Intro

With a focus on building the practice and methods of research in the context of architecture and design, this flexible programme allows you to tailor your studies to your research aspirations and development needs, going beyond what is offered in conventional taught postgraduate courses.

Completion of the programme provides a foundation for future research, whether through progression to doctoral study or via research careers in industry, professional practice or the public sector.

Students progressing from University of Brighton taught postgraduate courses which share optional modules with this MRes may be awarded up to 40 credits of recognised prior learning at Level 7 in lieu of taught modules.

Find out about postgraduate events

Key facts

Location Brighton: Moulsecoomb

Full-time 1 year
Part-time 2 years

Apply now for your place

Please review the entry requirements carefully and if you have any questions do get in touch with us.

Entry criteria

Entry requirements

Degree and experience
A 2:1 degree in a relevant subject. Students with a degree that does not fall within this category but who have significant relevant experience, will also be considered. All applicants should provide a full description of any research projects undertaken, relevant work experience and non-academic qualifications.

English language requirements
IELTS 7.0 overall with 7.0 in writing and a minimum of 6.5 in each element. Find out more about the other English qualifications that we accept.

Research proposal
Please provide a description of your area of interest, field of study, and the particular focus of your intended research project. This should include the context of your project, a short review of the key literature, your research questions, your methodology, considerations of the research ethics, a schedule and a list of references.

International requirements and visas

International requirements by country
Country name
Albania
Algeria
Argentina
Australia
Austria
Bahrain
Bangladesh
Belarus
Belgium
Bermuda
Bosnia and Herzegovina
Botswana
Brazil
Bulgaria
Burma (Myanmar)
Cameroon
Canada
Chile
China
Colombia
Croatia
Cyprus
Czech Republic
Denmark
Ecuador
Egypt
Estonia
Finland
France
Germany
Ghana
Greece
Guyana
Hong Kong
Hungary
Iceland
India
Indonesia
Iran
Iraq
Ireland
Israel
Italy
Jamaica
Japan
Jordan
Kazakhstan
Kenya
Kosovo
Kuwait
Latvia
Lebanon
Liechtenstein
Libya
Lithuania
Luxembourg
Macedonia
Malaysia
Malawi
Malta
Mexico
Moldova
Montenegro
Morocco
Namibia
Nepal
Netherlands
New Zealand
Nigeria
Norway
Oman
Pakistan
Palestinian National Authority
Philippines
Poland
Portugal
Qatar
Romania
Russian Federation
Saudi Arabia
Serbia
Sierra Leone
Singapore
Slovakia
Slovenia
South Africa
South Korea
Spain
Sri Lanka
Syria
Sweden
Switzerland
Taiwan
Tanzania
Thailand
Tunisia
Turkey
Uganda
Ukraine
United Arab Emirates
United States
Uzbekistan
Venezuela
Vietnam
Yemen
Zambia
Zimbabwe

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

View our English language courses

For pre-sessional English preparation courses.

Visit our International College

For degree preparation courses.

Visas and immigration advice

Applying for a student visa

Check out our step-by-step guidance.

Course content

Course structure

The programme comprises a taught element (60 credits) and a substantial research project (120 credits). 

Learning and teaching methods on taught modules, which vary depending on which options are taken, typically include combinations of studio days, lectures, seminars, peer reviews, workshops, group tutorials, one-to-one conversations and project reviews.

The research component will be supported and mentored by an academic supervisor who will advise on the development of your project and oversee its relation the university’s regulations and requirements.

How our courses are delivered

We’ve made some changes to the way our courses are taught to keep everyone safe, connected and involved in university life.

At the moment, students have a blend of on-campus and digitally enabled remote learning that provides lots of opportunities to interact and engage with lecturers and other students.

Areas of study

The core MRes research project is at the heart of your course. You’ll work on your project under the supervision of an academic member of staff who specialises in your area of interest.

The Research Practices module enables you to explore and develop designerly approaches to research.

Option modules help you to specialise in an area of particular interest and develop research approaches, methods and themes in more detail to support the specific focus of your research project.

Modules

Core modules

Design Research Practices

In this module you will learn to understand research in a way that’s specific to design. It starts from the idea that research, including scientific research, is a specific form of design activity and that design can influence research and vice versa. You will rearticulate the design expertise you’re already developing and apply this to research. You will also learn how to combine design research and practice in your own way.
Architectural Research Project

In this module you will undertake a substantial architectural research project on a specific topic of your choice, defined in discussion with your supervisor(s). You will draw on and develop research methods appropriate to your topic and approach in order to present a reasoned account of your research insights to academic standards, combining textual and non-textual elements.

Options*

Architectural Humanities

In this module you will develop a critical understanding of key contemporary ideas and issues in architecture and related areas through texts, debates and your own work. The emphasis in this module will be on your ability to develop well-informed and reasoned positions on the issues in question and communicate these effectively.
Situate

This module introduces established and emerging principles, theories and themes in design. It will help you to situate your work within modern design trends and global issues and discover and develop what motivates you in your field. Themes covered may include sustainability discourses, power and politics, decolonising design, equity and equality, systemic complexity and creating change through design.
Radical Modes of Design Culture and Practice

Design is a diverse and continually changing discipline and this module introduces and critically examines modes of design, exploring how people think, create and use design in practice. You will explore how design can reimagine current practices to establish new codes and ways of working that engage the ‘radical’ changes needed to address sustainability challenges.
Sustainable Design: Future(s)

In this module you will develop your project in a structured way, identifying the factors central to your ideas and seeing where these connect with other elements. You will learn how to identify key points for change and use communication and interaction to bring abstract ideas to life. Specific content will change year on year, but themes covered may include complex systems thinking and theories of uncertainty.
Critical Readings in Spatial Design

In this module you will explore historical, theoretical and practical issues in architectural, spatial and urban design. You’ll reflect on your own ideas and experiences while considering how these issues relate to different cultural contexts. Seminars will address issues of disciplinary context, including the interrelationship of architecture with technical, political, social and cultural fields.

*Option modules are indicative and may change, depending on timetabling and staff availability.

Staff profile

Dr Ben Sweeting, course leader

Ben’s research explores intersections between architecture, ethics and design methods in the context of systemically complex contemporary challenges. Drawing on transdisciplinary frameworks such as cybernetics and systemic design, his work has involved theoretical, historical and practice-based approaches and their combination.

Ben is an active member of the Systemic Design Association, the International Society for the Systems Sciences, the Cybernetics Society and the American Society for Cybernetics, and is a founder member of Brighton’s Radical Methodologies Research and Enterprise Group.

Facilities

Facilities and workshops are supported by full-time specialist technicians and include:

shared studio space dedicated to MRes/MPhil/PhD students
Fab Lab
specialist model-making and construction workshops with equipment for fabrication in wood, metal, plastics, resins and textiles
photographic studios and darkroom
digital fabrication facilities including laser cutting and 3D printing
rapid prototyping, 5-axis milling and CNC routing facilities
PC and Mac computer suites with software including Adobe suite (InDesign, Photoshop, Illustrator), Vectorworks, Autodesk suite, Rhino, Blender, Maya, Cinema 4D and Premiere
in-house reprographic department
wide range of surveying and audiovisual equipment available for loan.

More about this subject at Brighton

Celebrating Innovation and Excellence: Prize Winners of the Architecture and Design Summer Show 2025

The School of Architecture and Design came alive recently with creativity, celebration, and community spirit at the annual Architecture and Design Summer Show 2025.

Designing for a better world: How Brighton architecture and design students are building the future

From domestic safety for all to making emergency medicine more accessible, University of Brighton students are responding to everyday problems with bold and inclusive solutions.

Summer shows 2025: Kim Lau, Architecture RIBA Part 2 March

As part of our Summer Shows, we’re celebrating the bold, innovative work of our final-year students.

University of Brighton ranked among top 4.3% of universities worldwide

The University of Brighton has earned a place among the world’s leading universities.

Careers

Our graduates are equipped with a foundation of knowledge for careers in research, industry, the public sector or academia. The MRes provides well-rounded, research-based learning, plus the necessary transferable skills to prepare you for employment.

Fees and costs

Course fees

UK/EU (full-time) 9,250 GBP

International (full-time)17,900 GBP

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.

The fees listed here are for the first year of full-time study if you start your course in the academic year 2025–26.

You will pay fees for each year of your course. Some fees may increase each year.

UK undergraduate and some postgraduate fees are regulated by the UK government and increases will not be more than the maximum amount allowed. Course fees that are not regulated may increase each year by up to 5% or RPI (whichever is higher).

If you are studying part-time your fee will usually be calculated based on the number of modules that you take.

Find out more

Fees, bursaries, scholarships and government funding info for UK and international postgraduate students
Student finance and budgeting while studying
About the university’s fees by checking our student contract and tuition fee policy (pdf).

What's included

Here you’ll find details of specific resources and services that are included in the tuition fee for our School of Architecture, Technology and Engineering students. To help you to budget for your studies, there is also information on any additional costs that you may have to pay or can choose to pay in addition to your tuition fee.

Find out how tuition fees enable us to support all of our students with important services, facilities and resources across the university - https://www.brighton.ac.uk/whats-included-in-your-fee - and check out our finance pages for info about fees, funding and scholarships along with advice on international and island fee-paying status - https://www.brighton.ac.uk/fees-and-finance.

You can chat with our enquiries team - https://www.brighton.ac.uk/enquiries - if you have a question or need more information.

You may have to pay additional costs during your studies. 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.

Travel and accommodation costs are included for all mandatory taught residential field trips, but you’ll need to provide your own food and drink.
There will be opportunities to attend additional study trips or optional taught residential field trips throughout the school, but these are not required to pass your course. Normally, a contribution will be required towards expenses such as travel, entrance fees and accommodation. This will vary depending on where and how long the trip is, but you should budget around £1,500.
Where optional international field trips are offered, these are not required to pass your course. You should expect to budget £300–£500 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.
If you choose to take an optional paid placement, you’ll be expected to cover your own travel, accommodation, food and drink.
Some students require specialist outdoor equipment and/or personal protective equipment (PPE) and should budget up to £150.
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 of Brighton.
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.
In most cases coursework submissions are electronic but students may wish to print notes which would involve an extra cost.
Costs of up to £50 are included in the fees for students on engineering courses to pay for materials for their final year projects. On rare occasions where material costs exceed £50, they will need to be paid for by the student.

Architecture, interior architecture, design and product design additional costs

Students should budget around £25 for printing and binding dissertations in their final year.
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.
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.
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.

Location and student life

Campus where this course is taught

Moulsecoomb campus

Two miles north of Brighton seafront, Moulsecoomb is our largest campus and student village. Moulsecoomb has been transformed by a recent development of our estate. On campus you’ll find new Students’ Union, events venue and sports and fitness facilities, alongside the library and student centre.

Over 900 students live here in our Moulsecoomb Place halls and the new Mithras halls – Brunswick, Goldstone, Hanover, Preston and Regency.

Moulsecoomb has easy access to buses and trains so you can access all the exciting things happening in our home city.

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Accommodation

We guarantee an offer of a place in halls of residence to all eligible students. So if you applied for halls by the deadline you are guaranteed a room in our halls of residence.

Brighton: Moulsecoomb

Halls of residence
We have self-catered halls on all our campuses, within minutes of your classes, and other options that are very nearby.

You can apply for any of our halls, but the options closest to your study location are:

Mithras Halls are stylish new high-rises in the heart of the student village at our revitalised Moulsecoomb campus with ensuite rooms for more than 800 students.
Varley Park is a popular dedicated halls site, offering a mix of rooms and bathroom options at different prices. It is around two miles from Moulsecoomb campus and four miles from the city centre, and is easy to get to by bus.

Want to live independently?
We can help – find out more about private renting.

Modern accommodation at Moulsecoomb

Relaxing in halls near the campus

Student Union social space at Moulsecoomb

Local area

One of Time Out's 50 best cities in the world

“Brighton has… all the important parts of a sprawling cosmopolitan metropolis (connections to London in under an hour, an array of properly excellent restaurants, energetic late-night spots) … with the easy-breezy beachy attitude to life that makes you feel welcome in an instant.”
Time Out’s 50 Best Cities in the World, 2025

About Brighton

The city of Brighton & Hove is a forward-thinking place which leads the way in the arts, technology, sustainability and creativity. You'll find living here plays a key role in your learning experience.

Brighton is a leading centre for creative media technology, recently named the startup capital of the UK.

The city is home to a national 5G testbed and over 1,000 tech businesses. The digital sector is worth over £1bn a year to the local economy – as much as tourism.

All of our full-time undergraduate courses involve work-based learning - this could be through placements, live briefs and guest lectures. Many of these opportunities are provided by local businesses and organisations.

It's only 50 minutes by train from Brighton to central London and there are daily direct trains to Bristol, Bedford, Cambridge, Gatwick Airport, Portsmouth and Southampton.

Maps

Moulsecoomb campus map

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Support and wellbeing

Your course team

Your personal academic tutor, course leader and other tutors are all there to help you with your personal and academic progress. You'll also have a student support and guidance tutor (SSGT) who can help with everything from homesickness, managing stress or accommodation issues.

Your academic skills

Our Brighton Student Skills Hub gives you extra support and resources to develop the skills you'll need for university study, whatever your level of experience so far.

Your mental health and wellbeing

As well as being supported to succeed, we want you to feel good too. You'll be part of a community that builds you up, with lots of ways to connect with one another, as well having access to dedicated experts if you need them. Find out more about how we support your wellbeing.

Sport at Brighton

Sport Brighton

Sport Brighton brings together our sport and recreation services. As a Brighton student you'll have use of sport and fitness facilities across all our campuses and there are opportunities to play for fun, fitness or take part in serious competition.

Find out more about Sport Brighton.

Sports scholarships

Our sports scholarship scheme is designed to help students develop their full sporting potential to train and compete at the highest level. We offer scholarships for elite athletes, elite disabled athletes and talented sports performers.

Find out more about sport scholarships.

Brighton Cricket Academy

Develop your cricketing skills in the UK’s largest indoor cricket facility alongside studying for a degree. Whether you can already play or you’re new to the game offers the opportunity to train with top coaches in our world-class training environment.

Find out about the Brighton Cricket Academy.

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Take a tour of sport facilities on our Falmer campus