RSA New Contemporaries 2024: Architecture

The exhibition contains two years of selected architectural graduates to catch up with the postponed exhibitions of graduates from 2022 and 2023,  (the same as the artists’ exhibition). While this has meant we may have less space to show the work than previous years, the advantage is that there should be more to show. 

As is always the case, unlike artists, architects are not able to show the eventual finished article of their work in an exhibition, and they have to rely on two dimensional images or scale models so that the visual impact of what would have been felt with the actual building is reduced. In the case of these Architect New Contemporaries, the finished article doesn’t even exist, so what we see is several removes from reality: this can be an advantage, in that the work may be freed from certain practical considerations. Some have flown with this opportunity, and exhibited imaginative and visionary projects, while others have been more restrained, and offered simple but beautiful schemes that could easily be built. There is a case for both approaches. 

Extract from Convenors' Essay, Robin Webster RSA and Ben Addy RSA