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Digital Craft in Architecture at Oxford Brookes University - UCAS

Course options

2024 - 2025
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There are other course options available which may have a different vacancy status or entry requirements – view the full list of options

Course summary

Digital technology continues to disrupt and transform how we design and build with sustainable materials. Our Digital Craft in Architecture MA is a unique transdisciplinary course that will equip you to engage with an evolving industry, as part of a vibrant community of practice. You will learn to craft designs with advanced digital tools, drawing on traditional knowledge of building to innovate with sustainable materials. You will gain skills in:

  • 3D printing
  • CNC Manufacture
  • Mixed Reality Making
  • Parametric and Computational Design
  • Generative AI
Networking forms an intrinsic part of the course; you will collaborate with industry partners and practices to develop innovative research projects with real world implications. As a professional, architect, designer or engineer, our course provides the ideal environment to make connections and create sophisticated designs that will be valuable in your career. By joining our community of practice, you will have access to our high quality design studios, providing a risk-free environment to explore and implement new, creative ideas. Course structure Working both individually and collaboratively, you will develop a unique body of design research, while considering advancements in the design and construction industry. You will develop methods of exploration, significantly between the digital and the physical, which include:
  • Digital prototyping
  • Computational design
  • 1:1 making with digital fabrication
  • 3D visualisation
  • Technical drawing for manufacture and assembly.
In order to promote networking and development throughout our course, you will work closely with your tutors, while engaging with practices and researchers. Your research will be guided by a collaborative research question that is influenced by industry approaches to sustainability and how digital tools can enhance the utilisation of traditional materials.

Modules

Advanced Digital Practice (30 credits) This module is designed to teach you how to design using a range of geometry, data, and scripting methods. It will also help you develop an understanding of the role of computational design in both theory and practice, and enhance your skills and control of digital tools to generate and rationalise complex geometry. Additionally, the module will assist you in developing the ability to systematically work through complex design problems using digital tools and communicate your process and key principles effectively. Design for Digital Manufacture and Assembly (30 credits) This module offers you the opportunity to learn and develop skills in both analogue and digital manufacturing techniques, as well as develop an awareness of materials and their uses, performance, and application in an industrial setting. You will develop your skills in transforming digital geometry into manufacture-ready information and designing parts and components with automation and digital manufacturing in mind. Throughout the module, you will build prototypes to test materials, processes and assembly, gaining an understanding of tacit knowledge of construction and embedding that in your design. Contextual Theory (30 credits) You'll attend lectures and seminars on the history of the master builder and the aspects of:

  • The significance of building tectonics from the perspective of anthropology
  • The relationship between designing, making and knowing
  • The 'modern' approach to materials and details in buildings.
On this module you'll gain an understanding of how building knowledge has developed and been broadcast in cultures. In the past, as well as in modern times, both in ceremonial and everyday contexts. Collaborative Project (30 credits) You will collaborate with practices, industry, academic researchers and tutors for your research project. They will help you plan a research proposal that has clear ambitions and impact in its outcome. Using your acquired skills, you will explore the potential of digital technologies. To reformulate and reinvent traditional knowledge of materials, craftsmanship and practice. You will create and test to produce your ‘proof-of-concept’; which starts your final project. Final project (60 credits) Your final project will represent a culmination of your research and skills learned throughout the programme. It's your opportunity to show your:
  • Research skills
  • Technical skills
  • Design skills.
Contextualised as an architectural project. You will develop a body of research into your chosen topic and propose and build an original work at 1:1 in groups. You will show a maturity of purpose and deep understanding. With your research in its wider context through the submission of a thesis report.

Assessment method

Digital Craft Skills

  • Design for Digital Manufacture - understand different methods of digital manufacturing. Develop a critical attitude in design. Understand the role of the digital model in manufacture and assembly.
  • Computational Design - show an ability to turn design modelling steps into an algorithmic tool for design. Understand how data can drive a digital design model and be a platform for cross-disciplinary collaboration.
Research
  • Test - set up design experiments that test known and unknown parameters.
  • Appraise - integrate results from digital and physical experiments into a body of knowledge
Design
  • Synthesise - integrate design research into a design project.
  • Create - original designs and ideas. Explore the role of tectonics and digital fabrication in design and construction.
- Communicate - share design strategies to the expert and non-expert audiences. With originality and skill using digital and analogue techniques.

How to apply

International applicants

Please see the University's standard English language requirements.

Entry requirements

Admission to the programme will be open to applicants who hold a minimum of a second class honours degree (2:2), or an equivalent overseas qualification, from courses covering skills in design, making, graphic communication, architecture, industrial design or fashion. Alternatively, applicants will be considered with an appropriate background working in a design practice, with a portfolio demonstrating 3 years of experience. Please also see the University's general entry requirements on the relevant course page of our website. All applicants will be invited to submit a portfolio for review. You can make your submission via Google Drive or similar and then share the link as part of your admission. Information on portfolio specifications & how to submit it, will be emailed separately upon initial processing of an application.

Fees and funding

Tuition fees

England £9700 Year 1
Northern Ireland £9700 Year 1
Scotland £9700 Year 1
Wales £9700 Year 1
EU £16600 Year 1
International £16600 Year 1

Tuition fee status depends on a number of criteria and varies according to where in the UK you will study. For further guidance on the criteria for home or overseas tuition fees, please refer to the UKCISA website .

Additional fee information

Fees quoted are for the first year only. If you are studying a course that lasts longer than one year, your fees will increase each year.
Digital Craft in Architecture at Oxford Brookes University - UCAS