The Foundation Programme is a one-year full-time course that focuses on observation, conversation and the development of key skills. This course is aimed at students who are at the very start of their architectural studies, and facilitates individual and group project work.
The Intermediate Programme (BA(Hons)) is a three-year full-time programme. The First Year is characterised by its shared, open studio, where students work individually and together across a series of projects. Years two and three introduce students to the unit system, in which small design studios (12–14 students) operate a vertical structure of Second and Third Year students.
The Diploma Programme (MArch) is a two-year full-time programme that accepts students who have completed the Intermediate Programme at the AA, as well as eligible new students who have studied elsewhere. The programme leads to the AA Final Examination (ARB/RIBA Part 2) and is structured around a unit system, in which small design studios (12–14 students) operate a vertical structure of Fourth and Fifth Year students.
The AA offers ten Taught Postgraduate Programmes for students with prior academic and professional experience. Most of the programmes are full-time courses of advanced study, except for Conservation and Reuse, which provides a part-time study option.
Professional Practice is a RIBA Part 3 course and examination that allows successful candidates to register as architects with the Architects Registration Board (ARB). The course is open to AA RIBA Part 2 graduates and eligible non-graduates.
The Visiting School encompasses diverse learning programmes, workshops and site-based agendas shaped by participants working intensively in small groups over varying periods of time from one to two weeks. Central to each programme is the idea that experimental, new and provocative forms of architecture are best learned by doing.
The AA Foundation Programme is a year-long introductory course designed to immerse students in the core principles, methods, and culture of the Architectural Association. Rather than focusing on traditional architectural training, the programme encourages experimentation, curiosity and the development of an individual creative voice. Students explore a wide range of media including drawing, model-making, photography, writing, and digital tools to build a strong foundation in spatial thinking and visual communication.
‘The old story is a story of measurement. And the New Story is to bring measurement and meaning together. You cannot measure meaning.’
– Satish Kumar
Term 1 of the Foundation Programme focuses on observation, conversation and developing key skills. We will begin by developing portraits of ‘mother Earth’, our hometown and ourselves, and will discuss our agency and responsibilities in relation to our local community in response to the climate crisis, preparing us for full engagement with the AA’s school-wide conversations during Climate Matters Week. This exercise will allow us to examine the nuance between context and content.
We will visit sites in London and Rome to examine and survey urban conditions, which will inform drawings and models as well as photographic essays and cartographic exercises that capture these sites’ formal, material and atmospheric qualities. In parallel with studio practice, students will begin to collect contextual references and apply critical thinking to their own self-initiated research. Tutorials and workshops will introduce techniques and encourage translations from observation to material interpretation, and we will discuss our work through regular individual tutorials, group presentations and juries.
Term 2 focuses on work that clarifies students’ own individual areas of interest. Each student will develop a short experimental film, followed by an examination of the corporeal body and a series of small architectural proposals in response to that study. These projects will evolve through processes of survey, ‘thinking through making’ and experimentation.
In Term 3, students will work together as a group to build a structure at 1:1 scale, and will each compile and design a final portfolio of work created during the academic year for assessment. The design and build of the Foundation Projects Review exhibition design-and-build marks the end of Term 3 and the academic year.