AA Summer School

AA Summer School AA Summer School Based in London, each of the school’s units creatively uses the city’s surroundings as its focus of research.

WELCOME
The three-week, full time AA Summer Architecture School presents a challenging programme of design studios, field study, seminars and lectures that emphasise the importance of both practice and theory in contemporary architecture. Based on the AA’s unit system, it offers participants a selection of varying design approaches, agendas and techniques, and represents a uniquely intensive and i

ntimate environment that aims to expand formal and intellectual resources. Tutors, lecturers and critics include past and present AA unit masters as well as professionals pooled from disciplines as diverse as fashion, art, graphics, industrial design, urbanism and film. This year will also present a unique opportunity to take part in the first ever summer public programme, titled Format, at the AA which will include lectures by designers, architects, artists, and others. The course is for students considering a career in architecture, new or current architectural students from around the world as well as individuals contemplating a change of careers or interested in exploring architecture and the city. The Summer Architecture School offers an exciting approach to architectural design for anyone interested in exploring architecture as a profession or as an extended field of research. It also offers an opportunity for prospective students who would like to experience the AA environment.

20/03/2026

UNIT 4 – PARADE

URBAN BODIES: MARCHES, CELEBRATIONS, PROTESTS
This unit explores the city as a stage for collective action — marches, celebrations, protests, and urban occupations. Taking London as a living theatre of history, we will reflect on how bodies, rituals and objects temporarily transform public space. We will design together a new parade, a dreamy celebration of shared values and spatial engagement. Through research, design and self-construction, we will build small architectures, devices and props for a collective act and its urban choreography – flags, banners, canopies, floats, torches, masks. This unit learns from the bodies that traversed London throughout history and cross its urban space nowadays, an ever-shifting urban scenario, a contractual space where the city is a stage for celebrations, gatherings, protests, riots, display of belongings and representation.

Tutor: Alessandro Pasero

July 6-24, London Architectural Association AA, 36 Bedford Square.
Images’ references: see previous posts. More info and guests to be announce soon!

14/03/2026

We’re excited to launch MICROCOSM(IC) LONDON — our unit centers on Charles Jencks’ Cosmic House, framing it as a microcosm of signs and symbols through which to read and reflect upon the larger city of London. Through a series of collective exercises with students, we explore how this universe of representations can be expanded—becoming a tool to interpret and communicate a contemporary reading of the city.



Unit 5 - Forms of Commons: Staging Exceptions (WIP)Sharing our of the past three weeks at the summer school. From expl...
17/07/2025

Unit 5 - Forms of Commons: Staging Exceptions (WIP)

Sharing our of the past three weeks at the summer school. From exploring, site-seeing and documenting perceptions to understanding, constructing and staging exceptions.

Special thanks to
Jacopo Valentini for his talk on „Photography and Staging Exceptions“
Lorenzo Gatta for his lecture on „The Column, or How to Rethink the Origins of Architecture“
Our mid-review guests, Nele Bergmans , Unit 2 and

Students
Hanyu Yang
Luis Lang
Pelin Gezer
Emilia Eggers .caroline
Amanda Brundler .brndl
Judi Aldlaigan

Tutors
Chiara Malerba
Margeritha Sorgentone
Costanza Zeni
as
TA Hannah Weisz

Unit 4: Assemblages (PARTY / FINALE)After our party on the terrace last Friday and the .space Lecture during the week we...
16/07/2025

Unit 4: Assemblages (PARTY / FINALE)

After our party on the terrace last Friday and the .space Lecture during the week we are now preparing for our final presentations at the AA Front Members Room (next to the AA bar!) this Friday at 2pm, all welcome to join! We will be joined by guest critics and will be presenting our work from over the last three weeks together.

Students:
Abigail Mangani .mulu
Balkis Mortier .mortier
Dylan Blayney Garces
Emily Salles
Evelyn Gunawan
İdil Yıldız
James Winata
Luke Yeulett
Mara Onofrei
Neueland Lesdema
Théo Brown

Tutors:
Jake Parkin
Tanil Raif
Mario Serrano Puche .space
Aoi Phillips

16/07/2025
Unit 4: Assemblages (LUNCH) Our lunch was introduced by Balkis as a series of separate ingredients that guests were invi...
16/07/2025

Unit 4: Assemblages (LUNCH)

Our lunch was introduced by Balkis as a series of separate ingredients that guests were invited to assemble as they strolled along the length of the New Yard at the AA. Thanks to Darko and Pascal and the team!

Students:
Abigail Mangani
Balkis Mortier .mortier
Dylan Blayney Garces
Emily Salles
Evelyn Gunawan
İdil Yıldız
James Winata
Luke Yeulett
Mara Onofrei
Neueland Lesdema
Théo Brown

Tutors:
Jake Parkin
Tanil Raif
Mario Serrano Puche .space
Aoi Phillips

UNIT 2 - like a glove tudors : Emma Cogné , Flore Fockedey and Nani Campos .e.friends
As we step into the third and fin...
15/07/2025

UNIT 2 - like a glove
tudors : Emma Cogné , Flore Fockedey and Nani Campos .e.friends

As we step into the third and final week of the , here’s a quick look back at what we’ve been up to so far:

Week 1
Wednesday - Exploring the surroundings of the AA School through the lens of envelopes, coverings, and soft surfaces.
Thursday – A special visit from the artist Lukas Gschwandtner , who shared his inspirations, delicate work, and fascination with the dressing of objects.
Friday – We hosted a lunch, focusing on peels, edible or artificial envelopes

Week 2
Monday – Introduction to the sewing machine and the beginning of our cotton canvas projects; wrapping a part of the school.
Tuesday – Field Trip #1: a visit to Playbody with Unit 6 , meeting Leo for a presentation of practice.
Wednesday – The covers are starting to take shape!
Thursday – Field Trip #2: an awe-inspiring visit to the Do Ho Suh exhibition at Tate Modern
Friday – Mid-review with Unit 5 , joined by our guests and – thank you both!

Disrupting Etiquette – Subverting the GalateoFor the opening event of the AA summerschool 2025, Exceptions, we reimagine...
01/07/2025

Disrupting Etiquette – Subverting the Galateo
For the opening event of the AA summerschool 2025, Exceptions, we reimagine, subvert, and challenge the rigid rules of traditional table etiquette found in the Italian (and European) Galateo, creating spaces for conviviality and shared expression which are free and playful. Adopting ”Gambiarra” — a method of “make-do” rooted in creative improvisation and resourcefulness (also known as hacky, kludge, make-shift etc.) we embrace a design approach that challenges traditional design conventions and opens up new possibilities. Guided by this methodology, we design seven experimental tables, each subverting one of the seven fundamental table etiquette rules. What are typically considered “bad manners” become moments of joy, connection and expression. Each table is a setting for ferment and convivial experimentation, where centuries-old codes of politeness are overturned in favour of playful and imaginative interactions.

Time:
Date: 1 July 2025
Location: Garden at Montageau Street
Time: 7.00-8.00pm

Unit 7 – PUNKSPACETutors – Leo Herrmann .rtf, Jacob Höppner .hoeppner PUNKSPACE explores an architecture driven by attit...
27/05/2025

Unit 7 – PUNKSPACE

Tutors – Leo Herrmann .rtf, Jacob Höppner .hoeppner

PUNKSPACE explores an architecture driven by attitudes. No more anxious search for the right solution! Punk was fast, loud, and aggressive; a generation‘s expression of discontent, of its will to destruction, and its lust for change. It did what architecture should be doing today: Radically confronting the present. JOIN US!

Image
Leo Herrmann and Jacob Höppner: Hijacking Koolhaas, 2025

Unit 7 – PUNKSPACETutors – Leo Herrmann .rtf, Jacob Höppner .hoeppner Slide 1: screenshot from IOII‘s “Play For The Paga...
27/05/2025

Unit 7 – PUNKSPACE

Tutors – Leo Herrmann .rtf, Jacob Höppner .hoeppner

Slide 1: screenshot from IOII‘s “Play For The Pagans“ video; Jamie Reid: poster from his Suburban Press Community Print Shop, 1970
Slide 2: Guy Debord: The Naked City, 1957; Beate Karlsson: The Bum, 2020
Slide 3: Olaf Metzel: 13.4.1981, Berlin, 1987; Rebecca Horn: Pencil Mask, 1972
Slide 4: Linder Sterling: montage used for Buzzcock‘s “Orgasm Addict“ single, 1977; Christoph Schlingensief: screenshot from U3000, 2000, TV Show on MTV
Slide 5: “Prenez vos désirs pour des réalités“, Sorbonne, Paris, May 1968; Richie Culver, Studio view, 2022
Slide 6: Vivienne Westwood and Malcolm McLaren: Bo***ge Suit, 1976; Jacob Höppner: Transformation Winterfeldtstrasse, Berlin, 2024
Slide 7: PROTOtypes: The regenerated Car Visor Clutch Bag, 2025; Steffen Hägele, Jacob Höppner, Matthew Philips, Nelly Pilz: T.T.T.T., Zurich, 2024

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