Architecture

This module introduces architectural design through a series of practically applied, theoretically grounded projects. Within each project, an iterative design approach intends to focus on communicating an architectural proposal. The emphasis of this module will be on drawing, model-making, and other means of production (collage, video, photography, etc) to foster processes that are new to you at this stage, and to build confidence and architectural aptitude within small peer groups. Formative study skills activities provide a sandpit to test and experiment before exploring their use in a summative design project.

This module addresses the core knowledge of the history of architecture and offers a global perspective on the most pressing issues for the built environment, understanding that there are multiple histories and narratives, placed within socio-political contexts, attached to global histories, technological developments, and the current climate emergency.

The advancement of critical, inventive, and active thinking is one of the central approaches in this design studio. Each project begins with direct experience to ground concepts of architectural space, programme and material intervention in the city and incrementally builds a knowledge base, with an increasing scope for independent learning and individual response to various architecture briefs, which extend your
architectural vocabulary and introduces new architectural considerations to explore, resolve and communicate. 

This module introduces the ways architecture is produced from a technological, environmental and social perspective. Through a series of workshops, it introduces the technological contexts for architectural design and develops your skills in analysis, technical design methodologies and visual representation. It will also introduce you to concepts of participatory action research and design and collaborative working practices. You will take part in MSA Live projects to identify, develop and demonstrate the application of participatory design methods and collaborative practice, using real-world situations.

This module explores contemporary concerns relevant to architectural culture, within a given context with the potential for transformation. This module addresses global issues relating to architecture through the medium of a small to medium site within a local context to consolidate previously acquired skills and knowledge.

This module emphasises your own design abilities integrating technology and environment, and the ethical and moral implications related to practice, providing a holistic approach to architectural production that links technological performance with social awareness. You will deepen your knowledge and understanding of the environmental, material, and technological contexts, while increasing your cognitive understanding of the basic principles of ethical planning and building. 

This module gives you an opportunity to deal with issues of global concern, by adding a more overtly client and thematic overlay to tectonically-driven studies of built form. This module provides you with an opportunity to approach a site that is less constrained by physical context and invites you to explore design through alternative modes of thinking, such as spatial agency or other theoretically-driven approaches with the aim of activating a multi-layered built environment. 

This module expands your focus towards a pragmatic approach to architectural objects and the city, looking at networks (of people and things) that constitute the built environment and beyond, looking at the wider responsibilities of architecture within the sphere of urban studies and with a specific focus on sustainable environmental technologies (passive and active) and considers the design implications of climate emergency. It also looks at a wide range of urban artefacts and develops new methods of understanding their complexity, and the impact beyond the bounds of its own sites.

This module empowers you to apply and demonstrate your accumulated knowledge from the previous two years, alongside knowledge gained from the other modules of BA3. It provides methodological themes and contextual lenses for you to propose a design position and proposition. You must demonstrate an awareness and response to the contemporary issues of context response and social engagement. 

In this module, you have an opportunity to choose a topic of interest from a range of electives. Taught in small groups and aligned to the ongoing research interests of MSA staff, the electives are a collection of tightly-focused investigations into a specific aspect of architectural humanities. This research-led teaching is delivered through innovative methodologies and helps you foster your position in the contemporary debates. 

This module empowers you to apply and synthesise your accumulated knowledge, creating a critical design position and proposition, and a clear endpoint for your degree. The output is a rigorously tested project, including a synthesis of spatial, structural and construction skills, showing your maturity in terms of knowledge integration, innovation, and personally driven professional-built initiatives. The module is designed to get you ready for a close professional future and the necessary knowledge, skills, and resources to develop and enhance your career readiness.