Architectural and Urban Design MA (PGCert PGDip)

International equivalencies

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

Why study with us?

• Experimental course that stretches your imagination and critical ability.

• Focus on the urban realm: the experiential aspect of cities and the gap between planned and lived.

• Field trips to cities including London, Berlin, Marseille, Glasgow and Edinburgh.

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

• Guest lectures from leading figures such as Anthony McCall, Stefano Rabolli Pansera, Katy Beinart and Peter Clash.

• 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 our applicant portal.

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, Cinem 4D, Premiere, Blender, AutoCAD, Maya and Rhino.

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

Staff profile

Sue Robertson
Sue Robertson has a BSc(Hons) in Architecture from the University of Bath, a Diploma in Architecture from the Polytechnic of Central London and a Research Masters in Cultural Geography from Royal Holloway, University of London.

Sue has worked as a professional architect for a number of high-profile practices in London, Sydney, Australia and Monterey, California. She worked with Denys Lasdun for several years on large projects in London and mainland Europe, including the extension to the European Investment Bank in Luxembourg. In 1994, she set up her own practice, designing and completing residential and educational projects.

Since 1994, Sue has taught on all levels of the undergraduate and postgraduate architecture courses in design and theory at Brighton, and currently leads the Architectural and Urban Design MA. She is a member of the Mobilities Research Group at the university and works collaboratively across the disciplines of spatial design, art, cultural geography and social science.

Student views

Birute Raglyte
"This course helped me to develop my skills as an urban designer, as the course leader encouraged me to form my own critical thinking and apply it to the development of different projects. Looking at the various approaches of the conceptual ideas and discussing some stimulating examples of physical and conceptual urban interventions, I discovered that the urban knowledge as a whole is highly layered and complex. Thanks to this course I learned how to approach and address the urban experience."

Laura Ferrarello
“My 18 months at Brighton was a breakpoint in my career. I developed my own visual and academic skills in terms of understanding, questioning and addressing contemporary issues, and managed to clarify my professional profile."

Birute Raglyte

Studio work

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

Location

Campus where this course is taught

Accommodation

Maps

Accommodation

University building

Moulsecoomb campus map