Masters of Architecture

Contents

The approach to the discipline in this course understands architecture to be nothing less than complex. Architecture is enacted in multiple ways, asking its practitioners – be they professionals, students or tutors – to do many things: design, research, make, debate, innovate, construct, think, question, reiterate, ingest, perform, prepare, test, validate, appraise, negotiate, explain, experiment, produce. One way to negotiate the complexity of what the architect does is to think of these actions as forming part of what we might call a meshwork, which is knotted or tangled in places where designs, acts, ideas, constructions, tactics, strategies and spaces materialise. At the MArch level, students must be able to perform these actions critically and at a high level in order to construct complex ‘knots’ of buildings, spaces, and speculations. They must be able to engage with, analyse, deploy and evaluate, through these actions, complex social, cultural, material, and technological contexts, processes, and techniques, in order to produce design proposals and spatial transformation.

Architectural practice – and the study of it – understandably spends much of its time on what we might call the projective, i.e., design proposals of possibilities for some time in the future. It differs from many other creative disciplines in that the architect doesn’t normally produce the ‘end’ product, e.g., the building, but rather scaled drawings and models (digital and analogue) of that which is to-be-built. The constructed space is then made through the coordination of many different participants in the building process. Through multifaceted projective projects, we further develop our knowledge and experience of how the architect ‘practices the profession’ as designer and coordinator.

This course also understands architecture to be fundamentally about the transformation of space in all its complexity, and that, like the student of fashion who makes the garment or the student of fine art who makes the painting, architecture students should also engage in performative practices which change space in the present. This course’s distinctive focus on practices that transform space in ‘real time and place’, making explicit embodied and improvisational practices, broadens the architect’s range of activities, and empowers students through their own ability to actually make a difference. Ideas and critical theories of architecture both inform, and emerge from, these forms of practices.

The course, then, is distinctive because it is an integral part of a community of practitioners in a specialist art, design, media and performance institution with possibilities to interact with other disciplines and their methods of production. And it is distinctive because it offers students the ability to engage with projects with not only speculative design proposals as products, but also with actual in-the-world spatial changes as outcomes.

This distinction between the two methodologies (projective and performative) should not be understood as one of either/or. Indeed, they overlap and often take on aspects of each other. It is the relationship between these two methodologies which this course asks students to develop as creative professionals; the course supports architectural projects that empower students to generate questions and develop individual positions through a dialogue between conjectural, speculative design, on the one hand, and the direct transformation of existing spaces on the other. In those units that are primarily concerned with active space making students will be initiators and risk takers – entrepreneurs in the 'actual' production of space through constructed spatial events, working in 'real life' situations. In those units that are more concerned with a 'representation of some future condition' students are encouraged to situate their initiative and risk-taking in speculation upon, and 'validation' of, buildable architectural projects.

Students also need to develop a critical understanding of how the business of architecture functions. They need to learn how to work both tactically and strategically with potentially short-lived economic or cultural conditions, evolving work practices appropriate to the specific task or project, while allowing for longer-term trends. The course will not mimic professional practice (though 'real client' projects can have tremendous learning value), but engender a culture of practice, insisting on responsible professional attitudes. Through both the unit that covers Management/Practice/Law as well as through more discursive design engagement, students will encounter and develop alternative models of practice.

Routes to Professional Qualification as an Architect

Entry on the UK Register of Architects and the right to use the protected title of ‘architect’ is based on a three-part examination administered by the Architects Registration Board (ARB). Satisfaction of the requirements of this process by UK- based candidates, however, is normally achieved by successful completion of academic qualifications carrying exemption from the exams. This is normally achieved by three years of full-time academic study leading to Part 1, followed by a year in practice. Part 2 requires a further two years of full-time study. This is then normally followed by a second year in practice, which may be undertaken concurrently with part-time study for Part 3. Completion of all elements of this process is prerequisite to entry on the register. This route is also adopted by the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) as a condition of membership.

The Master of Architecture (MArch) qualification will be submitted to the Architects Registration Board (ARB) for purposes of prescription at Part 2. The MArch will also be applying for RIBA (Royal Institute of British Architects) Part 2 Candidate Course status, with view to full Part 2 RIBA Validation after graduating the first candidates. These applications are determined by the respective procedures. The target is to have all accreditation complete for the first graduates of 2013.