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

For the term of your natural life

18 December 2026 – 15 November 2029

Film-Architecture Forum

Summer 2026

Venice Biennale: Marghera Pasts, Presents and Futures

Summer 2026

Rebuilding Rome: Film and Narrative Forensics

Summer 2026

Atcham, UK

Full Moon Theatre (test)

12 October 2027 – 16 February 2028

Ibrahim Abdou

Page:

Nanotourism

Programmes

AA Visiting School

Nanotourism

Ljubljana, Slovenia

Dates

Summer 2026

Brief

Tourism currently faces radical changes worldwide, having previously been one of the fastest-growing global industries. The new realities that have emerged in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic offer an opportunity to rethink how we visit places and experience our home environments in meaningful and profound ways.

This Visiting School is an architectural educational programme focusing on nanotourism as a means of articulating a creative critique of conventional tourism. Through critical thinking and close collaboration with local stakeholders, we will develop case studies of nanotourism to reveal hidden aspects of each context, addressing the place, its users and locally available materials. We will focus on creating strong concepts and prototypes in scale 1:1.

Over the past decade, the AA Nanotourism program has produced numerous student projects that have gained recognition and been exhibited by prestigious institutions worldwide. These include the London Design Festival in 2018, the Oslo Architecture Triennale in 2019, the Vienna Design Week in 2020, the Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden in 2021, and the BIO27 Ljubljana in 2022.

The course is part of “Cinnovate: Towards Future Circular Cities through Innovative Education and Entrepreneurship”, a pan-European initiative funded by the European Institute of Innovation and Technology, a body of the European Union under Horizon Europe.

Prominent Features of the workshop/ skills developed

- theoretical and conceptual knowledge in the field or architecture, design and tourism

- conceptual as well as hands-on approach to architectural design and critical thinking

- development of presentation and video-editing skills

- development of hands-on construction skills of 1:1 scale structures

- international speakers at introductory lecture series

- prominent international jury members for intermediate and final juries

Applications

Applications for this programme will open soon.

Eligibility

The workshop is open to architecture, design and art students, PhD candidates and young professionals. Software Requirements: Adobe Creative Suite for effective presentations, Rhino or Sketchup for 3d modelling.

Visas

All participants travelling from abroad are responsible for securing any visa required, and are advised to contact their home embassy early. After a formal application, the AA School can provide a letter confirming participation in the workshop.

Insurance

All participants are responsible for securing their own travel and health insurance. Please ensure that your travel insurance also covers your personal belongings i.e. laptop, equipment, tools, passport etc. The AA takes no responsibility for lost / stolen property.

Biographies

Programme Heads

Aljoša Dekleva (b. 1972) is an architect and educator who holds a masterʼs degree in architecture with Distinction from Architectural Association in London. He co-directs the architectural practice Dekleva Gregoric Architects, pursuing the concept of research by design and design by research with the aim of challenging the obvious by building architectures of various scales and programmes worldwide. With Tina Gregorič, he defined the concept and initiated the research platform of nanotourism in 2014, since then he has been running the AA Nanotourism Visiting School. With Tina, he curated the Slovenian national pavilion Home at Arsenale at Venice Architecture Biennale 2016. He taught architecture as a guest professor at Université de Montréal in Canada, ENSA Paris Val de Seine in France, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology in Germany and as a Gehry Chair 2019 at Daniels in Toronto, Canada.

Vid Žnidaršič (b. 1991) is an architectural designer, researcher, historian, and educator. He has worked at several world-renowned practices, such as Bevk-Perovć, Casper Mueller Kneer, Farshid Moussavi Architecture, and BIG - Bjarke Ingels Group, where he currently works as a senior architectural designer and a project lead. Alongside his work in architectural studios, he is constantly developing his creative practice situated at the intersection of critical thinking, creative writing, and design work. In the past, he taught DIP5 at the Architectural Association and currently, he teaches as a Design Fellow in the MArch course at the University of Cambridge. He was a participant in the first AA Visiting School Nanoturism in Vitanje in 2014 and has rejoined the programme as a member of the teaching team since its 2024 edition.

Invited Mentor

Anna Font is an architect, her work combines academic, editorial and design projects. She is interested in the convergence of computation and critical thinking in architecture.

Anna holds a Master's in Architecture II from the Harvard University GSD (Cambridge, MA) and a PhD in Design from the Architectural Association (London, UK). Anna is Head of Learning at the Architectural Association, where she currently teaches in the Emergent Technologies and Design postgraduate programme (Emtech), having previously been Course Master at the Projective Cities MPhil postgraduate programme, and Environmental Technical Studies Tutor in the Diploma School. Anna has been Unit Tutor at AcrossRCA, a transdisciplinary graduate programme at the Royal College of Art (London), and at the University of Sheffield, where her student’s work has been awarded the RIBA Yorkshire Student Awards 2023. She has taught yearly design workshops at the Master in Integrated Architectural Design at ETSALS (Barcelona) from 2015 to today.

http://www.annafont.org/