Architectural and Urban Design MA (PGCert PGDip)

How this course is delivered

COVID-19 has changed everything. We’ve made some changes to the way our courses are taught to keep everyone safe and that will help you stay connected and involved in university life.

From the start of term in September, you’ll learn through a blend of on-campus and digitally enabled remote learning that will provide lots of opportunities to interact and engage. Together with carefully managed access to libraries, labs, workshops and studios this means your studies are as collaborative, practical and flexible as possible.

Why study with us?

• Experimental course that stretches your imagination and critical ability and helps you to become a leader in your field

• Based in the creative and vibrant city environment of Brighton and Hove, and with close proximity to London


• Past field trips to cities have included London, Berlin, Marseille, Lisbon, Glasgow and Edinburgh

• Teaching staff who are also practitioners in architecture and urban design

• Workshops and guest lectures from leading figures such as Robert Mull and Publica, Ed Parham of Space Syntax, artist Anthony McCall, Stefano Rabolli Pansera of Beyond Entropy


• A thriving alumni network of professional architects, academics and urban designers

Making sure that what you learn with us is relevant, up to date and what employers are looking for is our priority, so courses are reviewed and enhanced on an ongoing basis. When you have applied to us, you’ll be told about any new developments through Student View.

Students on a field trip at the Unite d’Habitation designed by le Corbusier, built between 1947 and 1952

Areas of study

The course is taught over three semesters over 12 months.

Design 1: Urban Strategies

This module introduces you to design strategies, methods and issues pertinent to your design studio, helping you to explore the potential of different approaches to design. There is a strong emphasis on the development of conceptual ideas and their correlation with the development of design strategy, helping you to articulate your individual position as a design practitioner.

Design 2

Design 2 aims to consolidate and extend the priorities, ideas and strategies established in Design 1. You will explore architectural and urban ideas in more depth and complexity. The emphasis here is on curiosity and speculation, supporting the development of methods to help with enquiry, reflection and debate.

Independent Project

The independent project runs concurrently and is concerned with your identification of places of ‘conflict’ and negotiations of space. The module encourages experimentation in a specific field of study. Students have developed projects in fields of architectural and artistic practice, creative design, techniques of communication or new technologies.

Critical Readings

The Critical Readings module will develop your skills in critical practice through an analysis of cultural, historical, theoretical and practical issues in architecture. It provides the opportunity to carry out initial investigations into the ideas that will drive your masterwork project.

Research Practices

Research Practices introduces you to the challenges involved in designing, implementing and disseminating a research project. You will develop a written proposal that can inform the development of your masterwork project, encouraging you to consider how your investigations contribute to the academic knowledge in your field.

Masterwork

The masterwork is the final stage of study, requiring you to perform as a self-reflective critical researcher and lay down the foundations for innovation in your future practice. You will develop your project from an agreed research proposal, which may be either a text-based dissertation or a design-led research project with critical reflection. You will be asked to focus the areas of interest that have developed in your previous practice and studies, identify research questions and develop research methods, bringing critical investigation and creative responses together.

Entrance to the Kings Cross Historic Game by Ekaterina Novikova

Examining the permeability of the boundary to the Kings Cross site by Evelina Klimaite

Facilities

• You will benefit from a new masters centre including studio space, tutorial areas and shared creative spaces.

• Modelling and construction workshops: timber and metal, dedicated 'wet' modelling bay, plastic dying facility, drill press, spray booth, vacuum former, strip bender, plastics oven, hot wire cutter and spot welder; further workshops available by arrangement with rapid prototyping and laser cutter.

• IT facilities include 3D paper and printer, plotters, scanners and a reprographics suite.

• Software includes Adobe suite (Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, Acrobat Professional), VW2010, Cinema 4D, Premiere, Blender, AutoCAD, Maya and Rhino.

• Library facilities include additional computing equipment, digital and hard copy specialist library facilities, and specialist collections.

Meet the team

Sarah Stevens, course leader

Sarah’s research interests focus on architectural engagement with temporality, ambiguity and uncertainty explored through agendas of sustainability and architectural experience. This work directly informs her teaching and design studio agendas and was informed by her PhD in responsive architecture, focusing on kinetic facades, sponsored by Arup.

Previously a senior architect in practice, Sarah’s experience included design research into zero carbon housing prototypes and the development of adaptive portable structures. As a freelance consultant her work has included contributions to the BRE Green Guide to Specification for Housing and Green Guide to Specification for Offices. Read Sarah's full profile.

Other staff who teach on the course include:

Sue Robertson, Alex Fitch, Sam Lynch, Ben Sweeting, Sally Sutherland, Peter Clash, Ed Parham and Judit Pusztaszeri.

Student views 

Studio work

Our studio produces an astonishing variety of work, but the core values remain the same: critical engagement and creative response.

International requirements and visas

We can help you meet our English language or academic entry requirements.

Visas and immigration advice

Course fees

Scholarships, bursaries and loans

We offer a range of scholarships for postgraduate students. Bursaries and loans may also be available to you.

Find out more about postgraduate fees and funding.

What's included

You may have to pay additional costs during your studies, although we have tried to keep this to a minimum. The cost of optional activities is not included in your tuition fee and you will need to meet this cost in addition to your fees. A summary of the costs that you may be expected to pay, and what is included, whilst studying a course in the School of Architecture and Design are listed below:

• In your first year of studies, you will need to buy a drawing and modelling toolkit. Each course will suggest a list of items of which some will be essential, and others optional. You should budget around £100–£250 for these.
• For most courses you will need to budget between £100 to £300 per year for printing and portfolio costs. Costs will vary depending on type of printer and type and size of paper used. Some students tend to work digitally, spending more on printing and some by hand, spending more on materials so these costs vary widely between students.
• Most essay and report submissions can be made online however, you should budget around £25 for printing and binding dissertations in your final year.
• For most courses you will need to budget between £10 and £100 for material costs per design project. Costs will vary depending on how and what you use to make models. You are encouraged to recycle used materials where possible.
• Course books are available from the university but you may wish to budget from £15 to £100 per year to buy your own copies and subscribe to design magazines.
• You will have access to computers and necessary software, however many students choose to buy their own hardware, software and accessories. The amount spent will depend on your individual choices but this expenditure is not essential to pass any of our courses. Find out what free software is available from the university.
• You will need to budget between £5–£50 to exhibit work for the end-of-year show. Fundraising by the student society, BIAAS, normally helps towards this cost.
• Most courses include mandatory site visits and travel expenses are included in the fees.
• There will be opportunities to attend additional study trips throughout the course but these are not required to pass your course. The cost of travel to them will be covered by the course but there may be additional costs varying from a packed lunch to entrance to a museum.
• International field trips are offered in each year which are optional and are not required to pass your course. You should expect to budget approximately £150–£350 for these, to cover flight, accommodation, food and entrance to museums. The total amount spent would be based on location and number of trips taken.

You can chat with our enquiries team through the Stay in touch panel at the end of this page if you require further information. Or check our finance pages for advice about funding and scholarships as well as more information about fees and advice on international and island fee-paying status

Info

The fees listed here are for full-time courses beginning in the academic year 2020–21.

Further tuition fees are payable for each subsequent year of study and are subject to an annual increase of no more than 5% or RPI (whichever is the greater). The annual increase for UK/EU students, who are subject to regulated fees, will increase no more than the statutory maximum fee.

You can find out more about our fees in the university's student contract and tuition fee policy (pdf).

The tuition fee you have to pay depends on a number of factors including the kind of course you take, and whether you study full-time or part-time. If you are studying part-time you will normally be charged on a pro rata basis depending on the number of modules you take.

Local area

Campus where this course is taught

Accommodation

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