Portfolio Preparation for Architecture for 16 to 18 Year Olds Short Course
Course description
Course overview
If you've always been curious about architecture and are considering applying to study it, this beginner course is the perfect place to start. You'll gain insight into the practical and conceptual skills architects need, while exploring whether this creative and technical field is right for you.
While you may not complete a full portfolio in just one week, this course will equip you with the tools and understanding to begin building one. You'll receive clear guidance on what makes strong portfolio work, and plenty of hands-on practice to help you take those first steps with confidence.
This course is available on campus or online.
Who this course is for
- Students aged 16 to 18 with a passion for architecture, including beginners
- Students who would like to try something new, fun and learn in an inspiring environment
Key information
Topics covered
- Development of an architectural project suitable for inclusion in a portfolio for architecture or foundation course applications
- Introduction to spatial exploration through sketching, architectural drawing, and modelmaking
- Review and discussion of successful architecture portfolios, with guidance on key 'dos' and 'don'ts' for applications
Learning outcomes
- Kick-start your architecture portfolio
- Develop an understanding of the practical and conceptual elements of architecture
- Learn how to explore space through drawing and modelmaking
- Gain valuable insights and tips on making a good portfolio
- Receive a digital badge and certificate of attendance
- Develop an open-minded approach to art and design
- Experience art school teaching
For practical information about our kids and teens courses, take a look at our kids and teens information hub. This includes details of our policies on safeguarding, food allergies, learning requirements and online study.
Materials
On campus
Optional materials you may want to bring:
- Second hand magazines to cut up for collage
- Different types of cards and paper of various weights for model making (e.g. old cereal boxes, shoe boxes, grease-proof paper etc. -- they don't need to be white)
If possible, please bring a camera or camera phone to record the process of making the work, and the outcomes.
Everything else needed to complete the course is provided, but please feel free to bring any current sketchbooks or materials you enjoy using.
Online
Please see our Guide to taking online short courses.
Tutor
Robert Brown
Rob has worked for many years in architectural practice, covering a wide spectrum of sectors from large scale infrastructure schemes at firms such as Grimshaw to eventually specialising in design led residential projects. Now a multidisciplinary practitioner working across architecture, art and film, he also co-founded an experimental film company which explores new and immersive worlds. Rob continues to work out of a studio space close to the canal in Hackney, where he lives on a narrowboat.
\rFrom a family of builders, Rob has grown up working on site, first as a labourer during the summer holidays as a youngster, and much later as a multi skilled tradesperson and job runner of design and build projects. This cultivated a love of making which led to roles in the world of fabrication. Drawn to experimental projects, he is one of a handful of people to have successfully plumbed with real liquid chocolate as part of a theme park ride and created temporary timber chambers used for holding atomised mists of gin. The learning of cutting-edge analogue and digital fabrication methods are part of a continued commitment to his professional development.
\rOngoing research includes a practice which examines indeterminacy through chance operations in bringing unexpected objects into the world. This endeavours to look beyond the perception of good and bad, pretty/ugly, useful/useless in newly made things and instead sets up a space to encourage objective analysis and speculation as to their potential once created.
\rRob is a visiting critic at Universities throughout the UK and is a studio and academic support tutor on the spatial practices programme at Central Sain Martins School of Art, UAL.
Charlotte Grace
Dr Charlotte Grace teaches on the MA City Design and MA Architecture programmes at the Royal College of Art. Having studied in Oxford, Rotterdam, Ahmedebad and Venice, she has worked for Muf Architecture/Art, Cooking Sections, Novara Media. She recently completed a PhD on the spatial dimensions of the Rojava revolution.
Book a course
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