After the group parted company in Barcelona, I returned to London for few more days to continue the grand tour on my own. I stayed with an old colleague from Sydney now working in London who was kind enough to secure me an invite to AHMM’s 21st Birthday Party at the Saatchi Gallery in Chelsea (by AHMM). A fun night (with another room full of architects), and I even ran into Ken Allinson (from Day 1). What a small town London is.
I have been asked quite a few times since arriving home what the highlight was and I still don’t have a good answer. Indeed, quite a few highlights spring to mind – experiencing the machinery of Fosters and Rodgers; stumbling upon an Amanda
Levete building in London; hugging a column at the Barcelona Pavilion; climbing amongst the soaring arches of Segrada Familia; and then ending the tour by being invited so warmly into the studios of Miralles Tagliabue, Carme Pinos and Carlos Ferrater. Meeting these people and seeing these works are individually all big moments in an architects’ development, but collectively the experience was immense.
I have come out of the Study Tour re-energised, my passion for architecture reaffirmed and ready to dive back into practice. A big thanks to all the sponsors and the Institute for putting on such a great show, and a special thankyou to the guys from Dulux – Phil White and Jason Anderson, along with Mel Medcalf from the Institute.
This has been a great experience and I would encourage any architect to do what they can to be involved in the next tour.
David Sutherland
June 2010