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

DLAB: Robotic 3D Printing

20 July to 7 August 2026

Excess and Experiment

27 July – 7 August 2026

Ring of Fire

Summer 2026

Playful Cartographies

Summer 2026

Palimpsest Barragán

Summer 2026

Ecologies of Innovation: Circular Architecture in the Tropics

Summer 2026

Urbanity from the Ocean – Taiwan

Summer 2026

Exhibiting Architecture - Media, Methods, Agents

15–23 August 2026

Emerging Ecologies Lab

Page:

Exhibiting Architecture - Media, Methods, Agents

Programmes

AA Visiting School

Exhibiting Architecture - Media, Methods, Agents

Alan Ruiz ‘WS-K80X4,’ 2019 Electrical conduits connected to a building’s power supply, Four LED safety lamps, existing architecture. Photograph: David Hale

Dates

15–23 August 2026

Brief

The AA Visiting School Zurich invites students and practitioners from architecture, design, art, curating, and theory to reimagine architectural exhibitions—their media, methods, and agents. Hosted by the Department of Fine Arts, Zurich University of the Arts (ZHdK), the program draws on the city’s rich academic and cultural landscape, fostering exchanges with institutions such as ETH Zurich and Kunsthalle Zurich, alongside a diverse roster of international guests and speakers.

The workshop "Exhibiting Architecture" unpacks various media, from models, drawings, and photography to oral histories, performances, and installations moving beyond an object-focused discourse. Each workshop day is devoted to a specific mediality and the different curatorial methods deployed. This is explored in depth by the participants in reading sessions and group discussions. Invited agents – curators, theorists, artists, and architects – give lectures, engage the participants in conversations, and guide them through exhibitions."

PROMINENT FEATURES of the workshop / SKILLS developed:

• You will get to know diverse curatorial methods and approaches to exhibition making.

• You will experiment with the different media and displays strategies crucial for the presentation of architecture.

• You will develop and practice skills crucial to exhibition making: critical evaluation of research, leading discussions and conversations, conducting interviews, writing proposals and reviews.

• You will meet and discuss with agents from the fields of art and architecture.

• You will be able to discuss and present your own curatorial interests and research to the group and invited experts.

Applications

Applications for this program will open shortly.

Biographies

PROGRAMME HEAD

Lennart Wolff studied architecture, history and, theory at the University of the Arts in Berlin and the Architectural Association, London. He has worked for different offices in Santiago de Chile, Berlin as well as Selldorf Architects in New York City and is co-running an architectural practice in Berlin. Together with Elisa R. Linn, he has founded the curatorial project km temporaer. Recent projects include performances, screenings, and exhibitions at institutions and galleries such as National Gallery Prague, Prague; Bronx Museum, New York; South London Gallery, London; German Center for Architecture, Berlin; British School at Rome, Rome; as well as Museo Nivola, Orani. He has spoken at Royal Academy, London; Braunschweig University of Art, Brunswick; The New School, New York; NCCA / Nemoskva, Khabarovsk; among others. His writing appeared in magazines such as frieze, Kaleidoscope, Cura, and Spike Art Magazine.

PROGRAMME TUTOR

Klaus Platzgummer studied architecture at the ETH Zürich and holds an MA in History and Critical Thinking in Architecture from the Architectural Association, London. He is currently researching and teaching at the Department of Architectural Theory, TU Berlin and at the AA Undergraduate and Graduate School. He was a curatorial assistant for the Pavilion of Switzerland at the Venice Architecture Biennale 2014, contributed to the Estonian Pavilion 2018 and has co-curated the exhibition ‘Architects Portraits’ at the Werner Oechslin Library Foundation in Einsiedeln, Switzerland.

GUESTS / SPEAKERS

2024 Edition

Emilienne Fernande Bodo (HKW), Charlotte Malterre-Barthes (EPFL), Peggy Deamer (Yale University), ANA Institut / Lukas Fink, Ghislaine Leung (artist), Elisa R. Linn (curator/writer), Fredi Fischli/Niels Olsen (gta Exhibitions/ETH Zurich), TEN STUDIO, Alfredo Thiermann (EPFL), Jiajia Zhang (artist).

2023 Edition

Limbo Accra (spatial design studio), Daniel Baumann (Kunsthalle Zurich), Samia Henni (Cornell AAP), Elisa R. Linn (writer/curator, Halle für Kunst Lüneburg e.V.), trans magazin (ETH Zurich), studio muoto (Gilles Delalex), Philip Ursprung (ETH Zurich), among others.

2022 Edition

Daniel Baumann (Kunsthalle Zurich), Michael Birchall (Migros Museum), Peggy Deamer (The Architecture Lobby, Yale School of Architecture), Joana de la Fontaine (architect/curator at BosqueRreal), Elisa R. Linn (Halle für Kunst Lüneburg e.V.), Shannon Mattern (University of Pennsylvania), Fredi Fischli / Niels Olsen (gta Exhibitions/ETH Zurich), Jan Vorisek (artist).

2021 Edition

Daniel Baumann (Kunsthalle Zurich), Kadambari Baxi (Barnard College/Collumbia University), c/o now (architects), Elisa R. Linn (curator/writer), Lorenza Longhi (artist), Kabelo Malatsie (curator), Charlotte Malterre-Barthes (Harvard GSD), Ushma Thakrar (editor/writer) Albena Yaneva (University of Manchester), Fredi Fischli/Niels Olsen (gta exhibitions/ETH) & Milena Buchwalder, Sonja Flury, Dorothee Hahn, Larissa Müllner (curatorial team/ProSaffa1958-Pavillon Association).

2020 Edition

Daniel Baumann (Kunsthalle Zurich), Dora Budor (artist), Fredi Fischli & Niels Olsen (gta Exhibitions/ETH Zurich), Ola Hassanain (artist), Stefan Kalmár (ICA London), Eliyahu Keller (MIT Cambridge/Editor Thresholds 46), Elisa R. Linn (curator/writer), Lesley Lokko (CCNY School of Architecture), Charlotte Malterre-Barthes (Harvard GSD), Alan Ruiz (artist).

2019 Edition

Daniel Baumann (Kunsthalle Zurich), Fredi Fischli & Niels Olsen (gta Exhibitions/ETH Zurich), Elisa R. Linn (curator/writer), Ludovica Parenti (curator), Li Tavor (Swiss Pavilion, Venice Biennale of Architecture 2018), Nina Zschocke (ETH Zurich), Peter Fischli (artist), Charlotte Malterre-Barthes (ETH Zurich).