Architectural Association - School of Architecture

The AA is a school like no other. It provides its students with a dizzying breadth of choice and opportunity. This variety and difference lend the AA its energy and extraordinary resilience, enhanced by a vibrant Public Programme of free-to-access lectures, exhibitions, studio visits, symposia and book launches, and disseminated by the Communications Studio, a media, publishing and graphic design studio.

The school offers a Foundation Award, a BA(Hons)/RIBA Part 1 and MArch/RIBA Part 2 (and AA Diploma) in architecture within the Intermediate and Diploma Programmes, the AA Transfer graduate access programme and nine Taught Postgraduate programmes, as well as a PhD Programme, a RIBA-accredited Part 3 course, a Summer School and dozens of short Visiting School courses based around the world.

The AA provides a platform for new voices to be heard and new approaches to be tested. Located at 36 Bedford Square in central London, the school sits at the heart of one of the world’s most cosmopolitan cities, offering a space for experimentation by students and staff alike. The AA also has a woodland campus in Hooke Park, Dorset. Both these locations are places to try almost anything. We make space for collective action and welcome creative outliers, understanding that bigger and more urgent questions emerge from ongoing debate. The conversations that start here resonate worldwide through our community, carried forward to the many international locations that our students and staff call home.

BEDFORD SQUARE, LONDON

Bedford Square, the last fully intact Georgian Square in London, has served as the home of the Architectural Association since 1917. The AA now inhabits all of the buildings from 32 to 39, with number 36 serving as the main public entrance.

 A network of converted corridors, stairwells, rooms and courtyards form the spaces which serve a diverse range of discourse and development within the AA. From studio spaces to the iconic bar and terrace, and countless technical facilities the once domestic Georgian terrace houses have transformed over generations. Today the AA’s home facilitates the highest level of cutting-edge architectural education with an impact that reaches across the world far beyond Bedford Square.

HOOKE PARK, DORSET

Hooke Park is an educational space that combines forest, studio, workshop and building site comprised of a range of workshops and assembly spaces in addition to experimental fabrication equipment and student accommodation. It is home to the Design and Make MSc/MArch programme and hosts short workshops for students from across the AA. Projects undertaken here are supported by a diverse team of craftspeople, designers, engineers, robotic technicians and foresters. 

The site is a designated Ancient Woodland and forms a part of the Dorset Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. In the 1980s, the Parnham Trust and John Makepeace with ABK, Frei Otto, Edward Cullinan and Buro Happold designed and constructed the first buildings that remain key elements of Hooke Park today. After being acquired by the AA in 2002, the campus has since expanded and operates at the intersection of traditional craft, technological innovation and material research, continuing a 30-year history of experimental timber construction at the site. The woodland inside the park continues to serve as the primary source of timber for student-led projects on the site.

Our ten-building campus of 68,000 square feet offers students and staff an intellectual and academic home in Bedford Square, central London. Located in the heart of Bloomsbury, the AA’s main site inhabits buildings 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38 and 39 Bedford Square and 16 Morwell Street (located behind the square), as well as 1 and 1a Montague Street. These Georgian homes have been transformed into a hub of architectural activity. Today, our Lecture Hall, Library and Gallery sit among robotic arms, digital prototyping equipment, extensive research archives, audio-visual facilities, workshops, studio spaces and the AA bar, all of which connect with the workshop, fabrication areas and accommodation at our Hooke Park site in Dorset. These resources are constantly evolving to reflect the requirements of the highest quality of contemporary architectural education, and the constant interaction between these varied components of the school embodies the intimate and interdisciplinary atmosphere that permeates all of the activities of the AA. 

Bedford Square Facilities

• AA Library
• AA Archives
• Lecture Hall
• North and South Jury Rooms
• AA Gallery
• Bar, Restaurant, Terrace and Front Members' Room
• AA Bookshop
• Digital Prototyping Laboratory
• Model Workshop
• Wood and Metal Workshops
• IT Labs and Computer Rooms
• Audiovisual Department
• Writing Centre
• AA Wellbeing
• Print Centre
• Digital Photo Studio
• AA Material Arcade student reuse hub

Hooke Park Facilities

• Fabrication workshop
• Assembly workshop
• Robotic fabrication facility
• Wood processing yard
• Darkroom
• Kiln
• Accommodation lodges

Students at the AA come from all over the world, with 79 nationalities represented in 2024–25. That academic year, we welcomed 877 total students to the AA, of which 65% were international students, 28% were from the EU/EEA, and 7% were from the UK. 

Students in the Intermediate and Diploma Programmes study in small design units, each comprising 12 students and 1–3 unit tutors. These tutors form part of a total faculty of 328 academic staff across all our programmes (2024–25). 

Many AA alumni have gone on to be influential figures not just in the field of architecture, but also in art, fashion, filmmaking, graphic design, photography and the sciences, including Pritzker Prize winners Dame Zaha Hadid, Rem Koolhaas and Richard Rogers; Stirling Prize winners Will Alsop and David Chipperfield; and Neave Brown, recipient of the RIBA Royal Gold Medal.

Other notable graduates include Ron Arad, Ben van Berkel, Susanne Bier, Elizabeth Chesterton, Nigel Coates, Sir Peter Cook, Edward Cullinan, Minnette de Silva, Carmen Dillon, Jane Drew, Mark Fisher, Kenneth Frampton, Ruth Gollancz, Steven Holl, Michael Hopkins, Patty Hopkins, Dorothy Hughes, Denys Lasdun, Judith Ledeboer, Amanda Levete, Edna Mosley, Neri Oxman, Janet Street-Porter, Cedric Price, Winifred Ryle, Elisabeth Scott, Denise Scott Brown, Jaqueline Trywhitt and Michael Ventris, among many others.

Our alumni are ambassadors and advocates for the school. They are vital members of the AA community who raise the global profile of the Association and contribute to its reputation through their achievements as some of the world’s most renowned architects, designers, architectural thinkers and educators. Our evolving alumni programme fosters an engaged and active international community which extends the school’s network and supports young professionals who attended the AA.

The AA provides a large number of scholarships and bursaries to students who demonstrate exceptional promise and financial need. They range from two-term to half a term of support in tuition fees per academic year, dependent on the candidate’s financial need and the strength of their overall application.

To apply for an AA scholarship or bursary, applicants must meet the Early Application deadline for their programme of choice. Please visit our How to Apply page for details on this year’s early application deadline.

Foundation Programme Students applying to the Foundation Programme may apply for a Bursary to support one academic year only. Intermediate Programme New students in the first year of the Intermediate Programme may apply for a Scholarship to support three academic years of study. New students joining the Intermediate Programme in second year may apply for a Scholarship to support two academic years of study. Applicants to the first year of the Intermediate Programme may be eligible to apply for an Albukhary Foundation Scholarship, established to recognise the most academically talented students in need of financial support from one of the United Nation’s list of Least Developed Countries, as well as Ghana, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Kyrgyzstan, Malaysia, Palestine, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Zimbabwe. The scholarship includes full tuition fees, accommodation, living expenses, and travel to and from the applicant’s home country. Transfer Programme New students starting the Transfer Programme may apply for a Bursary to support one academic year only. Diploma Programme New students starting the Diploma Programme may apply for a Scholarship to support two academic years of study. Taught Postgraduate Programmes Taught Postgraduate students may apply for a Bursary to support the duration of their studies in their programme. PhD Programme Bursaries for PhD students are awarded for one academic year only. PhD students have the opportunity to apply for further funding in their following years of study. In addition, there are teaching opportunities available from second year onwards.

We encourage applications from prospective students who can demonstrate initiative in entering the public forms of presentation, collective discussion and productive debate that permeate the AA, the architectural community and the world at large. We are keen to hear from independent, motivated and respectful individuals with the curiosity and ambition required to define their own unique path through a school that fosters a multitude of educational methods and agendas. 

The AA is a Higher Education Institution (HEI) and is the oldest independent school of architecture in the UK. As an Approved Provider registered with the Office for Students (OfS), England’s independent regulator of higher education, the AA is a designated recognised body with the authority to grant its own taught degrees (Foundation, Bachelor and Master level), and is a licenced Student Sponsor registered with UK Visas and Immigration (UKVI). The AA is not a member of UCAS and all applications are made directly to the school. 

The application procedure is the same for UK and international prospective students. If you would like to apply, please read the information on our website about the AA’s Academic Programmes and visit the admissions pages listed opposite for up-to-date entry requirements and application deadlines. There is one point of entry each year, in September, for all our full-time programmes.