The AA

MAEDA: Furnishing the Landscape

Programmes

AA Visiting School

MAEDA: Furnishing the Landscape

Furnishing the Landscape, Hooke Park 2024

Dates

Summer 2026

Brief

This one-week workshop takes place in Hooke Park, the Architectural Association’s working forest in Dorset, south-west England. The woodland is a mixture of broadleaf and conifer species that provide a source of timber for construction activities.

Following the ethical premise of using immediate material resources for building, the workshop will continue its explorations of the structural usage of greenwood, thinning and spin-off materials from the forestry cycle.

This year aims to build a ‘Structure of Behaviour’: a platform that will enhance the use of the outdoor dining area – which stands around the previously constructed pizza oven and its roof structure – by directly responding to the given textural details and landform.

We will explore methods including mapping micro-topography with 3D scanning and fabrication by bending and binding.

Fees

Tuition fee is free for all successful applicants.

Successful applicants will be asked to make a contribution for food and accommodation at Hooke Park (Mon-Fri meals [breakfast/lunch/dinner]):

£0 - Tuition fee.
£TBC - Full Accommodation and Food services at Hooke Park.
£60 - AA Digital Membership.

No payment is required before the outcome of your application is received.

Fees do not include flights.

Students need to bring their own laptops, digital equipment and model making tools.

Applications

APPLICATIONS FOR THIS PROGRAMME WILL OPEN SOON

This Visiting School is sponsored by MAEDA, therefore, this programme requires a selection process.

Successful applicants will not pay programme fees. AA Digital Membership, accommodation and food fees are payable by all successful applicants.

Click on the "Apply" and submit your details.
Follow the instructions sent to your email to login to the AA Student portal and upload a 200-word motivational statement.
Applications with no statement uploaded onto the AA Student portal will not be considered for the programme.
No payment is required before the outcome of your application is received.
If your application is successful, you will be asked to complete your registration by acquiring an AA Digital Membership and making a payment for food and accommodation at Hooke Park.

Additional Information

Work Week: Participants will be required to arrive to Hooke Park on Sunday 22 June in the evening and leave in the morning hours of Saturday 28 June.

Participants will work and be supervised on fabrication activities. Each session starts with mandatory safe working inductions.

Meals on Site: Hooke Park's Refectory The meals are now exclusively vegetarian. Please advise us of any allergies or dietary requirements. Additionally, participants have access to a fully equipped kitchen for non-catered meals.

Accommodation: Participants live on site in Westminster Lodge, a dormitory with shared same-sex twin rooms, each with en-suite washroom and shower pods. Bedding is provided – participants are required to bring their own towel and toiletries.

Eligibility

This programme is available to all, from all backgrounds who are 18 years old or above – we seek interesting and interested people.

Visas

ENTERING THE UK

If you are traveling to the UK from abroad, it is your responsibility to ensure that you hold the right documents to enter the UK.

All applicants are required to review the relevant sections on ‘Entering the UK’ via the UK Government website to check which documents are required to enter the UK and check if an application to a Standard Visitor visa or an Electronic Travel Authorisation (ETA) is needed. Your type of immigration document and how to apply depends on your nationality, the AA can provide a letter confirming your enrolment to the course to support your application once the course fees are settled.

Electronic Travel Authorisation (ETA)

Commencing 8 January 2025, the UK introduced ETAs for all visitors who do not currently need a visa for short stays of under six months, including Australian, Canadian, and US passport holders.

Starting in April 2025, all visitors to the UK who do not require a visa for short stays and do not already have a UK immigration status will need an Electronic Travel Authorisation (ETA). This includes nationals from many countries, including those in the European Union as well as Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates, among others.

You can Check if you can apply for an ETA on the UK Government website. An ETA costs £10 and allows multiple entries into the UK for stays of up to six months at a time, valid for two years or until the holder’s passport expires—whichever is sooner.

Standard Visitor Visa

Please note that Standard Visitor Visas may take up to 3 months to be issued, all applicants who require a visa to enter the UK are encouraged to apply for a Standard Visitor visa at least 3 months in advance and no later than 1 month before the start of the programme or the date of the flight in which is intended to enter the UK, whichever is first. Student Visas are not required for study periods shorter than six months.

How to apply for a Standard Visitor Visa depends on your country of origin. You can check check if you need to apply for a visa in advance or if you can enter with and ETA and your passport upon arrival in the UK.

Applicants who need a visa to study in the UK are encouraged to carefully review the details and eligibility criteria for the Standard Visitor Visa, which are available on the UK Government website. The Visiting School Office will provide guidance throughout the process to ensure applicants are well-informed and prepared to submit their visa applications. Please also review the costs associated with obtaining a visa.

Once an applicant has been accepted into the programme and has paid the deposit or full fees (see ‘Fees’ section), the Visiting School Office will issue an invitation letter confirming enrolment. This letter can also be used as a supporting document when entering the UK.

Insurance

All participants are responsible for their own insurance including travel and health insurance. All participants also need to ensure that any equipment and valuable items such as laptops are covered by their own insurance as the AA takes no responsibility for items lost or stolen.

Biographies

Programme Head

Shin Egashira is an architect, artist, educator and PhD candidate who works collaboratively worldwide. His experiments which fuse old and new technologies, include the construction of Alfred Jarry’s Time Machine alongside astrophysicist Andrew Jaffe; ‘How to Walk a Flat elephant’, ‘Twisting Concrete’ and ‘Beautifully Incomplete’ at Betts Projects.

He conducts a series of landscape workshops in rural and inner-city communities inter-culturally. Shin Egashira is Unit Master of the AA Diploma Unit 11, with whom he has been critically documenting neoliberal urban development in London from 1996 to the present day.

He holds visiting professorships at Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music and the University of Hong Kong.