Architectural Association School of Architecture

The Architectural Association (AA), the oldest independent school of architecture in the UK, was founded in 1847 with the aspiration of ‘promoting and affording facilities for the study of architecture for the public benefit’. Today the school offers opportunities to study with a full scholarship and to obtain BA(Hons) and MArch degrees. For 172 years, the AA has been committed to producing and disseminating ideas that challenge and advance the design of contemporary culture, cities and the environment, constantly and fearlessly looking into the future.

The flexible, self-directed curricula on offer at the school, combined with the independence and truly global nature of the institution, afford the Architectural Association (AA) a rare degree of awareness in acknowledging and confronting the social, technological and cultural challenges of today. Comprised of approximately 800 full-time students, over 7000 members, 250 tutors and 100 administrative staff from all over the world, the association and its membership share eight Georgian houses in the centre of London, as well as a 350-acre woodland site at Hooke Park, in Dorset. 

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The AA was first established by a collective of young architects who set out to challenge the structure of architectural education. As a self-initiated project, the aim was to create a place of debate and a new framework for learning. The spirit of that early idea has underpinned developments at the AA for the past two centuries and enabled it to become a community and culture, as well as an internationally renowned educational institution.

But what is the AA is now? Fundamentally, it remains a place for debate – generated between the divergent approaches and agendas of the units and programmes at every level of the School, and through the provocations of diverse voices contributed through the lectures, exhibitions and events of the Public Programme and within the AA's publications and editorial projects. This multifaceted web is supported by a collaborative network of tutors and staff who provide students with the agility to navigate all that is on offer, and the self-assurance to form their own positions within it.

Opportunity for discussion is central to life at the AA. The Lecture Hall, AA Bar and Terrace at Bedford Square have long been a hub for both students and the wider architectural community. This perpetual public forum is a vibrant testing ground for ideas and evolving projects. At the AA we don’t just teach, we prepare students to speak up, and for their voices to be instrumental in shaping the future of our profession.

The confidence we encourage in our students is a product of the AA’s unique democratic structure. Students, staff and members all have a voice and a vote in shaping the AA’s direction. It is a school that is run for and by its community. In the complex world we currently inhabit there has never been a more important time to use this voice and to have the capacity to take a stand and to act, both in the place where we work and learn, in the world that we help to shape outside Bedford Square and Hooke Park. We look forward to the year ahead, to a year of change, and in the spirit of our founders, an ongoing period of proactive challenge to the structures and systems that shape our profession and education.

Ingrid Schroder
AA Director