Course summary

The programme engages with real-life problems affecting buildings and cities throughout the world. Providing alternatives to the global architecture and brute force engineering that are still the norm in most large cities requires new knowledge on what makes a sustainable environment and the role architecture can play. Design research for the SED Masters programme is driven by strict performance criteria following a process of adaptive architecturing that proceeds from inside to outside, attuning the built form and its constituents to natural rhythms and inhabitant activities. Key objectives of all SED projects are to improve environmental conditions and quality of life in cities, achieve independence from non-renewable energy sources and develop an environmentally sustainable architecture able to adapt and respond to changing urban environments.