BA Architecture has seven closely interrelated areas of study, delivered through project work, lectures, seminars, assignments, and supporting studies. Areas of study are: Studio Design Practice, Contextual Studies, Technical Studies, Media Practice, Personal and Professional Development, Professional Practice, Elective Studies.
Studio Design Practice forms the core of your studio-based learning and is directed by your studio tutors or through your own, self-directed projects. In individual and group tutorials, workshops, seminars and critiques you're encouraged to develop your design thinking, plus ways to support your position as a practitioner.
Contextual Studies locates your learning within an understanding of the historical and contemporary issues relevant to design for the human environment.
Elective Studies are offered as part of contextual studies. Working in mixed groups with students from other courses in the School, Elective Studies promotes critical thinking through the presentation of ideas, debate and discussion, and requires you to consider your subject and role in a wider contexts and to position your practice within the 'bigger picture' of cultural production and meaning-making.
Technical Studies looks at the theory and practice of materials, structures, production and construction. This area of study supports design development through practical as well as theoretical understanding of how design is both conceived and realised.
Media Practice takes in lectures, seminars and workshops that introduce you to the many ways design ideas are communicated through physical and digital media.
Personal and Professional Development provides the skills and knowledge you need to be an active member of a learning community, to become a self-sufficient learner, and to be able to enter the professional world and manage your subsequent career development.
Professional Practice explores the practice of architecture and the broader context of running a business. In seminars and workshops you'll consider how the profession influences the design and realisation of architecture, spaces and objects.
Main study - Stage One
Stage One introduces the core skills and concepts that allow you to develop design proposals and a critical understanding of design for the human environment. Through projects, workshops, seminars and independent study you're encouraged to explore issues related to the way we conceive of and understand the buildings, spaces and objects that form the world around us. You'll also consider the professional roles and responsibilities within architectural practice.
Main study - Stage Two
You'll continue to develop design skills and conceptual thinking, but the emphasis shifts to the exploration of personal responses to design issues.
Live projects, undertaken in teams and individually, offer a chance to do design work in 'real' situations, often with real clients, as a way to understand your own position in professional practice and to begin to identify your future direction.
Main study - Stage Three
The three parts of this stage allow you to consolidate your past experience and to explore, in depth, possible directions for the future.
'Consolidation' is a detailed building design project, bringing together your skills, conceptual ideas and understanding of architectural practice. 'Dissertation' is a major academic paper, on a topic of your choice that begins to frame your specific interests and critical perspective on design. 'Trajectory' develops in tandem with 'Dissertation' and offers the chance to undertake a large-scale, self-directed project.
These projects help you identify and define the specific area of design for the human environment you might pursue through professional practice or postgraduate study.
Industry collaborations
Working with paying clients on live briefs will give you valuable commercial experience which may mean your work being taken forward for production or, if so desired, in the purchase of your intellectual property. All paid projects are conducted within a carefully developed legal framework, which includes student agreements to protect your work and help you realise its commercial value.
Recent client projects in the Spatial Practices programme include: London Borough of Camden | National Trust | Arup | Mindfolio | New World Development | Grange Hotels | Oasis | Hot Spots Movement | Redbridge Council | Southbank Centre.
Once you’ve graduated, you may be picked as part of a small team to work on a live creative brief, organised by our Business and Innovation department, under the supervision of an experienced tutor. This can be a valuable first step in working professionally in a chosen discipline and has resulted in graduates being hired by clients.
