Architectural Association

The story

The Architectural Association has occupied Bedford Square, the last fully intact Georgian square in London, since 1917. It began in just two houses and now fills eight of them, linked by historic stairs and converted corridors that lead to rooms, workshops, courtyards and terraces. These former homes hold studios where small design units of 12 to 14 students work across year groups. The school also runs two further Georgian buildings on nearby Montague Street and a woodland campus at Hooke Park in Dorset. Exhibitions of student work fill the rooms by day, while lectures and events take over in the evening, and the end-of-year show puts graduate projects on display. The bookshop stocks rare architecture publications, there is a bar and restaurant, and Visiting School programmes run intensive short courses.