In the autumn you study on campus and will undertake research and an ideas-led design project. You will choose from a variety of studios, each with a different theme, methodology and approach. If you are currently on the BArch Architecture degree (K100) or MEng (K230) at the University of Nottingham and are transitioning onto any of our accredited MArch Architecture Part 2 programmes, including the MArch Collaborative Practice Research course, you are eligible to apply for an exchange with international partner institutions. If you are transferring onto any of our accredited MArch Architecture Part 2 programmes, including the MArch Collaborative Practice Research course, from another institution, you are not eligible to apply for any exchange scheme, at any stage of the course.
In the spring you will explore inhabitation through the design of a complex cohousing scheme. You will choose from a variety of studios and study on campus.
This course looks at the world around us with feeling and understanding, and architecture that has a direct emotional impact through construction, material presence and connection to history. Fundamentally we will teach you how to make extremely good buildings.
Architectural Research Studio
This module is a design studio that aims to develop architectural design and critical thinking skills to an advanced level. The studio is project-based, and its activities follow a design process in which analytical investigations and research explorations into a particular theme, site, and research problem are applied to inform the development of architectural proposals.
Students have a choice of studio units, each of which embodies a distinct approach derived from their specific research focus and studio methodology, for example continuity, building systems, material language and urban transformation.
This module is tutorial and workshop based.
Design, Culture and Context
This module aims to develop a theoretical and critical understanding of architecture as an interdisciplinary field of research and practice. It will help to situate research in architectural history, theory, culture and criticism within the context of design studio work in relation to the broader culture in which architectural research and practice take place. The overall aim is the development of research skills that will be valuable both academically and in design practice – including the ability to identify a research problem and the methods required to address it, quickly, clearly and rigorously. This module is lecture, seminar and tutorial based.
Environment and Technology 1
This module aims to develop practical knowledge, critical understanding and competent ability of sustainable environmental and technological aspects of architectural design. The module is designed to support practical applications in the studio, reinforcing skills in the integrative nature of architectural design. This module is lecture and workshop based.
Professional Studies 1
The module will give an overview of architectural practice, with particular emphasis on legal frameworks, forms of contract, and structure of architect’s services (RIBA Work Stages). This will cover construction law, building regulations and planning law, with an emphasis on practical application through the design studio project. The scope also includes information management and modelling, estimating construction project cost, procurement routes, forms of contract, design development, and circular economy and whole life costing.
The programme has been carefully devised to integrate with the accompanying Architectural Design Studio, so that you can take the benefit of testing many of the professional topics that will be studied as your scheme develops. Areas of statutory compliance, project costs, procurement, fee bidding and client team are all to be based on work you are doing in the design studio. This will not only offer you efficiencies in learning but will also ensure you develop a holistic understanding of the development of a project.
This module is lecture and workshop based.
Architectural Design Studio
This design studio aims to develop the student’s core design, critical thinking and application skills through the production of a complex design proposal.
Each student will explore shared housing through a comprehensive design that is integrated across all three spring modules and resolved at a range of scales from wider context to detail. This studio aims to develop skills in housing design, and thereby address one of the pertinent issues today, the housing crisis.
The studio’s main project is structured by a rigorous design process that leads progressively from analytical investigations into site, programme and context, through to synthesis of a concept, which is applied to a complex design.
Students have a choice of studio units, each with a particular focus and methodology. This module is tutorial and workshop based. The coursework is project-based with each student producing a design portfolio.
Environment and Technology 2
Following on from Environment and Technology 1, this module aims to develop your practical knowledge and understanding of the environmental, construction, structural and technological dimensions of sustainable architectural design.
The module is designed to support practical applications in the studio, reinforcing skills in the integrative nature of architectural design and sustainability.
This module is lecture and workshop based.