Architecture BA (Hons)
Why choose this course?
Kingston University is ranked among Europe's top 50 architecture schools, with a recent graduate awarded the top international portfolio prize by the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA). Situated in an art school environment, our Department of Architecture & Landscape offers a breadth of built environment expertise and a unique educational experience.
Professional recognition
Students often feature in the prestigious Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) President's Medals - considered the world's most prestigious and established awards in architectural education. Our graduate Simon Dean won Bronze for the best degree-level design project in 2014. More recently, Yousuf Khalil was awarded the Architect's Journal Student Prize in 2018.
In the past few years Domus magazine has consistently featured our school among Europe's top 50 architecture schools. We were one of the eight UK Architecture Schools in the Domus Guide 2017. We were one of the two UK schools invited to present at the 12th Biennale in Venice.
| Attendance | UCAS code/apply | Year of entry |
|---|---|---|
| 3 years full time | K100 | 2019 2020 |
| Location | Kingston School of Art, Knights Park |
Portfolio guidance
Reasons to choose Kingston
This course is validated by the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) and prescribed by the Architects Registration Board (ARB). Graduation gives you RIBA Part 1 exemption - the first step towards becoming an architect.
This course received more than 91 per cent for teaching student satisfaction (National Student Survey 2018).
Kingston University students often feature in prestigious national and international awards, such as the AJ Student Prize and the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) President's Medals.
What you will study
This degree centres on design, on the creative processes of observation and making, and an ethos of ‘thinking through making'. Architecture is emphasised as a material practice, with particular attention given to how buildings are made and how tectonic components are fundamental to architectural character.
Studio projects form at least 50% of the course, giving you the skills and knowledge to tackle design issues in the built environment. Workshops teach drawing and making skills, such as casting, pencil and charcoal rendering, detailed large-scale model-making, computer-based graphics and CAD drawing. You will also study theoretical, cultural, historical, social, sustainable, material and technical issues.
Modules
Each level is made up of four compulsory modules, each worth 30 credit points. Typically, a student must complete 120 credits at each level.
Year 1
Year 2
Year 3
Year 1 is focused on the acquisition and consolidation of architectural representation and drawing skills. The Design Studio work features site-based projects, addressing the principles and context of architectural design. It also includes and real scale-built project. The coursework supporting studies comprise assignments on drawing, model-making, materials, sustainability, professional practice and the history of architecture.
Core modules
The Principles of Reading Architecture
30 credits
Architecture exists at the root of culture: it is shaped by cultural, artistic, social and historical factors and in turn impacts on its wider cultural and physical contexts, transforming them through its physical presence. The reading of history reveals the connections between the past and present: ritual and practical requirements have always been embodied in buildings, disclosing both past world views and the particularities of specific, local conditions. The reading of a site establishes a basis for making an intervention in that site and by doing so, initiates a process of change.
This module provides students with a chronological survey of architectural history, focusing on illustrative case studies. It introduces the study of precedent, exploring the ways in which ideas that emerge from such studies can inform a developing design project. The module establishes methods for analysing sites and their wider contexts, and asks students to begin to acknowledge the fundamental importance of the subject and context of a project, in the development of an appropriate architectural response.
The Principles of Designing Architecture
30 credits
Architecture is a profession. Working within a social and ethical context, architects bring together different factors related to the brief, programme, environment, available resources, codes of professional conduct and legislation. They develop projects towards their resolved conclusions through an iterative process of testing and refining ideas. This module introduces you to the profession of architecture and the professional context within which architecture is made. It offers them the opportunity to begin to understand yourselves as professionals, through the introduction of key skills and practices. You will be asked to explore and demonstrate methods for developing propositional work. You will be encouraged to manage and appraise your work and become independent and reflective learners.
The Principles of Representing Architecture
30 credits
Architecture is an act of interpretation. This might emerge through direct experience or through representation in another form, whether visual, oral or literary. Representations of architecture both construct its meaning and are fundamental to the processes of its design. A completed work of architecture brings together the different concerns, which have informed its development and translates them into a coherent spatial and material whole.
This module provides you with a historical, theoretical and practical introduction to cross-disciplinary techniques and examples of architectural representation. It asks you to complete an architectural design project and introduces the idea that a successful proposition manifests the complex and imaginative inter-relationships between physical, environmental, social and cultural factors. It asks you to consider how some of these interrelationships are interpreted within your own project, through the appropriate employment of a range of techniques of representation, across two and three dimensions.
The Principles of Making Architecture
30 credits
Architecture is a material practice. The act of making a building is described tectonically, in the relationships between the materials it is made from, the methods of its construction and the structures that support and stabilise it. The physical character of a building and the ways in which it is made are fundamental to its architectural quality and atmosphere, its relationship with its environment and the ways in which it is inhabited by its users. This module introduces you to the consideration of architecture as a material condition, and begins to ask you to consider how a building is made as a fundamental part to a wider architectural conversation. It asks you to investigate materials first-hand, to explore their qualities, and consider how they may be brought together and employed within an architectural project. It begins to explore how a building can offer a comfortable and sustainable environment for its users.
In Years 2 and 3, you will work in independent studio groups, carrying out design projects that may last from a few weeks to a year. In Year 2, you will be encouraged to experiment creatively, typically working on a main design project each semester. You will continue the skills-based learning introduced in Year 1, expanding your knowledge of supporting subjects and applying it to your design projects.
Core modules
The Processes of Reading Architecture
30 credits
Architecture is a cultural construct. Buildings have always engendered personal, cultural and/or political perspectives, the study of which reveals historical developments in philosophy, socioeconomic and environmental drivers and ‘imperatives' and theoretical ideas. An understanding of these developments in relation to precedent study opens you up to broader understandings of both physical and cultural contexts. This module introduces you to some of the theoretical ideas that have influenced and which currently direct the development of architecture, developing your practical and analytical research skills in relation to given design briefs. It develops your ability to analyse sites and their wider contexts and encourages a deeper understanding of the ways in which precedent can inform a developing design project. Through this you will be encouraged to take a position in relation to this research.
The Processes of Designing Architecture
30 credits
Constraints are a creative opportunity. User requirements and legislative frameworks, taken alongside the ‘reading' of a site, inform the iterative development of a design project. This module will address the professional, legislative, ethical concerns which inform the procurement of an architectural project. It will also encourage the exploration of self-reflective and critical working methods within the development of a project.
The Processes of Representing Architecture
30 credits
A work of architecture represents the drawing together of physical, environmental, social and cultural factors: interpreting, conceptualising and integrating them into a body of ideas that can shape a building. Architects employ a diverse range of media, across two and three dimensions in order to both explore these ideas and to communicate them and the resulting project to different audiences.
This module assists you in the refinement of representation skills and techniques and develops their approach to the representation and communication of their design proposal. This enables you to arrive at a formal, spatial, contextual and programmatic resolution of a design project.
The Processes of Making Architecture
30 credits
At both a strategic and a detailed level, the ways in which a building is made are fundamental in defining its architectural character. This module provides the foundations for the knowledge, techniques and skills that a student will need to master in order to construct and structure a holistic architectural proposition. The module will cover an introduction to engineering, building components, building systems and building skins. This knowledge will be mainly taught through lectures. Students will apply the acquired knowledge to both an existing building and their own design proposal.
Year 3 involves the production of a thesis design project. In its presentation, you will show the integration of your professional skills and knowledge.
Your design studio work, the research undertaken for your thesis project, and your written dissertation, all give you the opportunity to develop and express your individual interests. Modules incorporate aspects of sustainability, tectonics and structure, history of architecture and professional practice.
Core modules
The Practice of Reading Architecture
30 credits
Buildings and cities embody attitudes. Architecture strategically engages individuals, communities and society with the issues of place in practical, personal, cultural and political ways. Through a process of primary and secondary research across a broad range of subjects, architects appraise the fundamental conditions of site and context, in order to inform a strategic design approach for a particular place. The detailed study of buildings and places from other times and contexts, develops an architect's ability to critique these complex interacting conditions.
Establishing a foundation for lifelong learning and practice, this module supports you in the practice of reading and interpreting architecture through 2 capstone projects; a final thesis design project and a dissertation.
A thesis design project is a design portfolio with a theoretical foundation that demonstrates a critical and individual line on inquiry that results in a unique architectural proposition. This capstone project is the culmination of learning throughout the course.
The Practice of Designing Architecture
30 credits
An architect synthesises a complex range of issues, design aspirations and inspirations within the design of a project. The successful integration of ethical, social, regulatory, contractual and procedural issues within a developing design process, alongside an awareness of building economy, is fundamental to making a successful work of architecture. This process of synthesis requires discipline, critical self-reflection, iteration and team work.
This module integrates such professional issues within a final thesis design project, a capstone project, and prepares students for their initial period of professional practice.
A thesis design project is a design portfolio with a theoretical foundation that demonstrates a critical and individual line on inquiry that results in a unique architectural proposition. This capstone project is the culmination of learning throughout the course.
The Practice of Representing Architecture
30 credits
Architecture embodies ideas about the world. In its many different forms, architecture interprets and represents the interactions and inter-relationships between a diverse range of physical, environmental, social and cultural factors. A beautiful or compelling project synthesises these into a coherent, spatial and experiential whole.
This module asks you to critique the ways in which an existing building encompasses such concerns, eloquently integrating primary experience with secondary research and visually representing this through an appropriate range of media, as an integral part of a dissertation capstone project. A successful design proposal represents the drawing together of a complex range of issues into a coherent, holistic work of architecture, described within a well presented and communicative portfolio.
A thesis design project is a design portfolio with a theoretical foundation that demonstrates a critical and individual line on inquiry that results in a unique architectural proposition. This capstone project is the culmination of learning throughout the course.
The Practice of Making Architecture
30 credits
The ability to integrate the diverse technological aspects of a building as fundamental aspects of its final character and as part of an ongoing and iterative process of design, is a core skill of an architect. This module develops your ability to simultaneously consider all aspects of a building's technology in relation to its wider design aims at both a strategic, and a detailed level. This module will facilitate a holistic and ongoing integration of tectonics, technology and sustainable issues throughout the development of the capstone Thesis Design Project.
A thesis design project is a design portfolio with a theoretical foundation that demonstrates a critical and individual line on inquiry that results in a unique architectural proposition. This capstone project is the culmination of learning throughout the course.
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.
Entry requirements
128 tariff points
Teaching and assessment
You'll be taught by a range of staff, many of whom run their own practices or work in practice, which ensures that the practice-led research which is disseminated in the studio, or actually takes place there, is relevant to industry and practice. It also means that design studios are well placed to take advantage of the myriad of professional networks which staff bring with them.
Within each module are a design component and support/contextual component with the intention that knowledge and skills are always introduced and developed in relation to studio projects.
Studio projects form at least 50 per cent of the course, giving you the skills and knowledge to tackle design issues in the built environment. Workshops teach drawing and making skills, such as casting, pencil and charcoal rendering, detailed large-scale model-making, computer-based graphics and CAD drawing. You will also study theoretical, cultural, historical, social, sustainable, material and technical issues.
Who teaches this course?
Facilities
Our department is moving into bespoke new facilities in spring/summer 2019. This will provide a collegiate environment for all students to work and learn whilst being part of an academic community.
Being part of Kingston School of Art, you will benefit from state-of-the-art workshops facilities that are among the best in UK.
Fees for this course
After you graduate
Graduates find employment in architectural and multidisciplinary built environment practices. Others find work in environmental, planning consultancies, some in the public sector, and in not-for-profit agencies. Students find work locally in London and SE, UK, some in Europe and internationally. Some students go on to develop small businesses or another specialism, and some pursue further study.
Accreditation
The Architecture BA (Hons) course is validated by the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) and prescribed by the Architects Registration Board (ARB).
Key information set
The scrolling banner(s) below display some key factual data about this course (including different course combinations or delivery modes of this course where relevant).
