Architectural Association School of Architecture, 36 Bedford Square, London (2026)

07/09/2026

A Civic Solar Collective

Project by Mraz Ghafour, Diploma 3 (2025–2026)

Project description by Mraz:

This project proposes collective living in which energy becomes spatial, visible and socially distributed through architecture. Located in Santiago, it responds to strong solar exposure, seasonal temperature fluctuations, housing demand and dependence on mechanical heating and cooling.

The proposal operates as a linear thermal infrastructure that captures, stores and redistributes heat through thermal mass. A half-cone cascading reflective array acts as the primary character, while an inhabitable thermal receiver forms the secondary character. Suspended mosaic reflectors redirect and diffuse solar radiation towards the receiver, creating softer public atmospheres while concentrating thermal gain.

The receiver absorbs, stores and releases heat through calibrated thicknesses, textures and inhabitable pockets. These variations create thermal zones for housing, production, markets, performances, gathering, drying, curing, warming and preparation. Energy becomes occupiable and supports domestic and civic life.

Approximately 1m³ of concrete can store around 5.9 kWh of thermal energy through a 10°C increase, allowing the receiver to function as an environmental battery. The project shifts the city from individual consumption towards collective environmental participation, where social behaviour, programmes and thermal infrastructure operate together. Its sectional system can expand over time, connecting housing, civic uses and productive activities to a shared thermal landscape.

To explore more projects from Diploma 3 and other students, visit the Projects Review 2026 website via the link in bio.

01/09/2026

Synanceus

Project by Joshua Hallam, Intermediate 3, (2025–2026)h_at_the_aa

Project description by Joshua:
Lying along the periphery between river and shore, there sits a barrage of blob-like structures – the Synanceus. They are hybrids, made of a fluctuating, pulsating bio membrane shell, some areas rigid, some more flexible. Inside, mechanical components of sensors and other measure moisture contents in the ground and with its dorsal antennae, wind speeds of the coming typhoon. These colossal structures contain the excess floodwater, sucked up from their locality, to ensure that the surrounding environment never becomes catastrophically flooded.

Too often is it that architecture and environment are seen as separate. Yet, what reality shows, with stark consequence, is that for architecture to succeed, it must be considered as embedded with Nature and continuously in flux. Upon diluvial order, landscapes can be restored to normality. Gaïa’s restraint to impose disorder and radical environmental catastrophe can be reached only through a new kind of architecture, a new order for architecture.
NOA26 The New Order of Architecture

Explore more from Intermediate 3 and other student work from Projects Review 2026 via the link in bio.

29/08/2026

Kiss the dirt, drink the water

Project by Seunghyun Jeon, Intermediate 2 (2025–2026)

Project Description by Seunghyun:

Dirt refers to conditions that do not fit established categories and are often understood as something to be removed. For me, dirt emerges in conditions that remain slightly unresolved, requiring continual attention, judgement, and repetitive maintenance. This project asks how dirt can take architectural form through domestic rituals, improvised tools, and encounter devices.
‎
In London, water infrastructure is buried underground and managed through large-scale networks, distancing people from sensing the process between dirty Thames river water and supposedly clean drinking water. Without shared spaces of negotiation, water is passively consumed rather than collectively understood.
‎
What if London’s dirty water is reprocessed from filtering to drinking through the domestic scale once again? Reusing the Leaning Tower of Rotherhithe as a Dirty Water House, the project reimagines the mudlarker as a guardian of the tower and the Thames. Dirty water and found river fragments are brought into the building and transformed into visible repair, reusable material and drinkable water, bringing hidden water infrastructures back into public encounter. Through the act of drinking, dirty Thames water quietly returns back to everyday life.

Explore more projects from Intermediate 2 and other student work from Projects Review 2026 via the link in bio.

28/08/2026

From The Land, an exhibition in partnership between Proposition Studios (Proposition) and the AA is now open in London. Co-curated by Inigo Minns (AA Head of Media Studies and Diploma 12) and Nissa Nishikawa and Cecilie Gravesen (Proposition Heads of Programme), the exhibition brings together experimental projects by students and participants from across the AA that examine architecture’s relationship with the living world. From The Land gathers propositions that aim to recalibrate how architecture engages with land, matter and climate.

From The Land includes work by Diploma 4, Diploma 12, the AA Design Research Laboratory (DRL), Design and Make (Hooke Park), AA Media Studies and the Working Stone Visiting School. Contributions from AA associate practitioners, Kate Davies and Liam Young (Unknown Fields) and Nada Subotincic and Mark West (Hooke Park Artists in Residence) are also on display.

Alongside the exhibition, there will be performances and talks by Razi Khader (Diploma 12), the London Arab Choir, Martin Tomlinson, Kate Davies and Camille Dunlop (Diploma 12 Artist in Residence) taking place next month. From The Land is open at Proposition Studios in Bethnal Green, London, until 26 September. Visit the Proposition Studios website to find out more

Image credits: Katarzyna Perlak (Katarzyna Perlak)

26/08/2026

Grown in Archway

Project by Declan Park, Diploma 2, (2025–2026)

Project description by Declan:

Grown in Archway begins with two local conditions that coexist within Archway: the daily flow of biodegradable waste produced by shops and businesses along the High Street, and the scarcity, abandonment and underuse of publicly owned spaces that could support local communities.
The project proposes a distributed stewardship infrastructure across three sites, transforming biodegradable waste, vacant property and residual land into local assets within a shared civic and ecological system.

Through material production, cultivation, composting and shared learning, stewardship becomes an architectural method for reopening access, supporting material growth and returning ecological value to public life.

Explore more from Diploma 2 and other student work from Projects Review 2026 via the link in bio.

25/08/2026

Every year, AA EmTech (AA [EmTech]]) hosts a dedicated gathering, inviting the programme’s alumni back to the AA to reconnect, share professional insights and fortify its ever-expanding network.

At the core of the EmTech programme lies a deeply collaborative community whose shared passion for computational intelligence, rigorous experimentation and material innovation drives its work forward. This network of thinkers and makers provides an enduring support system that extends far beyond the studio walls, empowering students, alumni and collaborators to continuously push the boundaries of architectural discourse and practice. We are looking forward to welcoming those who are joining the EmTech community at the AA in September!

22/08/2026

DLAB 2026 at AA London built a full-scale Möbius strip structure to explore Topological Interlocking Assemblies using sustainable, dry-joint hemp-concrete blocks. Powered by robotic fabrication and 3D-printed formworks with Aibuild , the project showcases the future of high-performance, reusable architecture.

19/08/2026

ROT REHOUSED is launching a new Living Lab at the AA this September – part of our Visiting School programme of short courses and workshops.

Join us as we grow materials, ferment waste and collectively pickle. Over twelve days, we'll cultivate sourdough and kombucha cultures, grow bacterial cellulose, build fermentation infrastructures, prototype living materials, explore London's hidden food ecologies and design through microbial collaboration.

Part laboratory, part kitchen and part design studio, the Living Lab invites participants to work across food, waste, fermentation and material experimentation, culminating in a public meal and exhibition.

Rot Rehoused
AA Visiting School
1–12 September, London
Applications are open for full-time and part-time engagement

Link in Bio

18/08/2026

Living In The House-Like City

Project by Yuezhou Hou yuezhou_archive_ , Diploma 1 (2025–26)

Project Description by Yuezhou:

This project responds to the rapid expansion of Chengdu, where high-rise residential developments have become the dominant urban form. While housing construction has accelerated, social infrastructure and community life have struggled to keep pace, resulting in fragmented urban environments and a weakened sense of belonging, particularly among the city’s growing migrant population. Drawing on Leon Battista Alberti’s idea that “the city is a large house, and the house is a small city,” the project develops a methodology for translating domestic spatial elements into urban form.

The proposal transforms familiar domestic elements: walls, rooms, courtyards and hearths, into components of a new urban structure. Residential buildings define enclosure, while shared atriums become collective rooms. Ground floors accommodate public programmes while corridors create opportunities for everyday social interaction between residents. At the centre of each block, the traditional hearth and courtyard are reinterpreted as urban atriums that function as social anchors, environmental infrastructure and spatial landmarks. Different atriums support activities such as working, playing, gardening, cooking and sports, creating distinct communal environments.

By extending the spatial logic of the house to the scale of the city, the project proposes an alternative model of urban growth that fosters belonging, identity and collective life for Chengdu’s expanding population.

Explore more from Diploma 1 and other student projects from Projects Review 2026 via the link in bio.

11/08/2026

Undoing for doing

Project by Ash*ta Sequeira, Intermediate 1 (2025–26)

Project Description by Ash*ta:

An exploration of occupying railway arches and their forecourts; proposing a set of workshops for learning making, for more making.

This year, Intermediate 1 explored the creative possibilities of un-doing, working with subtraction as much as addition and investigating the disjunctions between form and use, purpose and accident, and co-operation and co-option. Through observation, direct intervention and drawn speculation, the unit reconfigured spaces and institutions of learning across London through drawing, photography, filmmaking, model-making and 1:1 fabrication.

Architectural Association School of Architecture

07/09/2026

01/09/2026

29/08/2026

28/08/2026

26/08/2026

25/08/2026

22/08/2026

19/08/2026

18/08/2026

11/08/2026

Address

Website

Alerts

Contact The University

Shortcuts

Share

Category

Listing takedown request