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 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. These programmes take place all over the world, including Bedford Square in London and Hooke Park in Dorset. The Visiting School welcomes applicants in any moment of their studies and careers, from within and outside of the architectural realm. The AA Summer School Programme, also part of the Visiting School, is equally open and takes place for three weeks during the summer period.
DTA Students’ education and architectural practices post AA
Join one of our Visiting School short courses happening around the world.

Applications for this programme will open soon.
The programme is open to current architecture and design students, PhD candidates and professionals of all ages.
Software requirements Adobe Creative Suite, Rhino (SR7 or later), Ladybug.
Andry Widyowijatnoko
Andry is an architect, lecturer and researcher at the Building Technology Research Group, School of Architecture, Planning and Policy Development, Institut Teknologi Bandung, Indonesia. He started working with bamboo in 1999, developing plastered bamboo construction for low-cost housing. One of his achievements in design is the award-winning Great Hall OBI, an oval building with a span of 20m to 30m made entirely of bamboo. He gained his doctoral degree from the Chair of Structures and Structural Design, Faculty of Architecture, RWTH Aachen, Germany in 2012, with the dissertation ‘Traditional and Innovative Joints in Bamboo Construction’. He is now focusing on the advanced application of bamboo such as in tensegrity structures, reciprocal frames, tensile structures and space structures with new design approaches such as parametric design.
John Naylor
John Naylor is a UK based architect and researcher. He gained his AA Diploma at the Architectural Association in 2013, winning the Fosters Prize for Sustainable Infrastructure. He has worked at MAD, Beijing and Singapore University of Technology and Design on complex projects in the UK, Singapore, Malaysia, China and Haiti, and most recently the Eden Project in Qingdao. In 2014 he set up the AA’s bamboo Visiting School programme in Haiti, which he now co-leads as the AA-ITB BambooLab with Andry Widyowijatnoko. He is currently studying a PhD in Engineering at Newcastle University which applies algorithmic design tools in a design approach to full-culm bamboo in architecture, with a continued focus on Haiti, and in 2022 he was named one of the RIBA Rising Stars.