The International Institute of Design

Radical Pedagogy

Alvin Boyarsky started the International Institute of Design in 1970. After stints teaching at Bartlett, the Architectural Association and the University of Illinois in the 1960s and then travelling around Europe, Boyarsky had lamented what he described as the “universal syndrome of statistically based, isolated, bored and often intellectually under-nourished” teaching of architecture schools at the time. He saw students waiting for news of innovation and new thinking from the outside architectural world.

He knew that there was valuable experimental and critical architectural work being done, such as by Superstudio and the Italian “radicals” that lacked an efficient mode of dispersal throughout the academic world. While architectural journals had begun to feature this kind of work, Boyarsky believed that face to face communication of the ideas would be far more effective.

In response, he established the International Institute of Design, a six-week architectural summer school for students, educators and architects. The first session was held in London in 1970 with contributors including Archigram, Aldo van Eyck, Rem Koolhaas and Bernard Tschumi. Pitched as an architectural ‘marketplace,’ prominent architectural figures of the time presented workshops, seminars and lectures to attendees. Boyarsky had become a figure of connection between practising architects and the avant-garde in London, so was well placed to bring these groups together. He wanted a place for experimental or abstract architectural ideas that had no place in traditional schools to be shared and developed. Rather than viewing the IID as a London school, it was envisioned as an international academic community.

Three sessions ran each summer from 1970 to 1972. Peter Cook noted the value in reinforcing relationships and communication between international architects. At the second session, the co-founder of Superstudio, Adolfo Natalini, organised a lecture series entitled “An Italian Generation” to share with England “a critical notion of design as a natural philosophy of environment”. This evolved into a “Made in Italy Workshop” in 1972 where attendees viewed projects such as the Continuous Monument and Interplanetary Architecture.

Some participants, such as Arato Isozaki and Rem Koolhaas, took up some elements of Superstudio’s theories, and the work of the Italian Radicals appeared as an experimental ideology at the Architectural Association.

Boyarsky’s experience with the IID heavily influenced his changes to the AA when he began as chairman in 1971, creating a “well-laid table of individualised units lead by a specialised tutor, continuing the exchange of ideas he started at the IID.

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