The AA

Visiting School

One – three weeks

The Visiting School encompasses diverse learning programmes, workshops and site-based agendas shaped by participants working intensively in small groups over varying periods of time from one to two weeks. Central to each programme is the idea that experimental, new and provocative forms of architecture are best learned by doing. These programmes take place all over the world, including Bedford Square in London and Hooke Park in Dorset. The Visiting School welcomes applicants in any moment of their studies and careers, from within and outside of the architectural realm. The AA Summer School Programme, also part of the Visiting School, is equally open and takes place for three weeks during the summer period.

DTA Students’ education and architectural practices post AA

Incubators

Join one of our Visiting School short courses happening around the world.

Location

Course Title

Dates

Programme Heads

Nanotourism

Summer 2026

Migration Culture: Weaving Latin America

Summer 2026

Archaeology of the Present Time

September 2026

The Rite of Seasons: Spring Making Workshop

Spring 2026

Unreal Worlds 2026

Spring 2026

MAEDA: Furnishing the Landscape

Summer 2026

Earthbound Social Sculpture

Summer 2026

Hooke Park Build

Summer 2026

Publishing-Architecture Forum 2026

Summer 2026

Urbanity From the Ocean – China

Summer 2026

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BambooLab

Programmes

AA Visiting School

BambooLab

Dates

June 2026

Brief

This week-long workshop will immerse participants in a materials-led design process. Students will explore full-culm bamboo as a construction material through physical model-making, small-scale construction exercises and software tutorials in Rhinoceros, Grasshopper and Ladybug. They will use algorithmic design tools for environmental analysis, optimising designs for full-culm bamboo and balancing aesthetic considerations with those of buildability and durability.

A lecture series will cover topics from material characteristics, the ISO22156:2021 code, the study of locally available species of bamboo, as well as traditional and engineered construction techniques.

Knowledge gained throughout the week will inform individual research projects, and we ask for a project proposal with your application. We will develop tailored briefs and objectives with each applicant prior to the course’s start date.

VS BambooLab 2025 Course Guide

KEY FEATURES OF THE WORKSHOP AND LEARNING GOALS

Learning bamboo’s characteristics and the principles of building with bamboo.
Lectures to understand principles and details of joint systems for full-culm bamboo.
Physical bamboo model-making.
Material-led concept design process to consider the practicalities of natural materials.
Individual research portfolio for a chosen context to identify latent bamboo resources.
Lecture series of experimental bamboo constructions and the exploration of new structural applications for bamboo.
Lectures on societal attitudes to bamboo in construction and methods to address these through architectural design.
Small scale construction with full-culm bamboo.
Teaching of architectural design software and their application through a generative design approach to design for full-culm bamboo. These will include:
- Transposing the physical model into Rhinoceros 3D.
- Scripting in Grasshopper to generate alternate versions of the model based on parameters such as different sites, species and user requirements.
- Solar exposure analysis in Ladybug.
- Optimisation of the design in Galapagos, focusing on one key question developed through the course (such as the largest floor area with minimum material use or the smallest roof area to provide adequate climatic protection).

Applications

Applications for this programme will open soon.

Eligibility

The programme is open to current architecture and design students, PhD candidates and professionals of all ages.

Software requirements Adobe Creative Suite, Rhino (SR7 or later), Ladybug.

Biographies

Andry Widyowijatnoko

Andry is an architect, lecturer and researcher at the Building Technology Research Group, School of Architecture, Planning and Policy Development, Institut Teknologi Bandung, Indonesia. He started working with bamboo in 1999, developing plastered bamboo construction for low-cost housing. One of his achievements in design is the award-winning Great Hall OBI, an oval building with a span of 20m to 30m made entirely of bamboo. He gained his doctoral degree from the Chair of Structures and Structural Design, Faculty of Architecture, RWTH Aachen, Germany in 2012, with the dissertation ‘Traditional and Innovative Joints in Bamboo Construction’. He is now focusing on the advanced application of bamboo such as in tensegrity structures, reciprocal frames, tensile structures and space structures with new design approaches such as parametric design.

John Naylor

John Naylor is a UK based architect and researcher. He gained his AA Diploma at the Architectural Association in 2013, winning the Fosters Prize for Sustainable Infrastructure. He has worked at MAD, Beijing and Singapore University of Technology and Design on complex projects in the UK, Singapore, Malaysia, China and Haiti, and most recently the Eden Project in Qingdao. In 2014 he set up the AA’s bamboo Visiting School programme in Haiti, which he now co-leads as the AA-ITB BambooLab with Andry Widyowijatnoko. He is currently studying a PhD in Engineering at Newcastle University which applies algorithmic design tools in a design approach to full-culm bamboo in architecture, with a continued focus on Haiti, and in 2022 he was named one of the RIBA Rising Stars.