Architectural and Urban Design

Working across the disciplines of architecture, art and cultural geography, our Architectural and Urban Design MA combines critical debate and creative practice to help you develop as a designer who will plan the urban environments of the future.

You will benefit from a supportive studio environment, two field trips and a variety of workshops and seminars, taught by active practitioners in architecture and urban design. You will engage with research on the analysis of cities and lead your own projects, speculating as to how cities will evolve and be used in the future.

The course is highly experimental and aims to stretch your imagination and critical ability. You will produce innovative portfolios and learn about the issues of global urban environments, expanding your knowledge beyond the usual subject boundaries.

Academic Context

Urbanism and urban design are ambiguous terms that surround and reflect both the physical and mental attributes applied to the built environment.

The material of roads, pavements, buildings, railways, bridges and so on represents the physical. The mental is represented by narratives, histories, personal perceptions and anticipations.

The two sensibilities combine to form a layered knowledge of the city, which could be compared to a mature palimpsest or to semi-obscured archaeology. In this context, we study the city with emphasis on the space of the private realm and its seamless engagement with the public domain.