Summer School Unit Leader

The Architectural Association

Summer School Unit Leader

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Role Overview

£4,800/ unit
London – Bedford Square
Summer School Head
Visiting School
6th July 2026
Fixed-term
Full-time; 35 hours Monday to Friday; 10am-6pm - Preparation time &
Full-time (3 weeks teaching) 6th – 25th July 2026

The AA summer school welcomes applications for teaching fellows interested in leading
summer school units. Ideal applicants have basic teaching experience and are ready to
immerse themselves in an intense and creative environment for the month of July. This year,
we are seeking applications from groups of tutors that can operate as a collective both in
relationship to each other but also to run a group project with their students, promoting
collaboration and collective design approaches as well as considering the implications of
shared intellectual ownership.

Learning from London:

London; not a unified vision but a continuum of habits, infrastructures, signs, regulations,
exceptions and compromises. London resists singularity and denies authorship.

Architects learn from anything; they especially learn from looking at the city, paying attention
to both its perks and its inconsistencies. This summer school debunks the myth of the sublime
city and rejects the cult of the isolated architectural object. Instead, we choose to study what
actually shapes the city and its architecture. Scale is of no importance: from the river and the
parks to specific geometrical quirks of Victorian architecture, from heroic buildings gestures to
the relentless accumulation of the ordinary, studying London is about challenging the limits of
architecture as an autonomous discipline.

This summer, we are going to produce multiple Londons as a critical practice of interpretation.
We will align to the lineage of architect travelers who produced projects of observation and
documentation in different forms and shapes: Learning from Las Vegas (Venturi, Scott-Brown
and Izenur), Made in Tokyo and Pet Architecture (Atelier Bow- Wow), Delirious New York
(Rem Koolhaas), One million acres and no zoning: Houston (Lars Lerup), amongst others.

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Learning from London is not an endorsement of the city as it is. It is a contemporary
experiment that considers architectural education as radical, inclusive, and deeply connected
to the world.

We welcome proposals from groups of tutors linked to the theme of Learning from London in
specific and surprising ways.

-The summer school is a project based programme. It promotes group work and is open to a
variety of media (models, XL-models, drawings, XL-drawings, film making, performance,
photography...). The documentation of the work that takes place during these three weeks is
part of the teaching project and a responsibility of the tutors.
-Tutors and students have full access to all the AA infrastructure (digital labs, model and wood
shop, library, archives) throughout the duration of the summer school.
-Each unit will welcome approximately 15 students (max of 20).
-Each unit will showcase their work at the final Summer School Exhibition on July 24.
-Each unit will organise and host a public event (lecture, party, drink- or combination of all) on
a selected day during the summer school.
-Each unit has a specific budget beyond the teaching fees.
-Each unit is responsible to participate in the promotion of the programme before, during and
after the summer school.

Main Responsibilities

• Lead a summer school unit. The participants will have diverse backgrounds and design skills
so the unit brief should take that into consideration.
• Participate in mid and final reviews. A series of reviews will take place halfway during the
summer school creating conversations across the units. A final review schedule will organise
and culminate the summer school dialogues.
• Curate the unit’s participation in the exhibition. A final exhibition will take place the last
couple of days of the school, units are expected to produce a display/ installation to
showcase their work.

The above list of job duties is not exclusive or exhaustive and the post holder will be required
to undertake such tasks as may reasonably be expected within the scope and grading of the
post.

All staff must:

•  Comply with all legislative and regulatory requirements (e.g. Finance, HR, Health &

Safety)

•  Adhere to the requirements set out in the AA Code of Behavioural Expectations and

other institutional policies.

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Person Specification

Knowledge, Skills and Experience

• Basic teaching experience.
• Active professional and /or research activity.
• Interest in participating in the larger project the Summer School aspires to operate as.
• Applications from candidates who are not architects by training and/ or have no teaching
experience are acceptable if there is a strong case to support their relevance to the summer
school’s objectives.

Creative thinking and problem-solving are essential skills for AA employees. Ideal candidates
will be high-energy individuals and team players.

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