The Architectural Association publishes titles that explore developments in architecture, engineering, landscape and urbanism, as well as the fields that touch on them – philosophy, history, art and photography. Founded as a means of examining influential contemporary projects and opening up ideas to debate, AA Publications has a long tradition of publishing architects, artists and theorists early in their careers. Approximately eight to ten titles are published each year plus two issues of our journal AA Files (available by the issue or by subscription).

Publication photos: Brotherton Lock

AA Files

AA Files is the Architectural Association School of Architecture’s journal of record and the successor to a long line of AA house journals (including titles such as AA Notes, AA Journal, Arena and AAQ) that began with the school’s founding in 1847. Launched in 1981 by the AA’s then chairman, Alvin Boyarsky, the journal appears twice a year and is sent out to members of the Architectural Association, individual subscribers and is distributed to a global network of bookshops. Since 2007 AA Files has been under the editorship of Thomas Weaver, the fourth of its editors, following Mary Wall, Mark Rappolt and David Terrien, who, with issue 57, initiated a redesign that saw the introduction of a new graphic design template, developed and still produced by the John Morgan studio, and a shift of focus in terms of its content towards more writerly models of scholarship, criticism and investigation, prompted not only by work, exhibitions and events from within the school, but by a rich and eclectic mix of architectural enquiry from all over the world.