The AA’s satellite Hooke Park campus is Design + Make's headquarters for architectural research through 1:1 fabrication.
The 130-hectare working forest in Dorset, UK is owned and operated by the AA and contains a growing educational facility for design, workshop, construction and landscape-focused activities. Underlying these activities is the opportunity to develop new rural architectures and an ethos of material self-sufficiency.
Today the campus presents a 30-year history of experimental timber construction and rural architecture. Under the previous ownership of the Parnham Trust’s School for Woodland Industries, three remarkable demonstrations of round-wood construction were built: the Prototype House (1987), Workshop (1989) and Dormitory (1996), which offer a valuable legacy and point of reference for today’s students. Following the transition of ownership to the AA in 2002, the masterplan for campus development was redrawn and continues, with new academic, workshop and accommodation facilities developed each year by Design + Make.
Hooke Park is used by the AA throughout the year for activities in three categories: visits by London-based units; the Hooke Park-based Design + Make graduate school programme; Visiting School short courses. As well as being integral to the AA, Hooke Park is also part of the larger cultural and making community of West Dorset through its public programme of evening lectures, symposia, concerts and open days at Hooke Park.
