The AA

Location	Course Title	Dates	Programme Heads
Hooke Park, United Kingdom	DLAB: Robotic 3D Printing	20 July to 7 August 2026	Milad Showkatbakhsh
Mexico City, Mexico	Excess and Experiment	20–31 July 2026	Andrés Souto Vilaros, Elliot Rogosin
Rio de Janeiro, Brazil	Subjective Tectonics: Roof / Teto	23 July – 1 August 2026	Roberto Boettger, Olivia Neves Marra
Bedford Square, London, UK	Film-Architecture Forum	24–28 July 2026	Marko Milovanovic
Kanazawa, Japan	Vernacular Craft to Digital Fabrication	27 July – 9 August 2026	Andres Luhr, Erika Suzuki
Hooke Park, United Kingdom	The Earthbound Groundscraper	27 July – 1 August 2026	Paul Feeney, Marie-Louise Raue
South Korea, South Korea	Encoded Heritage	29 July – 9 August 2026	Jisoo Hwang, Shot Ito, Terrance Tae Hyuk Kim
Bedford Square, London, UK	Publishing-Architecture Forum	31 July – 4 August 2026	Marko Milovanovic
Viljandi, Estonia	Fellin Retreat Chapter One: Tuli	2–8 August 2026	Emma Marta Berzin, Sam Aleksander
Alter do Chão, Brazil	Ecologies of Innovation: Circular Architecture in the Tropics	Summer 2026	Marko Brajovic, Nacho Marti

Unreal Worlds

Programmes

AA Visiting School

Unreal Worlds

Photo by Pliers by Renate Baumane

Location

Bedford Square, London, UK

Programme

Unreal Worlds

Dates

23 March – 3 April 2026

Programme Heads

Inigo Minns

Brief

Step into the world where film meets architecture in this hands-on workshop using Unreal games engine. Sited at the AA in London the course will be led by AA tutor and Head of Media Studies Inigo Minns, together with digital environment designers Zhiwee Lee and Camille Dunlop.

The programme is designed to equip participants with fundamentals of worldbuilding and narrative design and will be carried out in collaboration with Punchdrunk Immersive Theatre company. Over the course of the workshop, you will create a short film learning how to build environments where space, objects, camera shots and lighting come together to shape powerful cinematic experiences.

Through a mix of exercises, students will explore the principles of story-world creation and discover how to bring digital environments to life using Unreal. Along the way, you will experiment with animation, camera work, lighting design and sound, adding atmosphere and intensity to your projects. With close guidance from the tutors, you’ll combine software training, design tutorials and creative feedback to develop your work. The programme will end with a series of films designed to complement Punchdrunk’s latest production Lander 23.

Whether you see yourself as an architect, game designer or creative director, this course offers a space to test ideas at the intersection of storytelling, technology and environment design.

Apply

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Biographies

Inigo Minns is an architect and lecturer specialising in narrative, world building and film making. Inigo has worked in CGI and postproduction on large budget films for Disney and including Ridley Scott’s Napoleon (where his work was Oscar-nominated in the Best Visual Effects category). Inigo has extensive experience teaching design for world building and speculation in the UK and abroad.

Zhi Wee Lee is an experiential designer and creative technologist exploring worldbuilding through immersive installations, animation and environment design. Bridging architecture, narrative and emerging technologies, she works across digital and physical contexts. With an architectural background from the Architectural Association, she uses real-time engines as both design and production tools to translate speculative, cinematic worlds into spatial experiences that extend and reflect lived reality.

Camille Dunlop is a London-based spatial and digital designer, with an architectural background. Working across digital installation, film and performance, she constructs immersive environments informed by futures, landscape and movement. Alongside her independent practice, she has worked with a range of artists and design studios on spatial, speculative and research-based art projects. She also is a lecturer at the Bartlett School of Architecture (UCL) for Cinematic and Videogame Architecture, as well as at Central St Martins (UAL) for Narrative Environments.

Skills

Making Space – Introduction to Unreal Engine and 3D workflows
3D Modelling, Texturing, Materials and Assets
Lighting and Atmosphere
Particle Systems and Visual Effects
Cinematography and Animation
Editing with Premiere
Rendering
Sound Design and Post-Production
Design tutorials to develop character-driven narratives in film
Designing spaces shaped by character traits and stories
Project development and technical tutorials
A visit to Punchdrunk Theatre – to explore behind the scenes in the world leading immersive theatre company

Eligibility

The workshop is open to current students or professionals in the fields of architecture, film studies, design, curating, art history and related subjects in the humanities, phd candidates and young professionals.

Fees

£795 – Full fee including 1 year AA Digital Membership.
£735 – Existing AA Members.
£588 – AA full-time Students.
£685 – Melbourne University Students including 1 year AA Digital Membership.
£367.50* – We are delighted to announce that Punchdrunk will be sponsoring four places on the course at 50% of the fee. The sponsorship will go to those demonstrating creative digital image/film making. For those who would like to apply please send five images or a selection of films with your application. The deadline for sponsorship applications is March 2.

£60 – Non-refundable deposit required from all applicants. This amount will be deducted from the total fees listed above.

*Please note, if you are live or work in the Royal borough Greenwich, please let us know in your application.

Apply

Visiting School

Incubators, Short Courses and Forums in the UK and around the World

Unreal Worlds

Brief

Biographies

Sponsors

Skills

Eligibility

Fees