A platform based at the Architectural Association (AA) in London questioning the role of architecture in a growing social and environmental complexity.
Architecture and urban design can no longer ignore the planetary context within which they are imbedded. We believe architecture and its education must accept the very serious responsibility it holds in the symbiotic integration of human industrial societies within ecological systems. This includes not only matters of sustainability, but also of social equity and economic harmony.

We ask: How can we use our collective capabilities to create human systems that embody social and ecological coherence?

These are very serious matters that we think have yet to fully settle into mainstream architectural thought. For that reason, we have decided to launch a community, a platform, with this very purpose. AA Planetary Activists will provide us with the much needed frameworks where matters such as these can be openly explored, discussed and acted upon. The AA, as a self-proclaimed 'progressive' school of architecture, does not address these issues with enough vigour, and thus its students cannot graduate with the knowledge they need to be thoroughly prepared to act upon a very critical stage of our collective evolution. AA Planetary Activists intends to spread social and environmental awareness, and to provide us with the means to act upon this awareness in a meaningful and constructive manner. We intend to be an autonomous body within the AA that is, nevertheless, deeply connected to the AA and its core values.

All AAPA events will be public, but to be a member one must be devoted to acting upon the issues we bring up. Therefore, any work AAPA members produce within the AA should resonate with AAPA principles. This work can then be further explored and evaluated upon by other AAPA members as is done in ordinary AA juries. Through this process AAPA becomes a school within a school.