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.
Housing and Urbanism (HU) focuses on the key contemporary issues that drive urban transformation, and the role of architecture in promoting and supporting critical change. The programme addresses the lived city and the central role of residential life in the urban process. We treat housing as the cornerstone of urban vitality, and consider its design as central to the modification of wider and more complex urban systems. Design learning and investigation form the core of our programme, with the broader aim of deepening students’ grasp of the politics of the city. We integrate the study of form and process in all our work and across a range of scales, from detailed plans of contemporary housing to the mobility infrastructure of the regional metropolis. Our aim is to nurture graduates with strong design leadership skills and critical judgement.
The programme offers 12-month MA or 16-month MArch options, and its curriculum focuses on design-led research that develops into individual theses. The central element of the coursework is driven by a collaborative Design Workshop running across three terms, supported by lectures and seminars which inform students’ design work and broaden their scholarly understanding of urban trends and histories. The final term is devoted entirely to the development and completion of students’ individual design thesis.
Each year, HU focuses on a set of research themes which organise the programme’s workshops and international collaborations. In 2025–26, we investigate the foundations of urban resilience and complexity, and research how design excellence supports decision-making involving both government and private actors across multiple sectors. Student work examines opportunities for leadership, responsibility and innovation within the current urban situation and demonstrates how architecture encourages ambitious action by decision-makers and civic leaders.