United KingdomThe Advanced Architectural Design MSc provides the resources for you to gain further skills in architectural design.
About this course
Our MSc Advanced Architectural Design is a degree course for international designers to enhance their design and research skills in the environment of one of the UK’s leading Schools of Architecture* (*We rank in the top 100 for Architecture – QS World University Rankings by Subject 2020). The course helps you consolidate your own identity as a designer, and develop your own distinctive specialisms through research-led design, in a world where successful architects increasingly have to be specialists as well as generalists. Our aim is to help you become a leading architect in the profession.
Architecture and Cities pathway
Full time: 1 year
This pathway focuses on the dialogue and interconnection between architecture and the fabric of cities. It helps you appreciate architectural design in the broader social, cultural, and economic contexts of cities. The pathway focuses on how architecture can be derived from detailed studies of particular urban communities, and determining what is appropriate in the strategic and detailed development of specific urban sites.
In all three semesters of the course, projects use community-based design frameworks which work with the surrounding context. Key themes of the projects are:
– holistic design frameworks
– notions of identity, community and culture in an urban context
– public space in an increasingly privatised built environment
The semester 1 design project uses the city as a laboratory for exploring ideas and design strategies in order to develop a masterplan for a significant city centre site. You will also take a module which enables you to develop appropriate research strategies for your chosen area of research in your design thesis.
The second semester design project returns to a more conventional architectural scale, exploring:
– ideas of meaning and identity in the urban environment
– the role that public space and buildings play in articulating notions of citizenship and community
You will also take a course which focuses on a series of seminal theoretical readings that relate directly to architecture and the city.
Building on this work you will complete a Design Thesis that:
– provides you with experience in design thesis processes and methodology by defining and studying a problem related to your own interests
– develops an ability to evaluate and analyse design thesis findings according to explicit criteria
– develops a response to the issues raised by your design thesis
