Architectural Association School of Architecture

Plaque beside entrance.

The Architectural Association was founded in 1847 as an alternative to the practice of training (young men) by apprenticeship to established architects. Apprenticeship offered no guarantee for educational quality or professional standards, and there was a belief that the system was "rife with vested interests and open to abuse, dishonesty and incompetence".[7]

Two articled pupils, Robert Kerr (1823–1904) and Charles Gray (1827/28–1881), proposed a systematic course of training provided by the students themselves.[7] Following a merger with the already existing Association of Architectural Draughtsmen, the first formal meeting under the name of the Architectural Association took place in May 1847 at Lyons Inn Hall, London.[8] Kerr became the first president, 1847–48.[9] From 1859 the AA shared premises at 9 Conduit Street with the Royal Institute of British Architects,[7] later (1891) renting rooms in Great Marlborough Street.[7]

AA Bedford Square premises

The AA School was formally established in 1890 and in 1901, it changed premises to the former Royal Architectural Museum in Tufton Street, Westminster. In 1917 it moved again, to its current location in Bedford Square, central London. It has since acquired additional London premises in John Street, a property on Morwell Street behind Bedford Square,[10] and a 350-acre (1.4 km²) site at Hooke Park in Dorset.

Historically, students of the AA have been addressed by John Ruskin and George Gilbert Scott in the 19th century, and, more recently, Richard Rogers, Zaha Hadid, Rem Koolhaas, Denise Scott Brown, and David Chipperfield, an alumnus of the school.

In November 2017, the AA was reported to be planning to make 16 staff redundant, including the whole of its publications and exhibitions departments.[11] Shortly before, the AA had announced it was seeking a new director, to be appointed by March 2018,[12] following the departure of Brett Steele announced in December 2016.[13][14]

The first female director of the AA was Eva Franch i Gilabert, appointed in 2018[15] (succeeding interim director Samantha Hardingham). Following votes of no confidence in her leadership,[16][17] Franch was fired in July 2020 for "failure to develop and implement a strategy and maintain the confidence of the AA School Community which were specific failures of performance against clear objectives outlined in the original contract of employment."[18] Her dismissal came despite support from academics who wrote an open letter talking of "systemic biases" against women and of sexism, and accusing the AA of using "the pandemic for anti-democratic purposes".[17] Architectural magazine Dezeen reported tutor and alumni views that the failure to investigate allegations of bullying and sexism had damaged both the AA school and the architecture profession, leaving "a cloud over the school".[19] The AA began seeking a successor to Franch in December 2021,[20] shortlisting candidates in March 2022.[21] In May 2022, the school announced Ingrid Schroder would be its new director from August 2022.[22]

Courses are divided into two main areas – undergraduate programmes, leading to the AA Diploma (RIBA/ARB Part 2), and postgraduate programmes, which include specialised courses in Landscape Urbanism (LU),[28] Housing and Urbanism, Sustainable Environmental Design, Histories and Theories, Emergent Technologies,[29] and Design Research Lab (DRL). Other programmes include Projective Cities, Design + Make, and Interprofessional studio. Since its foundation, the school has continued to draw its teaching staff from progressive international practices, and they are reappointed annually, allowing a continual renewal of the exploration of architectural graphics and polemical formalism.[30]

The AA Bookshop has a wide collection of architectural literature [32] and is used as a platform for AA's own publications.[33] AA Publications has a long tradition of publishing architects, artists and theorists early in their careers, as well as occasionally publishing figures who have already gained notoriety in other fields of expertise, such as Salman Rushdie. AA Publications produces the journal, AA Files, and the AA Book, known as the Projects Review, which annually documents the work undertaken by members of the school from Foundation to Graduate programmes. AA publications are designed and edited by the AA Print Studio, originally established in 1971 as part of the Communications Unit directed by Dennis Crompton of Archigram.[34] The school had its own independent radio station.[35]

• Howard Robertson (1929–35)
• Alvin Boyarsky (1971–90)
• Alan Balfour (1991–95)
• Mohsen Mostafavi (1995–2004)
• Brett Steele (2005–2017)[13][14]
• Samantha Hardingham (interim, 2017–18)
• Eva Franch i Gilabert (2018–2020)[15][18]

• John Summerson, The Architectural Association 1847–1947 (London: Pleiades Books, 1947).

• Official website
• Bedford Press
• AA Publications

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