Architecture course University

Please note that this is an indicative list of modules and is not intended as a definitive list. Those listed here may also be a mixture of core and optional modules.

Year 1

• The Principles of Reading Architecture

• The Principles of Reading Architecture

  Architecture exists at the root of culture: it is shaped by cultural, artistic, social and historical factors and in turn impacts on its wider cultural and physical contexts, transforming them through its physical presence. The reading of history reveals the connections between the past and present: ritual and practical requirements have always been embodied in buildings, disclosing both past world views and the particularities of specific, local conditions. The reading of a site establishes a basis for making an intervention in that site and by doing so, initiates a process of change.

  This module provides you with a chronological survey of architectural history, focusing on illustrative case studies. It introduces the study of precedent, exploring the ways in which ideas that emerge from such studies can inform a developing design project. The module establishes methods for analysing sites and their wider contexts, and asks you to begin to acknowledge the fundamental importance of the subject and context of a project, in the development of an appropriate architectural response.

• The Principles of Designing Architecture

• The Principles of Designing Architecture

  Architecture is a profession. Working within a social and ethical context, architects bring together different factors related to the brief, programme, environment, available resources, codes of professional conduct and legislation. They develop projects towards their resolved conclusions through an iterative process of testing and refining ideas. This module introduces you to the profession of architecture and the professional context within which architecture is made. It offers you the opportunity to begin to understand themselves as professionals, through the introduction of key skills and practices. You are asked to explore and demonstrate methods for developing propositional work. You are also encouraged to manage and appraise your work and become independent and reflective learners.

• The Principles of Representing Architecture

• The Principles of Representing Architecture

  Architecture is an act of interpretation. This might emerge through direct experience or through representation in another form, whether visual, oral or literary. Representations of architecture both construct its meaning and are fundamental to the processes of its design. A completed work of architecture brings together the different concerns, which have informed its development and translates them into a coherent spatial and material whole.

  This module provides you with a historical, theoretical and practical introduction to cross-disciplinary techniques and examples of architectural representation. It asks you to complete an architectural design project and introduces the idea that a successful proposition manifests the complex and imaginative inter-relationships between physical, environmental, social and cultural factors. It asks you to consider how some of these inter-relationships are interpreted within your own project, through the appropriate employment of a range of techniques of representation, across two and three dimensions.

• The Principles of Making Architecture

• The Principles of Making Architecture

  Architecture is a material practice. The act of making a building is described tectonically, in the relationships between the materials it is made from, the methods of its construction and the structures that support and stabilise it. The physical character of a building and the ways in which it is made are fundamental to its architectural quality and atmosphere, its relationship with its environment and the ways in which it is inhabited by its users. This module introduces you to the consideration of architecture as a material condition, and begins to ask you to consider how a building is made as a fundamental part to a wider architectural conversation. It asks you to investigate materials first-hand, to explore their qualities, and considering how they may be brought together and employed within an architectural project. It begins to explore how a building can offer a comfortable and sustainable environment for its users.

Year 2

• The Processes of Reading Architecture

• The Processes of Reading Architecture

  Architecture is a cultural construct. Buildings have always engendered personal, cultural and /or political perspectives, the study of which reveals historical developments in philosophy, socioeconomic and environmental drivers and 'imperatives' and theoretical ideas. An understanding of these developments in relation to precedent study opens students up to broader understandings of both physical and cultural contexts. This module introduces you to some of the theoretical ideas that have influenced and which currently direct the development of architecture, developing your practical and analytical research skills in relation to given design briefs. It develops your ability to analyse sites and their wider contexts and encourages a deeper understanding of the ways in which precedent can inform a developing design project. Through this you are encouraged to take a position in relation to this research.

• The Processes of Designing Architecture

• The Processes of Designing Architecture

  Constraints are a creative opportunity. User requirements and legislative frameworks, taken alongside the 'reading' of a site, inform the iterative development of a design project. This module will address the professional, legislative, ethical concerns which inform the procurement of an architectural project. It will also encourage the exploration of self-reflective and critical working methods within the development of a project.

• The Processes of Representing Architecture

• The Processes of Representing Architecture

  A work of architecture represents the drawing together of physical, environmental, social and cultural factors: interpreting, conceptualising and integrating them into a body of ideas that can shape a building. Architects employ a diverse range of media, across two and three dimensions in order to both explore these ideas and to communicate them and the resulting project to different audiences.

  This module assists you in the refinement of representation skills and techniques and develops their approach to the representation and communication of their design proposal. This enables you to arrive at a formal, spatial, contextual and programmatic resolution of a design project.

• The Processes of Making Architecture

• The Processes of Making Architecture

  At both a strategic and a detailed level, the ways in which a building is made are fundamental in defining its architectural character. This module provides the foundations for the knowledge, techniques and skills that a student will need to master in order to construct and structure a holistic architectural proposition. The module will cover an introduction to engineering, building components, building systems and building skins. This knowledge will be mainly taught through lectures. You will apply the acquired knowledge to both an existing building and your own design proposal.