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.
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Entry Requirements (not applicable to Visiting Students)
| Pre-requisites |
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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
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| Academic year 2026/27, Not available to visiting students (SS1)
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Quota: 0 |
| Course Start |
Semester 2 |
Timetable |
Timetable |
| Learning and Teaching activities (Further Info) |
Total Hours:
400
(
Programme Level Learning and Teaching Hours 8,
Directed Learning and Independent Learning Hours
392 )
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| Assessment (Further Info) |
Written Exam
0 %,
Coursework
100 %,
Practical Exam
0 %
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| Additional Information (Assessment) |
This course has 1 component of assessment.
1) Installation of Drawings and Models (mixed media) and an associated digital submission as described in the studio brief (e.g, a portfolio of approx. 60-70 pages and any associated media, such as films), 100%, May exam diet, assessed against Learning Outcomes 1, 2, 3, and 4.
Further information:
This component of assessment includes a physical and digital submission, and students are asked to submit both. This combined submission is weighted 100% and both submissions will be considered and contribute to the overall course mark. Iterative working practices and appropriate, professional, time-management are central to this pedagogy and assessment regime. An 100% portfolio mirrors deliverables in practice, whereupon a resolved and credible design proposal is presented at key work stages. Specific guidance on the composition of these submissions will be provided in the studio briefs. The digital submission must be submitted. If no digital submission is made, this will be considered a non-submission for this course. If no physical submission is submitted, then only the digital submission will be marked but this will be reflected in the final course mark (unless specific guidance in the studio brief states otherwise). After the deadline by which the digital submission has been uploaded to Learn, no further addition of work in the studio will be accepted or considered. If the installation in the studio is completed on time, but the digital submission is uploaded after the deadline, then the whole component of assessment will have late penalties applied.
To help students with making both submissions, we will study examples in class and discuss possible workflows including both analogue and digital options. Model making will be supported through ECA Model, wood, casting and metal workshops. For students who prefer to work digitally, ECA Digital Media Skills and Digital Fabrication technicians can offer assistance. Students wishing to produce analogue or mixed-media outputs may use the ECA wood, metal, casting, photography and print workshops in addition to their allocated studio space. ECA Digital Media Skills offers advice on various software, including Premiere Pro, which is available for free to ECA students.
Work is marked to all four Learning Outcomes, which are equally weighted. Coursework is assessed by Learning Outcomes, which are mapped to professional competency outcomes, and presented in the form of drawings, models, digital representations, etc, as outlined in the studio brief and discussed with course tutors. Please refer to the Programme Handbook via Learn for detailed information.
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| 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/or the end of the semester. Mid-term written or recorded feedback is provided by course tutors, critically reflecting on the work produced in relation to the Learning Outcomes at that point in the semester and as relevant to the pacing of the studio course, and communicating specific areas for further investigation and development.
As the architectural design studio courses in the Programme are linked (2 semesters in the modular pathway, 4 semesters in the integrated pathway) and carefully sequenced to guide the incremental acquisition of skills, confidence, and design resolution, the formative and summative feedback provided for one course will benefit the subsequent one. In this case, the feedback provided in the preceding Architectural Design Studio E (Modular) course will contribute to and inform the work of students in Architectural Design Studio A (Modular).
Summative Feedback
Written summative feedback will be provided by course tutors on the final submissions. It will be based on a Feedback Rubric, describing the relationship between Learning Outcomes and University of Edinburgh standard grade descriptors. This rubric will be made available through Learn.
Summative feedback will be provided according to University regulations.
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| No Exam Information |
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).
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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.
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| Keywords | Architectural design,technology and environment,architectural specialisms |
Contacts
| Course organiser | Dr Simone Ferracina
Tel:
Email: simone.ferracina@ed.ac.uk |
Course secretary | |
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