Even the most casual visitor to the AA's club-liked premises at Bedford
Square where the school, the London and International networks make
contact in a series of elegant eighteenth-century public rooms, cannot
but be caught up in the momentum of the daily events which have made the
AA a centre for the public discussion and display of architecture on a
unique and unprecedented scale. Unfortunately, until the advent AA
Files, ' writes AA Chairman Alvin Boyarsky in 1981 in the opening pages
of the first issue of the long-running journal, 'few glimpses have been
available and certainly no documents exist recording aspects of this
all-important phenomenon.' In this student-edited issue AA Files 76
looks back on 37 years of not only glimpsing architecture as it happened
at the AA, but also of writing about architecture and, through the
idiosyncrasies, interests and generosity of its authors and editors,
extending those conversations far beyond Bedford Square. Presented in
facsimile, AA Files X revisits the voices, ideas, drawings and designs
that have filled its pages for nearly four decades.