Rod Heyes will be leading the Architectural Association's new Conservation and Reuse Diploma Studio alongside Amendine Kastler of Oslo-based Kastler Skjeseth Architects.
The new Conservation and Reuse programme (MA/PG Dip) approaches working with existing things from the perspective of climate change, driven by an urgent need to cultivate the careful use and reuse of materials and spaces – from the cathedral to the car park. This is central to a set of school-wide strategies at the AA that ask how innovation in materials and fabrication can address problems of relative value, resource conservation and cultural significance.
The programme’s emphasis reaches beyond buildings to include landscapes, environments and wider material culture, both tangible and intangible. Its curriculum explores historical and theoretical frameworks of conservation, encouraging students to engage with questions of value and heritage from a critical standpoint and grounding their work in awareness of the ‘spheres of implication’ in which objects and buildings are embedded. This enquiry takes place alongside practical investigations into new and established construction techniques for making and remaking, and a focus on developing practical skills. The programme fosters future-orientated practice by considering how regulatory frameworks, commercial attitudes and practical actions could be transformed by a better understanding of the factors that influence what we choose to conserve, and how we do so. Students synthesise theoretical, technical and practical knowledge in a design thesis targeting a situation of their choice, taking responsibility for a rich existing environment and exploring how it could change.
Photo: Düngerbau, Uetikon am See © René Dürr.
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Lecture
What’s next for our existing buildings?
RIBA and VitrA talks
Great Hall at Barts North Wing, St Bartholomew’s Hospital
12th May, 2026
Our director Ben Speltz will give a talk as part of this year's RIBA x Vitra Talks series. He will discuss the practice's approach to working with existing buildings, drawing on a range of projects such as: Hospitalfield Arts, a complex amalgam of medieval buildings in Scotland; Düngerbau, an old chemical factory converted into workspace; and Royal Belge, a sixties office building transformed into a mixed-use program of restaurant, hotel and gym.
Conference
ARCH-E x ACE: Architectural Design Competitions
Keynote by Adam Caruso
The Mix Brussels
23rd April, 2026
The ARCH-E Consortium and the Architects’ Council of Europe (ACE) are organizing a conference on Architectural Design Competitions (ADCs). The program includes a keynote lecture by Adam Caruso at the start of the day, followed by panel discussions with European practitioners and policymakers as well as workshops and presentations on key topics in the field.
Teaching
ETH Zürich Final Review
The Pleasure in Small Things
ETH Zürich, ONA E30, Switzerland
16.12.2025
The Pleasure in Small Things: Final discussions and exhibition
On Tuesday 16th of December, the students from Studio Adam Caruso at ETH Zurich present their final projects to a panel of guest critics including Monster Chetwynd, Pierre Chèvremont, Tuukka Laurila and Nora Walter.
Adam Caruso will present a lecture on Art Spaces at Malmö Konsthall as part of the institution’s 50th anniversary celebrations.
Lecture
Reflections on Architecture:
Architecture in the UK
Faculty of Architecture and Design STU, Bratislava, Slovakia
3rd November 2025
Adam Caruso will give a lecture on the work of the practice at the FAD STU in Bratislava, as part of the Reflections on Architecture series, which this year focuses on the contemporary English architectural scene.
Peter St John will be the keynote speaker at the annual Solemn Opening Ceremony of the Order of Architects in Belgium. He will discuss Caruso St John’s work on transforming existing buildings in Europe.
Peter St John will be the keynote speaker at THFxDenkmalwerkstatt conference on the conservation management of Tempelhof Airport and will present examples of good practice in working with heritage and existing buildings.
In this lecture, Adam Caruso will ask whether architecture has the capacity to attend to wider forms of value, less obvious than financial ones, but with longer and more complex histories. Can an architectural project recall the social histories of a site, can it transform existing material and energy into something surprising and relevant. Can architecture once again provide a bridge between the physical and cultural qualities of contemporary society.
How is the practice and education of architecture changing to meet the challenges of the moment? Peter St John and his teaching partner Amy Grounsell (Flimsy Works, Tonkin Liu) will be speaking about how new and established practices are changing their approaches in response to the climate crisis.
Lecture
All Buildings Are Beautiful
Museum of Contemporary Art in Warsaw
Warsaw, Poland
5th January 2025
Adam Caruso will give a lecture on the practice's recent work with existing buildings, and how the contemporary necessity for architecture to embrace circularity requires that we find new kinds of beauty in the world around us.
As part of the IEA Practice What we Teach? Lecture Series at ETH Zurich, Adam Caruso will discuss Caruso St John's long history of working with existing buildings, from its modestly scaled early work to large-scale recent projects.
In conversation
Florian Zierer
Berlin International University of Applied Sciences
Berlin, Germany
8th October 2024
Florian Zierer will be in conversation at the Berlin University of Applied Sciences on 8th October 2024, introducing the practice's recent projects with existing buildings.