Postgraduate Course: Architectural Design Studio A (Modular) (ARCH11295)
Course Outline
| School | Edinburgh College of Art |
College | College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences |
| Credit level (Normal year taken) | SCQF Level 11 (Postgraduate) |
Availability | Not available to visiting students |
| SCQF Credits | 40 |
ECTS Credits | 20 |
| Summary | The emphasis in this course is the development and refinement of the structural, material, technical, environmental, and legislative aspects of the student's design project. These are not pursued as ends in themselves, but as part of a fully integrated design project guided by conceptual, theoretical, contextual, and ethical concerns. |
| 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. The urban and architectural enquiry initiated in the linked Architectural Design Studio E course, and a shared set of thematic and contextual concerns, inform the design of more complex architectural assemblages, which are developed to a high degree of spatial articulation, technical elaboration and resolution. 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 per week throughout the semester, with one additional half day when required for programme-wide lectures and tutorials about environmental, structural and fire safety design, or for optional tutorials. The latter sessions also include additional lectures and workshops as determined by studio leaders and in accordance with the specific themes and context identified in the briefing materials. 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 |
|
Co-requisites | |
| Prohibited Combinations | |
Other requirements | None |
| Additional Costs | This Course requires additional costs to be met by the Student.
Equipment and software: Most equipment and software required will be provided by the School, but students will be expected to provide some specialist equipment [e.g. laptop headphones, SD cards].
Printing: Students are expected to fund the printing of drawings, as required for testing, presentations, and tutorials.
Materials: Students will be expected to fund the purchase of general art and design materials, such as sketchbooks, paper and pens. Students will be expected to fund the purchase of some specialist materials required by their course (e.g., timber, cardboard, and plaster for models). Course Organisers will support you in meeting intended learning outcomes while keeping material costs to a minimum, encouraging sustainable, responsible sourcing through the Free Use Hub. However, students will be expected to fund optional material costs as necessary for their own project work.
To fully participate in this course students are recommended to budget a minimum of £250. |
Course Delivery Information
| Not being delivered |
Learning Outcomes
On completion of this course, the student will be able to:
- Organise a complex architectural and programmatic assemblage in response to a nuanced contextual situation (e.g., the built, social, technological, urban, and environmental contexts) and to the associated conceptual framework.
- Design a complex building to a high degree of resolution, with reference to the structural, constructional, environmental, material and legislative aspects of a project.
- Propose architectural and urban environmental strategies that address, to a high degree of specification, sustainability, embodied and operational carbon and energy, fire safety, and climate.
- Critically identify and present complex design proposals through appropriate forms of representation (e.g., drawing, modelling, photography, film, installation, and workshop techniques).
|
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, with tailored reading lists issued as part of briefing documents.
Examples of the texts read across studio units may include:
Deplazes, Andrea. Constructing Architecture: Materials, Processes, Structures. A Handbook. Birkhäuser, 2022.
Hartman, Hattie. Materials: An environmental Primer. RIBA Publishing, 2024.
Heywood, Huw. 101 Rules of Thumb for Sustainable Buildings and Cities. RIBA Publishing, 2019.
Lewis, Paul, Marc Tsurumaki and David J. Lewis. Manual of Biogenic House Sections. Oro Editions, 2022.
Pelsmakers, Sofie. Environmental Design Pocketbook. RIBA Publishing, 2015.
Stollard, Paul. Fire from First Principles: Fourth Edition. Routledge, 2014 |
Additional Information
| Graduate Attributes and Skills |
You will develop your research skills by creating, identifying and evaluating the structural, constructional, environmental, material, and legislative aspects of a complex design proposal (critical thinking and problem solving).
You will develop your personal effectiveness by setting objectives to formulate and evaluate design proposals (reflection) that respond to current knowledge about sustainability, embodied carbon, operational energy, fire safety, and climate (adaptivity).
You will develop personal and intellectual autonomy by taking the initiative to seek and apply relevant technical knowledge and evidence (curiosity) and developing reflective awareness of the ethical, social, and environmental dimensions of architectural design (critical thinking).
You will develop communication skills by using appropriate forms of representation and communication to articulate and effectively explain an architectural design proposal.
|
| Keywords | Architectural design,technology and environment,architectural specialisms |
Contacts
| Course organiser | Dr Simone Ferracina
Tel:
Email: simone.ferracina@ed.ac.uk |
Course secretary | |
|
|
University Homepage