The Architectural Association (AA) School of Architecture has launched a new taught postgraduate programme in Conservation and Reuse (MA/PGDip), beginning in September 2025. The course will examine approaches to working with existing things from the perspective of climate change, motivated by the urgent need to cultivate careful use and reuse of materials and space. Conservation and Reuse is the first new programme at the AA in 10 years, and the first programme to be launched by the institution since it acquired taught degree awarding powers in 2019. It is the only taught postgraduate programme at the school to offer both full-time and part-time study options. Applications for the first intake in September 2025 are now open.
The focus of the Conservation and Reuse programme aligns with school-wide strategies at the AA asking how innovation in materials and fabrication can address problems of relative value, resource conservation and cultural significance. The programme’s scope reaches beyond buildings to incorporate landscapes, environments and wider material culture, both tangible and intangible. Its curriculum explores historical and theoretical frameworks of conservation, encouraging participants to engage with questions of value and heritage from a critical standpoint and to examine the spheres of implication in which objects and buildings are embedded. This enquiry takes place alongside the testing of new and established construction techniques for making and remaking, and a focus on developing practical skills. The programme will foster future-orientated practice by emphasising how regulatory frameworks, commercial attitudes and practical actions could be transformed by a better understanding of the factors that influence what we choose to conserve, and how we do so. Students will synthesise this knowledge in a design thesis targeting a situation of their choice, taking responsibility for a rich existing environment and exploring how it could change.
The AA sees the need to equip a new generation of practitioners with the ethical, critical and technical skills to tackle a complex world. This new programme will nurture designers who are able to work with existing things, make beneficial judgements about value and bring about change with precision, optimism and grace.
Programme Structure
The programme offers Master of Arts (MA) and Postgraduate Diploma (PGDip) pathways, with two modes of study for each: a full-time programme over 12 months or a part-time programme over 24 months. Each pathway comprises six core modules of lectures, seminars, clinics, workshops and tutorials. The MA pathway concludes with a seventh module, the design thesis. Teaching will be delivered at the AA in Bedford Square, London and all students will also participate in a one-week residential at the AA’s Hooke Park campus in Dorset, UK, which takes place in Term 3. The programme welcomes applicants from a range of professional or academic backgrounds, including architects, historians, archaeologists, artists and engineers, as well as those with multidisciplinary experience.
Amandine Kastler and Rod Heyes, Conservation and Reuse programme heads, said:
“There is a pressing need for a new generation of practitioners able to radically reimagine existing structures and situations. The launch of the new programme is really exciting, and we have devised a course full of things we are fascinated by and curious about – combining our interests in material culture with our backgrounds in design practice. The programme is rigorous and will challenge orthodoxy, but it’s also fun and wide-ranging, exploring how contemporary priorities are transforming conservation and reuse. Design is at the heart of the course, and we are looking forward to supporting participants to become more knowledgeable and confident in working with existing things of relative value.”
Read more about the programme and how to apply on the AA website.
The AA is holding a Virtual Open Day on Wednesday 6 November from 12–3pm GMT for applicants interested in the school’s Taught Postgraduate Programmes and PhD Programme. Register to attend the Open Day here.