolozzi. 
 
Each of the fourteen issues coincided with an AA exhibition devoted to the work of a single designer or office and was formatted as a 12” x 12” boxed set of plates with a catalog of contextualizing essays and interviews. In the first issue—Chamber Works by Libeskind—Boyarsky describes the project and its purpose:
 
   Individual Folios are exquisitely reproduced on a generous scale, elegantly boxed and 
   accompanied by explanatory and critical texts to make it convenient for connoisseurs and
   scholars to peruse the sketches and drawings of a number of gifted draughtsmen whose work is
   not readily available, to mount them for private display and to store them safely and practically. 
   In this way, the experience of the exhibitions and the qualities of the drawings will be made 
   universally available and a further link will be established between theory and practice. [2]
 
Through his meticulous attention to format, scale, and reproduction quality, Boyarsky deftly positioned the series at the intersection of exhibitions and publications, rendering the work—and by extension, the AA’s program—broadly accessible. Igor Marjanovic, curator of Drawing Ambience: Alvin Boyarsky and the Architectural Association, an exhibition that traveled to The Cooper Union in 2015, notes:
 
   The AA Folios were circulated around the world, further promoting the AA’s global presence
   while at the same time transforming exhibition contents into peripatetic commodities of 
   intellectual and creative exchange. As the AA’s exhibition program engaged an increasing 
   number of contemporary architects through ambitious exhibitions and catalogs, it grew into one
   of the global power brokers of experimental work, contributing also to the growing 
   commodification of architectural drawing. [3]
 
Though the Folios were widely distributed, their print runs were limited and nearly all are now coveted and hard to find. The Cooper Union Library, however, has a complete set, which it has generously loaned to the School for this exhibition. The first seven shown here are presented chronologically, in their entirety, providing a rare opportunity to peruse them individually, plate by plate, and collectively, across Folios. The remaining seven will be shown in a second exhibition in the spring of 2025. 
 
As the School of Architecture explores a new publication project through an elective seminar this fall, the Folios exemplify the role such publications can play in shaping experimental design practices and pedagogy.

[1]  Buchanan, Peter and Colin Davis, “Ambience and Alchemy: Alvin Boyarsky Interviewed,”
       Architectural Review 174 (October 1983): 28.
[2]  Boyarsky, Alvin. “Foreword.” In Chamber Works: Architectural Meditations on Themes from
       Heraclitus, AA Folios Vol. I (London: Architectural Association, 1983).
[3]  Marjanović, Igor, and Jan Howard. Drawing Ambience: Alvin Boyarsky and the Architectural
       Association (St. Louis: Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum, 2014), 41.

Held in the Foundation Building's Third Floor Hallway Gallery. 

Open to the general public:
Tuesday–Friday, 12pm – 7pm
Saturday & Sunday, 12pm – 6pm

This exhibition is made possible by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature.