Course summary

The ambitions of the programme are framed by the propositions that the urban and its cultural, socio-political, environmental and economic contexts are defined by design operatives at different scales; and that architectural and urban plans are collective outcomes of these contexts. Architecture and urbanism are seen as symbiotic modes of enquiry driven by relevance and agency within a field which is defined in terms of a series of distinct diagrams that are always socio-political and spatial. The taught first year introduces students to research methods, academic writing, advanced analytical techniques and computation as they prepare for their independent dissertation projects. This is developed in the following year through design research, speculative proposals and critical writing, with the dissertation accounting for two-thirds of the programme.