About the Programme

The AAVS @ The Sea Ranch positions one of California’s most iconic experiments in collective living as a framework for architectural inquiry. Rather than approaching The Sea Ranch as a resolved object, the programme studies it as an active prototype: a system of forms, codes, guidelines and cultural practices, that continues to organise patterns of life. Participants will work with the site as a living model, using its spatial, material and organisational logics to understand how architecture operates as a cultural framework and how these logics might be extended, adapted or reinterpreted over time. The aim is to treat The Sea Ranch as a source of transferable intelligence that can inform broader questions of settlement, form making and design strategy.

Over ten days on site, students will work through a structured sequence of observation, research and making. Fieldwork and archival study will establish a clear reading of The Sea Ranch as a spatial system: its typologies, materials, rhythms and cultural infrastructures. These readings will drive a series of design operations explored through drawings, models, scores, short films or precise spatial studies. The course emphasises clarity of thought, contextual intelligence and spatial reasoning, combining collective inquiry with individual direction. Participants will leave with a body of work that connects form, culture and context into a coherent design position.

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Key Features of the Course

• Immersive ten day residency living and working on site at The Sea Ranch

• Direct engagement with local archives, drawings and planning documents

• Fieldwork across the landscape and built environment to establish spatial readings

• Methods for observing, recording and extracting architectural logics

• Development of taxonomies, sequences and spatial scores

• Design operations explored through drawings, models or short film

• Initial iterative studies that test addition, removal and transformation

• Series of guest speakers from both the AA ecosystem and global architectural network.

• Structured studio environment combining collective discussion and individual direction

• Public presentation of work produced during the workshop

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About the AA Visiting School (AAVS)

The AA Visiting School (AAVS) is a global platform for experimental, site-based design studios developed through the Architectural Association. Each school is short, intensive, and collaborative and  typically lasting 1–2 weeks. They are rooted in a specific site, theme, or community. While formats vary, all AAVS programmes are grounded in research, documentation, and critical dialogue rather than commercial or speculative production.

Participants are typically advanced-level undergraduates, postgraduates, and early-career designers from around the world. The aim is to engage architecture as a lens through which to read and respond to place, using design to uncover systems, patterns, and potential futures embedded in the built and natural environment.

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