AP Core
Preparation for applying to architecture school. Self-guided.
I found the materials extremely helpful and insightful. They allowed me to formulate a clear plan for what I would like to produce in the coming months.
C.K – BSc applicant for 2027 entry
What this is
A self-guided, comprehensive digital resource accessed via a private link, containing a combination of guides, templates, and exercises forming the basis of AP’s tutoring.
Included with tutoring enrollments
Students on tutoring enrollments have access to AP Core by default.
Can be requested outside of tutoring enrollments
AP Core can be requested outside of tutoring enrollments. For those who prefer not to start a tutoring enrollment, AP Core can be requested first, with the option to then request markups.
Access is for a six-month period.
AP Core contains
- Student Handbook
- An 8000-word document detailing the architecture school application process, from understanding what architectural education involves to preparing and submitting application materials. It explains how architecture schools teach, assess, and review student work. The document covers application portfolios and their requirements, essays and their requirements, research proposals, and interviews, outlining their roles in communicating an applicant’s interests and ways of thinking. It addresses common pitfalls and illustrates how personal interests can translate into architectural ideas. It also sets out a realistic timeline for developing work and organising the year leading up to application deadlines.
- Student Handbook Quiz
- To help you check your blind spots.
- Portfolio Template
- A PDF outlining how a portfolio can be structured. Includes an example portfolio.
- Personal Statement Template
- A document outlining ways to introspectively understand how your personal interests may relate to architecture. This document would provide the basis for architecture-specific application essays (US BArch Supplemental Essays, US MArch 1 SoP’s, and the UCAS Personal Statement).
- Visual Exercises
- A set of step-by-step exercises to get students to loosen up and overcome the fear of the white page. These exercises develop core drawing/visual skills, and, in addition to more personally-invested visual projects, can become a starting point for some portfolio projects.
- Reading List
- A list of 30-40 texts, covering Perception & Phenomenology, Theory & Criticism, Space Drawing & Representation, Society Ethics & Context, History & Precedent, Nature Landscape & Environment, and Making & Craft. Texts are also included outside of the classic architectural canon (David Foster Wallace, Zadie Smith) to help students grow confidence with their personal statements and other application essays.
- A list of all architecture schools in the US and UK. Not ranked.
This is intended for
- Applicants to professional undergraduate programs (UK ARB/RIBA Part 1, US BArch, etc.)
- Applicants to the US MArch 1 professional programs.
- Applications to MArch 1 programs are similar in scope to professional undergraduate program applications, since both require portfolios and personal statements from students with limited existing visual work.
Reading, writing, thinking — it’s all the same thing.
Wallace’s essays fracture linear argument into footnotes, digressions, and self-interruptions, performing postmodern deconstruction at the level of the sentence. The lesson for architectural writing is that the form of an argument can itself be the argument.
Architecture portfolios are largely non-verbal documents.
Portfolio work should be loosely related to architectural themes. Ideally, it should be spatial — concerned with three-dimensional thinking, or focused on the relationship between the second and third dimensions. Work that explores materials, making, or representation also falls into this category.
When in doubt, return to your interests.
Draw / make / do (not think).
The more introspective the student, the more high-quality work they will make.
The work should explain itself on the page.
One well-developed project is far more convincing than many poorly developed ones.
The best work exists because its author had the discipline to make it.
There is also strong developmental work from page to page. Each project begins with exploratory ideas and progresses toward more resolved types of work. Developmental work like this is very important to include, as it shows how the student thinks — it convinces schools that the student would be easy to teach.
If a portfolio contains only independent work, admissions committees may question why the student did not choose to take art courses. Conversely, if a portfolio contains only schoolwork, reviewers may assume the student is not self-motivated or lacks initiative.
This is ultimately a matter of discipline more than talent.
If you have an extra hour on your hands, don’t read. Make more visual work.
The goal is to get you seeing / sculpting with your pencil.
These early studio projects are still fundamentally architectural. They often focus on drawing, space, making, and design representation — particularly the ability to translate between three-dimensional space and two-dimensional media in order to communicate architectural ideas.
Because admissions reviewers know nothing about you at the outset, the essay should first focus on who you are before delving into your architectural interests or academic goals. It is a give-and-take: you describe why you are suited to the school, and also what you would bring to it.
If the graphic design of the portfolio dominates the content, then the portfolio has a fundamental problem.
There is a direct link between how advanced your thoughts are and how advanced your writing skills are.
Creating space to do work, both physically and within a schedule, is one of the most important conditions for creativity.
A reader should be able to sense a singular, coherent interest across both documents without it being overexplained.
A theme should loosely connect your individual projects without restricting your creative exploration. The goal is to offer narrative coherence so that your work persuasively connects across the entire portfolio — ideally tying back to your personal statement, creating a unified voice across your whole application.
Only once students move beyond their preconceptions of what they believe architecture to be can schools effectively teach architectural design.
When a portfolio is dominated by this kind of work, schools are forced to ask whether they would want to unteach the applicant’s fixed preconceptions about what architecture is. In many cases, the answer is no, and this can negatively affect the application.
