THE UNIVERSITY of EDINBURGH

DEGREE REGULATIONS & PROGRAMMES OF STUDY 2024/2025

Timetable information in the Course Catalogue may be subject to change.

University Homepage
DRPS Homepage
DRPS Search
DRPS Contact
DRPS : Course Catalogue : Edinburgh College of Art : Architecture and Landscape Architecture

Postgraduate Course: Architectural Design Studio D (Integrated) (ARCH11092)

Course Outline
SchoolEdinburgh College of Art CollegeCollege of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences
Credit level (Normal year taken)SCQF Level 11 (Postgraduate) AvailabilityNot available to visiting students
SCQF Credits40 ECTS Credits20
SummaryThe emphasis in this course is to give students the opportunity to develop a major design project based on exploratory and creative work. It seeks to encourage projects that are investigative, poetic, theoretically and pragmatically informed, and that deal in a critical way with issues and questions of contemporary relevance. It looks for a sustained and rigorous process of study in all aspects of the student's work.

Course description The course's studio content, themes, methodologies, and approaches change on an annual basis and are determined by the studio leaders according to their research interests and expertise. Topics have previously included, for example, the use of digital sensing technologies to develop architectural proposals; the reuse, repair, and deconstruction of existing buildings and infrastructures; the development of low carbon and bioregional approaches to architectural materials and components; and the development of urban interventions in charged environmental and socio-political settings. Studios have addressed a variety of national and international contexts, including, for example, Edinburgh, Aberdeen, Berlin, Naples, Derry, and Tangier. The studio themes and methodologies will be described to students through briefing materials made available at the beginning of the academic year.

This course involves one routine studio day and one optional follow-up tutorial morning per week throughout the semester. The latter session also includes additional lectures and workshops as determined by studio leaders and in accordance with the specific themes and context identified in the briefing materials. In addition, over the course of one dedicated week, students might visit a site and engage in fieldwork, or participate in a multi-day workshop. Students are expected to engage by following the tasks and exercises in the briefing documents, which they will, individually or in groups, develop in advance of each studio tutorial.

Entry Requirements (not applicable to Visiting Students)
Pre-requisites Students MUST have passed:
Students MUST have passed: Architectural Design Studio C (Integrated) (ARCH11091)
Students MUST have passed: Architectural Technology Research (ARCH11075)
Co-requisites
Prohibited Combinations Other requirements None
Course Delivery Information
Academic year 2024/25, Not available to visiting students (SS1) Quota:  30
Course Start Semester 2
Timetable Timetable
Learning and Teaching activities (Further Info) Total Hours: 400 ( Lecture Hours 4, Seminar/Tutorial Hours 2, Supervised Practical/Workshop/Studio Hours 84, Formative Assessment Hours 28, Summative Assessment Hours 2, Programme Level Learning and Teaching Hours 8, Directed Learning and Independent Learning Hours 272 )
Assessment (Further Info) Written Exam 0 %, Coursework 100 %, Practical Exam 0 %
Additional Information (Assessment) This course has 1 assessment component.

¿¿Portfolio, 100%, May exam diet.

The portfolio is inclusive of an installation in the studio (mixed media) and a digital submission (60-70 pages).

The portfolio is marked to all four Learning Outcomes, which are equally weighted. Coursework is assessed by Learning Outcomes, and presented in the form of drawings, models, digital representations, etc, as outlined in the studio brief and discussed with course tutors.

The Learning Outcomes are defined in relation to the ARB Part 2 criteria required to be demonstrated in the course. Please refer to the Programme Handbook via Learn for detailed information.

Feedback Formative Feedback

Formative feedback is delivered by studio tutors verbally during weekly individual or group tutorials, and in response to the drawn/built in-progress outcomes of design exercises. It is delivered verbally by studio tutors and by invited guests during studio reviews, which are organised by studio leaders to support students in the development of their projects, usually around the middle and the end of the semester. In response to reviews, written feedback is provided by course tutors, critically reflecting on the work produced in relation to the Learning Outcomes, and communicating specific areas for further investigation and development.

Summative Feedback

Written summative feedback will be provided by studio tutors to individual students on completion of their coursework. Summative feedback will be provided as per University regulations.

No Exam Information
Learning Outcomes
On completion of this course, the student will be able to:
  1. Develop and act upon a productive conceptual framework for an architectural project or proposition, based on a critical analysis of relevant issues.
  2. Develop an architectural, spatial, and material language that is considered at an experiential level and that is in dialogue with conceptual, contextual, and environmental concerns.
  3. Investigate, appraise and develop clear strategies for environmental decision-making in relation to an architectural design project in a nuanced contextual situation.
  4. Strategically deploy differing forms of representation (e.g., drawing, modelling, photography, film, and workshop techniques), to explain a design project.
Reading List
Studio themes change on an annual basis and are determined by the studio leaders in dialogue with Course Organiser and Programme Director. Reading lists therefore change with each new thematic, and tailored reading lists are issued as part of briefing documents.

Examples of the texts read in the course have included:

Brand, Stewart. How Buildings Learn: What Happens after They¿re Built. Penguin Books, 1995.

Haraway, Donna. Staying with the Trouble: Making Kin in the Chthulucene. Duke University Press, 2016.

Hutton, Jane Elizabeth. Reciprocal Landscapes: Stories in Material Movement. Routledge, 2020.

Latour, Bruno. Down to Earth: Politics in the New Climate Regime. Translated by Catherine Porter. Polity Press, 2018.

Additional Information
Graduate Attributes and Skills Research and Enquiry: Creating architectural design proposals by identifying and evaluating the relevant conceptual, contextual, and environmental issues.

Personal Effectiveness: Setting objectives to formulate and evaluate design proposals that respond to a nuanced understanding of a context, and to current knowledge in architecture and the allied fields.

Communication: Using appropriate forms of representation and communication to articulate and effectively explain an architectural design proposal.
KeywordsDesign,Architectural Specialisms
Contacts
Course organiserMr Iain Scott
Tel: (0131 6)51 5785
Email: iain.scott@ed.ac.uk
Course secretaryMs Louisa King
Tel: (01316) 502306
Email: Louisa.King@ed.ac.uk
Navigation
Help & Information
Home
Introduction
Glossary
Search DPTs and Courses
Regulations
Regulations
Degree Programmes
Introduction
Browse DPTs
Courses
Introduction
Humanities and Social Science
Science and Engineering
Medicine and Veterinary Medicine
Other Information
Combined Course Timetable
Prospectuses
Important Information