Program Overview

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An innovative postgraduate certificate programme focusing on Cinematic Architecture for enthusiastic people who wish to explore future opportunities in NI and beyond in creative industries including film, architecture, game and design

COURSE CONTENT

This is a personalised certificate programme for engaged students who would like to make the most of their time at Queen’s. The work produced throughout the year will be a collaborative effort between you, your year group, our award-winning academics and practicing architects. This two-semester course encourages you to work both within and beyond the realm of creative practices that you are experienced in. We would like you to push the boundaries of your imagination and the limits of creative media, while working with other architects, filmmakers, designers, and artists.

You will work in two practice-based studio modules, one in each semester, questioning norms through research, analysis, and design. You will be able to use the CineArch studio to experiment with new ideas, technologies and media, and as a gateway to your future career goals.

The course encourages lateral thinking, problem solving, creativity and engagement with design through a self-critical process. It will address issues as diverse as our survival on the planet and alternative ways of thinking about what innovative design practices can be and do.

WHAT WILL EXCITE YOU?

Through Cinematic Architecture (filmmaking, cinematic analysis, storyboarding, montage, collage, etc.), you will design projects (film sets, exhibition spaces, buildings) focusing on both tangible and intangible qualities of spaces. You will spend the year designing, collaborating, and producing with people from around the world on our university campus that has celebrated its 175th year a few years back. The university’s clubs and facilities including Queen’s Sport, Queen’s Film Theatre, and the Student Union with its brand new building will also provide excellent opportunities to make friends outside of your course.

THE ENVIRONMENT

You will be based in Belfast, a growing city known for its industrial design heritage on one hand and its vibrant arts culture and creative industries on the other. As stated in the Complete University Guide 2022: Belfast is one of Europe's most hip, vibrant and affordable cities, lauded for its energy, and rich in culture and history. Queen's stunning campus is within Belfast's Queen's Quarter, with cafés, bars, restaurants, superb shopping, and entertainment venues. You will enjoy a healthy staff to student ratio, good studios, a world-class library, and excellent workshops for physical and digital manufacturing.

ADDITIONAL COURSE INFORMATION

Now, more than ever, our societies demand innovative designers and creative problem solvers to propose solutions to the challenges we face in a complex contemporary world - health and well-being, climate change, forced migration, public safety and increasing urbanisation, among others. Our school is renowned for award-winning, innovative research and teaching that is academically rigorous, critically informed, design-led, and interdisciplinary. In all this endeavour we seek to develop creative people���s voices in addressing these challenges.

The PgCert Cinematic Architecture course provides a scaffold for our students to develop their own personal position within the broad culture of design, and in doing so, contribute to the ongoing debate that shapes creative industries and our world. Our concerns range from the role of art, design and architecture in communities, environmental, social, and economic sustainability, humanitarian architecture for all, tangible and intangible qualities of space to the mapping and analysis of urban, territorial and global conditions. In all this, media including filmmaking, modelmaking, sketching, and drawing play a crucial role as does developing a self-critical understanding of how each individual works as a designer.

The PgCert CineArch is a studio-based programme, underscoring design and design processes as the core concerns, challenging students to be experimental both in their design methodologies/analyses and their design proposals. The one-year programme comprises of two semesters. The staff cohort is composed of a diverse spectrum of esteemed practitioners and innovative academics supported by external consultants beyond Queen’s, providing a further dimension to a rich learning environment. In this context, the students are encouraged to push the limits of their profession as well as their personal capabilities.

Cinematic Architecture highlights

Architecture at Queen’s is ranked 5th in the UK in in Times and Sunday Times League Table 2022.

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Industry Links

Close collaborations with the industry and practicing architects in studio tutoring, project reviews and research, including RIBA, RSUA, Belfast City Council, Mid and East Antrim Borough Council, QFT, Film Hub NI and Nerve Centre.

www.architecture.com, www.rsua.org.uk, www.belfastcity.gov.uk, www.midandeastantrim.gov.uk, www.queensfilmtheatre.com, www.filmhubni.org, www.nervecentre.org

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Career Development

. If your undergraduate degree is in Architecture, you can continue your studies the following year, take 3 more modules and get the MSc Advanced Architectural Design degree, instead of a postgraduate certificate. These modules are Technical Dissertation (30 cats), Humanities Dissertation (30 cats), and Thesis Project (60 cats). . Opportunity to apply to PhD in Architecture at Queen’s. If you are interested in this route, please consult the programme director for details.

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World Class Facilities

. Prestigious postgraduate certificate degree awarded in one year in a UK Russell Group University . Studying in an international environment among native English speakers in continuously maintained facilities that are adapted to the technical and health and safety requirements of the pandemic

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Student Experience

In this programme you will be working with several local and international students and academics who are established researchers and practicing architects. Queen’s and Belfast are at the intersection of the UK and Ireland as well as Americas and Europe, both physically and culturally; therefore, the university and the city offer a unique and memorable student experience. Belfast is in the top 15 friendliest cities in Europe (Condé Nast Traveller, Readers' Choice Awards 2021), and Northern Ireland is the happiest place to live in the UK (Lloyds Bank Happiness Index, 2020). Belfast has the lowest cost of living in the country (Mercer Cost of Living City Ranking 2021) as well as the lowest student rent (NatWest Student Living Index 2020).

www.qub.ac.uk/about/Living-in-Northern-Ireland/Life-in-Belfast/student-experience

Interdisciplinary Collaborations In studio, students will get the chance to work with MSc Advanced Architectural Design students with architectural background as well as filmmakers, architects, artists and designers in their programme. Most years, there are also opportunities to work with students/tutors from Software/Computer Engineering, Media and Broadcast Production, Psychology, and Film Studies at Queen’s.

www.qub.ac.uk/courses/postgraduate-taught/advanced-architectural-design-msc

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