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TSOA’s Immersion Program offers the opportunity to participate in an experience that elevates your architectural design skills and conceptual thinking through our school’s ethos of learning-by-doing. The program is geared to college-level participants and adults interested in deepening their understanding of the architectural discipline, and provides an opportunity to learn about architecture side-by-side with faculty and students at The School of Architecture.
Immersion Final rEVIEW
During the program, you will engage in a dedicated Immersion Studio, learn a brief history of Frank Lloyd Wright's Taliesin Fellowship, explore our historic desert campus at Cattle Track, and participate in events and field trips.
Alongside your design studio, all Immersion students are encouraged to audit Master of Architecture courses. Additionally, you will have the opportunity to observe and assist M.Arch students in the design process of their final Shelter Thesis projects.
Immersion Final Project Plan by Emmy Moses
The Immersion Studio presents techniques in the architectural design process, through exercises in drawing, composition, material assembly, and modeling. You will complete a final architectural project responding to a design challenge and present this at the end of the program to faculty and students.
TSOA’s Fall Immersion Program will engage the design of a small public project, taking into account issues of materiality, media, environmental change, social engagement, and local culture to inspire experimentation with materials and drawing techniques.
Students will evolve collages, modeling experiments and 1:1 studies into an architectural proposal with an open-ended performance program. A project site with distinctive natural landscape elements will further promote dialogue on how we can shift our relationship to the landscape by building with it.
View the Fall 2023 Immersion Syllabus
Organic Exhibition, 2022
TSOA events follow a long and famous tradition of fostering innovative public discussions and presentations at the School, hosting noted design, cultural, and scientific leaders. You will have the opportunity to participate in hands-on, multi-day workshops with renowned visiting guests. Yearly exhibitions organized by TSOA faculty offer additional opportunities to engage critical topics through hands-on learning.
Family Dinner
The School’s small scale facilitates an individualized experience and fosters a close and dynamic relationship between Immersion students, full-time students, faculty, visiting lecturers and staff.
As a part of the Immersion Program, you will contribute to daily community life and activities such as preparing meals, planning events, and engaging with a larger design community.
Cattle Track Arts Compound
TSOA is located at Cattle Track Arts Compound in Scottsdale, AZ, a dynamic arts community and historic campus with historic ties to Frank Lloyd Wright. Students work within an expansive studio environment, with access to shared woodshop, gallery, and event spaces at Cattle Track, sharing a culture of experimental building with its vibrant community of artists in residence.
is the Dean of The School of Architecture and the founder of Present Forms, a design practice that explores the techniques and reciprocities of materials, media and space. Present Forms is a member of design collective Office III, a 2017 finalist in the Museum of Modern Art PS1 Young Architects Program. Lin was named the 2023 awardee of the WOJR/Civitella Ranieri Architecture Prize.
is a designer at Aranda\Lasch whose interests lie in the liminal space between architecture and landscape, particularly in collapsing the urban/wilderness construct. Prior toworking with TSOA, he received his Master of Architecture at UCLA and a Bachelor of Art in Architecture at Berkeley along with a minor in Forestry and Natural Resources.
is the President of The School of Architecture, and is a teacher, practitioner, and researcher dedicated to experimental architecture. Established in 2003 with Benjamin Aranda, his studio Aranda\Lasch approaches design through a deep investigation of structure and materials. Recognition includes the United States Artists Award, Young Architects Award, Design Vanguard Award, AD Innovators, and the Architectural League Emerging Voices Award.
Tuition (Includes $1,000 non-refundable deposit)
$5,280
Housing (confirmed upon application)
$2,200 – $3,600
Total Cost
$7,480 – $8,880
Collage by Lee Pivnik
