The Architectural Association must reinvent itself following the dismissal of its director Eva Franch i Gilabert or risk becoming irrelevant in the modern world, writes Owen Hopkins.

Most famous architects have been here (sooner or later) ? notes a blue plaque created to hang outside the Architectural Association's home at 36 Bedford Square in central London. It's no exaggeration. The roster of stars who have passed through the school's ranks as students ? with many also teaching there ? is extraordinary. For over 150 years, the AA has been at the forefront of architectural education and culture with an influence that far exceeds its historically diminutive size.
Now all of that is in question with the firing last week of director Eva Franch i Gilabert, after she lost a vote of no confidence following the school's overwhelming rejection of her strategic plan. Franch got the job less than two years ago, elected by the school's students and staff ? in a process either refreshingly democratic or naively unprofessional, depending on your perspective ? with the somewhat hyperbolic mandate to make the school "better at explaining the power of architecture in addressing, unveiling, and sometimes even resolving some of the most pressing issues that society faces". Things had recently been looking up for the school. Its well-publicised financial troubles appeared to be a thing of the past, while in the autumn it gained the power to award its own degrees for the first time...