Architecture (Professional)

The Reflective Practice module provides an overview of the architectural practice, focusing on the management, operation & business aspects. Students are expected to demonstrate an understanding of the regulatory framework, forms of contract, project costing, procurement routes, principal design and construction stages, options for business models, and the RIBA and ARB codes of conduct.

Contemporary Cities explores the responsibilities of architects and other design practitioners and their role in creating sustainable, liveable urban environments. Students will explores the multifaceted dimensions of urbanisation as a cultural, political and socio-economic transformation process through interdisciplinary debate on global challenges (e.g. climate change, population growth, homelessness, forced migration, digital era) and models of city governance and design.

Transdisciplinary design explores ‘design research’ as an innovative solution to the complex problems of our society. The module establishes an experimental and transdisciplinary approach to design research that takes advantage of the LU-Arc `making' ethos unpacking the complex operational landscape in which design process is tied to, from extraction to production and use, to foster seeds and new approaches for design novelty, through critical conversation and the introduction of diverse practices and perspectives.

Design Studio M1 provides students with opportunities to development of their architectural thinking and ability to deliver sophisticated and high-resolution design propositions at the architectural and urban scales. Students will benefit from the engaging and inclusive LU-Arc studio culture. The module builds on design knowledge and skills learnt during undergraduate education and practice experience and asks for development of a detailed response to a complex urban problem through an architectural proposition from initial stages to a thorough technical resolution.

Design Studio M2 is structured around a `research by design' pedagogy that provides an evidence-based framework from which students can deliver a comprehensive design proposition that integrates theory and practice. Students will have the opportunity to define their own design problem in agreement with their tutor and are encouraged to be ambitious and innovative. The problem space should translate from a rigorous and self-guided research process that generates an original and appropriate design brief.

Students are expected to justify and be self-critical of their design approach and evaluate their investigation of spatial, environmental, social and economic contingencies in relation to contemporary practice.

The dissertation module takes an essential role in the further development of students' intellectual, critical and time-management competencies in the creation of an original and rigorous piece of research. Students are expected to identify their own research topics, resources and methodologies, with the opportunity to relate these to their practice-based learning and their final year design studio project.

Global futures invites students to discuss and analyse principles of sustainable urban design. Through an intense examination of the design of urban environments in the context of a shifting climate and increasingly complex human environments including such characteristics as walkability, population density and amenity profiles, we will expand our considerations as designers beyond the building to broader theories of landscape, and ecology.

This module is intended to complement and support the M2 Design Studio project, providing an opportunity for students to clearly and coherently articulate the structural, material and technical resolution of their design scheme.

Students will have the opportunity to demonstrate detailed consideration of contemporary aspects of construction legislation as well as broader strategic consideration of aspects regenerative, and sustainable building design, and building safety and construction processes throughout the building’s life cycle from construction to demolition.