Clay City: Alexander Brodsky Artist in Residence
Jan-Richard Kikkert, Madeleine Maaskant, Jeanne Tan (2019)
This publication presents Clay City, the 2019 Winter School at the Amsterdam Academy of Architecture led by the Russian architect and artist Alexander Brodsky. He was invited as an artist-in-residence as part of the AIR programme of the Amsterdam University of the Arts. Together with Brodsky, 136 first and second-year students worked tirelessly from 14 to 25 January 2019 to collectively build an imaginary city of clay. Temporarily occupying the Academy’s courtyard, it was an impressive sight: a vast, dense cityscape handmade with an incredible wealth of detail. It took us on an architectural tour through history from ancient Rome to future Amsterdam. Then left to the Dutch elements for six weeks, the city started to disintegrate. This edition of the Winter School was not about choosing a winning presentation; instead it centred on the idea of making something that exceeds the individual to achieve an end result to be collectively proud of.