The AA

Visiting School

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.

Current and upcoming visiting school incubators around the world.

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

Location	Course Title	Dates	Programme Heads
Mexico City, Mexico	AA Summer School Latin America	6–25 July 2026
Shanghai, China	AA Summer School Shanghai	Summer 2026
Melbourne, Australia	Associated Things	Summer 2026	Leire Asensio Villoria, David Mah
Bedford Square, London, UK	AA Summer School 2026	6–24 July 2026
Sao Paulo, Brazil	Earth Moves	10–18 July 2026	Franklin Lee, Anne Save de Beaurecueil
Oshakan, Armenia	The Oshakan Project	11–26 July 2026	Aram Mooradian
Hooke Park, United Kingdom	Hooke Park Build	12–25 July 2026	Emmanuel Vercruysse
Prague, Czech Republic	Barrandien, Interruptions	13–24 July 2026	Pavel Bouse, Tadeas Riha
Canary Island, Spain	Archipelago of the Blessed	Summer 2026	Brendon Carlin, Maria Paez Gonzalez
Sea Ranch, United States	The Sea Ranch as Prototype – Form. Culture. Context.	19–28 July 2026	Tyan Masten

Page:

Prev Next

Coastal Apparatus

Programmes

AA Visiting School

Coastal Apparatus

Location

Côte d’Azur, France

Programme

Coastal Apparatus

Dates

12–20 September 2026

Programme Heads

Julian Bächle, Leonhard Clemens

Brief

The AA Visiting School Côte d’Azur returns to the Mediterranean coastline for its third edition, continuing an ongoing investigation into photography, landscape and the production of architectural images. After previous instalments of this Visiting School – Maintenance: Forms of Transformation and Adaptation (2024), which focused on photographic readings of repair and alteration; and Snapshot (2025), which explored the instant as a tool of spatial observation – the 2026 edition introduces a decisive shift: from the photograph towards the photographic apparatus.

This year, participants will be asked not only to look, but to build.

Participants will develop and construct a 1:1 coastal structure – a simple, site-specific device that frames, filters or stages a view along the Côte d’Azur. Each project will operate as a photographic apparatus: an architectural frame that defines where one stands, where one looks and how landscape or space appears.

The work unfolds in three steps:

From Coastline to Image: Walking and observing the coastline around Marseille, participants will use photography as a primary tool of notation. Through sequences, series and repeated views, they will identify specific situations – infrastructural edges, eroded topographies, left-over spaces, thresholds between city and sea – that call for a spatial frame rather than a single image.

From Image to Device: Selected photographs will be translated into precise spatial propositions: where a body stands or sits, what is inside and outside the frame, what is cut, masked, layered or reflected. Participants will develop small models, diagrams and scaled mock-ups that test how an apparatus can register time (tides, light, weather, movement) and recompose the landscape.

From Proposal to 1:1 Prototype: In the second part of the workshop, the group relocates further along the coast towards Cap Moderne, where each team will build a full-scale structure from simple, readily available materials (timber sections, rope, fabric, sheet materials, found elements). The resulting prototypes will be installed and tested in situ as instruments for looking: framing the sea, the slope, infrastructure, vegetation or the traces of modern architecture that characterise this coastline.

Apply

Instagram

Biographies

Julian Bächle is an architect and partner at bächlemeid, an architecture practice with offices in Konstanz and Berlin. He studied architecture at the AA and has collaborated with several studios and individuals, including Sauerbruch Hutton, John Pawson, Virgil Abloh, Oana Stănescu, Taneli Mansikkamäki, the Bauhaus Foundation and ROBERTNEUN™. In addition to his architectural work, Julian curates a biannual exhibition in Berlin that explores the intersections of architecture, design and art. As an educator and critic, Julian is a frequent guest at architecture schools across Europe. Most recently, he was teaching at Studio Stéphanie Bru at UdK Berlin.

Leonhard Clemens is an architect, photographer and founder of the collaborative architecture practice LNCL, based in Berlin. He studied at the Staatliche Akademie der Bildenden Künste Stuttgart, the Bartlett School of Architecture (UCL) and at the AA. In addition to his work as an architect, he has worked as a researcher at the University of Cyprus and taught at the University of Hanover and TU Berlin, among others. Since 2022, he has been leading a design studio at DIA Dessau, where he is currently a visiting professor. In his built and unbuilt work, he explores the interrelation between architecture, culture and politics.

Skills

Develop a critical understanding of the coastline as a designed and maintained environment, rather than a neutral backdrop.
Translate photographic observations into clear spatial propositions, moving from image to diagram, from diagram to built device.
Gain experience in designing and building a 1:1 prototype under real material, spatial and logistical constraints.
Learn to work collaboratively in small groups, negotiating site, concept, structure and construction sequence
Produce a coherent body of work: photographs, drawings, models and a built apparatus, to be documented and shared as part of the AA Visiting School Côte d’Azur series.

Working Method

Fieldwork and photography
Daily walks, site readings and photographic exercises to map relationships between sea, infrastructure, settlement and topography.

Design Development

Fast iterations through drawings, storyboards, physical models and on-site tests.
Individual tutorials and group pin-ups to sharpen each proposal.

Construction

Hands-on building of full-scale structures using simple tools and materials.
Emphasis on clear structural thinking, economy of means and the ability to assemble and disassemble on site.

Documentation

Each apparatus will be recorded through a final photographic series

Output

A series of analytical photographs from Marseille, identifying the chosen site condition.
A set of working drawings and diagrams describing the apparatus (plan, section, key details, sequence of views).
A 1:1 built structure installed on site along the Côte d’Azur coastline.
A final photographic series showing the apparatus in use – framing landscape, people and time.
A short project text (approx. 300–500 words) articulating the conceptual and material agenda.

Eligibility

The programme is open to current university students, recent graduates, PhD candidates and young professionals in the field of architecture, urbanism, design, arts, photography and related fields.

Fees

A non-refundable £60 deposit is required from all applicants upon application and will be deducted from the total fees below:

£995 — Standard Programme Fee (including a 1-year AA Digital Membership worth £60)

£875 — AA Member Fee

£748 — AA Full-time Student Fee

£855 — Fee for Full-time students of Melbourne University (including a 1-year AA Digital Membership worth £60)

Fees do not include flights, travel, food and accommodation.

A limited amount of scholarships up to 50% are available. Follow the Scholarship Applications process to register. Scholarships cannot be combined for those eligible for multiple schemes; only the one type of fee reduction will be applied.

Apply