Architecture BArch

This studio-based module introduces you to basic design, drafting, model making and drawing skills.

There are two dedicated days of studio tutorials per week. 

The semester finishes with the design of a small building that will test your understanding and application of the knowledge gained on this module.

The overall aim of this module is to give you an understanding of the impact that the built environment has on those who inhabit its space.

Through a two-hour lecture each week you’ll broaden your awareness of built environment design issues, illustrate how design decisions impact more broadly on environmental, economic, social and experiential issues and study behavioural psychology and its influence on built environment design.

This module introduces you to the principle of a holistic and integrated approach to building design.

Firstly, you’ll learn about the notion of thinking architecture, the fundamental principles of design and drawing skills and typologies as key areas of study.

Then you’ll focus on methodology and approaches relevant to the studio comprehensive design project with a more intensified examination of topics such as light, narrative and sustainability.

For this module you’ll have one, one-hour lecture per week.

This module introduces you to the technology, materials and techniques used in constructing buildings. It aims to help you understand how these elements form an integral part of the design process. Through two-hour weekly lectures you’ll conduct practical structural modelling exercises. This will help you develop a basic understanding of the qualitative behaviour of structures and the interaction between structural form and the loads that they have to carry. 

This module offers you an introduction to the history of architecture from ancient times to the present day. A two-hour weekly lecture aims to familiarise you with major architectural typologies and the social and technological changes that brought them into being.

This studio-based module develops your basic design, drafting, model making and drawing skills. Through the two dedicated days of studio tutorials per week, you will be introduced to historical precedents and computer-aided drawing programmes. These exercises will feed into a small comprehensive design project of a public building.

Introducing you to the environmental agenda as it applies to the architectural profession, you’ll explore the key bioclimatic strategies used to maintain appropriate conditions for the occupants of buildings, thus tying together occupant comfort, building schedule and climate. You’ll have a two-hour lecture per week using both physical modelling and computer simulation techniques to gain a better understanding of the strategies involved and their relationship with building design.

This studio-based module aims to develop your basic skills and approaches to architectural design through a series of design projects. You'll spend two dedicated days in the studio per week with emphasis on the 'craftmanship of architecture', improving the spatial, aesthetic, sensual as well as practical, structural and dimensional qualities of your design.

Dealing with small to medium-scale buildings, you’ll build on knowledge acquired in Tectonics 1, focusing on structural systems, building elements, material, components, connections, construction methods and detailing. During a two-hour lecture each week, you’ll learn how constituent parts come together to construct building entities through investigation and analysis of structural principles, detail, material composition and performance of primary building elements.

Following on from the key principles introduced in the year one module, Integrated Design in Architecture, you’ll further develop your communication and research skills which will underpin your work in both the theorisation and practise of architecture. Through one-hour weekly lectures you’ll explore the research methodologies and skills needed to identify and synthesise relevant and accurate information as well visual communication skills focusing on CAD programs, where skills will be developed through workshops and self-directed exercises.

Building upon the themes covered in the year one module Environmental Science for Architects 1, this module looks more specifically at the flows of energy that occur with and within buildings and how these relate to and integrate with some of the numerous systems employed that may help with their control. You’ll spend four hours per week in lectures studying for this module.

Following on from the previous module, Architectural Design Studio 2A, you’ll continue to spend two dedicated days in the studio per week aiming to develop a more comprehensive understanding of architectural design.

The module builds upon work covered in Tectonics 2A, developing practical knowledge and understanding of the material and technical dimensions of building design. You’ll study current trends in the construction industry, collaborative modes of working with specialists and learn how to apply this knowledge and understanding in the design studio.

You’ll increase your knowledge of building technology by focusing on components, connections, structural systems and construction techniques related to medium-scale and large buildings and their sustainable development. Study of the theory of structures, reinforced by practical studio based design projects, will enable you to quantify forces and actions in structural systems. The module will also increase your structural understanding through the study of some advanced structural forms. You’ll also study the impact of codes of practice, BS/EN Standards and building regulations on architectural design. You’ll have a two-hour lecture each week for this module.  

This course provides a historical, cultural and philosophical context to the major contemporary debates in architecture today. You’ll gain understanding of architecture's potential as a practically useful and culturally meaningful activity. Key issues from the history of philosophy will be examined alongside a range of building case-studies. This will enable you to develop a series of alternative interpretive frameworks through which buildings may be analysed, criticised, debated and understood. For this module you’ll have a two-hour lecture each week.

This course explores contemporary architecture in relation to major social, economic, political, ecological, and technological transformations after the Second World War. A wide range of topics including consumerism, globalization, mass media, cultural identities and changing economic structures are discussed in terms of their role in shaping architectural theory, practice, and built environment. Two hours of lectures each week employ building case studies, film excerpts, and assigned readings to analyse key concepts.

Introducing you to the context of professional practice, this module prepares you for your year in placement by discussing the year out, how to go about getting the right job and the skills involved in achieving this. Through two hours of lectures each week you’ll look at the important regulatory requirements and processes and the principles and priorities of running a traditional contract on site together with standard documents used in this process.

Building on previous IDA and tectonics modules, you’ll develop the context for integrated building design to an advanced level and to support its application through holistic design practices. Through a series of two hour lectures, workshops and tutorials, a range of technical topics will be covered that prescribe a range of multi-disciplinary inputs that an architect is likely to confront when devising a real project. Such thematic topics include daylight-sunlight, materials, façade, structure, building fabric, hydrology, embodied carbon and acoustics.

This studio-based module focuses on practical, architectural design skills through, three thematically connected, but distinctive projects.

You will spend two dedicated days in the studio per week developing the craftsmanship of architecture, its communication and its position in the wider physical, social, cultural, economic, technical and environmental context of the profession.

Following on from the previous module, Architecture Design Studio 3A, you’ll continue to spend two dedicated days in the studio per week aiming to develop skills & approaches in architectural design to a more advanced & complete level, completing in detail a comprehensive building project exploring a thematic topic of your own choice within the wider context of the profession.