Architecture (ARB/RIBA Part 2) MArch
Why choose this course?
What does it take to make thoughtful work in the built environment today?
During this degree you'll think and make, and develop the technical and critical skills required to be both nimble and empowered to act in today's diverse architectural culture.
The course features a diverse range of design approaches rooted in a common ethos, and often involving 'live-build' projects, recently for the Barbican in London and Kunstmuseum, Bonn.
You'll study in our exceptional, Haworth Tompkins-designed workshops, which are open for creative exploration and offer opportunities to collaborate on projects and share ideas.
| Mode | Duration | Start date |
|---|---|---|
| Full time | 2 years | September 2022 |
| Location | Kingston School of Art, Knights Park |
2021/22 entry
If you are planning to join this course in the academic year 2021/22 (i.e. between August 2021 and July 2022), please view the information about changes to courses for 2021/22 due to Covid-19.
Continuing students
Students who are continuing their studies with Kingston University in 2021/22 should refer to their Course Handbook for information about specific changes that have been, or may be, made to their course or modules being delivered in 2021/22. Course Handbooks are located within the Canvas Course page.
Reasons to choose Kingston University
- Innovative course structure which integrates design and supporting studies in a clear and accessible way.
- We are at the cutting edge of practice-led European architectural discourse. We have areas of distinction in History & Theory, Representation and Tectonics led by dedicated Associate Professors.
- REGISTER connects the students at Kingston School of Art with the professional and public spheres of architectural practice in London, Europe, and further afield.
- Our students and staff have won prestigious industry awards.
Accreditation
Architects Registration Board (ARB)
This course is a prescribed qualification by the Architects Registration Board (ARB).
Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA)
This course covers Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) criteria Part 2.
What you will study
During this two-year degree, you'll develop as an architectural designer and thinker and progress to engaging in architectural practice as an independent and reflective practitioner.
You'll be expected to build on the knowledge, understanding and skill acquired during your first degree and a recommended initial period of work-based learning.
The emphasis of this course is therefore to deepen and consolidate existing learning and skill from years 1 to 3, rather than to introduce a wide range of new subject material.
The design studio aspect of the course is taught through studio units. Students have the opportunity to enter a ballot for the unit of their choice at the beginning of each academic year. The subject focus of the units varies from year to year.
Year 4
Final year
The central focus of the course is design practice along with the theoretical, technical and contextual studies which underpin and inform design. You'll enjoy a practice-led teaching curriculum, commended by the RIBA visiting panel. Throughout the degree, you'll gain a comprehensive knowledge of the areas of study required to enter and contribute to architectural practice and architectural design.
You'll also be supported in identifying and developing your particular strengths and interests, alongside your studies in core subjects.
Core modules
Reading Architecture
30 credits
Architecture is a critical practice. A work of architecture is conditioned by the primary relationships it establishes with immediate physical, environmental and social conditions, understood with the wider context of society, material culture, architectural thought and history.
This module supports the continuing development of sophisticated, analytical, design research skills, employed and demonstrated within the conception, ongoing development and physical manifestation of a coherent design project. The module reinforces the history of ideas that have informed the development of architecture and the city, from antiquity to modernity, through the investigation of a series of major turning points. Students are asked to consider the ways in which such cultural and historical understandings inform the development of their own design propositions.
Designing Architecture
30 credits
Good design successfully engages the ethical, regulatory and professional conditions, established by society, as elements that are integral to a creative process and the development of a coherent, successful architectural proposition. It is the result of a reflective and iterative process, whereby all aspects of a developing project are continually re-evaluated, both in relation to one another and in response to external contexts, in order to ensure their continuing validity and their eventual synthesis.
This module asks students to become agents of good design, and to integrate developing ideas relating to Architecture as an ethical, intellectual, practical, and professional discipline. As designers, students will identify, evaluate, formulate and record the complex range of factors, across a range of scales, which inform the ongoing design proposal and investigate the regulatory, contractual, and economic environment of professional practice, which underpins architectural production.
Representing Architecture
30 credits
A coherent architectural proposal represents the synthesis of strategy and detail, materialised at scales that range between the room and the city.
This module asks students to produce a sustainable architectural proposition which is spatially, formally, and programmatically resolved, and which is responsive to its physical, social, cultural and regulatory contexts. It asks students to begin to situate and represent their work within a broad cultural and intellectual frame, communicating it in ways that allow engagement with a range of audiences. The module also provides students with an opportunity to explore specialist forms of design, expression, and production techniques that can inform the ways in which they think and work as architects.
Making Architecture
30 credits
The resolution of a work of architecture occurs, ultimately, through its actualisation. Materials determine the tectonic expression of a building, articulated through a critical attitude to its structure, construction, and the modification of the environment. If these processes of making are to successfully engage with the wider concerns of form, use, culture and place, whilst also responding to increasingly complex and highly regulated procurement infrastructures, then they need to be considered as an integral part of an holistic process of design development, one that encompasses both strategic and detailed thinking.
This module develops a student's ability to critically research materials and to think strategically about the relationship between individual building elements and larger systems. The module asks students to resolve detailed aspects of the material, structural, environmental, and tectonic concerns of their project, through a series of iterative and developing levels of detail, where complex and often overlapping systems and components are integrated, across a range of scales. It asks the student to begin to consider the interrelationship of craft and manufacture within a professional context where the architect is increasingly understood as a specifier, utilising the products of universalised, mass production in response to the increasingly stringent parameters of regulation and economics.
Core modules
Dissertation
30 credits
Critical scholarship underpins practices of architecture. Written research both supports and is supported by design research.
This module requires students to apply critical and analytical skills to produce a substantial piece of research that sits alongside the design thesis project. The dissertation provides an opportunity for students to engage in an area of architectural enquiry and scholarship, including history and theory, technology and environmental science, professional practice and related topics; developed and presented as coherent, eloquent and well-illustrated documents.
Thesis
90 credits
An architecture "thesis" is declared through the precise, physical embodiment of a holistic, intellectually rigorous proposition. Underpinning such an ambition is the ability to reflect upon, critically evaluate, integrate and resolve issues that emerge from immediate contextual conditions, the wider concerns of making, practice, use and the history of architecture, alongside those of society and culture, as a whole.
This module is the culmination of a student's design education within academia, drawing together the various demands and concerns of a complex work of architecture into a synthetic whole. It requires that sophisticated thinking, clearly articulated strategies and analytical research techniques are applied to the development of a project, expecting a student to evidence their comprehensive understanding of the complex and often contradictory issues at stake in formulating an architectural proposition. The resulting project should demonstrate an ability to encompass and communicate these issues within an articulate, highly resolved, design proposal, utilising the range of abilities, skills and techniques acquired and iterated through a student's academic career. In drawing together these various strands of thinking and doing, the module offers the opportunity for students to begin to articulate their position as architects and emerging professionals.
The information above reflects the currently intended course structure and module details. Updates may be made on an annual basis and revised details will be published through Programme Specifications ahead of each academic year. The regulations governing this course are available on our website. If we have insufficient numbers of students interested in an optional module, this may not be offered.
An overview of the Architecture (ARB/RIBA Part 2) MArch course
An overview of the Architecture Masters course.
Teaching through studio units
The design studio aspect of the course is taught through studio units. Students have the opportunity to enter a ballot for the unit of their choice at the beginning of each academic year. The subject focus of the units varies from year to year.
The image gallery below contains examples of student work.
Unit 1 2019/20: Walworth Living Room and Our Health
Image by Seniha Koca-Emir
Unit 2 2019/20: The Useless Facade
Image by Aurelio Miranda
Unit 4 2019/20: Figure/Ground
Image by Maria Kuosmanen
Unit 5 2019/20: The Savage Mind
Image by Lucy Fincham
Unit 6 2019/20: Modern Classicism
Image by Anthony Fitheoglou
Unit 7 2019/20: Settlement
Image by Alex Wilson
Unit 8 2019/20: Embodied
Image by Awut Atak
Unit 2 2018/19: Back to the Future
Image by Ivan Ginzberg
Unit 4 2018/19: Column
Image by Sonal Bajaria
Unit 5 2018/19: Civic Architecture in Tolworth
Image by Shadi Al-Beghain
Unit 6 2018/19: Translation
Image by Michail Sarafidis
Unit 7 2018/19: Extending Architecture
Image by Youjin Cui
Unit 8 2018/19: Palazzo Ridley Road
Image by Sam Punchard
Unit 2
Collage City (Rowe), Neue Staatsgallerrie (Stirling) and cupboard door (Asalache)
Unit 3: Structure and Light
Image by Hugh Strange
Unit 7
Fabrik: Matheson Whiteley - Donald Matheson and Jason Whiteley
Entry requirements
What you need to apply for this course
The course has been designed for applicants seeking a route to registration in the UK and who already have Part 1 exemption as well as at least a year's professional experience. However, there are opportunities for students without this work experience to join the course. If you are in any doubt as to your eligibility to join the course, you are encouraged to apply, stating your experience and qualifications. All suitable applicants are then interviewed prior to acceptance onto the course.
Teaching and assessment
Who teaches this course?
This course is staffed by a wide range of distinguished practitioners and academics, with every design studio taught by a practising architect.
Postgraduate students may also contribute to the teaching of seminars under the supervision of the module leader.
Fees for this course
Facilities
There is a wide range of facilities at Knights Park, where this course is based.
After you graduate
Graduates from this degree succeed in architectural careers in professional practice, architecture teaching and associated construction and creative industries; they are actively sought by prominent architectural practices in London, the UK and abroad.
Our department nurtures an active and supportive alumni network which is growing year on year.
Links with business
The Department of Architecture and Landscape is invested in acting in continuity with architectural culture, and in cultivating practitioners who make work in a thoughtful manner, attuned to the social and physical contexts where they work.
The REGISTER podcast series features some of the best emerging architectural talent in the UK and Europe. Some will be practitioners engaged in making work, others may be researchers, or planners or developers – people involved in enabling a space for architecture. We are interested in making a space to talk discursively about the culture of practice.
In addition, the majority of teaching staff are practicing professional architects and/or active researchers, including Stirling Prize shortlisted Simon Henley and AOC's Tom Coward; all design studios are taught by practising architects.
