Review: Summer Exhibition reveals the beauty of making

‘There’s so much stuff. It’s kind of insane,’ said Assemble’s Maria Lisogorskaya of the task facing the practice as curator of the architecture section at this year’s Royal Academy’s annual Summer Exhibition.

If anyone can bring a fresh perspective to this eternally daunting challenge, it’s the pioneering collective Assemble, who became Royal Academicians two years ago. And they don’t disappoint, bringing their interest in making, interdisciplinarity and collective endeavour to the fore, along with a fair sprinkling of quirkiness – look out for a mould of a toilet bowl, a pair of earrings, and a bird-shaped coffin. Entitled African Phoenix – Coffin for Qm Nana Yaa Asantewaa, the last, a colourful model, was submitted by another of the newer academicians, Elsie Owusu.

The first plus is that this year’s selection is spread across not one but two rooms, including the soaring Wohl Central Hall, making it a noticeably less cramped viewing experience. The second is Assemble’s interpretation of the show’s making space theme which they inverted, very much in the spirit of the practice, to spaces for making, with one room conceived as an industrial workplace and the other a studio. This approach allowed Assemble to celebrate all the ‘messy’ parts of architecture through the inclusion of prototypes, samples, working models and workshop artefacts.

This staging has been successful, with warehouse style racking and a smattering of heavy tools introducing something of a nuts-and-bolts vibe in the industrial room. The Wohl studio room has a different character, less densely packed and enhanced by a centrepiece of four tall hangings that draw attention to the height of the space. Created separately by two invited artists, these curtains are made from non-petrochemical polymers (Jessie French) and vintage Japanese kozo paper, husks and grass (Shanelle Ueyama), chiming with Assemble’s strong interest in material exploration. A variety of workbenches, tables and trolleys are incorporated in the display.

There is a clear re-use ethos, retaining the wall colour from a previous show and appropriating leftover paint from other galleries for the colour swatch-style daubings on the studio space gallery wall. As well as reusable warehouse racking in the industrial space, studio room display fittings include plinths made from waste materials by Local Works Studio.

With its vast and varied exhibits, the architecture room is always a tricky task to tackle, especially if the Academicians themselves don’t address the theme (as can happen) but their work still has to be accommodated. However Lisogorskaya says that most did take the theme on board this year and while there are some exceptions, the emphasis on process is tangible.

Chipperfield has clearly answered the theme, displaying design process samples of the sculptural ceiling from the London School of Economics Firoz Lalji Institute for Africa project, on a trolley. So too did Spencer de Grey, with a sequence of exhibits showing the design development process from concept to prototype.

Norman Foster’s submission is the Essential Homes Community project, conceived as single-storey housing for displaced people, and illustrated by concept, model and construction sequence.

Material experimentation is prominent. Hassell is exhibiting a model of a habitat radiation protection dome for the European Space Agency’s Lunar masterplan. The working prototype is a shell structure made from 3D printed interlocking sand components. On the moon, the components would be manufactured using in situ lunar soil.

There are plenty of other intriguing materials on show, including algae plaster (BC Architects) and rammed earth stools made from London clay (Lyson Marchessault). The latter also contributed, with Victoria Hayward, a charming low-carbon home for London bees made from coppiced chestnut, corrugated hemp fibre and willow wattle daubed with London clay. Artefact’s maquette submission Brick from a Stone is part of a project with stone suppliers Albion Stone and Hutton Stone to explore the creation of stone bricks using limestone and sandstone with superficial inconsistencies.

Architects don’t get the space all to themselves. Webb Yates Engineers, in collaboration with The Stonemasonry Company, is exhibiting Stone Space Frame, a 4.5m tall installation created from slender struts of 40mm post-tensioned stone with 10mm steel bars. Another engineering consultancy, Structure Workshop, contributed a drawing, model and cast bronze vertebra of the Diplodocus Carnegii for the Natural History Museum. The latter was invited to submit by Assemble, as was art collective Cooking Sections, who displayed tiles made of waste seashells from restaurants in the islands of Skye and Raasay, Scotland.

Lisogorskaya said Assemble was keen to have some fun with the making theme and they clearly have. There’s room for a woven rush display shelf by Felicity Irons, who also exhibits a pair of rush shoes with holly and oak heels.  The design and manufacturing process that goes into a vinyl record and its sleeve are displayed in Duval Timothy’s submission, exhibited on a trestle table. A roll of handblock-printed wallcovering by Victoria Browne runs down the studio wall, shown in tandem with the printing block that was used to create it displayed alongside.

The smallest exhibit is a pair of handcrafted ceramic earrings by designer Mame Kurogouchi. As for the toilet bowl mould, that’s there to show the making process behind such an everyday object.

Collective, collaborative endeavours are also celebrated. A few works by Assemble themselves are included as well as work by Granby Workshop, a Liverpool-based manufacturer of architectural ceramics co-founded by Assemble. There are also exhibits by Hackney Mosaic Project, a community group that brings people together to create mosaics.

The less crammed presentation definitely suits the architecture component of the exhibition, especially when combined with a strong, creatively curated theme. It will be interesting to see if this two-room approach continues in future years and becomes the norm.

Royal Academy Summer Exhibition 2024, 18 June until 18 August 2024, Piccadilly, London W1J 0BD